BOYS 2-A BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : Rob Lee or Robb Lee . . . the Confusion Continues at Woodbridge High

For the Record

The Times reported Sunday that Rob Lee of Woodbridge High School made a 45-foot shot in the final minute of the Division II boys’ state championship basketball game Saturday at Oakland. Robb Lee, a teammate, actually made the shot.

--From The Times’ March 23, 1987, edition.

They are a reporter’s nightmare come true.

They cause mass confusion everywhere they go.

They are Rob(b) Lee.

Two weeks ago, in Woodbridge High School’s second-round 2-A playoff game against Cabrillo, a La Canada coach was scouting the Warriors and saw Rob Lee--he’s the one with one B--nail a perfect 4 for 4 from beyond the three-point line.

Aha! There he was. The What’s-His-Name Lee on Woodbridge who shoots three-pointers.

So, when La Canada faced Woodbridge in the quarterfinals, the team’s best outside defender was assigned to Rob Lee--the one with one B.

And what happens? Robb Lee--he’s the one with two B’s--is open and starts nailing three-point shots.

C’mon, Chris Deibert! Get with the program, Derrick Odum! Don’t you see a trend developing here? Confusion as a winning strategy! A few more Rob(b) Lees in the starting lineup certainly couldn’t hurt.

Critics have accused Woodbridge--which will meet Banning for the 2-A title today at 9:45 a.m. at the Sports Arena--of being a team of Adam Keefe and no-names. That’s not true. It’s Keefe and the one-names.

Actually there are only two guys with the same name on the Warriors. But that’s plenty.

Couldn’t one be a 6-foot 7-inch forward with inside power moves and the other be a 5-10 guard with an outside shot?

No, that would be too easy. Though there are differences beyond one consonant--Rob (one) is left-handed, has brown hair and is perhaps the Warriors’ best defender, while Robb (two) is right-handed and has blond hair and better ballhandling skills--there are far too many similarities for comfort.

Both hover in the 6-foot range, both play wing positions and both are outside threats.

Turns out Robb Lee--the one with two B’s--is the more consistent three-point shooter of the two. He has hit 49 of 100 from the three-point zone, while that other guy--he of the one B--has hit 29 of 64 long bombs. Robb Lee--two B’s--has scored 211 points. Rob Lee--one--has scored 197 points. At least, that’s the way Woodbridge has it figured.

But after every Warrior game, there is a mandatory lengthy discussion among the scorekeeper, reporters and assistant coaches about just who it was that scored 8 points and who scored 12 points.

Sometimes, the statisticians mess it up and one Lee gets the other Lee’s points. But who could blame them? Confusion has been the norm for two years.

Robb--hit that B key twice--Lee came to Woodbridge from St. Margaret’s in San Juan Capistrano before last season. No, he didn’t add that extra letter to his name when he got to Woodbridge and discovered the other guy there. That’s his real name. Says so on his birth certificate. Robb--with two B’s--Lee.

He (two B’s) played on junior varsity for a while but then, during the playoffs, came up to varsity, where there was a guy by the same name (granted, it was one B short) already playing. Rob (one B) Lee’s real name is Robert. No, his parents aren’t big Civil War buffs; just happened to give him the same name as the famous Confederate general. He’d always been called Rob, not Robert or Bob, in his four years at Woodbridge, and habits are hard to change.

So there you have it. Two Rob(b) Lees. At least they gave them different numbers (Robb is 13, Rob is 20).

The natural solution to the “Hey, Rob Lee!” problem was nicknames.

So Robb Lee became “Bubba.” It’s an unlikely nickname for this skinny, unimposing guy. But we’re talking audible, not visual, nicknames here. And if there was any way in the world to pronounce Robb differently from Rob, it would be Rob-bu-ba. Hence “Bubba.”

OK. Good. So, now we have Rob and Bubba.

You’d think that would clear it up. But no. Just to make things fun, Rob (one B) Lee had to acquire a nickname too. That would be “Elwood,” taken from Lee’s participation in a talent show last year when he portrayed the Elwood half of the Blues Brothers.

From Robb Lee and Rob Lee to Bubba and Elwood.

But even that doesn’t clear up the problem. Recruiters call up and say to Coach Bill Shannon, “I’m calling about Rob(b) Lee.”

Shannon: “Which one?”

Recruiter: “The one who plays outside.”

Right.

They still get notes for each other from the front office. They get misquoted in the newspaper. And, of course, they get the deluge of silly jokes from fellow students, who delight in saying, “Hey, Rob Lee!” or “Two B’s or not two B’s.”

“We get a lot of that, but it’s OK, it’s kind of fun,” one said.

But, seriously, recruiters and notes from the office aside, this name confusion can cause some grave problems.

A teacher came up to one of the Rob(b) Lees and told him a certain female student liked him. He said, “Are you sure it’s me?” Yes, the teacher was sure. That is, until the next day. Oops. The teacher had gotten it wrong. The girl liked the other Rob(b) Lee.

Yes. It’s crazy. Yes, it’s confusing.

Just be glad a certain Orange County athlete--one Robert Lee--spent his high school career at Santa Ana, playing football.

WOODBRIDGE vs. BANNING

RECORDS--Woodbridge 22-5, Banning 28-0.

SITE--Sports Arena, 9:45 a.m.

WOODBRIDGE UPDATE--The defending 2-A champions never pretended to have any secrets. Even if the Warriors wanted to, it would be awfully hard to keep 35 points and 18 rebounds a game quiet. That’s what center Adam Keefe is averaging in the four playoff games. In the semifinal against San Bernardino, Keefe exploded for Woodbridge’s first 12 points, and San Bernardino never recovered. Third-seeded Woodbridge won, 59-50, holding San Bernardino to 34 points below its season average. Also impressive was Woodbridge’s aggressive defense, led by forwards Chris Deibert and Rob Lee, who helped take San Bernardino out of its running game. P.A. Emerson and David Villaran are contributing off the bench. The Warriors would like to get their outside shooting back on track--they only had one three-point shot in the semfinal--to draw the pressure off Keefe.

BANNING UPDATE--Top-seeded Banning is undefeated and had been rolling over opponents until the semifinal match against Santa Clara of Oxnard. The Broncos squeaked by Santa Clara, 69-68. “We needed a game like that before the final,” Coach Stan Smith said. Banning has four starters back from the team that lost to Woodbridge in the championship game last season. Center Dennis Gray (6-feet 7-inches) is averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds. Guard David Efferson is averaging 15 points, forward Andre Stringer 14 points and guard Chris Familetti--who played on the JV last year--12 points. Don Nelson, who started last year, is now coming off the bench. Smith doesn’t call his team a running team, preferring to describe it as “up-tempo.” Banning switches between man-to-man and zone and runs a full-court press.

KEY TO THE GAME--Emotion. Woodbridge and Banning met in the title game last year in an ugly, fight-marred game. A blatant foul on Keefe resulted in a bench-clearing brawl, and both Keefe and the offending Banning player, Richard Reyna (who graduated last year), were ejected. Keefe scored 32 points before he left with 4 1/2 minutes to play, but Woodbridge still held on to win, 68-60. No love is lost here. Sleep may also play a role in this early-morning matchup.

CONSENSUS--Woodbridge got a good warmup for Banning with San Bernardino, which plays a similar style game. And even though Banning was the loser last year, the Warriors still have some very bitter feelings. Keefe may have something to prove, a scary thought to anyone who has seen him play when no pride is at stake. Woodbridge by six.