Zarecky Hoping for Home-Made Success : Players With Local Ties Will Play Important Roles for Gulls

The U.S. International University men’s basketball team will have a decidedly local look as Coach Gary Zarecky enters his fourth year after building a top high school program at Sweetwater.

Three starters have local ties, and Zarecky will depend heavily on locals to replace four of last year’s top five scorers, gone from a 10-18 team.

Steve Smith, who played at Serra, will return to play the point despite being a more natural off guard. Zarecky was hoping to find a true point guard before the season started, but nobody was able to unseat Smith, a 6-foot 3-inch junior who averaged 12.8 points and had a team-high 82 assists last year.

Joining Smith in the backcourt will be Paul Wilson, a 6-3 junior from Wabash Valley Community College. Wilson was an all-city player in Cleveland but missed part of last year with a leg injury.

Zarecky also looked to the community colleges for his starting forwards. Gary Williams, an all-state player at Palomar last year, and Demetrius Laffitte, from Grossmont College and Monte Vista High, are both 6-6 juniors.

Williams played at Dominguez Hills High and was an honorable mention All-American at Palomar. Laffitte played at Cal State Long Beach his freshman year, then transferred to Grossmont. He was a first-team All-CIF player at Monte Vista.

Returning at center will be sophomore Mike Sterner (6-11, 249), who started the entire season as a freshman and averaged 5.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Zarecky and the Gulls need a good start in their season-opener Saturday against Air Force and in Monday’s game against Maryland Eastern Shore, because they then take to the road for their next 10 games.

“It will be a key for us to play well and hopefully win those games,” Zarecky said. “Hopefully it will be the tip of the iceberg for the kind of season we’ll have.

“When you’re building and starting from the bottom up it’s important for a young team to get confidence in itself early.

That’s exactly what the Gulls will need to be wary of--losing confidence. Especially when they travel to Syracuse, Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara.

“One of the things that has me most excited is we have a deep bench this year,” Zarecky said. “When you don’t have anybody to go to, it makes it difficult to coach.”

Zarecky will be looking to several players to help off the bench.

Matt Judd (6-6, center) is the only senior on the team and averaged 3 points and 2 rebounds per game. Forwards Jake Hodges and Greg Howard will play some. Hodges, a junior, played at Palomar last year. Howard is a 21-year-old freshman who just finished 3 years in the Navy; he averaged 14 points in his final year of high school in Athens, Ga.

Tim Moore (6-4, junior) can play both forward and guard. Moore went to Clarendon College before transferring to Florida A&M;, where he did not play basketball.

Once again, USIU plans to run the ball, as it did when it led the country in scoring at 90.3 points per game in 1985-86. Zarecky said the Gulls will try to improve on defense by using multiple and pressure defenses.

Zarecky also wants to see some improvement from the bench. And he’s not talking about the reserves.

“I want to become the best coach I think I can be,” Zarecky said. “We have better players, and we have improved. We have to coach now.”