Drawing Flattering Comparisons : Adkins Feels Like a Displaced Easterner but Her Style of Play Has Friends Comparing Her to West

Santa Clara High guard Tami Adkins plays basketball with the intensity of former Los Angeles Laker Jerry West. Her uniform is 44, a number made famous by West. She even picked up a southern accent from her parents, who were born near West’s hometown of Cabin Creek, W. Va.

And Adkins, like West, responds when friends blurt out, “Hey, Zeke!”

But ask Adkins if she’s a Laker fan and her face will turn Forum Blue--Great Western or otherwise.

Walk into Adkins’ room in her Oxnard home and you are overwhelmed by memorabilia in green and white and leprechauns with little pipes. Boston Celtic visors, hats and posters of the team’s top stars decorate her walls.

You would think you were standing in the souvenir shop inside the Boston Garden or at the Boston Connection, a hotel co-owned by Larry Bird in Terre Haute, Ind.

In fact, Adkins’ favorite player isn’t West, but Bird. And given a choice, she would rather wear Bird’s No. 33.

“I wanted 33,” Adkins said, “but it was taken. I took 44 because it’s Danny Ainge’s number. He’s my second favorite player.”

Adkins is just as fanatical about playing basketball as she is about picking her favorite professionals. In addition to team practice, she works out 3 to 4 hours a day in the school gym or in her front yard. She practices 20 to 30 hours during the off-season and travels with the Ventura County Sharks during the summer. Tami’s mother estimates her daughter was home only 2 days in July.

“She thinks basketball 365 days of the year,” Santa Clara Coach Tom McConville said. “She’s the most dedicated ballplayer I’ve ever had. She knows the game as well as any boy.”

Adkins, a senior, also spends 2 to 3 hours a day watching her games on videotape, which are filmed by her father. She is so busy with basketball, in fact, that she owns a car but has not found the time to take the required classes for a learner’s permit or license.

McConville considers Adkins’ basketball knowledge to be her biggest asset and said she’s like having another coach on the floor. Adkins has been the Saints’ captain for the past 3 years.

“We talk strategy all the time,” McConville said. “I respect her input because she can see things on the court that I miss from the bench.”

What’s the impetus for Adkins hard work? “I’m still waiting to have the perfect game,” Adkins said. “My dream is to have a game where I make no mistakes.

“I get down on myself,” she added. “I think I should make every shot. I get upset when I have an open shot and I don’t shoot it.”

Adkins, a 5-5 1/2 guard, may not be totally pleased with her performances, but everyone else seems to be impressed. She has twice been selected All-Southern Section and was All-State last season after averaging 13.5 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 9 steals a game.

California Basketball magazine lists Adkins among the state’s Golden 50 players. She also was selected fourth-team preseason All-American in a national poll by Western Girls Athletic Services.

Adkins also has received letter-of-intent offers from 15 Division I schools and will receive more scholarship offers before the next signing period in April.

“I think she’s a great passer,” Simi Valley Coach Dave Murphy said. “She’s has a knack for knowing where a player is going to be on the court and making the right pass. It’s also pointless to try and run a press against her. She can dribble by anyone.”

Santa Clara center Karry Wagoner, a transfer from Venture High, said she is a better player just by being on the same floor as Adkins.

“She’s makes me look better,” said Wagoner, who played with Adkins on the Sharks. “I know if I break loose, Tami will get me the ball.”

While Santa Clara has jumped to a 6-2 preseason record through Monday’s games, Adkins has improved her offensive output and may average in double figures in scoring, assists and rebounds.

If there is a knock against Adkins, it’s that she doesn’t take enough shots.

“She could average 25 to 30 points a game if we needed her to,” McConville said. “But she doesn’t have to because we have other players who can score. I try to get her to be more of a scorer.”

Besides the assurance of an athletic scholarship, Adkins also has had an opportunity to travel because of her basketball ability. Two summers ago, Adkins travelled with the Sharks to Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union.

“I was quite surprised to find that Russian teen-agers have the same taste in clothes and music,” Adkins said. “You develop these preconceptions about them from newscasts, but it’s not true.”

Adkins became close friends with a Russian boy named Igor and keeps in touch through the mail. For both a basketball hero and a boyfriend, Adkins has looked eastward. “I always tell people that I’m an Easterner who was born on the wrong side of the country,” she said. “I should be living in Massachusetts. I like the Red Sox, too.”

But Adkins didn’t rule out ever becoming a fan of Jerry West.

“I’ve never seen him play,” she said. “I sometimes block a shot from behind and steal the ball away and people tell me West use to do the same thing. Maybe I’ll get a tape from the old days and watch him play.”