FULL SPEED AHEAD : Even Without Kimble, Gathers Steps Up for Loyola

Around Loyola Marymount University, they call Hank Gathers, “The Bank.” The reason is obvious. When a big basket is needed, Gathers has been like, well, money in the bank.

It has been that way for the last 2 seasons, since Hank the Bank put his stock in Coach Paul Westhead’s running system. The investment has paid off handsomely for both, Loyola setting scoring records on a slew of Bank shots.

This season, Gathers’ game has risen to such a spectacular level, almost 35 points a game, that interest in the Bank is going up fast, which is the way Gathers and Loyola like to score. Gathers will get his next opportunity this morning, when the Lions (8-5) play DePaul (9-7) in a nationally televised game at Rosemont Horizon.

“Coach Westhead says you can’t be in the system at 95%. You’ve got to be in it at 100%,” Gathers said before a recent practice. “The wide-open system gives me an opportunity to show what I can do. It also exposes what you can’t do. You’ve got to be fundamental.

“I think that’s one reason our young guys are having trouble. Right now, our young guys haven’t totally bought into the system. They don’t believe you can go that extra 5 minutes at full speed. Once we break them in, they buy in.

“I’ve bought in.”

Loyola teams have long had players who could score. Gathers follows in the footsteps of Greg Goorjian, Forrest McKenzie, Keith Smith and Mike Yoest, all of whom led the West Coast Athletic Conference in scoring this decade. But Westhead has turned up the pace several notches, and Gathers may be the perfect player for his system.

At 6 feet 7 inches, Gathers has to play the post as the Lions’ best big man and start the fast break with his rebounding. As the team’s only real inside scorer, he is also expected to finish off the break.

Blessed with a combination of strength, quickness, jumping ability and speed, the seemingly tireless Gathers more often than not accomplishes that. After a redshirt year, Gathers joined the lineup last season and finished second in the conference in scoring, with an average of 22.5 points a game, and rebounding, with 8.7 a game.

But that was just the beginning. If he remains at his current rate of production--34.9 points and 15.1 rebounds a game--Gathers will lead the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I in both categories, joining Xavier McDaniel, now a pro star, as the only players to have done so.

Moreover, Gathers is producing at a high level of consistency. His low game this season is 27 points, and he has taken down fewer than 10 rebounds only once. He has scored more than 30 points in 9 of 11 games, with a high of 49 against Nevada Reno, tying the school record. He has had rebounding totals of 26 and 23 and is shooting 64% from the floor.

“He has evolved as a very confident offensive player,” Westhead said. “At this moment, he’s very difficult to stop.

“Now he has demonstrated he can do something that will be hard to take away. I don’t think the evolution is completed. I don’t think he’s nearly topped out.”

For all of his physical skills, Gathers’ main attribute may be his intense desire on the court. His attitude goes well beyond blue-collar, closer to a warrior, last-one-standing attitude.

“My first impressions were, he was very competitive and hard-working,” Westhead said. “If there are 100 possessions, he wants to be in on all 100. That approach is what’s gotten him where he is (while) he’s been expanding his offensive skills.”

Gathers’ game combines hard work, physical gifts and several years of honing a short- to medium-range jump shot and one-on-one skills learned on the playgrounds of his native Philadelphia.

As for motivation this season, Gathers has plenty.

He still is upset about the USC episode that resulted in George Raveling asking him, Bo Kimble and Tom Lewis to leave USC.

Plus, John Thompson didn’t invite Gathers to the Olympic trials.

And, North Carolina blew the Lions out of last year’s NCAA tournament, and Gathers felt he had a poor game against the Tar Heels, even though he scored 19 points.

Not being invited to the Olympic trials particularly irked Gathers, since his good friend, UCLA guard Pooh Richardson, had been.

“Coach (Westhead) said, ‘That shows they don’t respect you. Show ‘em this year,’ ” Gathers said. “I’m showing ‘em.”

Another factor motivating the junior was that this would be his senior season if he had stayed at USC. So he felt it was time to show he was physically ready to play as well as the nation’s top seniors.

“If I was at USC, I’d be shooting for the NBA,” he said. “So I wanted to be ready, see if I was prepared. Thus far, the answer is yes.”

David Spencer, the assistant coach who recruited Gathers for USC, remains close to him, even though Spencer is now on the coaching staff at Hawaii.

“I’ve always been able to motivate (Gathers),” Spencer said. “Hank scored a lot last year, but he didn’t rebound that well. I said, ‘If you lead the nation in rebounding the next 2 years, that’s where you’ll make your money. The pros will be impressed.’ ”

Gathers lists leading the country in rebounding as his chief goal.

This was supposed to be another season of the long-running “Hank and Bo Show.” Gathers and Kimble have been on the same court together from the time they made the Philadelphia Dobbins Tech junior varsity in ninth grade.

Kimble, a rainbow-shooting big guard who makes the game look effortless, was the star. Gathers was raw, just learning. He remembers the first time he was aware of Kimble, on a playground the summer after eighth grade. Kimble, fooling around by himself, was dunking. Gathers was in awe.

Together they led Dobbins to 2 Philadelphia City titles--they lost the title in their junior year to Pooh Richardson’s Ben Franklin High team. Together they came to Los Angeles ready to put Stan Morrison on top of the Pacific 10 Conference. Together they were dismissed from USC by Raveling, the new coach, at the end of their freshman year, and together they ended up helping put Loyola on the map last season, leading the Lions to a 28-4 record, the best in school history, and an NCAA tournament appearance.

But Kimble, a 6-5 junior who averaged 22 points last season, began suffering recurring knee discomfort before this season opened, hobbled through a few early games and had arthroscopic surgery in late December. He’s not expected back much before early February.

And Kimble’s absence has probably speeded Gathers’ emergence.

“In a way, me being out has raised him to this level,” Kimble said. “He has to play for Hank and Bo. There’s nobody he relies on out there like we rely on each other.”

Said Gathers: “It gets tough down the stretch (without Kimble). We’re used to looking for each other. (His absence) makes me feel just a little uncomfortable.”

Kimble concurred: “We’re used to fallin’ (back) on each other in the last minute of the game. Every place we’ve played together, one of us would (take over). Without me in there, now it’s like every shot he takes is the hardest basket of his life.

“He’s kind of in a groove. He’s programmed himself. The funny thing is, if I was playing he’d still be scoring, but he wouldn’t be leading the country. I’ve never seen Hank play like he’s playing this year. Right now he’s in a class by himself. And I’ve seen where he’s come from.”

Gathers and Kimble grew up in the projects of North Philadelphia. They shaped their games in Philadelphia’s Sonny Hill summer leagues. Kimble idolized Philadelphia 76ers star Julius Erving. Gathers, a boxing fan who grew up across from the gym that spawned Joe Frazier, learned to shake and bake and break down his opponent.

Spencer, also from the Philadelphia area, targeted them for recruiting.

“They had a great team,” he said. “They just dominated the Philadelphia schools. Had we stayed at SC, I had hopes of having all four (blue-chip players) from their high school team. Hank committed first, then he helped me recruit Bo.”

Spencer added: “They came out of such a tough neighborhood. It’s amazing what they came out of. Their world has exploded by getting out of Philly.”

As freshmen, they joined Lewis and Rich Grande as part of Morrison’s outstanding Four Freshmen class. Kimble started 18 games and averaged 12 points. Gathers started 12 times and averaged 8 points.

Gathers liked it at USC.

But after the season, USC eased out Morrison. The Four Freshmen demanded a voice in hiring a new coach and threatened to transfer en masse to another school if they did not approve of the choice.

When Raveling was hired, he set a deadline for the freshmen to decide if they wanted to stay at USC. Only Grande told the coach he wanted to stay.

Kimble decided to leave. Gathers wanted to stay, and tried to talk Kimble out of leaving.

But the deadline has passed and they weren’t granted an extension.

And as they were debating, they--and Lewis--got letters from Raveling, telling them their scholarships would not be renewed.

“I thought we could have been a very good team,” Gathers said. “I felt I’d play under Raveling. The word was he wanted to bring in some of his own players. I figured I’d move somebody out. I told Bo, ‘Somebody’s gonna have to sit ‘cause I’m not sitting.’

“Then I received the letter in the training room. I was kind of hurt. I laughed it off, but Bo had that look on his face like, ‘I told you so.’ ”

There is speculation that Raveling was leery of keeping Gathers and Kimble because of possible NCAA violations involving them. The Pacific 10 last month reprimanded USC because two players--unnamed, but thought to be Gathers and Kimble--received airplane tickets and long-distance phone calls from a booster during the 1985-86 season, without the knowledge of Morrison or his staff.

Both Gathers and Kimble say they got airline tickets to return to Philadelphia over Christmas vacation, but that they later paid for the tickets. The school received no sanctions.

At any rate, when Gathers and Kimble looked around for a new school, Westhead’s Philadelphia connections kicked in. Westhead grew up there, played at St. Joseph’s and coached at LaSalle. A Philly friend suggested that Gathers and Kimble check out Loyola, where Westhead had just completed his first season.

Gathers and Kimble joined UCLA transfer Corey Gaines. In their redshirt year, they regularly pounded the starting five.

Gathers was a bit taken aback by the difference in facilities, but he liked the idea of building a new tradition at Loyola.

“At SC, we had one of the best weight rooms in the nation . . . like you were working out in luxury,” he said. “It was so nice in there it didn’t look like you should work out in there. Here (Loyola) we had a hell hole . I thought maybe it would motivate me.”

(Loyola has since installed new weight machines for its athletic program.)

By midseason last year, the Lions were leading the country in scoring, filling up 4,150-seat Gersten Pavilion, and the players--with Gathers as one of the vocal and emotional linchpins--were feeling like pioneers.

He said it was the intention of him and Kimble to turn the school into a college basketball powerhouse.

“Our record in that is pretty good,” Gathers said. “Our high school hadn’t won a championship in 39 years. It felt real good to have a sellout crowd here. It was no fun to draw 3,000 people at the Sports Arena (with USC). Coming over here, things just worked out. I guess it was God’s will. I’ve got to look back and say, ‘God, I’m glad I got out of there.’ For my basketball career, this was my best move.”

The players found themselves welcomed on campus, though Gathers said that for the first year, “It was ‘Hank and Bo, the two guys from SC.’ You rarely hear that anymore.”

As last season progressed, Gathers and Kimble were in often in demand by reporters, who found them to be charming and colorful interviews--a line the outgoing Gathers hopes to develop someday as a sports commentator.

If Gathers’ numbers remain so lofty through conference play, he may start getting attention from the pro scouts. For now, he says he hasn’t considered leaving early, and both he and Westhead say there are still some tricks to be learned.

Said Westhead: “For us, his task is a difficult one. For all his scoring, we still need a hard-working, running, rebounding, defensive player, and he’s been doing this. I think the future of Hank is, he’ll become a much more poised player, which we’re already seeing. Then he’ll become really lethal.”

Westhead is banking on it.