Harbor Tough Guy Has Scoring Punch : Muscular Keith Billingslea’s Real Threat Is His Touch From Outside

Most people agree on two things when it comes to Harbor College guard Keith Billingslea: He likes to shoot and he looks vicious.

“I know I have mean facial expressions,” Billingslea said. “My family watches me play and they tell me, ‘If we saw you for the first time (on the basketball court), we’d figure you were some kind of mass murderer.’ I guess it’s kind of good because it intimidates opponents and it gets my teammates pumped.”

The 6-foot-2, 207-pound sophomore doesn’t have a basketball player’s physique, but he plays the game just fine. Compared to his teammates, he’s stocky and very muscular, and he possesses an extra dose of confidence that often makes him appear cocky as well as dangerous.

“He’s always been very developed,” said Issy Washington, who runs summer tournaments for all-star high school basketball players. “He had a man’s body as a sophomore in high school.”

Freshman guard Vernon Middleton said he has heard spectators comment on Billingslea’s robust appearance several times.

“A lot of people think he’s tough and old,” Middleton said. “They just think he’s real tough because he looks that way, kind of.”

If the 20-year-old Billingslea had a gap-toothed smile to go with his physique and his scruffy beard, he might be mistaken for heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, despite the fact that his specialty is shooting leather through a hoop rather than punching flesh with it.

Billingslea leads the 12-9 Seahawks (5-2 in Southern California Athletic Conference play) in scoring with a 20-point average. He always has a green light to shoot because, though sometimes inconsistent from the field, he’s more often successful.

His jump shots from the perimeter frequently find nothing but net, and his aggressive style allows him to drive the lane if his outside shot happens to be off.

“He’s a scorer,” said Harbor Coach Ken Curry. “He can really score some points for you. I think when you get him to play both ends of the court, he’s one of the best (junior college) players in the state. The problem is that he doesn’t always play defense.”

Billingslea admits that defense isn’t his cup of tea, but he’s laboring to improve that as well as other parts of his game.

“I’m working on consistency,” he said. “I need to do that on the defensive end, and I just need to play harder and sounder, and I need to work on motivation.”

Middleton says Billingslea’s intensity inspires others on the young Harbor team, which starts only two sophomores, Billingslea and forward Ron Lewis.

“He’s really helped the team a lot,” Middleton said, “not only because of his great shooting and all-around playing, but also because he’s got great rhythm. He gets us up.”

Billingslea is experienced when it comes to motivating teammates with exceptional play. At South Gate High, he was a two-time All-City and four-time All-Eastern League player. He was the league most valuable player two years in a row and was twice selected to the Times All-Southeast team.

Billingslea broke the school record for career scoring (1,970) and averaged 30 points a game as a senior guard.

“He grew tremendously,” said South Gate basketball Coach Paul Hackett, “because he really worked hard every day. He had a lot of natural talent, but he also had to work at it. He could even shoot well off the screen, which a lot of kids can’t do very well.”

Billingslea’s high school career led to numerous offers from Division I schools. He visited the University of Hawaii, Wake Forest and Fresno State. He opted for Fresno, where he played for one year, because he liked the coaching staff and Hackett recommended the program.

“They really made me feel welcome there,” said Billingslea, who started in seven games for the Bulldogs. “I felt the people there really accepted me. I thought Hawaii and Wake Forest were nice, but Fresno was better.”

After one season, however, Billingslea was switched from guard to forward. He practiced with the team until the first game of what would have been his sophomore season, but decided to leave because two experienced players were ahead of him in his new position.

“I guess you can say it was a short and sweet career,” Billingslea said. Of the Fresno coaches, he said: “I guess we just had different ideas.”

So Billingslea moved back home in December, 1987, and the minute Curry heard the news, he pursued the high-scoring guard.

“I was substituting at South Gate,” Curry said, “and I was talking to Paul (Hackett), and he mentioned that Keith called him last night and that he left Fresno. Before the period was over, I contacted Keith and tried to talk him into coming to Harbor. I’ve known him since he was a ninth-grader, and I knew he could help us out.”

So far, he has. Even early in the season, Billingslea led Harbor’s offense. Against Mira Costa, for example, he scored 33 points. More recently, in a SCAC game against Compton College, he scored 27. In Wednesday’s game against Los Angeles City College, he had a team-high 17 points.

Billingslea wants to shoot his way to the junior college playoffs, then find a place to finish his shaky college basketball career.

So far, Washington State, Hawaii, St. Mary’s and Gonzaga have shown interest. Billingslea is considering Washington State because playing in the PAC-10 sounds appealing.

“Somebody is going to get a good guard next year,” Washington said. “They’re going to be very lucky to get the combination of his experience and great ability.”