ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : All-Points Bulletin From Coach Inspires Lofton to Find Jump Shot

Brent Lofton has responded to some unique challenges in his 2 1/2 years on the El Camino Real High basketball team, but the latest objective set forth went over about as big as Muslim fiction in a Tehran library.

It all started during a trip to watch a game at UC Irvine last week. Lofton, teammate Ken Findley and assistant Jeff Davis were heading south on the freeway when Davis not so casually mentioned that Lofton might be able to win the City Section 3-A Division Player of the Year award if he “elevated his game in the playoffs.”

The only thing elevated at first were Lofton’s eyebrows.

“I told him, ‘I think you could do it, but not the way you’ve been playing,’ ” Davis said. “Sure, he’s going to get his 23 points and 11 rebounds, that’s expected. But he’s capable of more.”

Say what? Twenty-three and 11 is expected? Last year, Lofton was the first junior in history selected to the All-City team. He earned a Division I scholarship and led the team to the West Valley League title this season.

And they need more?

“I issued a challenge,” Davis said. “I said, ‘If you’re the 3-A player of the year, we’ll win the City.’ That’s my logic. We can’t win it unless he is.”

Lofton shrugged and looked out the window of the car. Talk about a captive audience; short of jumping out the window, Lofton was stuck. Here he was, in the middle of one trip, when all he really wanted to think about was another.

“I’m really not too worried about it,” Lofton said in reference to Davis’ invitation. “Shoot, I just want to make it to the Sports Arena.”

Whether it was Davis’ highway banter or Lofton’s own mental mapping, something seemed to click. In last Friday’s 72-57 first-round playoff win over Lincoln--which entered the game with a record of 17-6--Lofton scored 33 points and had 19 rebounds, both season highs.

Lofton, who is averaging 23.3 points and 11.5 rebounds, made 13 of 18 field-goal attempts and seven of eight free throws. Two more games like that and El Camino Real (12-10) might just make it to the Sports Arena, site of next week’s 3-A final.

“I told him he’d been lingering on the edge of 22, 23 points a game for too long,” Davis said.

Not that Lofton doesn’t listen to his coaches or appreciate their motivational manipulations, mind you, but all he truly was interested in was the final score.

Awards are great, but fear is the ultimate motivator.

“To tell you the truth, it was more of a feeling that I didn’t want to lose rather than trying to come up with those figures,” said Lofton, who will play at Utah State in the fall.

Lofton also had been feeling the heat from Coach Mike McNulty, who wasn’t as concerned about offensive production as with rebounding.

“He’ll get his 25 points,” McNulty said. “But he has to hit the boards for us to win.”

He also has to hit the jump shot. Lofton, a projected off-guard in college, has had mixed results from the perimeter. And like he did with Davis’ good-natured goal-setting, he tuned out everything and just let it fly. Lofton’s balance of scoring from inside and outside led to the season-best performance.

“I think I’ve been thinking about the jump shot too much,” Lofton said. “Instead, I just put it up and stopped worrying.”

Yet the jump shot wasn’t the only thing he put up Friday. Apparently, 19 rebounds wasn’t enough. After the game, McNulty jokingly made Lofton stack up and store the chairs that players sit on.

“He really got on me,” Lofton said, laughing. “I guess he really wanted me to get to 20.”