Simmons Closes In on 3,000 Points

Everyone likes Lionel.

Lionel Simmons, who started the college basketball season as a probable lottery pick in the next NBA draft and has done nothing since to lower his stock, has admirers everywhere.

The people at La Salle know they would never have gotten out of the local shadow of Villanova and Temple, on to network television, and into the homes of other blue-chip recruits without the four-year heroics of Simmons, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who is on pace to become only the fifth player in NCAA history to score 3,000 career points.

The people in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, a lesser-known league on the East Coast, are ecstatic with the attention Simmons and La Salle are getting. Baltimore’s Loyola might not have joined the MAAC last year were it not for the residual benefits of Simmons’ high profile, but the Greyhounds could have second thoughts after playing the No. 17-ranked Explorers next Monday at the Philadelphia Civic Center.

The people of Southwark Plaza, a mean streets housing project in south Philadelphia, revere Simmons as a folk hero. Employees of the Philadelphia Housing Authority honored him before last month’s win over Villanova, just for getting up and out of the neighborhood.

“Not too many people go down there,” teammate Doug Overton said. “We play all over the city in the summer, but that’s one place I’ve never played.”

The people on opposing teams respect Simmons. Sure, Digger Phelps is a public relations genius, but the Notre Dame coach didn’t have to do what he did last week, when Simmons became La Salle’s all-time leading scorer in an 86-78 win over the Irish. When the announcement was made and no one from La Salle went to Simmons, Phelps grabbed the game ball, handed it to him and shook his hand.

The people in the media like him, too. Last Wednesday, Simmons could read about himself in USA Today and Sports Illustrated. Simmons is a 21-year-old criminal justice major who’s 12 credits away from a college degree, and he enjoys recounting his Horatio Alger story to anyone with a notepad or mini-cam.

“I’ve worked hard to get the attention,” Simmons said without a hint of braggadocio. “This is fun, and I’m enjoying it.”

The circumstances surrounding Simmons’ rise out of the ghetto and into the spotlight obviously endear him to people. He overcame an environment that put two brothers in prison, and plenty of doubters, despite being one of the premier players in one of the nation’s great basketball cities.

“I thought I was ready for a Top 20-type team coming out of high school, but those coaches didn’t think I was ready,” Simmons said. “I was considering Temple, but they weren’t sure I could play inside for them.”

Simmons can play for anyone in the country, but even La Salle Coach Tom “Speedy” Morris sounds as amazed as everyone else when it comes to discussing his impact.

“No one thought Lionel would end up being this big,” Morris said. “I coached against him when he was a sophomore in high school and you could see then the kid had talent and worked hard, but no one could envision what he’s accomplished in four years here.”

The stars of Morris and Simmons were aligned in the spring of 1986, when Morris, who had powerhouses at Roman Catholic High in the 1970s, jumped from the La Salle women’s program to the men’s.

Simmons watched the Big Five rivalries among La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova in the Palestra, and let it be known he was going to stay home to play his college basketball. A few weeks after Morris became the La Salle coach, Simmons signed with the Explorers.

As a senior at South Philadelphia High, Simmons and current teammate Bobby Johnson won a city public schools championship. The year before, they were beaten out for the title by Murrell Dobbins Tech, which had the Loyola Marymount combination of Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers and a sophomore point guard, Overton, who is now La Salle’s second-best player.

A Dobbins classmate of Overton’s, Larry Stewart, is now Coppin State’s best inside player.

Simmons was proficient at all phases of the game but spectacular at none, and his main asset has always been a serious work ethic. If Simmons had a weakness when he came to La Salle, it was a lack of polish away from the basket. In his first two seasons, he was 4-for-14 from three-point range. This season, he’s 14-for-23, 60.9 percent.

“Very talented people tend to let their athletic ability take them as far as it will,” Simmons said. “I don’t think that’s ever been the case with me. I’ve never been the type to just show up and think that everything is going to go well on its own.”

Simmons was the MAAC Rookie of the Year in 1986-87, when the Explorers lost in the first round of the conference tournament but went on to the final of the National Invitation Tournament.

La Salle since has lost one MAAC game and earned two NCAA tournament berths, and Simmons has improved to the level where last season he averaged 28.4 points and 11.4 rebounds, third and fifth in the nation, respectively. He’s shooting over 49 percent for his career, and Morris said Simmons could easily average 40 points if they weren’t interested in the team.

Simmons has scored in double figures in 94 straight games, and Morris stressed that he will play just as hard against Loyola Monday as he did in a Dec. 2 date at DePaul. That was La Salle’s first game ever on network television, and Simmons delivered 26 points and 14 rebounds in an 83-62 rout.

“The remarkable thing about Lionel is that he does it against all opposition,” Morris said. “He’s the most consistent player I know. People have tried everything to stop him, and I haven’t seen much work.”

Two years ago, when he was in the third of his four seasons at Penn, Loyola Coach Tom Schneider worked a five-point victory over the Explorers.

“We did a great job of holding him to 27 points,” Schneider said. “We didn’t do anything special on Lionel, we were just fortunate that we played well and they shot poorly. He gets the quietest points I’ve ever seen from anyone. Lionel doesn’t excite the crowd or do anything fancy, but from a coach’s standpoint, he’s beautiful to watch.”