‘The Panther’ Is Out on the Prowl Again for 49ers

He was known as “The Panther” when he prowled the back court at Inglewood High School.

At Cal State Long Beach, they call sophomore Bobby Sears “Shorty.”

Quick, cat-like, the 6-foot-2 guard has had an impact off the bench again this season for the resurgent 49er basketball program.

His playing time per game (12 minutes) and points per game (3.2) are down a bit from a year ago, when he was named to the all-Big West Freshman Team and was selected Prime Ticket Player of the Game for a 16-point effort in a televised win over USC.

Still, Sears has played in every game since he came to the school.

He appears in line to inherit the Long Beach point guard spot now held by senior Tyrone Mitchell.

“Bobby is very important to us,” said Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington. “We only have four guards on this team, and he is the only true point guard we have.”

A three-year starter in high school, Sears says he sees basketball differently as a reserve, and that helps him when he enters the game.

“It’s a good role for me, coming off the bench,” he said. “I try to pick up the tempo, give the team a quick spark.”

A slender player, Sears has nevertheless gained 20 pounds since high school.

“I want to get stronger,” he said.

Sears has taken some good-natured ribbing about his size from his teammates. He says he hopes to gain another 20 pounds in the off-season.

Harrington said that is a good idea.

“He’s on a weight program now,” Harrington said. “It’s not an off-season program. He’s doing it every day.”

Vince Combs, who coached Sears in high school, agrees with Harrington.

“He’s extremely thin,” Combs said. “You can post him up because he is very strong, but he can use some weight.”

Sears says the extra weight has made him quicker, a better player. Defensively, however, good opponents have driven around him.

“I see myself drafted by professional basketball after my senior year if I work hard in the weight room,” he said.

Could he be called a dreamer, too?

Said Inglewood High’s Combs: “If he continues to mature, I picture him maybe being draftable.”

Sears has had his share of exposure at Long Beach. In a game against Purdue last year, a photographer snapped a shot of him dribbling toward the basket. Harrington believes in spreading exposure among players, even underclassmen, so he authorized the school’s media relations office to put the photo on the 49ers’ color schedule poster. Sears has reaped benefits from it.

“It’s been good for me,” he said.

Others agree.

“It’s a sweet poster,” said his roommate and teammate, forward Kevin Cutler.

An Orange County school for the handicapped requested a visit from “that guy on the poster,” and recently, at a pizza parlor near the campus, teen-agers picked Sears out of a crowd.

Sears has taken it all in stride, according to Cutler.

“His head is not up in the clouds,” Cutler said. “To Shorty, it’s probably just another picture. If it was me on the thing, I would be selling it.”

Sears was dubbed “Shorty” by Cutler, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound junior forward, who shares Sears love for pizza and Volkswagen Beetles.

“Before I met Bobby, I was going to buy a Cadillac,” Cutler said recently while giving a tour of the pair’s tiny sleeping quarters.

Sears can rub off on people, Combs said.

“He is a great floor leader,” he said. “He is just a great kid to be around.”

In his junior year at Inglewood, Sears was considered one of the South Bay’s best players, but a year later junior Harold Miner, now starting at USC, grabbed headlines with 27 points and 11 rebounds a game.

After a fine summer season in which he was heavily recruited, Sears suddenly found himself in the back seat as a senior.

There were rumors that Sears, who turned down Kansas and signed early with Long Beach, didn’t like being second fiddle to Miner.

Combs heard the rumors too, but denied they were true. Sears’ leadership abilities, according to Combs, came through in his senior year.

“Bobby was smart enough to realize his job was to get the ball to a kid (Miner) that could do it (score) from the inside.”

Still, Combs said: “I had to sit on Bobby sometimes.”

“All kids that can shoot well, like Bobby, want to put it up a lot,” Combs said. “Once he realized what his role was, he would do what he had to do.”

Sears characterized his play at Inglewood as “not great, but good.”

“Sometimes Combs had to sit on me. I would get too flashy,” he acknowledged.

With Mitchell gone next year, Sears isn’t hiding the fact he wants to replace him as team captain.

“That’s up to the team,” Harrington said.

Said Sears: “I would be glad to accept the responsibility.”

While showing off their dorm room recently, Sears and Cutler gave their only chair--a weathered wicker seat--to a visitor. The players stretched out on two single beds. Several copies of Hot VW magazine shared shelf space with the Old Testament and books titled “Black Psychology” and “Marriage and Families.”

They delighted in a color television (with a coat-hanger antenna). They said they hoped to get an area rug, a microwave and a refrigerator soon.

“Don’t have room for a plant, though,” Sears said.

A poster of a red Porsche was on the wall over Sears’ bed, a black panther curled up on its roof.

Next season as a starter, Shorty said, the panther will be on the prowl again.