Norman Center Conquers Limitations, Grows to Task : Prep basketball: Beverly Hills High’s Peter Micelli trained with weights, jumped rope and ran. He doubled his stats from the previous year as a result.

If Peter Micelli, Beverly Hills High School basketball center, plays college ball at the NCAA Division I level, he might be considered a bit of a “project,” a term used by coaches to describe a player who needs some work.

But the foundation for his development has already been laid, its bricks and mortar the hard work of Micelli himself and others.

Last season the 6-foot-7 1/2-inch, 210-pound senior was a 6-6, 190-pound journeyman who averaged about 10 points and eight rebounds a game and occasionally blocked shots for a team that finished with a 14-9 overall record.

This season he has more than doubled his production. Through 23 games, he averaged 25.2 points, 15.3 rebounds and a formidable 4.1 blocked shots. As the week began, the Normans were 19-5 overall and 10-2 in the Bay League and tied for first place with Hawthorne.

After his junior season, Micelli received numerous letters from colleges, which take at least a perfunctory interest in any big basketball player. But because of the way he is playing this season, more college scouts have been noticed in the stands at the Normans’ games.

Micelli’s development in the past year has been extraordinary, but it almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t decided to get to work on molding himself into a better player.

He said that he might not have gotten around to doing that if he hadn’t been prodded by Jack Dyck, Beverly Hills boys basketball coach and the school’s athletic director.

“Coach Dyck was the one who really made me buckle down,” Micelli said. “He told me that I had to stop fooling around. He’s a real good motivator. Besides that, we’re friends; he’s a real great guy.”

What he buckled down to was a regimen that unmotivated athletes would probably avoid.

Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the past year he has shown up at the high school at 6:45 a.m. to lift weights, and that dedication has paid off. He has added from 15 to 20 pounds of muscle that enables him to put his body on some of the bigger bodies that play center for other teams.

He said that this season he has had to go against such big men as 230-pound Jacoby Day of Santa Monica High and 240-pound Frank Willis of Leuzinger High. “I couldn’t imagine playing them at 190,” he said.

He has also been jumping rope every day, and he planned to run a mile every week--until his father, Nick, decided he could do better than that. So at the urging of his dad, he has been running his mile while he jumps rope.

“Until I started taking basketball seriously myself, my father did not bother me about it. But when I did, he really helped.”

He has gotten quite a lift from jumping and running. “Last year I could barely dunk and wouldn’t think about doing it in a game. This year I can touch about (1 1/2 feet) above the basket.” And he dunks frequently, particularly in games.

Playing volleyball has helped his basketball game. He was an All-Bay League middle blocker as a junior, and he said that volleyball has been instrumental in improving his quickness, jumping and timing in basketball.

His volleyball coach, Bill Smith, also enlisted in his campaign to become a better basketball player. He said that Smith joined him on Sunday mornings and played the part of point guard, passing the ball to Micelli as he worked on his moves in the post position.

Scouts from such schools as UC Irvine, Nevada Reno and Cal State Northridge have come around to watch the new, improved Micelli, and more will probably drop by when Beverly Hills opens in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.

The stands could get crowded with scouts if the Normans get by the first round of the playoffs, but they may also be taking a gander at some of Micelli’s fellow starters, who are each scoring in double figures. The other four are guard Jonah Naulls, son of former UCLA and professional basketball star Willie Naulls; forwards Payam Poursalimi and Bryan Domyan and point guard Brandon Patton.

Micelli hopes all his work will pay off in a scholarship to a Division I university, and, if it does, he said that he wouldn’t mind playing both basketball and volleyball in college.

But basketball is his main game, he said. “When you’re scoring, rebounding and sometimes dominating a game, it’s quite a thrill.”

Dyck said he thinks that Micelli could provide some thrills for a Division I team, even though he needs a little work.

“A Division I school would be taking a chance,” he said, “but it would end up with a 6-9, 230-pound player who is very hard-working and conscientious.

“He has a banger’s mentality; the more contact, the better he likes it. He is very tough, and in college he’ll be able to mix it up. His offensive skills need to be polished, although he shoots 80% from the (free-throw) line and has a very good outside shot.”

Dyck said that forward would probably be Micelli’s best position in college but that he could also be a good center for some team if that’s what they need.

Micelli said that he thinks he can play either position and doesn’t prefer one over the other. Although he might be giving away some height as a college center, he said that he has “has gone against some 6-11’s, and height doesn’t intimidate me.”

Dyck said that Micelli may need to redshirt as a college freshman so that he can mature physically. “But when he gets to be a junior, they’ll be saying, ‘Man, where did he come from?’ (Whichever college he plays for), he’ll add quite a bit to (the basketball) program. He’s such a great kid and a very good student.”

The college that gets Micelli may not think it has recruited someone adept at making three-point shots, since he’s only attempted a total of one in high school. That one, however, was a beauty. It went through the hoop with four seconds to play against Rolling Hills, tying the score. The Normans then won in overtime.

Micelli said that with time running out, he was looking to get the ball to Naulls for a three-pointer but his teammate was covered. He had to put it up himself and was pleased no end when the ball went in the basket. “I’m one-for-one on three-pointers,” he said.