Bo Kimble’s Post-Loyola Future: It’s Fantastic

Ah, it’s a sunny Sunday afternoon, the sky is smoggy blue, the sofa is soft, the tube is tuned, the NBA All-Stars are all-starring their way from one side of the screen to the other, and visions of being inside the television instead of outside, being right there alongside all these slammers and jammers, can’t help but dance in the average college basketball player’s fantasy.

Only, Bo Kimble is not your average college basketball player. He happens to be the leading scorer in America.

So, Bo’s not just watching TV here. He’s cramming. Doing research.

“Picking up pointers,” he said. “Trying to pick up some moves.”

Insurance salesmen call this planning for your future.

“Uh oh, here we go,” Kimble said, play-by-playing what he sees. “Here comes Charles Barkley, charging down the court, spreading the offense. . . . “

Deke. Drive. Dunk.

“Ohhhh! Everybody out of his way!” Kimble rejoices.

NBA action. . . .

“It’s fantastic, yeah!”

Think Bo Kimble shouldn’t be thinking of himself being out there? Think he shouldn’t be thinking so far ahead? Think again. The merry guard from Loyola Marymount has mounted some serious, serious numbers. He’s got lottery pick written all over him.

Brace yourself, because here come Basket-Bo’s point totals for his senior season. Ladies and gentlemen, start your pocket calculators:

51, 57, 53, 46, 38, 38, 54, 32, 35, 28, 30, 26, 39, 31, 31, 32, 50, 37, 33.

Holy Loyola! Somewhere in heaven, Pete Maravich is adjusting his wings, pulling up his socks and smiling.

Furthermore, Bo Kimble’s totals belong in some museum, Ripley’s Believe It or Not or the Smithsonian or someplace, because of certain extenuating circumstances:

--He still gets all those points even though his teammate, Hank Gathers, is the No. 5 scorer in the nation and the 1989 NCAA scoring champion.

--He still gets all these points even though he missed 13 games last season because of knee surgery.

--He still gets all these points even though not one of Loyola’s games has been played against South Torrance High School.

There are only a few dates left to catch Kimble’s college act, so catch him if you can. Loyola has a few games remaining, including one at home tonight against Pepperdine, before the NCAA tournament.

This team and this kid are worth seeing. Kimble fakes and jakes, shakes and bakes, stops and pops, drives and low-fives. He does it every which way it can be done. As the old soup commercials go . . . “Mm-mm good, mm-mm good. That’s what Kimble’s hoops are . . . mm-mm, mm-mm good.”

“Whoops, here comes Magic now,” Kimble said, “working with the right hand. Stops and pops. Three-pointer!”

Bo’s digging it, big time.

“I’d love to play with Magic, love to play with Michael Jordan,” he said. “I don’t need my ego fed. I’d be very happy to play on the same side with a superstar. Very happy.”

Nice attitude.

“Or maybe there’s just some team out there really hurting for a 2-guard who can really score. I don’t care where. I’ll go anywhere.”

Even nicer attitude.

“Maybe some of what those guys have would rub off on me.”

Maybe. In any case, there has to be a market for a 6-foot-5 sharpshooter who’s not a head case.

Then again, you never know. Guys with Kimble’s credentials have failed before. Dwayne (Pearl) Washington is bopping around the CBA. Lottery picks from last year are riding the bench.

The only way Bo Kimble might ever see an All-Star game is on television.

What gives him hope, though, is to watch this latest one and notice who’s out there.

“Hey, I might not be a Johnson or a Jordan,” Kimble said. “But when I see Reggie Miller out there, playing right beside them, I know it’s not impossible.

“No offense to Reggie. It’s just that he and I ran across one another a lot when he was at UCLA and I was still at USC. Lot of pickup games. The fact that I see him out there now, playing with the All-Stars, makes me say, ‘Damn, man. If Reggie can do it, maybe so can I.’

“It’s like, I don’t just see superstars out there anymore. I see Reggie. I see guys of my general caliber.”

In the three-point shootout, too.

“Yeah, that’s for me.”

And the slam-dunk contest.

“No, I don’t want any part of that.”

No?

“No,” Kimble said. “I’ll leave that one for Hank.”

See? Nice attitude.