He Went From Nobody to Peabody

Alabama walked onto the floor Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum to play Loyola Marymount in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.

The Crimson Tide wanted to do a slow dance with one of the country’s Cinderella teams.

Their song was “Walk, Don’t Run.”

Loyola’s Tom Peabody was humming along. He had heard it before.

Peabody, a 6-foot-3 junior guard from Santa Ana, is one of the Lions whose role is to fill in behind big shooters Bo Kimble and Jeff Fryer.

“That’s my main purpose . . . to get Bo and Jeff the ball,” he said.

That is what Alabama thought, too.

“I heard them say, ‘Sag off that guy, he won’t shoot,’ ” Peabody said after helping Loyola advance to the West Regional final with a 62-60 victory in front of 12,972.

With Alabama giving Peabody the opening, he waltzed through the door, scoring seven points including two important layups in the last 3:49.

More important, according to Loyola Coach Paul Westhead, was Peabody’s aggressive play on the press. When Loyola began to lag, Peabody arrived on the scene to offer a pick-me-up.

“He’s a ’57 Chevy with bumps and bruises,” Westhead said. “You can’t hurt him, though. He’s got a cracked steering wheel but he still is going to make it to the beach.”

And perhaps to Denver for the Final Four?

Peabody, who was a role player on some great Mater Dei High teams featuring All-American Tom Lewis, refused to speculate.

But he acknowledged that the Lions have been drawn closer since the March 4 death of teammate Hank Gathers.

“I wasn’t scared about their tempo,” he said. “I played like that in high school in every game. I wasn’t frustrated by it. It wasn’t that bad.”

Peabody, who transferred to Loyola from Rice, has been an anomaly in Westhead’s greyhound offense.

He does not like to shoot.

Westhead has had to prod Peabody to take more shots.

“He is perfectly content not to,” Westhead said. At least not until Loyola was on the verge of elimination Friday night.

Alabama led, 52-45, with 6:25 to play, and Kimble and Fryer were forcing three-point shots.

A Peabody assist to Kimble underneath the basket made the score, 54-50, with 5:02 left.

Then Peabody committed consecutive fouls.

But he was making himself visible.

Peabody said the inspiration came after Westhead criticized him for making a bad pass.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to pass any more, I’m going to shoot,’ ” Peabody said.

Alabama did not expect him to take the ball inside on its big men, Melvin Cheatum and David Benoit.

The Crimson Tide was caught off guard by the driving Peabody.

With 3:49 left he scored on a layup to make the score 54-50. A minute later he scored on another drive to give Loyola its first lead since the first half, 57-56.

“Peabody turned the game around,” Westhead said.

“It was time,” Peabody said. “In the tournament you’ve got to play your heart out.”

Westhead knows who to keep in the game at a time like that.

“Coach knows I’m going to gamble on some steals,” Peabody said. “He lets me loose to go crazy out there.”

It could not have happened at a better time.