Vaught Working on Improving His Game : Clippers: Second first-round pick got started late in basketball, but he wants to do it all now.

He was 24 inches long at birth and 6 feet 6 inches by the ninth grade. But the day Loy Vaught’s mother saw him take a pass over the middle, arms extended, and get popped in the ribs by the defensive back was the day the NFL lost a prospect.

“She thought I was too big a target,” Vaught said.

So football was out. Just before beginning his 10th-grade year in Grand Rapids, Mich., basketball was in, even though that was the first time Vaught ever played in an organized setting.

Now, the target is larger than ever, and so is his star quality. The Clippers picked him out of a crowd of big men last week in the NBA draft to help cure their rebounding problems, making the 6-9 forward from the University of Michigan the 13th choice overall.

Vaught hasn’t played the game nearly as long as most who will make the jump from college to the pros this fall. Neither side sees that as bad, though--it just leaves more room to improve.

For now, the Clippers laud his blue-collar approach to the game, a phrase that surely will be tossed around often. Vaught won’t mind, either. On a team full of scorers and passers, Vaught doesn’t mind the label or the dirty work inside. In fact, he takes pride in it, considering that his father, a construction worker and handyman, made his living with that approach.

“I took his work ethic and applied it to sports,” he said.

With profitable results. Vaught, the second of three Michigan players to go in the first round despite not being flashy, is already being careful not to be typecast as a one-dimensional player.

“I don’t think many people out here know I can shoot the ball fairly well,” said Vaught, who was at a Clippers’ news conference Thursday, along with the team’s other first-round choice, Bo Kimble. “I have confidence in my whole game. . . . I want to be known not only as a rebounder, but a total player.”

Added General Manager Elgin Baylor: “Loy is a physical player, and I like that. He doesn’t mind going out and getting on the floor after a loose ball. And he can shoot. But because he’s such a good rebounder, that’s something overlooked.”

Kimble said he will keep jersey No. 30, the same one he wore at Loyola Marymount, rather than switching to 44 in memory of Hank Gathers, his late friend. Still, the Clippers might ask the league for permission so Kimble can wear a tribute to Gathers somewhere on the uniform.

“I need to find out if the NBA will allow it,” Kimble said. “Ideally, I’d like to have a patch with a number 44 for remembering Hank.”

Vaught will wear No. 35.

The Clippers have sold about 300 season tickets since the draft, the surge being credited to the selection of Kimble, a popular local player.

It’s a nice run for the Clippers, who have promoted Kimble since they drafted him, but it’s not a record-setting pace. It took only two days for the Clippers to sell 200 season tickets after winning the lottery and the right to take player of the year Danny Manning in the spring of 1988.

Though they have made a qualifying offer to Ken Bannister, thereby guaranteeing the right of first refusal, the Clippers continue to search for a backup center. After passing on a couple of possibilities in the draft to select Vaught, they have decided to look at veteran Keith Lee in summer league.

The 11th pick overall in 1985 after starring at Memphis State, Lee, a 6-10, 220-pounder, has played with Cleveland and New Jersey. He was left unprotected in the expansion draft and taken by Orlando, but missed the entire season because of leg problems. The Clippers talked to him about coming to camp a year ago, but the two sides could not agree on a contract.

Summer league at Loyola Marymount opens July 20. Bannister probably will be there, and guards Tom Garrick and Jeff Martin also are expected. Gary Grant, returning from a broken ankle, might play part of the schedule.