Loyola Was Caught With Its Guard Down : Basketball: When playmaker Tony Walker got hurt, the Lions’ troubles began.

The Loyola Marymount basketball team’s motto is “Run the System,” and for the past three seasons, the Lions were able to lead the nation in scoring with their all-out style.

But the system needs the right triggerman--a speedy point guard with the ability to think on the run--to run at peak efficiency.

And a good point guard is hard to find.

Loyola has a capable point guard in Terrell Lowery, but as the Lions struggle with a 8-13 record, it appears the right man for the job is sitting on the bench in street clothes.

Tony Walker was an unexpected redshirt this season after his right wrist didn’t recover from fast enough from preseason surgery.

Lowery became a full-time point guard, setting off a chain reaction of position juggling and a search for an effective rotation that continues as the Lions travel to UC Santa Barbara for a Monday night game (ESPN, 9 p.m.) against the Gauchos.

“Having Tony wouldn’t solve all our problems, but point guard is probably the most important part of the system,” Lion Coach Jay Hillock said. “Everything emanates from there, it’s the focal point. He’s the quarterback, the push, and he gets you into your defense. Tony’s fully healed now and he’s been back practicing with us and he really makes a difference.”

Last season Walker and Lowery detonated the Lions’ devastating fast break, as well as their fearsome press. Playing about 20 minutes apiece, they didn’t have to pace themselves.

Lowery, with his combination of three-point shooting touch and ability to drive to the basket, also was the backup shooting guard.

Walker led the West Coast Conference in assists, averaging 7.6, and Lowery was second at 6.3. That gave Loyola the WCC’s individual assist leader for the fourth consecutive season. That streak started in 1986-87 when Chris Nikchevich won the title. He was followed by Corey Gaines and Enoch Simmons.

Lowery, who is in a close battle for the national lead and went into last week averaging 9.5 assists, should run the Lions’ WCC streak to five in a row. But Lowery has also had to shoulder the scoring load and play a ton of minutes.

“It’s tough on your point guard to be high scorer,” Hillock said. “We need his scoring, that’s where the bind comes in. Terrell’s accepted it well and he’s playing well, his assist-to-turnover ratio is very good.”

But, Hillock added, “it will be nice to have Tony back in the starting lineup next year.”

The Loyola system is deceptively simple: On a fast break, each player runs to a predetermined spot on the court. The point guard handles the ball almost exclusively, usually rushing it up the right side of the court. The shooting guard usually runs to the right corner. The point guard is expected to get upcourt ahead of the defense and find the right shooter in the right place.

The speed of the spindly legged Walker is described even by teammates in superlatives. Three years ago Paul Westhead, who instituted the all-out fast-break system, said Gaines was the ultimate point guard for the scheme. Last season teammates who had played with Walker and Gaines said Walker was as fast--if not faster--and quicker than Gaines. Westhead sometimes referred to him as “a blur.”

Hillock said recently: “We’ve changed his name. He’s no longer Tony, he’s the Rocket.”

Before playing the Lions in the Western Regional final in March, Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian said that the way to attack Loyola was to harass the point guard.

“The point guard has a lot of responsibility to push the ball and get it to the open people,” Walker said. “The system takes a while (to learn), especially if you’re not used to running. It takes a lot out of you. The main thing is knowing where people are supposed to be and finding them. We don’t run a lot of plays. In our system there’s two or three options so there’s always someone open.

“It’s real hard when Terrell has to do a lot of scoring and assists. He’s had a great year but he has to look to score, he has to save a little. With both of us (in the lineup) there’s a lot of difference. Last year we could both push the ball as hard as we could, I’d do it good, then he’d come in and do it good. (Defenses) couldn’t key on either of us.”

Walker and Lowery were also a devastating combination on the press, with Walker hounding the inbound passer and Lowery playing a sort of free safety behind him.

“The injuries have limited our quickness,” Walker said. “The press would be a lot quicker. Terrell would . . . get a lot more steals with me on the ball.”

Keith Smith was Westhead’s first point guard at Loyola. He was already an established scorer when Westhead took over before the 1985-86 season.

The team jelled when Westhead moved the team’s other big scorer, Forrest McKenzie, from forward to shooting guard. The Lions won 19 games, including one in the National Invitation Tournament at Berkeley, and McKenzie and Smith ranked 1-2 in Loyola career scoring when they completed their eligibility.

Nikchevich, who transferred to Loyola after three seasons at Brigham Young, was the point guard the next season, and junior forward Mike Yoest blossomed into the scoring leader. But Nikchevich didn’t have much help in the backcourt and faced constant double teams. Conference foes managed to clamp down on Yoest and slow the break.

That team, which had similar problems to the 1990-91 team, finished 12-16, Westhead’s only losing record at Loyola. Nikchevich averaged 5.9 assists.

The next season, Westhead had the personnel--transfers Gaines from UCLA, Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers from USC--to run a game-long press. Gathers led the conference in scoring and Gaines, in his only season with the Lions, averaged 8.3 assists.

Simmons wasn’t a pure point guard, but was such a good athlete and was surrounded by enough talent that he was able to lead the WCC with 6.4 assists. Last season, Walker was brought in from Ventura Community College and blended in immediately.

Nikchevich now runs the system from a different perspective. He took over as coach of his alma mater, Crespi High in Encino, last fall and installed the Loyola offense. He’s hoping to make the CIF playoffs this season, but is already looking forward to next season.

“It’s a system that takes a while to adapt to,” he said. “I came from a very controlled situation at BYU. I was starting to feel real comfortable at the end of the year. As the year progressed my scoring stats went up. I bet if you ask Corey Gaines he’d say if he had one more year in the system he could’ve doubled his stats.

“You saw the epitome of the system last year--that was the only year a lot of the guys had been in it four years. When you’re in it long enough, you know your limitations in it.”

Hillock agreed: “It takes at least a year (to learn).”

When Nikchevich first talked to Westhead about transferring to Loyola, Westhead described a point guard’s dream.

“He was describing the system and what he was saying was phenomenal,” Nikchevich said. “I said, ‘This is too good to be true.’ He’s putting the ball in the players’ hands and letting them play the game.”

What Nikchevich learned was that while simple in concept, the system was especially challenging for the point guard.

“Maybe I’m biased but I think the point guard has the toughest position,” he said. “You’re responsible for setting up the hot man, passing to someone else if someone’s not hitting, and if things are stagnant, taking it to the (basket) and creating.

“Experience in reading the court is vital. All your decisions are on the fly. All your decisions are obvious. You handle the ball 99% of the time and you have to deliver it to the right man on the right side. If you miss a guy full court it’s obvious. If you throw a bad pass it’s magnified because most places pass the ball five or six times before a shot but (at Loyola) one pass may lead to a shot.

“In the Westhead system if you can’t do something it’s obvious. It makes you recognize your limitations.”

It also favors players at other positions who can handle the ball. One subtle reason for the Lions’ success the past three seasons was Gathers’ ball-handling skill.

“I envied Corey,” Nikchevich said. “If they double-teamed him Corey kept running and Hank handled the ball. Any time Westhead saw the point guard would be doubled he moved Hank to (power forward). Hank was tailor-made for the system and (power forward).”

The Lions’ big men haven’t been able to provide a similar alternative to Lowery this season.

When Walker and Lowery graduate after the 1991-92 season, it is unclear who the point guard will be. The Lions have already apparently lost the heir apparent, freshman Greg Evans, who recently quit the team.

“It’s an easy system to recruit for,” Nikchevich said. “You look for athletic talent rather than a great player. For your (point guard) you look for somebody with some good (speed) who can see the floor.”