It Pays for Keefe to Stay : College basketball: He leads Stanford to an 11-1 record and improves his standing for the NBA draft.

Along about now, the skeptics believed, Adam Keefe would start kicking himself, regretful that he returned to Stanford for his senior year instead of accepting the riches of the NBA.

He would be physically beaten down, unable even with his broad shoulders and back to handle the burden of carrying a young, inexperienced team while being mugged in the low post game after game by defenders willing to try anything within the rules--and some not--to stop him.

But the skeptics, obviously, hadn’t paid much attention.

If nothing else, Keefe showed during his first three seasons at Stanford that he could handle the heaviest of workloads.

And now, he’s at it again.

The team’s only senior and only returning starter, Keefe has led the surprising Cardinal to an 11-1 start, a 3-0 record in the Pacific 10 Conference and the No. 24 ranking in this week’s Associated Press poll.

Averaging 25.2 points and 13.4 rebounds, he is the only player who ranks among the nation’s top 10 in both scoring and rebounding, not to mention punishment taken, dives on the floor and perspiration lost.

Keefe prides himself on his work ethic, judging his performances not by the points scored or the rebounds grabbed but by the effort put forth, which in the case of this particular 6-foot-9, 235-pound power forward from Woodbridge High in Irvine, is rarely less than the maximum.

“I like to come out of a game tired and sweaty and completely spent,” Keefe said as the Cardinal prepared to play USC tonight and UCLA Saturday at Maples Pavilion. “I’ve been given a lot of gifts by God, and I like to think I’m returning the favor (by working hard).

“It makes you sick when you see somebody with all the ability in the world go out there and not hustle. I feel fortunate that I’ve been given what I’ve got, and I’d like to be able to be proud and say that because of the way I’ve worked hard and because of the way I play, I deserve it.”

His reward will be a lucrative NBA contract, the culmination of a lifelong dream, probably as one of the first 10 players drafted.

The money could have been his last year, after he led a senior-dominated Stanford team to the championship of the National Invitation Tournament, earning recognition as the tournament’s most valuable player.

Most of his contemporaries, including his girlfriend, Stanford volleyball All-American Kristin Klein, urged him to take it. “At a school like Stanford, people come here to (learn to) make money,” said Keefe, who doesn’t own a car and makes his way around campus on a bicycle. “They’re very driven and motivated.”

On Keefe’s behalf, Mike Montgomery, Stanford’s coach, and Bill Shannon, Keefe’s former coach at Woodbridge, made calls to about 30 NBA scouts and player personnel directors last spring, trying to gauge the pros’ interest.

In many cases, Montgomery said, it was considerable.

Don Nelson, coach of the Golden State Warriors, told Montgomery that he hoped Keefe would stay in school, echoing the sentiments--as expressed to Montgomery, anyway--of many of Nelson’s NBA colleagues. But while saying this, Montgomery said, Nelson also told him that the Warriors would love to have Keefe on their roster and spelled out the probable contract terms that would be offered to a top draft choice.

Roger Newell, whose scouting service is used by nine of the league’s teams, told Montgomery that Keefe was ready for the NBA.

“I personally think that he should have gone out last year,” Newell said. “Generally, I always say a kid should go through his senior year. But Adam has always played much older than (his chronological age) because of his understanding of the game. He was never really a freshman, and when he comes into the NBA, he won’t really be a rookie.”

Keefe’s ability is well suited to the NBA, according to Newell.

“The physical part of the game won’t bother him,” Newell said. “He gives it as much as he takes it. He can score down at the low post, and I think he’ll be regarded as one of the better passing forwards in the league because right now he is certainly one of the best front-line passers in all of college basketball. He’s an exceptional passer.

“A player like Adam Keefe, because of his court awareness and his understanding of the game, will only get better as time goes on.”

Keefe weighed all these opinions and decided to stay put.

“It was a tough decision, obviously, because the money is so great,” he said. “Right when (last) season ended, I was really tired and beat up. We had a very good season, and the (other starters) I’d gone through it with were all graduating. I felt like it was time to move on to something else.

“But as time went on, I was able to step away from basketball.”

He attended lectures on campus, finished class work in his major, political science, and realized that he likes being a student. He listened to the advice of some older friends and acquaintances, members of the work force, who told him they would give anything to be college students again.

“That really had a big influence on me,” Keefe said. “I thought to myself, maybe I’m not ready to give this up yet.”

He announced that he would return, bought a $2-million insurance policy to protect himself against injury and headed off to play for the U.S. team in the Pan American Games, where he was a starter for Coach Gene Keady.

He spent a week last summer at the San Diego home of former UCLA All-American Bill Walton, who helped him with his footwork and other fundamentals and told him of the pressures he would face as a senior.

Keefe never asked why Walton asked to work with him.

“I was just happy he did,” Keefe said.

Said Walton, who never met his fellow redhead before inviting Keefe to his home: “I liked his willingness to get aggressive. I think that is something that will set him apart from the average player--the willingness to mix it up and try to take control of a game.”

Keefe returned to Stanford an even more valuable player.

“He’s so much better than he was,” Montgomery said, aware that Keefe averaged 21.5 points and 9.5 rebounds last season while making 60.9% of his shots. “He’s more confident, he’s doing more things, and the kids are comfortable with what he can do, so they look for him and try to put him in positions where he can be successful. Then, when he can’t get the ball (from his teammates), he just goes and gets it off the boards.”

Keefe took a personal-best 21 rebounds against Southern Utah, then grabbed 22 against Oregon. In Pac-10 play, he is averaging 16 rebounds.

“The one word that describes Adam is relentless ,” forward Rhea Taylor of Santa Clara said last month after Keefe thrashed the Broncos for 30 points and 19 rebounds in a 75-59 Cardinal victory.

With so little experience--other than Keefe, the Cardinal roster combined had only 11 starts before this season--Montgomery said: “The potential was there for us to be a bad team.”

Now, led by its co-captain, Stanford has reached unexpected heights, making its best start in 50 years. The Cardinal’s only loss was to 14th-ranked Michigan State, 72-62, last month at East Lansing, Mich.

“It’s been a very pleasant surprise,” Keefe said. “It’s going to get tough down the road. We’re going to have our losses, and I’m going to have my bad games and I’m going to get bumped around. But one thing I’ve always been good at is keeping things in perspective, and as it looks now, I’ve done nothing but improve my position in the (NBA) draft.”

Keefe would like to take Stanford back to the NCAA tournament, but even if he doesn’t, he says he’ll have no regrets about returning.

“School’s just been great,” he said. “I really enjoy being in a learning situation. I’m finished with my major, so I’m able to take classes that I find interesting and enjoyable (including one during the current winter quarter that deals with U.S. foreign economic policy). I think a lot of people who consider leaving school early don’t really like school.”

But as much as he’s learned at Stanford, Keefe has also taught.

His teammates won’t soon forget his passion for basketball.

“He’s not as pretty in some of the things he does as some of the other guys in the league, but he just comes and comes and comes (at you),” Montgomery said. “He never lets up. There are players that are probably more physically gifted, but they won’t nearly reach his level for whatever reason--lack of commitment, lack of toughness, lack of desire. Any number of things.

“He has reached a level that very few people will reach.”