Good Hands Man : College Basketball: New Mexico State’s Sam Crawford and those who know his game and grit best are confident the pros will come calling early in this year’s NBA draft.

There are still times when his past catches up with Sam Crawford--fleeting moments when the hotdogging antics of his youth won’t be denied.

Take the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout last month.

With just over seven minutes left, Illinois had New Mexico State on the ropes with an 84-77 lead. But what most Aggie fans viewed as a crisis, was merely show time for the 5-foot-8 New Mexico State point guard.

Over the next three minutes, Crawford scored 8 of the Aggies’ 9 points, connecting on a pair of 3-pointers and just missing the hat trick when his foot-on-the-line 18-footer with 4:27 left tied it at 86-86.

Illinois Coach Lou Henson tried to curb the momentum swing with a timeout, and as the teams headed for the sidelines, Crawford spread his arms, raised them skyward and scanned the stands as if on a victory podium.

“It was to let my team know that now was my time,” says Crawford, who went on to hit the game-winning free throw with 10 seconds left in the Aggies’ 95-94 win. “It was to let them know that this is where I own it, that if you come to me, I can produce.”

Last season, Crawford’s first in Las Cruces, was a definite windfall for New Mexico State. With Crawford leading the nation in assists through most of the year--he eventually finished second with a school record 282--the Aggies rolled to a 25-8 record, the Big West Conference Tournament title and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament before losing to UCLA.

The Aggies are now off to a 5-2 start, but have struggled since winning the Great Alaska Shootout. They have lost two of their three games, and not coincidentally, Crawford is struggling through his first major slump.

Over the last three games, in which the Aggies have lost to Texas-El Paso and New Mexico, Crawford has hit just 3 of 20 field goals, and he had just 2 assists in the 69-62 loss to New Mexico on Dec. 12.

And after scoring 68 points in three games and being named the Most Valuable Player at The Great Alaska Shootout, Crawford’s scoring average has dipped to just under 12 points a game.

Undaunted, Crawford and those who know his game and grit best are confident the pros will come calling early in this year’s NBA draft.

“Quite clearly, he can run a team,” says Ron Carter, the former Los Angeles Lakers guard and Crawford’s uncle. “His floor leadership is evident, and no one questions that. What people are now learning is that offensively, he’s explosive.”

Carter and Crawford’s aunt became Crawford’s legal guardians after he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles at age 9. Carter provided not only a home for Crawford, but also a door to Laker practices and pickup games filled with NBA talent such as Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper and Magic Johnson.

“When Sam was in about the 10th grade, we had a pickup game going--me, Cooper, Norm and James Edwards,” says Carter. “We were one guy short. We looked around the gym and the only one there was Sam. We finally said, ‘OK Sam, you can play.’ He more than held his own and from that day forward has been playing against us.”

Carter says that kind of exposure put Sam a step ahead of most college players when he signed with the Aggies out of Moorpark (Calif.) Junior College, where he averaged 19 points and 13 assists per game his sophomore year.

“He has exceptional skills, but what he has above most is that he was raised on professional basketball. If anyone knows the subtleties of pro basketball at this level, it’s Sam. The things you have to teach college kids, he came here with.”

Crawford was hardly an unknown when he signed with the Aggies. Duke knew about him and recruited him out of high school. UNLV also was interested, but according to Carter, backed off because of Crawford’s size.

Crawford says his reputation of taunting opposing players and coaches didn’t help.

“I was labeled as a player who couldn’t be coached,” he says. “I was bold and disrespectful. My mentality was to hurt, to hurt whatever I could get ahold of. I dealt with everything the way I dealt with basketball.”

Sam says all that is history.

“It used to be I’d run to a fight. Now, I run to get everyone away from it,” he says.

Crawford says his courtside manner also was helped by his marriage in 1991 to the former DeeDee Purvis, whom he met in junior college.

“There’s probably people who watch me on TV and can’t believe what they’re seeing. I’ve had people compliment me the last two years who before had no respect for me as a person,” he said.

Carter says New Mexico State coach Neil McCarthy also has been a major influence in Crawford’s development.

“Sam had accelerated beyond the competition and Neil has put the hammer down on him. Sam had a lot of showboat in him and he still does it, but he doesn’t do it at the critical times anymore. He delivers the ball, and Neil has had a lot to do with that.”

Crawford has handicapped the NBA draft and figures Duke’s Bobby Hurley will be the first point guard drafted. Crawford sees himself being the second or third point guard taken, and does not expect to wait much past the first round.

“I think that I’m anywhere from two to three at that position,” he says. “If I go any lower than 25 (overall), I’d be shocked.”

Crawford says a return to Los Angeles as a pro would fulfill his childhood ambitions, but ever the showman, he also can envision being paired with the best Magic act in the NBA--Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal.

“If I could play with the Shaq,” says Crawford, “we’d show them a whole lot of new stuff. I’m seeing what he’s doing and I know what I can do. He’d have a whole lot of points, and I’d have a whole lot of assists.”