Basketball Is Simple Game for Simon : Division I-A: Whether his success is in the genes or in the stars does not matter. Mater Dei junior guard is at home on the court.

To many, it must have seemed inevitable, Miles Simon would have to be a basketball star.

His father was a basketball hero, after all. Walt Simon scored lots of points. He made high school All-American teams, then played college ball at Utah and was even drafted by the pros.

So Miles, of course, was groomed, patterned and programmed to fill those sneakers. A chip off the old block. Carry on the family business son and all that, right?

Thoughts such as that make Miles smile, even chuckle. His basketball career was hardly scripted. Heck, he didn’t even learn about his father’s basketball exploits until he was 14.

That he has become a standout for Mater Dei wasn’t an accident, but it wasn’t planned parenthood either. Chalk it up to Karma.

“I just started playing one day and loved it,” Simon said. “I never even knew about my dad until a couple years ago. People compare us now, but it doesn’t bother me.”

It shouldn’t. Not the way Miles plays the game.

Call it dumb luck or destiny, but Miles Simon found his own way to the basketball court. Oh sure, there have been those who insist on comparing and contrasting. That was inevitable. But Simon has created his own role, which takes center stage tonight.

Simon, a junior guard, and Mater Dei play Huntington Beach in the Southern Section Division I-A championship game at the Sports Arena. That the Monarchs are there is due in large part to him.

He leads the team in scoring, averaging 14 points for a team that has five players who have signed with Division I colleges. He has shouldered more of the load during the playoffs, averaging 21 points.

But those are just numbers, something for posterity. What makes Simon a marvel is his fluid style. How he scores is more significant that how much he scores.

“He can go outside or put the ball on the floor and go inside,” Monarch Coach Gary McKnight said. “The other night he went base line, changed hands and just threw the ball through the hoop. I haven’t seen a guard like him in a long time.”

Oh that could be a coach’s enthusiasm for a pet player. But Simon’s guest list this season has included coaches from Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada Las Vegas, UCLA and just about any other big-time basketball school you can think of.

No words could say more.

Simon has come of age this season. A year ago, he was a piece to the puzzle for a Monarch team that was the State Division I runner-up. Now, he has become the complete picture.

When turned loose, he can carry a team.

McKnight benched two starters and was missing two others due to illness against Capistrano Valley this season. Simon made seven three-pointers and scored 31 points in a 74-51 victory.

“If you want to be a big-time player, you have to play big in big games,” Simon said.

A self-taught lesson.

Simon grew up around basketball. His family--uncles, aunts, sister and, of course father--seemed to live in a gym. Family pickup games were standard.

But Miles was never drafted, although he tried to enlist.

“No one would want me because I was so small,” Simon said. “My team would always lose because my man could score easily. Of course, now, they all want me on their team.”

Still, with all the hoops being played within the family, no one took the time to tell Simon about his father.

Walt Simon was star at Los Angeles Roosevelt High School and Fullerton College, where he set scoring records and was named the junior college player of the year. He played at Utah, where he was named All-Western Athletic Conference, and was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics, although he never made it to the NBA.

By the time Miles’ memory kicked in, Walt Simon was a single parent. He and his wife had been divorced and he was raising a daughter, Charisse, who played basketball at Esperanza, and son with the help of his mother.

“I would always take Miles to gym and things like that, but I don’t think I ever really impressed him,” said Simon, now a probation supervisor in Orange County. “One time when he was 6, he told me he didn’t think I could dunk. When I showed him I could, he said, ‘You didn’t dunk over anybody. Dr. J dunks over people.’ ”

Miles’ first big basketball moment didn’t even involve his father. He was a 4-year-old attending a women’s game at Chapman College, where his aunt coached. A basketball found its into his hands before the game and he did what came natural.

“I just picked it up and threw it in,” Simon said. “It was my first basket.”

Such ability was hard to ignore.

Simon started in youth leagues in the fourth grade. His father was there to help, but not to push.

“I learned with my daughter that you can’t push kids into things,” Simon said. “She was a tennis player and one day I made her stay out and practice when she didn’t want to. She never played tennis again. You have to let kids do things for themselves. You can’t pressure them.”

It wasn’t until Simon was a freshman that the truth about his father came out. Old friends began telling stories and when college coaches began knocking on the door, Simon learned just how good his dad had been.

“Jerry Tarkanian was one of the first people to tell me about dad,” Simon said. “He had recruited him and went on and on. (UC Santa Barbara Coach) Jerry Pimm also told me stories. That’s when it really started to hit me.”

But nothing from his father.

“Walt is very low-key about it,” McKnight said. “He was a great player, but he has just let Miles progress.”

That has been easy.

Miles Simon is one of those gym rats--like his father--playing anytime, anywhere. He is constantly fine-tuning his game to the tune of 400 shots per day. The work has paid off.

Simon averaged 18 points on the freshman team, but even that was deceiving.

“About six games into the season, I was talking to our freshman coach and he told me Miles was scoring about 18 a game,” McKnight said. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s good, but not earth-shaking.’ I went to a game and found out the coach was platooning. Miles was scoring 18 points, playing half the game. I knew we had something.”

Simon moved up to the varsity last season and was shown the ropes. Senior guard Reggie Geary, now at Arizona, took great pains to break Simon in.

“Reggie really worked me over in practice,” Simon said. “We’d be playing defense against the first team and he’d step on my foot just before the play. The ball would come in and I’d fall down.”

Not that Simon minded.

“Reggie went hard on every play in practice and that made me work hard on every play,” he said.

Which, in turn, made Simon ready. He averaged 8.8 points as a role player, but he became the leading man against Dominguez.

The Monarchs were struggling in the I-A quarterfinals against Dominguez and it was Simon who got them over the hump. He hit four three-pointers and scored 24 points and Mater Dei held on, 54-48.

It put the Monarchs into the semifinals and brought more comparisons with his father from family friends.

“One will say Dad was better and one will say I’m better,” Simon said. “It gives them something to talk about. Everyone gets compared to someone in their life. I’m glad it’s my dad.”

Yeah, but who’s better?

“Well, when we play one-on-one, we have a rule that whoever wins the last game is the better player,” Simon said. “He won the last time so he says he’s better. I say, ‘I guess so, you won.’ But we’ll play again soon.”