Sufi Fills Out Mater Dei’s Strong Lineup : Basketball: The small player has withstood insults, jokes to play an important role in a championship program.

You know Kamran Sufi. You can’t miss him.

Amid the massive limbs and torsos that is Mater Dei basketball, he’s the guy who looks as if he should be handing out towels and squirt bottles.

“Look at those guys. How easy is it to pick out Kamran?” Monarch Coach Gary McKnight said.

Impressive looking, he’s not.

Off the court, you can pick him out. He’s got all those Southern Section championship rings.

No. 3 came Saturday night with a 63-41 victory over Huntington Beach. There was Sufi, the Pakistani point guard, doing his thing.

A little of this, a little of that. It always seems to end up as quite a bit for a little guy.

Sufi, a senior, stands 5 feet 10 before a haircut with a body that yearns to have sand kicked in his face. But his play makes people look up to him.

“I going to miss him,” McKnight said. “And how many times do you hear a coach say he’s going to miss a guy who stands 5-8 and weighs 130?”

McKnight and the Monarchs would have missed Sufi Saturday.

Yeah, they handled the Oilers all right. But when things got sticky, Sufi kept cool.

Huntington Beach’s Bryan Chang sank two free throws and the Oilers crept to within, 33-27, midway through the third quarter. Moments later, Sufi streaked up court for a layup and was fouled. His free throw put the Monarchs up by nine.

Chang hit a jumper and the Oilers came back, 39-34, with 1 minute 30 seconds left in the quarter. Sufi came down, surveyed the scene, then dropped a three-pointer for a 42-34 lead.

This is a guy who was one of seven on three-pointers for the season.

Sufi finished with 11 points--seven above his average--eight assists, seven rebounds and two steals.

“I felt this year, I had to be the guy to step up when we needed it,” said Sufi, who will play at St. Mary’s next year. “Reggie Geary was the guy who did it for us last year. I had to be the guy to take his place.”

Geary is at Arizona, and Sufi is closing out a four-year varsity career, the last three of which he’s been a starter.

Some chuckled at that. One coach went as far to say he hoped Sufi would remain the point guard or Monarchs’ opponents would really have something to worry about.

Sufi heard it all and said nothing. Back-to-back section championships said it all.

His teammates, on the other hand, are tired of the jabbering.

“Yeah, he’s this little, skinny Pakistani kid,” Center Terence Wilborn said. “But we can’t win without him. He has strength. He’s smart.”

Sufi controlled the Monarchs in the first half Saturday, getting to zig and zag at the right times.

By halftime, he had seven assists and the Monarchs had a 27-19 lead. He had his usual quota of no-look, here-you-catch-it passes, one of which Wilborn finished with a dunk as part of a 12-0 Monarch run.

“Kamran used to be much worse about that,” Wilborn said. “I got more then one bloody nose. But he’s getting better.”

Sadi Sufi: “I guess it’s instinct. I just know where those guys are.”

And they know where he is. It’s easy. You can’t miss him.