Double Vision Pleasing to Eye of Harvard Point Guard

You’ve heard of a win-win proposition. Well, point guard Ben Robbins of Harvard-Westlake sees a twin-twin proposition every time he brings the ball up the court.

The senior team captain can pass in low to 6-9 center Jason Collins or on the perimeter to 6-8 forward Jarron Collins.

The identical twins are sophomores who combine for an average of 33.5 points and 20.2 rebounds a game.

Or you might call this a win-win-win proposition. When the defense collapses on the twins, they kick the ball back out to Robbins, who is usually open for a three-pointer.

Result: Wins, wins, wins.

Harvard-Westlake is 17-1 and atop the Mission League standings at 5-0.

“My mentality is that I go to the twins until a team finds a way to stop them,” Robbins said. “I just pound it to them.

“If they are double-teamed, they are so unselfish that they come right out with it and I’m open from the outside.”

Robbins is hitting better than 50% of his three-point shots and averages 13.7 points and 7.1 assists.

“This is so much fun,” he said. “Playing with the Collins twins is incredible. I’ll be seeing them on TV someday playing major college basketball.”

Meanwhile, Robbins, an excellent student, will be at a Division III school better known for books than baskets. He is considering Tufts, Emory and Dartmouth.

For now, he is studying twin behavior.

“They are not as similar as you might think,” Robbins said. “People have a hard time telling them apart, but I see two totally different people.”

And he also sees that they get the basketball.

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Streak week: Lou Cvijanovich’s streak smarts being honed as well as they are, this supposed monumental Frontier League showdown Tuesday against Santa Paula is something he’d rather play down.

He is aware that Santa Clara’s 86-game league winning streak could be 86’d by a Santa Paula team that has lost only once this season.

He knows the streak is only 12 from the state record of 98 set by Bloomington from 1983-91.

He’s been told that a perfect league record this season will be the team’s 10th in a row, another state record.

He just doesn’t get too excited about it. Cvijanovich, 68, has been King of the wild Frontier League so long he ought to wear a coonskin cap. Nearly 40 years at Santa Clara have taught him not to get riled up over a game in the middle of January.

“It’s just another game to me,” he said. “Santa Paula is excellent, but we are a good club too. If we get beat, we get beat.”

If so, it will mark Santa Paula’s first victory over Santa Clara since a 62-52 decision in 1973. Not that Cvijanovich recalls that one.

“That’s more than 20 years ago, for Christ’s sake,” he said.

Keep peeling pages from the calendar, back, back, back. . . .

Spin another record, Lou. Here’s an oldie but goodie: From 1956-65, Santa Clara won 82 consecutive league games, which was then a state record. Cvijanovich was the coach.

How about a couple of timeless classics? He has coached Santa Clara to 26 league championships and 13 section championships, both state records.

An overall record of 731-232, despite scheduling tough opponents in nonleague games. This year, for example, the Saints are only 10-6, 2-0 in league play, after enduring a brutal nonleague schedule.

The coach who has seen it all warms up when talk turns to his team. He is fiercely proud of his players.

“The whole starting five play well when they play together,” he said. “We’ve gotten better and better. We play very good defense. That’s our signature.”

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Signed, sealed and delivered: The Saints held Moorpark to 10 points in the second half Friday night in a 61-32 Santa Clara victory.

Typically loath to single out a player for praise, Cvijanovich can’t help himself when the name is Kevin Collins, a 6-foot-4 senior forward.

“This kid can play,” he said, quickly adding that Damien Smith, Blair Ferguson, Mike McGill and Adam Lopez round out a balanced starting lineup.

And reserve Lukman Dotson scored a team-high 15 against Moorpark.

The players, Cvijanovich maintains, are as streak-wise as the coach.

“They are a loose bunch as far as that goes,” he said. “We don’t talk about it.”

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Cardinal knowledge: Meanwhile, on the other side of the streak, Santa Paula readies for the first of its two cracks at Santa Clara--Tuesday’s game at Santa Clara and a Feb. 7 game at Santa Paula.

The Cardinals (14-1) have lost only to Hart--a team that Santa Clara defeated--but a victory over Santa Clara will have special significance.

“We’ve got support in the community, more than last year, but they all want to know if we’re going to beat Santa Clara,” center Danny Herrera said. “It seems like that’s all they care about.”

The pressure of snapping the streak might be as great as the pressure to extend it.

“The worst part is, if we go out in the first half and get the lead and play well, then we start to think about the streak,” guard Manuel Escamilla said.