Weight Is Over for Mohammed

As a lumpy Kentucky freshman two seasons ago, Nazr Mohammed wasn’t so much a work in progress as he was a high-calorie object of disbelief.

How in the world did then-coach Rick Pitino envision this 300-pounder playing fast-and-frenzied Wildcat basketball? By letting him ride a golf cart from end to end?

“When he first got to school,” forward Scott Padgett said of Mohammed, “he didn’t really look like much of a player. He got tired a lot, and you were kind of thinking, ‘How long is he going to last?’ ”

You think of Wildcat basketball under Pitino, and you think of Kentucky thoroughbreds, pressing and trapping, running and shooting. In that context, Mohammed was, well . . . mountainous. Immovable.

A basketball figure as cultivated as Indiana’s Bob Knight even compared the amiable 6-foot-10 Chicago native to an elephant waddling among the crowds.

But Pitino persisted with Mohammed, gave him time on the 1996 national-title team, and kept him on a fruit-and-water, no-meals-past-nine diet.

Eventually, the pounds drifted away and a real player began to emerge.

After dropping 45 pounds, Mohammed started 12 games as a sophomore for the 1997 Final Four team, and actually could go eight or 10 minutes at a time without wheezing or feeling faint.

The result this season, with Tubby Smith at the helm replacing Pitino and ordering up a more structured offense to take advantage of Mohammed’s skills, is the full realization of the Pitino vision.

Mohammed is Kentucky’s first full-service center since Sam Bowie, and, with talented backup Jamaal Magloire giving him 15 minutes of rest per game, capable of dominating moments on both ends of the floor and anchoring the 94-foot press defense with fervor on this Final Four team.

In a shock to anyone used to the Wildcat speedsters sprinting to the NBA, Mohammed--who has blocked 10 shots and averaged 13 points and 6.5 rebounds in the tournament--is probably the best NBA prospect on the team.

“Nowhere in my wildest of dreams could I imagine a kid to come as far as he’s come,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said earlier this season. “When he got there, I was wondering if he was ever going to play there.

“But now I’m wondering what he’s going to be, a top-seven or 10 pick? You’ve got to give Rick the credit for being able to see that far ahead.”

Said Mohammed, who now weighs 240 pounds: “When I was in high school, we lifted weights and we did conditioning. I just wasn’t as successful at it.

“Then I got to Kentucky, and I knew immediately that I was going to have to lose some weight. Kentucky had the run-and-gun style, and I pretty much knew that if I wanted to play, I had to be part of that style and I had to get into shape. That’s what I wanted, anyway.

“I mean, everybody has that dream body they’d want, cardiovascular-wise and just looking-wise.”

Under Smith , Mohammed flourished after he was moved into the starting lineup 12 games into the season, immediately after an embarrassing loss to Louisville in Rupp Arena.

Some of the highlights for Mohammed, who is about to become the first Wildcat since 1983 to shoot better than 60% from the field for a season:

* Scored 19 points against Purdue’s big front line in an early December game;

* Had 21 points and 12 rebounds in a victory over Indiana;

* Scored 22 with 12 rebounds--and won the game with a buzzer-beating shot--at Vanderbilt;

* Dominated UCLA with 15 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots in the third-round NCAA game.

“This is my goal and this is what I saw for myself,” Mohammed said. “When you’re a little kid and you’re watching basketball, your goal is not to be just all right. Your goal is to try and dominate.

“I knew the only way for me to play this game and do well, I had to get into some type of shape.”

Kentucky is 23-2 with Mohammed as a starter, including a current 11-game winning streak as the Wildcats stormed the South Regional and prepare for Saturday’s Final Four matchup against Stanford, the Midwest champion.

Under Pitino, Mohammed endured being assigned occasionally to junior-varsity games, an unheard-of status for a potential NBA player.

And, sometimes, Mohammed and other rarely used players had to run up arena steps before games. One time, the order was to run behind the team bus after a road game.

“Our hotel was about a couple of blocks away from the stadium and a couple of us had to run back,” Mohammed said. “Guys who weren’t playing as much had to run back to the hotel.

“It was me, Oliver Simmons--he’s transferred--and Jason Lathrem--he’s no longer here, either. I guess I’m the one who survived.”

Mohammed always was a capable offensive talent; he has soft, big hands, and agility around the basket. But it was his lateral movement and his ability to get from baseline to baseline that hampered him in his freshman season during drills, when he was lined up against Antoine Walker and Walter McCarty.

“I’ve always been pretty decent offensively, but I couldn’t guard anyone on that [1996 national-title] team,” Mohammed said. “We had a great team that year, and I couldn’t stop a soul.

“I was a decent player, but a one-sided player. Getting in better shape has turned my defense totally around. I’m pretty much confident I can guard anybody. I mean, I’m not going to guard point guards. But I feel I can guard anybody at my position.”

In the third-round game, Mohammed was matched against UCLA’s J.R. Henderson, who a game earlier had outmaneuvered massive Michigan center Robert Traylor.

But Mohammed was different. Henderson got the ball in the low post in two of the Bruins’ first three possessions, and tried to put up quick shots over Mohammed. Both were knocked out by Mohammed, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

UCLA’s path to an upset was blocked.

Mohammed doesn’t quite go as far as saying he let Henderson catch the ball in the low post, but he is very clear that he didn’t mind that the skinnier, shorter Henderson was trying to go up and over Mohammed.

“I felt I could stop him once he caught the ball,” Mohammed said. “I wasn’t worried about him scoring on me once he got it.”