DOUBLE TROUBLE

Before they became high school basketball players at Simi Valley, brothers Brett and Shaun Michel were fans.

“We went to a lot of [Simi Valley] games,” Brett said. “I loved watching the high school team play.”

The brothers would watch from the stands, marveling at the abilities of Pioneer players such as Danny Alexander and Ryan Briggs. Shaun was even a Simi Valley water boy during the early 1990s.

Jim Michel, their father, encouraged them to set lofty goals when it came to basketball. He and his wife Julie spent countless hours driving their sons to practices and basketball camps.

And Simi Valley (21-2), the No. 1-ranked team in the region by The Times, has been the benefactor of that hard work.

Brett is a 6-foot-6, 215-pound senior forward. He is a four-year starter and is the Pioneers’ career leader in three-point baskets (240) and ranks fourth in scoring (1,892 points).

Shaun, a 6-2, 205-pound junior point guard, is in his second season as a full-time starter. He is Simi Valley’s career leader in assists with 550.

“They mean a lot to that program,” Coach Steve Johnson of rival Newbury Park. “They both play important roles on that team.”

The Michels are as volatile as they are talented.

Shaun was benched for five games and held out of the first quarter of at least two others this season. Brett was held out of one game.

Coach Christian Aurand, in his first season after replacing Dean Bradshaw, who abruptly resigned last summer, won’t discuss the reasons for the suspensions.

Shaun said he was held out of a game against Moorpark on Jan. 5 because he missed a practice and that he missed all four games of the season-opening Simi Valley tournament because he “got punished for stuff that a lot of other people didn’t.”

Nonetheless, he admits he has learned to “be careful with what I say and to watch my mouth.”

That done, it is he and his brother’s talent on the floor that bears watching.

*

Think Simi Valley basketball in recent years and the names Pero Vasiljevic, Rafael Berumen and Branduinn Fullove come to mind. And maybe Brett Michel, a teammate of Berumen and Fullove on several summer all-star squads that were organized by Brett’s father Jim and run by Branduinn’s father Bobby.

While Brett, 18, has been overshadowed by the outstanding play of the UC Santa Barbara-bound Fullove this season, he is averaging a career-high 20.4 points and 6.4 rebounds and shooting a career-high 85.2% from the free-throw line.

“Brett is a guy who can hurt you in a lot of different ways,” Johnson said. “He’s such a good three-point shooter that you really have to pay attention to that aspect of his game.

“But if you do that too much, he’ll post you up inside. . . . . You’re faced with a dilemma with him because if you put a quick small guy on him to take away his outside shot, he’ll start posting him up. But if you put a bigger guy on him, he’ll start stepping outside and shooting from there.”

Brett was one of those rare players able to step right onto the varsity and start as a freshman. He averaged 16.2 points and 5.7 rebounds on a Pioneer team that went 23-4 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1997 Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Brett said. “I was young. I was 15 and starting on varsity and it turned out to be a really good season for me.”

Brett had hoped to commit to an NCAA Division I school last fall but a sprained left foot forced him to miss much of the 1999 summer season and dropped his stock among college recruiters.

Brett said the injury is fully healed and he is confident he will play for a four-year school next season.

*

In Brett’s sophomore season, the Michel brothers were able to play alongside one another for the first time since they were elementary school kids in a Simi Valley recreation league.

Shaun shared time at point guard with then-junior Branden Foster for the first half of the season before becoming the starter.

Shaun averaged 3.8 assists and 3.0 points as a freshman on a 25-6 team that advanced to the semifinals of I-AA playoffs.

He came into his own last season when he averaged 8.7 assists, 7.2 points and 2.5 steals for a 28-3 team that advanced to the semifinals of the I-A playoffs before losing to eventual champion Mater Dei, 56-43.

“I gained a lot of confidence after that first year,” Shaun said. “I’m a lot more confident now than I was back then. Getting the ball in the fourth quarter doesn’t bother me.

“My freshman year in the playoffs, I was real nervous for those big games. I’m 100% more relaxed now.”

Aurand, a former Simi Valley point guard and an assistant under Bradshaw for nine years, has noticed the change in Shaun, who is averaging 7.6 points, 9.0 assists and 2.9 steals.

“He’s much more confident in what he does on the floor,” Aurand said. “And I think a lot of that has come with playing the [point guard] position for a couple of years.”

Johnson, whose Newbury Park team surprised many by defeating Simi Valley for the Marmonte League title two years ago, says that Shaun’s strength is his ability to distribute the ball.

“That’s one of those skills that is underappreciated and he’s very good at it,” Johnson said. “With Berumen last year, and with [Dustin Villepigue], Fullove and Brett this year, he’s very good at getting them the ball right where they want it so they can score.”

*

This is the last year the Michels will play together.

Each has posted career-best numbers. Add that to the performance of Fullove (24.7 points, 6.2 rebounds) and 6-9 center Villepigue (12 points, 7.8 rebounds) and the Pioneers are the region’s best team.

Simi Valley can clinch its second consecutive league title with a victory against Newbury Park on Monday night.

Completing a second consecutive 12-0 league season and making a run at the section title are the Michels’ main goals entering the final week of the regular season.

“It would mean a lot,” Brett said about a section title. “I’ve wanted to win one since I was a freshman. It’s disappointing not to win, but we’re playing in one of the biggest divisions against a lot of high-caliber teams.”

Mater Dei, which beat Simi Valley, 57-53, in a tournament game in December, and Corona Centennial are ranked ahead of the Pioneers in the I-A poll.

But Shaun figures the Pioneers are capable of winning the school’s first section title since a Don MacLean-led team defeated Capistrano Valley, 70-64, in overtime for the 1988 4-A championship.

“I just know how close we were last year,” Shaun said. “I mean, we got beat in the semifinals, but we were not that far from winning.”