College basketball: Long Beach's forward best athlete on team.
By GORDON VERRELL
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
What you notice first about Richie Smalls is that he isn't . . . well, he's not small at all. A little on the slender side, perhaps, but small? No way.
Example:
"Where we are now," Smalls was saying the other day, illustrating a point about how the Long Beach State men's team is still very much in the learning stages of playing as a team, "is like this."
He opened his massive hand, his fingers splayed like a huge starfish.
"What we've got to do, and I believe we will, and soon," he said, "is be like this."
He clenched his hand into a fist the size of a bowling ball.
That's the way 49ers coach Wayne Morgan describes his junior forward - big - even if, at 6-8 and 215 pounds, there are a lot of players much bigger.
"But Richie plays a lot bigger than 6-8," Morgan said, meaning Smalls can play, and play well, against the big boys.
For instance, last Saturday night against Kansas State, an outfit with a front line measuring 6-11, 6-9 and 6-8, Smalls hauled in 13 rebounds, the most by any 49er this season, and more than anyone the 49ers have played this season, including Kansas State.
"When it comes to everything," 49er assistant coach Tom Lewis said, "Richie is the best athlete on the team."
Smalls can certainly jump high, evidenced by his rebounding - he leads the 49ers in rebounding, averaging a shade better than seven a game - and, in that game against Kansas State, he demonstrated his ability to jump long as well. Chasing after a loose ball headed out of bounds, Smalls ran out of room. But he didn't slow down. He leaped over the media table, landing smack into the laps of Kansas State's two-man radio crew, everyone crashing to the floor. Amazingly, the only damage, it turned out, was the decibel level of the "Ohmygodhe'sgonnakillus!" shriek that sizzled across the lines back to the Kansas and a broken chair.
But, Smalls admitted afterward, managing a smile, "That was a little scary."
Smalls grew up on the hard streets in New York, in the Bronx. He played basketball in high school . . . when he could get to school.
"It was tough," he said. "A lot of guys couldn't get to school, afraid to go because of the gangs and stuff."
Smalls also played for the Riverside, N.Y., AAU team, one that got around quite a bit. Smalls and his AAU club played in Europe, and Canada, and it was when he got his first taste of Southern California. When it was time for college, Smalls, who was widely recruited, had Seton Hall, or St. John's, or LIU in Brooklyn in mind.
"They all wanted me," Smalls said.
But his mother, Ida Smalls, had a different plan.
"She didn't want me in the city . . . at all," Smalls said, explaining how he ended up, first, at a junior college in Independence, Kan., then last season at St. Catherine College in Kentucky, where he averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds and 4 1/2 assists a game.
"I like playing defense, and I like rebounding," said Smalls, who, when he spreads his loooong arms, has a wingspan that rivals a 757. He has a longer reach than even the 49ers' big man last season, 7-1 Andy Betts, who played against Smalls some this past summer.
"Scoring," Smalls said, "that has to come to me. If I'm not double-teamed, fine, I'll put it up. If I'm double-teamed I'm looking for one of my teammates. I led that (St. Catherine) team in assists."
Smalls has had to do a little of everything the last couple of games, since the 49ers have had to go without 6-11 Mate Milisa, who sprained his ankle a week and a half ago. It's been a struggle at times. Smalls had only five points and a half-dozen rebounds in the 49ers' 80-52 thud last week at Southwest Missouri, and in the 90-77 loss to Kansas State he had 11 points to go with his 13 rebounds, but he also had six turnovers and zero assists.
Still, despite the loss there was optimism. Afterward, Morgan said, "We're making progress." So did Rock Lloyd, who scored 36 points. And D'Cean Bryant remarked, "It was probably our best game."
Smalls, too, was encouraged, saying, "I can see it all coming together. We'll get Mate back pretty soon. And Charles (O'Neal, who'll become eligible this week). Charles is the kind of point guard who can score and pass off. He's like Andre Miller (the Utah guard, who lit up the 49ers for 29 points a couple weeks ago). He'll be a big help."
The only catch to all that, Milisa is just now able to walk on his injured left ankle, and the earliest O'Neal will be eligible to actually compete is when the 49ers play at Northwestern on Dec. 27, which is less than one week before their Big West Conference opener at Idaho on Jan. 2.
"That's why I'm coming back early from my Christmas vacation, so we can have three good, solid practices, with everyone there," Smalls said, sensing the urgency of it all. "I'd like to be home for Christmas, sure . . . but we've got to start winning some games."