Backcourt beasts

Sporting News, The, Jan 29, 1996 by Michael Bradley

" He's a one-man fastbreak,' O'Brien says. He can rebound and then burst out of the pack dribbling. I don't think a lot of guys can do that, because very few people have the ability to be an active, aggressive rebounder and also have the time aspects of ballhandling and quickness.'

just imagine how good he'd be if be would shoot the ball. Mr. Excitement

It wouldn't be surprising if Allen Iverson soon begins to receive mail from angry eight-grade basketball coaches. How ;ire those guys supposed to team fundamentals to impressionable youth is when the Hoyas guard is thriving with one of the most forbidden offensive moves - the crossover dribble? For years, coaches have been warning players that the crossover is the quickest route to a turnover. Switch hands in front of an eager defensive predator and get ready to inbound a few seconds later after an enemy layup.

You can imagine their dismay now that Iverson is embarrassing players across the country with a crossover so blindingly quick, no one can be sure whether the ball even touches the ground. Iverson usually pulls the ball hard left and leans slightly in that direction, causing rival defenders to shift their weight that way in anticipation of an ensuing drive. Once that happens, it's over. Iverson brings it back right at warp speed and blasts past the hapless stooge toward the basket In the Pre-season NIT final, he did it to Arizona's Reggie Geary, one of the nation's best one-on-one defenders. A few weeks later, he humiliated Seton Hall's Danny Hurley with a crossover job that resulted in a layup, a foul and, two replays on the USAir Arena video board. Check your jocks, Big East guards. You could be next.

"He's a rabbit," Kittles says about Iverson. "He's just real, real quick. And he can leap. He's so quick with the ball, and when he gets into the lane, it's hard for the big guys to block his shot, because he's so high in the air. He's very explosive going to the basket, and he just kills you in transition."

Iverson had all of that last season, but it was wrapped in a high-strung package, due in part to his freshman status, but also because of the controversy surrounding his role in a bowling alley brawl prior to his senior year at Bethel High in Hampton, Va., and subsequent four-month incarceration. (Former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder subsequently granted Iverson clemency from all charges.)

"I think Allen came into the season last year without playing his senior year (in high school) and under a lot of emotional stress," Georgetown Coach John Thompson says. "Regardless of how he seemed to handle it well, all of us know that it was realistic that he had to deal with it."

Last year, Iverson was a combustible mixture of amazing athletic skills and offensive hubris, and Georgetown alternately thrived and suffered while Thompson tried to tame his prodigy. Iverson could score 30 one night and commit 10 turnovers the next. But one thing was certain: He would shoot. Iverson launched 520 shots last year, and Hoyas junior center Othella Harrington put up only 236. It probably helped Georgetown's rebounding, since the big men went to the backboards just so they could touch the ball.