U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Trials : Brian Shaw Beats Out Big Names

The high and the mighty tried out for the position of America’s point guard, all those Dick Vitale all-stars with the network exposure, the picture on the media guide the size of Life magazine and the press clippings piled this high.

And the winner is:

Brian Shaw of UC Santa Barbara?

That’s right, America. Not Sherman Douglas, David Rivers or Pooh Richardson, who were waived over the weekend, nor Keith Smart, Rod Strickland or Everette Stephens, who went in Tuesday’s cut to 16 candidates for the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.

Left at the point are only Shaw, Charles Smith of Georgetown and Willie Anderson of Georgia.

Anderson is seen as a swing man, so the competition seems to come down to Shaw and Smith.

Hey, Brian Shaw’s a big-time, show-time, PTPer, too! He knew it all along! He told me just before we went on the air, just give me some pub, baby! I can shoot! I can sky! I can distribute the rock!

Thanks, Dick.

Shaw might have suspected he was a prime-time player, but if you want to talk to him, you’re going to have to pinch him first, so he knows he’s not dreaming.

And you won’t be the first.

Shaw got the news at home, having returned a day early to take a final exam.

“I thought I was going to get some sleep,” he said. “They were going to wake everybody (in the Colorado Springs camp) up at 4:45. But I didn’t sleep that well.

“I dreamed--it’s a funny thing but sometimes when I dream something it comes out true--I dreamed that they had talked to me and told me I didn’t make it.

“When I woke up, I didn’t know if it had really happened or not. I had to ask my girlfriend, ‘Do you remember me getting on the phone?’

“She said no. I felt relieved.”

Having failed to divine a decision, he called Colorado Springs.

“I dialed the number r-e-a-l slow. When I first got them, the lady who answered said the information won’t be given out until later.”

Imagine that.

“I said, ‘I’m one of the players.’ She said, ‘O-h-h.’ ”

A moment later, he found out he was still one of the players.

This is quite the Cinderella story. Shaw was 5 feet 8 inches tall when he graduated from Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, received only a few scholarship offers, spent two years at St. Mary’s and transferred to Santa Barbara.

He was sitting out his transfer year, a skinny 6-6 kid without big numbers at his previous school, when he was invited to try out for the ’86 U.S. World Cup team that went on to beat the Soviet Union for the gold medal at Madrid.

Shaw said he got the tryout because Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm was going to be one of Coach Lute Olson’s assistants, and because he walked up to Pimm and asked him for it.

“That didn’t get it,” Pimm said. “All of my players would like to have gone.”

Said Shaw: “He said, ‘You probably won’t make it. Just go and work hard and see what you need to get better.’

“When I got there, I had an advantage. When the bigger-name guys didn’t play well, it got noticed. If I did anything well, it was, ‘Who’s this guy?’ ”

Shaw made the team and even sank a three-point shot against the Soviets. The United States won by two points, so around his parents’ home, Shaw says he’s known as the man who beat the Russians.

As a senior, Shaw led the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. in assists and rebounding and led Santa Barbara to its first appearance in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament. He got his Olympic invitation, but as a small forward. He figured he was history, but the coaches started casting about for taller point guards, and Pimm, a consultant, got Coach John Thompson to give him a look.

“The next day, I was on a team with Sherman Douglas and David Rivers,” Shaw said. “All of a sudden, they moved me to another team where I was the point.”

That was Friday. By Sunday, when Thompson put most of the players he was going to keep on one team--the white-jersey squad in the second game at the public workout--Shaw was with the big guys. He had a game-high 8 assists, shot 2 for 3 and today is a potential Olympian.

He’s also a potential first-round pick in the National Basketball Assn. draft, a candidate to follow in the footsteps of John Stockton and Terry Porter, guards from nowhere who became famous in the ’84 trials.

You think that week in Colorado Springs wasn’t worth something? Brian Shaw has a chance to represent his flag and pick up a bundle, too. Is this a great country or what?

Basketball Notes

The big news is that Alonzo Mourning, the Georgetown-bound high school player who was so impressive in Sunday’s scrimmage, made only the taxi squad, known as the “select team.” . . . Surviving the cut from 47 to 16: David Robinson, Danny Manning, J.R. Reid, Todd Lichti, Dan Majerle, Randolph Keys, Sean Elliott, Danny Ferry, Jeff Grayer, Hersey Hawkins, Stacey King, Mitch Richmond, Charles Smith of Pitt, Charles Smith of Georgetown, Brian Shaw and Willie Anderson.

The select team will report to Georgetown in June and will tour Europe under George Raveling, the USC coach who is serving as John Thompson’s assistant. Robinson will accompany it to stay in shape. A player who does very well may still be moved up to the Olympic team. . . . The select team members are: Steve Kerr of Pacific Palisades and Arizona, Stacey Augmon of Pasadena and Nevada Las Vegas, B.J. Armstrong, Rex Chapman, Vernell (Bimbo) Coles, Dyron Nix, Anthony Taylor, Gene Smith, Duane Schintzius and Mourning.

Among the big names and Southern California players cut were: Trevor Wilson, Anthony Cook, Rony Seikaly, Chris Morris, Mark Macon, Fennis Dembo, Tom Hammonds and Will Perdue. . . . ABAUSA maintained its buttoned-up media policy to the end. No announcement was made until the players and Thompson had left Colorado Springs.