David West (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        David West is scanning the sidewalk, fearing ill fate should he step on a crack on game day.

        Then he's trying to hide from reporters, playfully pulling his jersey over his head when they approach. Then he's breaking into a falsetto rendition of Whitney Houston.

        “And I ... will always love you,” he sings.

        The Xavier sophomore center is an All-American candidate. And an All-American goofball.

        “He's crazy,” said roommate Lionel Chalmers, an XU sophomore guard. “He's a big, fidgety kid. And he thinks he's the best singer in the world.”

        Off the court, he's 20 going on 12. On it, he has been America's best-kept basketball secret.

        “I think I'm going to put him on my all-underrated team,” ESPN analyst Dick Vitale said. “That kid needs some publicity.”

USBWA FINALISTS

David West, Xavier   Tayshaun Prince, Kentucky   Shane Battier, Duke   Jason Williams, Duke   Joe Forte, North Carolina   Brendan Haywood, North Carolina   Troy Murphy, Notre Dame   Michael Wright, Arizona   Casey Jacobsen, Stanford   Troy Bell, Boston College   Rod Grizzard, Alabama   Kirk Haston, Indiana   Jason Richardson, Michigan   David Webber, Central Michigan   Jamaal Tinsley, Iowa State

        It's coming.

        The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has named West one of 15 finalists for its player of the year award, though West didn't make the same cut for the Naismith Award. FoxSports.com named him a second team All-American in its midseason report. Sports Illustrated plans an upcoming story.

        Not bad for a player who arrived as the least heralded of three XU freshmen in fall 1999. But when Chalmers and backcourt mate Dave Young wound up academically ineligible last season, West wound up wonderful.

        “Recruiting is an inexact science,” XU coach Skip Prosser said. “We didn't know until he got here the kind of impact he was going to have.”

        The 6-foot-8, 225-pound West leads the Atlantic 10 in rebounding (11.3 avg.), ranking fourth nationally. He also leads the league in field-goal percentage, ranking second in blocks and eighth in scoring.

West scores over UD's Keith Waleskowski. | ZOOM |

        He is the odds-on favorite to become just the second sophomore ever to win the league's player of the year award; Temple's Mark Macon (in 1989) was the first. He could one day become just the second Associated Press All-American from XU; Byron Larkin made the third team in 1988.

        Should he, West will likely dismiss the attention.

        “I don't care about personal hoopla,” he said.

        At Xavier, where coaches white out the scoring column on the locker-room stats board, this is the party line. At heart, it's West line, too.

        “We've taught him that,” mother Harriett West said. “He knows that a big head can be busted.

        “He can have a terrific game by all standards, but when he'll call us, he'll say, "Hi Mom, hi Dad. We won.' We'll say, "How'd you do, David?' "I did all right.' He won't know his stats. And the conversation goes on to something else.”

WEST'S AVERAGES

• Scoring: 17.8   • Rebounding: 11.3 *   • Field-goal pct.: 541 *   • Free-throw pct.: 15th   • Blocks: 2.0   • Assists: 2.8   • Steals: 1.3   * leads Atlantic 10

        West's background befits the All-American boy. He played piano growing up in Teaneck, N.J., and was a choirboy at a church in Brooklyn. He was first-chair tuba in junior high. He played drums in a church ensemble band in Teaneck. He bagged groceries at a Food Lion and offered to carry them to customers' cars.

        Basketball was his best friend. He would shoot for hours by himself. In high school, after practice he'd come home and dribble up and down the street, alternating hands. In the dark.

        His sophomore year at Teaneck, West was relegated to the JV team and grew frustrated. His family moved to Garner, N.C., that summer, and when West started school at Garner in the fall, he and basketball coach Eddie Gray hit it off.

        West claims Gray rekindled his love for the game. And more.

        “He wasn't shy about telling me I could be a good player,” West said. “He was the first coach to give me a good cussing.”

David West holds his MVP trophy from the Dayton game. (Craig Ruttle photos) | ZOOM |

        His father, Amos, hammered home fundamentals.

        “We talked about James Worthy running the (fast) break with Magic Johnson, how Worthy always laid it right in — nothing flashy,” Amos said.

        West's so-so grades his senior year at Garner limited the number of interested schools, so Gray recommended he not graduate and instead spend a year at prep school. He went to Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., and began getting more attention.

        “Even though he was in (Atlantic Coast Conference) country, he was a Jersey kid, so you could see how he could slip through the cracks,” said XU assistant Jeff Battle, who recruited West.

        At XU, West is the only true post player. He is the first option of every offensive possession. Even when defenses clamp down on him, as Temple did last Saturday in limiting him to six shots, he still manages to help in other ways: 15 rebounds, five blocks, two assists.

XAVIER ALL-AMERICANS

1958: Hank Stein, second team (Converse)   1959: Hank Stein, third team (UPI)   1964: Steve Thomas, first team (Basketball News; Helms Foundation)   1988: Byron Larkin, second team (UPI; Scripps Howard), third team (AP)   1990: Tyrone Hill, third team (Basketball Times)

        “He's got a pretty good head on his shoulders to keep things in perspective,” XU radio analyst Steve Wolf said. “A game he only got six shots, for an All-American candidate? A lot of guys would (complain).”

        The comparisons are coming: Tyrone Hill, Derek Strong, Aaron Williams, Brian Grant. At a school which has turned out some great big men, West could be the best.

        “You can't compare him to those guys yet,” Prosser said. “But David's just scratching the surface of his talent.”

        Not that it's on his mind. West is likely battling Chalmers on his PlayStation II, or crooning, or being the team's class clown.

        “We're proud of him as a person,” Prosser said. “But don't paint him as an angel. He's a college kid. He likes to have fun.”
       

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