Best Mater Dei opponents? List hits lottery

All five Mater Dei basketball starters have Division I scholarships waiting.

It could be the best team Gary McKnight has coached.

It won't be the best one he has put together.

That's the 15-man juggernaut that McKnight and his Mater Dei assistant coaches lined up with help from son Clay, who is a UCLA assistant.

It features the best players McKnight has faced in 26 years with the Mater Dei, with which he has won his 800th game before he has lost his 75th.

And it was almost as tough as figuring whether this is Travis Wear or David Wear that McKnight is talking to.

The ESPN Generation won't understand this, but when McKnight was first asked to consider this, his immediate reply was “John Williams.”

Williams came from Crenshaw High, went to LSU, and suffered career destruction via knife and fork. He was dubbed “Hot Plate” by NBA writers — there was a John “Hot Rod” Williams already in the league — and did average 18.2 points for Washington one season.

“But he was an absolute beast in high school,” McKnight said.

So, without time for anyone to throw the challenge hankie, here's the Mater Dei Scrapbook Team:

FIRST TEAM

Small forward: LeBron James, St. Vincent-St. Mary's High, Akron, Ohio (2002)

Power forward: John Williams, Crenshaw High, Los Angeles (1984)

Center: Kevin Love, Lake Oswego High, Lake Oswego, Ore. (2007)

Point guard: Jason Kidd, St. Joseph's High, Alameda (1992)

Shooting guard: Jerry Stackhouse, Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va. (1992)

SECOND TEAM

Small forward: Antoine Walker, Mt. Carmel High, Chicago. (1994)

Power forward: Lamar Odom, Christ The King, New York (2000)

Center: Tyson Chandler, Dominguez High, Compton (2001)

Point guard: Stephon Marbury, Lincoln High, New York (1994)

Shooting guard: Carmelo Anthony, Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va. (2002)

THIRD TEAM

Small forward: Ron Mercer, Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va. (1995)

Power forward: Chris Mills, Fairfax High, Los Angeles (1987)

Center: Kwame Brown, Glynn Academy (2002)

Point guard: Brandon Jennings, Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va. (2007)

Shooting guard: Dennis Scott, Flint Hill Prep, Oakton, Va. (1987)

Yeah, they might have a chance in the Trinity League.

What McKnight likes is that the Monarchs went 9-8 in their encounters with the Scrapbook. They played Odom and Jennings twice apiece.

McKnight wasn't dragging people out of Mater Dei intramural classes to field a team, of course. Cedric Bozeman, Jamal Sampson, Reggie Geary, Miles Simon, Schea Cotton, Kevin Augustine, LeRon Ellis, Mike Mitchell, Taylor King and other distinguished Monarchs all got their shots.

“You never really knew what to do against the great players,” McKnight said. “I tried cutting them off and making everybody beat us, and then I tried playing them straight and making sure nobody else beat us. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. We had some great defenders like Reggie.

“That's the thing I don't know about this team. They have something to prove. I've never had all five starters going to the schools they're going to (two to North Carolina, one each to UCLA, USC and Stanford) but we don't have a great shutdown defender right now.”

McKnight was riding to LAX as he said this. The Monarchs flew to a Florida tournament on Monday.

The Scrapbook was only slightly easier to make than the Olympic team.

Six of the 15 played in Final Fours. Three (Mercer, Walker and Anthony) won NCAA championships.

Ten are in the NBA as we speak. Two (James and Brown) were picked first overall in NBA drafts, and 10 others were gone in the top six picks.

Members of the three teams have played in NBA All-Star games 21 times.

To assemble the Scrapbook, McKnight and the Monarchs were pioneers in making high school basketball a nationally played sport, for good or ill.

They played Mercer in the Beach Ball event on the South Carolina coast, and they played Walker in a St. Louis tournament.

They beat Scott and Flint Hill at a tournament in Pine Bluff, Ark., and they lost to Chandler in Las Vegas. James beat the Monarchs in Pauley Pavilion.

Love came right into their throne room, in the new gym on Edinger, and beat them in the 2007 Nike Extravaganza.

And sometimes Mater Dei actually played future legends within the confines of the CIF playoffs.

In 1987, the Monarchs beat Mills and Fairfax in the Sports Arena, for the regional championship, and in 2005 they did the same to Jennings and Dominguez.

How good is The Scrapbook?

Well, Sean Higgins and James Harden and Renardo Sidney and Casey Jacobsen and Cherokee Parks didn't make it.

But the best thing about the Scrapbook is the fact that the Mater Dei player whose career ends at Edinger still has it at his fingertips.

Witnessing LeBron James consumes one night. Standing on his court lasts a lifetime.

Contact the writer: mwhicker@ocregister.com