Hilliard Savoring Rise in Polls

Greg Hilliard has no delusions about his place in history. When Harvard-Westlake’s fabulous four-year run is finished, Hilliard knows he will go back to being just another high school basketball coach. And that’s just the way he wants it.

All of which makes savoring the present so important.

Harvard-Westlake, coached by Hilliard and led by twin towers Jarron and Jason Collins, arguably is the best high school basketball team ever in the Valley area. That much was all but confirmed this week when the Wolverines (15-1), ranked No. 1 in The Times’ regional poll, for the first time entered the top 10 in two national polls.

Harvard-Westlake, which opens Mission League play Monday against visiting Notre Dame, assuredly will cruise to a third consecutive league championship, a third consecutive Southern Section title and, quite likely, a second consecutive state Division III crown.

Next fall, following the departure of the Stanford-bound Collinses, the Wolverines will return to earth. And Hilliard will return for a 13th season as coach.

“I’m not trying to move anywhere or get a college job,” Hilliard, 47, said. “I love where I am and I want to stay here. We’ve gotten a lot of attention and it’s been very nice.

“Clearly, it’s the best team in the four years. It’s been a continual, improving process. Not only have the twins gotten better, but [so has] everyone around them.”

On Monday, the Wolverines defeated previously undefeated Artesia, 69-60, to win the Best in the West tournament at Long Beach City College. The following day, Harvard-Westlake made its debut ranked No. 7 nationally and No. 1 in the West Coast region in the National Prep poll, selected by scholastic sports expert Doug Huff and a national panel of 35 prep sportswriters. The Wolverines also checked in at No. 9 in USA Today’s Super 25 high school boys’ rankings.

Harvard-Westlake’s ascent to national prominence had much to do with its performance a week earlier in the Reebok Holiday Classic in Las Vegas. The Wolverines came within four points of Mt. Zion Christian of Durham, N.C., ranked No. 2 nationally by USA Today, in the tournament final. Earlier in the day, Harvard-Westlake pounded perennial power Mater Dei, 64-38, currently ranked 19th by USA Today.

Routing Mater Dei was surprising even to Hilliard, who labeled the performance among his team’s most impressive in the past four seasons. “That was really fun,” he said.

Harvard-Westlake had won only one Southern Section boys’ basketball title, a Division 1-A championship in 1970, before the Collinses joined the varsity as 6-foot-7 freshmen. Since then, the Wolverines are 98-9 and have participated in prestigious tournaments on both coasts.

The only regional teams in recent years to rival the Wolverines’ sustained success are Simi Valley and Cleveland, both of which fielded powerhouses during the late 1980s. But neither managed to win a state championship or garner national rankings.

Simi Valley, led by NBA player Don MacLean, won a Southern Section title in 1988, capping a 28-4 season and three-year run in which the Pioneers were 81-9.

Simi Valley reached the section final in 1986 and the quarterfinals in 1987. The team’s other stars included forward Shawn DeLaittre and point guard Butch Hawking, son of Coach Bob Hawking.

Simi Valley went 1-2 in the nationally recognized Beach Ball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in December 1987 and defeated Cleveland that season in a nonleague showdown at Cal State Northridge. But the Pioneers were eliminated in the second round of the state Division I tournament.

“I’m obviously very proud and I have some fond memories,” said Bob Hawking, in his third season as coach at Cal State Fullerton. “We had some pretty good kids who surrounded the Big Three, if you will. But I really hesitate to even compare teams from different eras. Where we stand in the pecking order of great Valley teams, I wouldn’t want to speculate.”

Former Cleveland Coach Bobby Braswell, in his first season as coach of Cal State Northridge, likewise shunned comparisons between his former team and Harvard-Westlake.

Braswell, the coach at Cleveland from 1985-89, had the luxury in his final season of suiting up six players who went on to play Division I basketball, including current Cleveland Coach Andre Chevalier.

The Cavaliers were ranked second in the state that season by Cal-Hi Sports and won the championship of the Las Vegas tournament. However, Cleveland failed to win the City Section 4-A Division title during Braswell’s tenure.

“Even at that time I knew we were a very good program,” Braswell said. “For as much talent as we had, the guys were very unselfish and really cared about each other.”

While Hawking and Braswell parlayed their success at the high school level into college coaching positions, Hilliard has no such aspirations. His career record at Harvard is 210-88, including a respectable 112-79 before the arrival of the Collinses. He is the first to acknowledge that the talented twins deserve much of the credit for the team’s success.

Hilliard is more concerned that his team handle victories with grace. And the Wolverines have.

Jason Collins, The Times’ Valley player of the year last season, and Jarron Collins, a first-team selection, undoubtedly are capable of posting more impressive statistics. Jason, who scored 30 against Artesia, averaged 18.2 points last season, Jarron 14.3--testimony to the fact that they spent the fourth quarter of several lopsided victories on the bench.

Hilliard is equally quick to remove other starters, and chest-thumping and finger-pointing by Wolverine players simply doesn’t happen.

In December, after Harvard-Westlake breezed to the championship of the Thousand Oaks tournament, Hilliard and his team also were awarded the tournament trophy for exhibiting the best sportsmanship.

“That,” Hilliard said, “probably means more to me than any of the other stuff.”