McKnight Returns for a Curtain Call

For four years at Mater Dei and one at UC Irvine, Clay McKnight used the Bren Center as his personal shooting range, setting Orange County prep records for most three-pointers in a season and a career. But even the most accurate of long-range gunners has slumps, and McKnight was struggling to find a way out of one on a March evening in 1996.

He had missed eight consecutive three-point attempts during the Anteaters’ homestand, and Utah State’s athletic backcourt wasn’t giving him any room to get a good look at his target.

So McKnight pulled out a trick he normally only used in practice and pick-up games. Dribbling near the top of the three-point arc, he faked a drive toward the hoop--as if anyone was too worried about that--pulled up--no surprise here--turned his back on the basket and dribbled back out. Then, as if an afterthought, he spun and popped a 20-footer over the head of a relaxed defender.

Swish.

Irvine went up by one and went on to win, 81-76.

McKnight averaged seven points and hit 48% of his threes during conference play and made the Big West’s all-freshman team as the Anteaters grabbed a share of their first conference title. The shooting guard he was backing up, Brian Keefe, transferred to Boston College after the season, and star forward Kevin Simmons also left, so the Anteaters figured to be the Clay McKnight Show in 1996-97.

But McKnight decided to join the exodus from Irvine, enrolled at Saddleback College and a year later, transferred to Pacific.

Now, a fifth-year senior for the Tigers and the No. 2 three-point shooter in the nation with a 4.2-per-game average, McKnight will return to his beloved Bren Center when UOP plays the Anteaters at 7 tonight.

Beloved? The Monarchs never lost there during McKnight’s high school career, and UCI lost only once, to Long Beach State in overtime. His most recent game in the arena--a 66-43 Pacific victory last season--won’t go down in his mental scrapbook as a highlight, not with the screams of “Traitor” still ringing in his ears.

“It hurt because I like to consider myself a loyal guy, and I have been most of my life,” McKnight said. “[Former Irvine Coach Rod] Baker recruited me like he really wanted me, which is a lot different from going to a school where they’re just willing to take you. Leaving was a very difficult decision because I felt like I had betrayed him.

“But I didn’t leave until after Brian and Kevin chose to leave. It was a situation where anyone who wanted the best for Clay McKnight would have understood. Sometimes you have to be selfish.”

Selfish seems an odd choice of words for a young man whose basketball career will surely end with Pacific’s final game this season, a young man who could have stayed at Irvine and fired up threes without conscience for three seasons and likely turned the Big West record book into a personal memoir to show his kids and grandkids one day.

That notion, he says, never crossed his mind.

“Coming from Mater Dei, it’s always been about winning and nothing else, no individual statistics make any difference,” said McKnight, who helped the Monarchs to a 102-4 record while playing for his dad, Gary. “I wanted to give myself an opportunity to achieve my dream of playing in the NCAA tournament.”

Pacific’s chances of that may have gone when center Michael Olowokandi left to become the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. The Tigers are 7-7 overall and 2-2 in the Big West, but that hasn’t stopped McKnight from dreaming. “We have 10 freshmen on this team and we aren’t a very good team on the road yet, but if we get over that hump, we’ll be a good team.”

McKnight, the team’s second-leading scorer with a 15.4 average, is doing his part. That may not come as much of a surprise to those who watched him fill the nets in high school, but Pacific Coach Bob Thomason says fans who catch the game at Irvine or Saturday night’s game at Cal State Fullerton might be surprised by the new, improved Clay McKnight.

“He wants to be a shooter who can play. I want him to become a player who can shoot,” Thomason said. “Obviously, we never want to take anything away from his shooting the ball, we just want to add to it. And he’s playing much better overall . . . more disciplined defense, he’s setting screens, making better passes and he’s learning to free himself up to create his own shots, not just waiting for us to set him up.”

McKnight separated his shoulder five times last season--the first time on the third day of practice when he made the mistake of trying to block a shot by Olowokandi--and played most of the season in a harness. That disappointment and the sense that this could be his final hurrah made him determined to go all out in an effort to “see what this body can do.”

“You’ve seen my dad, so you know I didn’t inherit the world’s greatest quickness or jumping ability,” he said, laughing. “But since this is my last year, I wanted to work as hard as I could to be the most complete player I can be.

“And this may sound weird or whatever, but nobody worked harder than I did this summer. I really sacrificed. I ran five miles a day, seven days a week, worked three days a week with [personal trainer] Mike Rangel on quickness and agility stuff, worked a lot on ballhandling and shot thousands of shots.”

As a result, McKnight is no longer just a guy who camps outside the three-point line waiting for the offense to run a play that will free him for a shot. According to Thomason, he’s becoming “a player who enhances his teammates,” as well as a go-to guy from 19 feet.

“With Michael and Adam Jacobsen here last year, Clay might have been the fourth or fifth option. Now, he’s learning how to deal with the heat of having to do it night after night.”

Lately, McKnight has been basking in the warmth. In the last four games, he has drilled 23 of 32 threes.

And you can bet he would love to light up the Bren one more time.