Publication Date: Friday, January 21, 2005
Prep Basketball
Stanford grad Weems a driving force at Menlo
Stanford grad Weems a driving force at Menlo
(January 21, 2005) by Keith Peters
Kris Weems knows that all good things eventually come to an end. Weems, after all, was a junior guard on the 1998 Stanford basketball team that reached the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 56 years before losing to Kentucky in the semifinals.
This week, Weems endured the end of another streak. His Menlo School boys' basketball team had its seven-game winning string snapped in a last-second 48-47 loss to visiting Terra Nova. It was the Knights' first loss of the PAL North Division season.
Junior forward Blake Schultz scored 22 points to lead Menlo, which went scoreless for the final 3:23 of the game.
"The first thing I'm going to do is watch tape and just try to pick at the little things that we didn't do well, which is boxing out on every shot that goes up. Talking on defense. Making the extra pass. Taking care of the ball, and then try to address those things in practice, " Weems said after the setback, which left the Knights at 5-1 in league (11-3 overall) and still atop the division going into last night's game at Half Moon Bay.
"You hate to lose to teach yourself how to win the next game," Weems continued, "but sometimes, especially with this team, I think they've relaxed some and are a little overconfident maybe? We have to get back to being hungry. We're the hunted . . . but we have to come out like we're hunting and try to give teams our best shot that way."
Weems, who finished up at Stanford in 1999 after starting three straight years on teams that combined for a 78-20 record and reached the NCAA tournament each season, already has made his presence felt in his first year at Menlo. In the two seasons before Weems' arrival, the Knights were 7-21 in PAL North Division play (20-29 overall) and failed to qualify for the Central Coast Section playoffs.
Menlo now is a virtual shoe-in to reach the postseason and compete for the school's first boys' CCS hoop title since 1991. Perhaps more importantly, Weems wants to bring the boys' program the kind of prominence it had when players like John Paye and Eric Reveno brought Menlo a state title in 1983.
Reveno, an assistant coach at Stanford, is among those who have filled Weems in on Menlo's history.
"I'm just trying to build on what he (Reveno) had, he and John Paye and Jimmy Noriega . . . They've told me of the history, as other people have. It makes me feel good. I can walk up to the trophy case and say this is the way we can be two or three years down the line, if the kids believe in what we're trying to teach."
Weems has turned around a team that numbers only 10 players, the smallest boys' roster of any local team.
"It has been tough," Weems said. "We've endured some injuries like everyone else does. We'll find guys to get out on the courts. If myself and coach Ricardo Santamaria want to get out there and play, we can do that."
Despite being only 28, Weems has discovered his body doesn't react quite the same way when he was compiling his 201 career three-pointers for Stanford.
"Practice kills my back," he confessed. "I could be in much better shape."
Whether he's on the court or not, Weems' youth and background keeps him close to his players.
"I would think I'm still fairly young and the guys have probably seem me play," Weems said. "It's kind of funny; they bring my autograph in - something I don't take too kindly to!
"The age gap is kind of close, but I'm fair and I'm competitive and I want them to be the same way when they get out on the court. And they just have to have fun. Last year, the body language, watching tape was so bad and I wanted to change that this year. If you don't have fun, you're not going to play well at any point in time. So, I'm just trying to build a new winning culture."
Thus far, Weems has succeeded in that goal. Menlo is in position to post its best record this decade. The key is teamwork, something Weems brought from Stanford.
"I played with a great group of guys that I'm still in touch with to this day," said Weems, "and they always felt like we were a much better team if we shared the ball and made each other better. I think they brought that from their own high school teams or from their own way of life. It fit really well at Stanford, and I'm trying to teach these guys that if you share the ball and make other guys better, you're in a whole lot better shape for it."
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