Four Paly seniors, by Maddy Atwater, The Viking
The mullin show w. al palo alto
The Mullin Show is Paly Vikings, 15-3, who have to win out against three tough teams and especially at Fremont Friday, Feb. 20 to take or tie for SCVAL De Anza League and advance to CCS. Mullin is Kevin Mullin, a gunner but who does use his four or five key teammates, such as Dees, Rojahn, Tention, Grandy. It is notable that Paly is not that deep, other than the four or five weapons.
“Al Palo Alto” is my new nickname for Gunn, led by Alex Gil-Fernandez. “Al Palo Alto” references El Palo Alto the City’s namesake — a large tree — but also subtle “All Palo Alto” (and “All America”) but also, subtly Lew Alcinder, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “al-Palo Alto” — I’m just riffing off of the xenophobia I thought I saw Saturday at the pit, that I described below. But Gunn is pretty deep, I’ve seen 12 or more players (they carry 16) make contributions. (I was #13, on my shirt and on the team and only got in during scrub time, for a league champion Titan squad way back when).
Coach and I will check out Titans trying to avenge Saratoga Falcons, here Friday. Gunn should win out against Santa Clara and Cupertino. Meanwhile, I will mos def get to Fremont of Sunnyvale in 10 days to watch Kevin Mullin and I do hope the Vikes can put it together and win out.
As I happened to meet twice this week but for the first time Carol Smallwood Mullin*, not the son of a gun but the momma, I am feeling the Kevin Mullin show. I defended him in these two posts to PAW (and also, in my particular Plastic Alto manner, I am remembering here Frank Smallwood the former head of the Rockefeller Center where I was a fellow in 1980; I never took his course but interviewed him on Dartmouth College governance, he passed away recently as a ’51>86):
The anonymous post critical of the 17 or 18 year old kid deserves a “T” for technical foul, or a round of raspberries. And shame on PAW for breeding so many trolls.
Mullin is a player no doubt, a gun in the sense of Lloyd Free or Peter Maravich, but not showy. And as one poster says, a bigger deal might be the sickness that kept a key guy out of the Los Gatos loss. Paly could run the remaining games and compete for CCS. On their best night they could top St. Francis. The Fremont rematch should also be key, 2/20 away. Certainly to beat Gunn, Paly spread it around. Alex “Al Palo Alto” Gil-Fernandez was high for Gunn with 21 to 17 for Mullin, as Rojann and others stepped it up, outside and Mikey Gandey they had no answer to inside.
For reference, Kent Lockhart, Gunn 1981, two-time league champion (two-time CCS player of the year), part of the Three L’s with Lin and Loscutoff, all time All-City, averaged under 20 in high school, ended up top 20 all time CCS after three varsity seasons (including sophomore year at Cubberley, before it merged with Gunn), his high game was 41 in a Christmas tournament, and a sign of Gunn still putting it all together, struggling. He figured out that raising his teammates would take them (us) to CCS finals, 25-3. Lockhart incidentally after 4 seasons at UTEP under Don Haskins is arguably the smallest person ever drafted by the NBA — the the Knicks — for his defense. He averaged under ten points per game for the Miners.
It would be great to see Gunn and Paly rematch in CCS. Good luck, Vikes and Mullin et al.
(and Peter Jordan in four seasons thru 2006 bested Lockhart’s career totals, which reminds, apropos of the pickle the Weekly and its trolls put #21 in here, rumor is that even Gunn coach B. Williams reached out to Mullin and says “haters gonna hate hate”: allegedly Peter Diepenbrock called Peter Jordan and said “I spent four years designing defenses to stop you, so you have to keep playing, college ball, at UCSB.” Mullin is like Randy Arrillaga of his generation.)
I mean: Paly has won four straight and based on how they pulled away from Gunn Saturday could probably win out their remaining three by avenging on the road even to Los Gatos and Homestead and picking up the Fremont game as well.
In addition to the three’s versus Gunn, they had quite a few back door plays. It seems their big is getting better over the course of the season, could be key in CCS.
To repeat, if Mullin is like a Lockhart he will know how to bring out the best in the other six or seven. (And he is supposed to be pretty smart, Ivy League material; his parents are).
* former 3-sport star at Paly and 2-sport block at Williams, met her Cornell hubby at Stanford grad systems, but claims to have never heard of Nathan Ford. What about Ken Dryden? I’m sure the hubby would ace the test. The Times noted their stars in alignment. Mazel tov and good luck to Kevin at the next levels (CCS and then maybe Ancient Eight or D III)
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 