Rich Goldberg

Have high tops, will travel. Eddie Miller, a power forward from Chatsworth High, has spent much of his summer playing in basketball tournaments with some of the best high school players in the nation. His American Roundball Corp. team, which also included Harvard-Westlake twins Jason and Jarron Collins, won the Virginia Invitational tournament in May. The 6-foot-8, 227-pound Miller was a force down low.

In a sweltering Valley College gymnasium Saturday night, where air conditioning was a foreign word, the Mid-Valley all-stars and three other American Roundball Corp. teams underwent final preparations for the UCLA national tournament, which begins Tuesday at Pauley Pavilion.

Rich Goldberg has seen hundreds of players pass through his American Roundball Corp. basketball program. While he has witnessed his share of talented players, he knows that talent alone is not enough. The kind of player Goldberg wants to deal with must also be hard-working. Enter Gary Gray. Gray, a 6-8 center from Granada Hills High, is a member of ARC's Ventura team.

Joe Jackson cleaned out his desk at Campbell Hall High last week during spring break. There were no handshakes, no tearful goodbys. In fact, there was hardly anybody around. "I went in when it was just me and the janitor," said Jackson, who recently was fired as boys' basketball coach. Jackson reiterated this week that he will not be tossed out with the trash. Yet the reasons behind his dismissal remain as cloudy as a bucket of mop water.

A year ago, Jim Perry told the Southern Section's general council that it was time to eliminate profitable, privately run spring basketball leagues. Perry, athletic director at La Quinta High School, was speaking on behalf of the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Assn. (SCIBCA), of which he is a former president.

Brian Laibow is among the fortunate few who make achievement appear as easy as strolling to the corner grocery. And he will tell you so. But the unabashed self-confidence of Agoura High's best basketball player is tempered by a dose of empathy generous enough to splash onto anyone who meets him. Laibow, the Chargers' all-time assist leader, positively lives to give. He is his team's top scorer, but his game is defined by how he elevates the play of those around him.

When you have a legitimate superstar--as the Fairfax High basketball team does in 6-8 Sean Higgins--it usually means the rest of the players attract as much attention as a pair of designer jeans in Beverly Hills. But even with the flashy Higgins' three-point collegiate shot range and his snake-like moves to the hoop, it is impossible to overlook 6-7 Chris Mills.

Driving to the hoop, hitting the passing lanes and drawing a traveling violation soon will take on a new meaning. When the Los Angeles Unified School District adopted the year-round academic calendar for 1991-92, it was assumed that many problems would be ironed out on the run. City Section basketball players will return from a two-week break to begin practice Tuesday and resume play Friday.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills men's basketball team will play undefeated Cal State Bakersfield, the top-ranked team in the NCAA Division II, in the first round of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. postseason tournament at 8 tonight in Bakersfield. Bakersfield (26-0) won the CCAA with a 14-0 record. Dominguez Hills (16-9, 7-7) tied with Cal Poly Pomona for third place in the conference, but was seeded fourth in the four-team tournament.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills men's basketball team will try to clinch third place in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. when it plays Chapman at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Orange. Dominguez Hills (15-11 overall, 7-6 in CCAA play) trails UC Riverside and Cal State Bakersfield in the conference standings. Chapman is 7-18 overall and last in the conference at 2-11.