College Basketball -- Like Father, Like Son -- The Many Sons Of Former Basketball Greats Now Making Their Own Mark On The Game Appear To Support The Theories Of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Above), Who Said Acquired Physical Traits Could Be Passed On.

Memo to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Subject: Inherited Traits.

Message: Jackpot!

We're not quite sure if you'll get this note, Jean-Baptiste, seeing as how you're six feet deep into some cemetery in Paris. We regret that it's coming a little late, 160 or so years after you last waxed scientific.

If you've been watching from above, you certainly know the stir created by your little theory of organic evolution, which contends that people who acquire certain physical traits during their lifetime can pass on those traits to their children.

Nonsense, Charles Darwin said later in the 1800s.

Could be true, countered Harvard researchers in the 1980s.

Hooey, insisted some California lab coats in 1990.

You'd think this was the McLaughlin Group. But get this: All of them were looking in the wrong place! The best evidence isn't found underneath a microscope but through the lens of an ESPN television camera. Finally, in 1995, we have proof, we believe, that you were on la mark.

Check out J.J. Lucas, freshman on the University of Vanderbilt men's basketball team. Look at his jumper. Elbows tucked, left hand on top of the ball. Just like his daddy, Jerry, the Hall of Fame forward. Same hook shot, too.

Howie Komives, remember him? The former Bowling Green guard who led the NCAA in scoring before moving on to the NBA? Got married and had a kid but wasn't around much after the divorce. Never got to coach his son. But look who's hoisting that left-handed, perfectly squared-up jumper now at Bowling Green, in uniform number 30, just like Howie.

It's Shane, who isn't so much a spittin' but a shootin' image of his father. When Shane got to campus last year he went to the archives room and for the first time watched tapes of his father playing. The kid couldn't believe his eyes.

"Our shots are identical," Shane said. "He was a great outside shooter and I hold the three-point record here. If they had three-point shots in his time, I'm sure I would be chasing his record."

Eerie stuff, Jean-Baptiste. We know you were only talking about body features when you suggested that a person's genetics can be altered during their lifetime; that, for example, a farmhand who developed strong muscles in his work would be destined to have children with stronger-than-average muscles.

But it looks like a hoops gene can be developed and passed on, too. All of a sudden, everywhere you look in college basketball you find children of former college and professional players. Rick Barry's kids finally have company, lots of it. We at The Seattle Times called around the country, and came up with more than 35 sons of former players.

There's Nebraska's Jaron Boone, son of former ABA all-Star Ron. Arizona's Damon Stoudamire, as willing to put it up as former Portland State shooter Willie. At a tournament in Charlotte, N.C., in December, that was Cincinnati's Keith Gregor, picking up the "Frank McGuire Leadership Award," named after the man who coached his father, Gary, at South Carolina.

The sons of former UCLA greats could form their own Division I team. Marques Johnson's son Kris is a freshman with the Bruins. Walt Hazzard's kid Rasheed joined George Washington this season. Lucius Allen's sons Bakir and Kahlil play at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego, respectively. Bill Walton's boy Adam is redshirting in his first year at Louisiana State, as is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's son, Kareem, at Valparaiso.

Next year, they could get up a game with offspring of former Seattle SuperSonics. Paul Silas' son, Steve, is a guard at Brown. Butch Beard's kid, Cory, plays at Howard (with Phil Chenier's son, Phil). Centenary's Lucien Bianchi is the son of Al, the Sonics' first coach. With Slick Watts' son Donald and Fred Brown's kid Terik, both college-bound high-school seniors, that makes five.

It would take ghost-busters to officiate that game.

Former players are repopulating the college ranks with their progeny, and it's not just because they're producing tall kids. Good height only gets a prospect so far. He needs elite-level skills, and where did they get those skills, Jean-Baptiste? Many of these kids are great three-point shooters.

It's amazing how many have made it, considering the circumstances. Being the son of an accomplished athlete can strip a kid of his enthusiasm for the game. Hard to feel good about yourself when everyone's comparing your game to that of your father. As Walt Hazzard said, "People see the father in the child and the child doesn't always appear to measure up, when in fact they're often better than us skill-wise because the game's gotten better."

Brent Barry, a guard at Oregon State and son of Hall of Famer Rick, said, "That's the thing I've had to work hardest on - to show that I'm my own person."

The comparisons caused Barry to stop shooting his free throws underhanded this season, despite making 85 percent of them last season as a sophomore. The switch has dropped him to 78 percent at the line and disappointed his father, who used the shot during his NBA career.

But Rick, who can be as tough on his sons as he was on referees, is trying to understand his son's need to develop his own style. In interviews he tries to compare Brent not to himself, but Pete Maravich. He says each of his four sons - Scooter, who won an NCAA Championship at Kansas; Jon, who played at Georgia Tech and now is with the Milwaukee Bucks; Brent; and the youngest, Drew, a sophomore at Georgia Tech - are better ballhandlers and passers than he was.

"They're unselfish to a fault," he said.

Still, he believes he would be lying if he didn't see a lot of himself in the wiry, 6-foot-6ish pack of Barrys running the court, all of whom have good court vision.

"I don't know where it comes from but either a player has it or a player doesn't have it," Rick Barry said. "I can teach you how to pass but I can't teach you how to see. If I throw you a pass into that little hole in the defense - that to me is the one telling thing that determines whether you're a natural player. And every one of my boys has that."

The gene's the thing, Barry believes. The boys' mom, Pam, is the daughter of Bruce Hale, at one time one of the best basketball players in the world.

"That's like putting two Triple Crown winners together," Rick said of himself and his former wife.

OK, Jean-Baptiste, maybe Barry should stop talking about his boys as if they're stallions. Even he concedes that good genes are merely a foundation for basketball success. The player needs smart coaching, excellent work habits, decent SAT scores, adequate media exposure and the good fortune not have blown out a knee or walked in front of a bus.

Certainly, some of those elements are easier to come by for former athletes.

Take Walt Hazzard's son. When his dad was coaching at UCLA, Rasheed Hazzard, at age 8, made himself Reggie Miller's personal valet. He shagged balls, fetched towels, whatever the three-point wizard wanted. One day, Rasheed beat Reggie in a game of H-O-R-S-E. Reggie wanted a rematch. Rasheed wouldn't give it to him.

"I got witnesses," Rasheed said, as his father looked on. "It's in the books."

Where else is a kid going to find that kind of confidence boost? Growing up around the game, the children of former players get these little advantages. They pick up good habits by osmosis.

If their dad went on to play pro ball, their world would have changed even more from that of the average kid on the playground. It's no coincidence that many of the sons of former players spring from suburban, upper-middle class high schools.

"We can provide them with an environment that gives them the best chance to succeed, a nice house in a nice neighborhood, the best education available," Hazzard said.

That's the way of the world, isn't it, Jean-Baptiste? The players of the 1960s and '70s, when the sports industry was booming and opportunities opened to black athletes, have made life easier for their children, a tradition hardly limited to the realm of sports.

Still, these kids have something on the ball, or teammates wouldn't be passing it to them. A basketball gene has to have been developed over the past generation. All that dribbling their fathers did, all those shooting drills have to have made an impact on the genetic codes handed down to their kids.

"It's not true," said Robin Bennett, a counselor at the University of Washington Medical Genetics Center. "Lamarck was wrong. The Russians really honed in on Lamarck but almost no one else did."

We think the Russians are underrated, Jean-Baptiste. We know who got humans into space first. We just regret that Wilt Chamberlain, the greatest athlete of them all, never had children. He could have changed some Darwinian minds.

Alas, 20,000 women and no kids.

What a loss for college hoops.

------------------------------------------------------------. It's in the genes.

Some of the more prominent sons of famous basketball fathers:

Name School Year.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Valparaiso Fr. Comment: 6-5 walk-on forward is redshirting. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar UCLA '66-69. Comment: NBA all-time leading scorer. . Brent Barry Oregon St. Jr. Comment: Forward is Beavers' top player. Drew Barry Ga. Tech Soph. Comment: Guard is one of top passers in ACC. Rick Barry Miami '62-65. Comment: Hall of Famer, led NCAA in scoring. . Lucien Bianchi Centenary Sr. Comment: One of NCAA's top 3-point shooters. Al Bianchi Bowl. Green '52-54. Comment: Later became Sonics' first coach. . Jaron Boone Nebraska Jr. Comment: Preseason all-Big Eight guard. Ron Boone Idaho State '65-68. Comment: ABA all-star at guard. . Chris Collins Duke Jr. Comment: Backup guard on '92 NCAA champs. Doug Collins Ill. St. '69-73. Comment: NBA guard, coach and analyst. . Chris Ford Hartford Fr. Comment: Guard out for season with injury. Chris Ford Villanova '68-72. Comment: NBA player, now coach of Celtics. . Rasheed Hazzard Geo. Wash. Fr. Comment: Point guard for Mike Jarvis' team. Walt Hazzard UCLA '62-64. Comment: Member of Bruins' first title team. . Kris Johnson UCLA Fr. Comment: Forward beefier than dad, but smart. Marques Johnson UCLA '74-77. Comment: NBA All-Star, on '75 NCAA champs. . Shane Komives Bowl. Green Jr. Comment: Has dad's sweet, southpaw shot. Howie Komives Bowl. Green '62-64. Comment: NBA player, led NCAA in scoring. . J.J. Lucas Vanderbilt Fr. Comment: 6-10 center, hot young prospect. Jerry Lucas Ohio State '58-62. Comment: Won NCAA, NBA and Olympic titles. . Steve Silas Brown Jr. Comment: 6-4 guard comes off bench. Paul Silas Creighton '61-64. Comment: Ex-Sonic; standout NCAA rebounder. . Michael Stewart California Soph. Comment: 6-10 center a top shot-blocker. Michael Stewart Santa Clara '69-73. Comment: Played professionally in Europe. . Damon Stoudamire Arizona Jr. Comment: Guard leads Pac-10 in scoring. Willie Stoudamire Portl. St. '70-72. Comment: Guard averaged 25 points a game. . Scotty Thurman Arkansas Jr. Comment: 3-point shooter for NCAA champs. Lavell Thurman Grambling '66. Comment: Made his mark with Tigers. . Adam Walton LSU Fr. Comment: 6-9 center is redshirting. Bill Walton UCLA '71-74. Comment: NCAA MVP in '72 and '73. . COMPILED BY TOM FARREY.