Get Jimmy Herrera the flippin' basketball.

Toss it, chuck it, bounce it, wing it, air-mail it, flip it.

Just get it in his hands.

This is the winning theorem for the UC Santa Cruz men's basketball team. It's right there on the stat sheet. It's right there on the tip of coach Gordie Johnson's tongue-lashing.

In six victories Herrera has averaged 22 points. In 15 losses, he's averaged 12.

That's 10 points. Six of those 15 losses have been by 10 points or less.

Meaning, there's a chance 6-15 could instead be a very respectable 12-9 — already tying a program-best win total for the Slugs — heading into the home stretch.

Do these UCSC brainiacs, a collection of electrical engineering and molecular cell biology majors, save all their math skills for the classroom?

"If you've got a horse, you ride him," reasons Johnson.

Fortunately, the Slugs have gotten with the giddy-up in recent weeks. They've won two of their last three, including a huge home victory over Division III rival Chapman in which Herrera — you know, the guy spotted up out there all alone — tossed in a career-best 33 points on 11 of 14 shooting.

Winning four of their last six and finishing with double digit wins for the first time since 2001 seems like a real possibility. If, as Johnson well knows, everybody decides to play nice. And smart.

"I told the guys after that Chapman win, Jimmy scored 33, but he wasn't the best player on the floor that night," the third-year coach says. "Zo Lorenzo Hutton was because he shut down Chapman's best player, and set things up so Jimmy could do what he did."

There doesn't appear to be anything personal against Herrera. And how could there be? He works his butt off, passes on floor wisdom to his younger teammates and keeps his mouth shut, except when he sees other guys going less than full throttle. An aspiring coach, the biology major often acts as a surrogate coach on the court — in games and in practice.

And that's something the Slugs coaching staff had been waiting to happen.

"He came from a JC program where they never slacked off. And sometimes he'll see stuff going on in practice where he'll just look at me and say, 'What's going on here?'" says assistant coach Menis Be-Emnet, a former Slugs player and Herrera's roommate.

Herrera admits his competitive drive sometimes gets the better of him at a school where many students don't even know the basketball team exists and the term student-athlete is taken literally — and in that order....Full Story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Online