Mashburn Completes the Picture : College basketball: Junior forward gives Kentucky a player to build around.

The drill begins with a curious ritual that resembles an initiation rite of sorts. Ten young men, arms held aloft, run silently in a tight ring around the free-throw circle inside the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum. Each wears a look of anticipation, knowing he is about to be tested.

In an instant, a shot is launched and the circle breaks. The ceremonial follow-the-leader game dissolves into a full-court scrimmage. Big people head for the backboard and the ball, and the smaller ones scurry around the perimeter. Kentucky basketball practice is back in session.

As Coach Rick Pitino shouts for meticulous operation of his patterned offense, the 10 young men struggle to impress. Four seniors are gone from last season’s team, so there is plenty of opportunity. Pitino is waiting.

Another shot goes awry, and junior forward Jamal Mashburn grabs the rebound. He spins away from a teammate and starts up court, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound one-man fast break. Take the charge? You had better have good medical coverage.

Just past midcourt, Mashburn assesses his situation. Three men back; no teammates alongside him. The options are clear: steamroller or retreat. He pulls back, bouncing the ball behind him to a trailer, point guard Travis Ford.

But Mashburn isn’t done. So he didn’t get the points right away. No problem. He runs through the lane and makes a quick right turn for the corner. Once there, Mashburn takes a pass from Ford and hits a three-point shot. Sweet. Mashburn’s patience has paid off.

When Mashburn surrendered the ball like that during his first two seasons in Lexington, Ky., it might have been a result of his shyness and respect for his elders. To him, underclassmen had no right to demand the ball, to dominate the game. That distinction went to seniors. Forget the fact that his presence on a basketball court could earn him respect and the opportunity to lead. Mashburn stepped back. They called him the “Monster Mash,” but he really was just a monster-in-training.

In his freshman season, he deferred to senior Reggie Hanson. Last season, the spotlight belonged to “The Unforgettables,” four seniors who stuck with Pitino through probation and ridicule. Mashburn did not try to dominate and opponents were thankful.

But this season, it’s his team. If he wants it. And when Mashburn gives up the ball on the break, he does so because he knows he will get it back. He is option No. 1 this season, a sterling combination of inside power and outside finesse. Mashburn likes the responsibility. “Give me the ball,” he tells teammates. “And get out of the way.”

Consider the training complete. Like a young warrior who submits to his elders’ teaching and testing, Mashburn has evolved into a learned man.

“I thought it was the seniors’ team last year,” says Mashburn, who turns 20 Sunday. “I was only a sophomore. It didn’t look right. They were here longer than I was and I just felt it was their team and their time to shine.

“This year, it’s my team.”

Listen up, Southeastern Conference. Hear this, NCAA. The Mash has spoken. He shoots like an off-guard. He handles it like a man 4 inches shorter. He rebounds. He owns the low box. “There’s not a guy in the NBA who readily comes to mind who does all that,” Pitino says. Now that Mashburn’s attitude finally is matching his physical promise, look out.

No one is happier with the metamorphosis than Pitino, the transplanted New Yorker who lured a pudgy, bashful Mashburn south from Harlem three years ago by promising to prepare him for pro ball. Well, Mash is just about ready. Pitino has helped transform the shy kid into a force. Mashburn gets credit, too, for trimming off the baby fat, working hard on his jump shot and ignoring the head-spinning adulation heaped on him by Kentucky’s adoring fans.

But Pitino’s mouth may have been the single-most important catalyst in Mashburn’s emergence. A two-year sermon from one of the all-time talkers has to have an effect. “Get more aggressive, Mash. Dominate, Mash. Be the man, Mash.” Enough, already.

“He’s very persistent,” Mashburn says. “It wears off on you, finally.”

By the end of last season, Mashburn occasionally slipped on the leader’s cloak, checking it out for size and comfort. And last summer, he was one of eight lucky college players selected as practice fodder for the U.S. Olympic team. Talk about your potential confidence-drainer. Put a 19-year-old on Karl Malone, and he will most likely come back battered and bowed. Not so. Mashburn watched. He listened. He learned.

He saw Larry Bird lead by example and Charles Barkley by sheer force. He even learned from Chris Mullin that a cheeseburger is not jump-shot food. By the time Mashburn got back from Portland, Ore., his goal of being an NBA star had crystallized, and his intention to take charge at Kentucky was clear.

“The summer changed him tremendously,” Pitino says. “He looks at his diet differently. He is now committed to being a great pro. He now wants to dominate a game. It was like a coming-out party for him.

“I think that right now it’s an unspoken thing that Jamal has to have the ball, and that Jamal is the man. Everybody knows it.”

So Massachusetts’ John Calipari is the hot, young coach, is he? Boy Wonder. Pitino on training wheels. Let’s talk strategy with the latest hoops genius.

Tell us, coach, how do you stop Jamal Mashburn?

“This tells you how dumb I am as a coach,” Calipari says with a laugh. “When we played them last March, I told the team Mashburn couldn’t beat us alone, so don’t double-team him.

“So what happens? We go down by 21 in the first half, and he had 15. I changed to a double-team, and we got back into the game.”

Mashburn had some big games last season, and his numbers -- 21.3 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 56.7 percent field-goal percentage -- were outstanding. But that didn’t stop Pitino from badgering him about being more aggressive. After the Wildcats lost to Arkansas, 105-88 -- in Lexington, no less -- Pitino implored Mashburn to get meaner and to commit harder, I-mean-business fouls. When Kentucky dropped a 74-53 decision to Louisiana State a week later, Mashburn appeared intimidated by the Tigers’ Shaquille O’Neal. Pitino was on him again after consecutive victories against Alabama and Western Kentucky.

Nag, nag, nag.

“When I was choosing a college, I felt I needed someone to push me,” Mashburn says. “If I wanted to go to the NBA, I had to be more aggressive. Being around people like Coach Pitino rubs off on you. He is a motivational coach.”

Big people all over the SEC tried to beg off guarding Mashburn last season. Big people couldn’t follow him around the perimeter, and forwards had trouble containing him inside. “He has the body of a power forward, the ball-handling skills of a guard and inside ability of a low-post center,” Vanderbilt Coach Eddie Fogler says.

Beyond all that is Mashburn’s predisposition toward the game’s finer points. Sure, he may look like an offensive foul waiting to happen, but the guy actually thinks pass first. He doesn’t want to be a point guard or anything -- hear that, Ralph Sampson -- but he does understand that a well-placed pass can be as effective as a powerful move through the defense.

“He kills you in a quiet way,” says UMass forward Lou Roe. “He starts off slow, like a Michael Jordan. He gets everybody else in the game first. If things aren’t going right, he starts to take over.”

To understand Mashburn’s ball-handling skills, we have to flash back to his days in the schoolyards in New York. Big people don’t get the ball much in pickup games, so Mashburn had to improvise. “Basically, I decided that, ‘Hey, I like to score, too. I just don’t want to be out there,’ ” Mashburn says. “So I learned how to dribble.”

And how to shoot. You have heard about big people with some range, but Mashburn’s jumper resembles that of a shooting guard. He shot 43.9 percent (58 for 132) from three-point range last season, a remarkable percentage for a player his size. Sure, Don MacLean nailed a lot of 3-pointers, too, but could he do the Monster Mash inside? No chance.

Mashburn hit Vanderbilt for five 3-point shots the second time they played last season, and he helped ruin South Carolina’s SEC coming-out party with 33 points, including five-for-15 shooting from 3-point range. It’s not every night that a guy that big shoots 15 three-pointers and is still in the lineup the next game.

“He does a good job shooting from the outside, and that makes it tough on big guys,” Auburn forward Wesley Person says. “It’s hard to hold a player like him down. You just try to contain him and not let him have a big game.”

The NBA, naturally, beckons. Last summer in Portland, Mashburn learned that he could hang with the big boys. He and the other seven “Baby Dream Teamers” may have been the silver medalists in Barcelona, Spain.

“Being on the court with the pros is very physical, and they maintain a quick pace,” Mashburn says. “You really have to go to the basket -- no time for showboating. Two points count more than anything.”

Because there is a thin senior class in the country this season, Mashburn likely would be among the top five players selected in the NBA draft -- if he chooses to leave Kentucky. And though no one is saying for certain that this will be Mashburn’s last season, there are some revealing clues.

“It’s time for him to come out,” Pitino says. “He’s mentally and physically ready. I told Jamal, ‘Don’t be typical of everybody.’ Shaq comes out and says he’s definitely playing four years. This guy comes out and says, ‘I don’t know.’ Be honest with the media. Be honest with the fans. They’ll all appreciate it.”