By Steve Argeris Special to The Washington Post Thursday, January 22, 2004; Page AA16 The perception, Spalding players and coaches readily concede, is that the Cavaliers are a one-man show, and that man is Connecticut-bound forward Rudy Gay. "Yeah, we get used to it," forward Lawrence Dixon said last week. "But that's okay." During practices and on trips, teammates say, they treat Gay no differently from the rest of the group. "I wouldn't like it if they did," Gay said. But because Spalding has just one other player committed to play basketball for a Division I school next season (backup center Jason Loughry, who is headed to Mount St. Mary's), and because there is no denying Gay's prodigious talent, the rest of the Cavaliers feel they have a point to make every time they step on the floor. "We're not just Rudy and a bunch of other guys," point guard Jesse Brooks said. "We kid him a lot about it. He gets all the attention, but I like that. It makes you play even harder." For Brooks, who has received some looks from low-major Division I programs, the chance to play in national-level competition (the Cavaliers beat St. John Neumann, a top Philadelphia team, 78-62, in Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday) is a boon to his college prospects. The more scouts who come to see Gay, the more scouts happen to see Brooks. "It's a win-win," Cavaliers Coach Mike Glick said. "The other players helped Rudy get to play at that elite level, and they in turn get the benefit of playing better competition as well as much more exposure." Gay "pretty much can be counted on for 20 a game," Glick said. He averages 20.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. But it is his teammates who elevate the Cavaliers against top-tier competition. Among those, Brooks has the most responsibility and the most impact. He is the lone true point guard in the Spalding system, and other than junior shooting guard Justin Castleberry, who runs the team during Brooks's rare trips to the bench, there are few other players as capable or comfortable handling the basketball. Brooks averages 7.6 points and 6.6 assists, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.1. He has started for three seasons, giving him some 80-plus games at the helm of Glick's team. "This is my fifth year here, and I got the job in a September [of 1999], so this really is my first team entirely made up of my guys," Glick said. "We tried to develop a system here. In many ways, Jesse is the system." When Brooks is playing aggressively, such as during the end of the fourth quarter and the first overtime of the Cavaliers' 63-58 double-overtime loss to Mount St. Joseph's, Spalding plays at a different level. "When Jesse plays well, we play well," Glick said. "Jesse often is the difference-maker. He is an extension of me on the floor." Brooks said he is open to attending college pretty much anywhere, "as long as my parents don't have to pay for it." So he has much riding on each game, with two months to prove himself worthy of a scholarship. I've got a lot to play for every time out," Brooks said. "A lot." The rest of the starting lineup meshes nicely with Gay and Brooks. Dixon and Castleberry are solid presences on the wings, averaging 7.9 and 5.1 points per game, respectively. Marquis Sullivan, a junior, averages 11.1 points and likely will shoulder some of Gay's scoring load next season. At a shade less than 6 feet, Sullivan dunks with ease and is perhaps the Cavaliers' fastest player. On the bench, the Emmitsburg-bound Loughry "has turned a corner in the past three weeks," Glick said. Kevin Galinat shoots 37.1 percent from three-point range, and Johann Jones is a sophomore wing -- the lone sophomore on the varsity roster -- who has shown promise. Forward Matt Cornell will suit up for Ohio State next season -- in lacrosse. But in the interim, he provides the Cavaliers with a rugged inside presence. "He sets picks, and you feel them," Gay said. Gay accounts for slightly more than one-third of Spalding's 63.5 points per game, a good indication of his value to the Cavaliers. But it is on defense where the rest of the Spalding team emerges. "We're a defense-first team," Glick said. "We pride ourselves on that. Rudy is a terrific shot-blocker, terrific at altering shots, so he does cover up for some of the mistakes we make on defense. But we're a good defensive team, first and foremost." That requires a team effort, and "the other four guys, they're all willing to play defense," Glick said. "We're a very good help-defense team. They work together very well." Part of that is the sophistication of their defense, which can use as many as six or seven sets in a game. The Cavaliers pride themselves on their constant switching between man-to-man, zone and junk defenses, cooling off and confusing opponents. Against Calvert Hall, which led for much of their game Jan. 13, the Cavaliers could do little to slow the Cardinals, falling behind by 11 points in the fourth quarter. At that point, Glick and his coaching staff changed to a 1-3-1 zone and rallied for a 61-60 victory. "We tried five different defenses, and we couldn't stop them," Glick said. "Then we changed to the 1-3-1, and that was the defense that won the game. "We keep looking until we find a defense that works. We change defenses a lot. We ask a lot of our kids. We're trying to best prepare our kids to play in college, so we try to run a college system." In the end, however, Gay is the focal point. At 6-9, he presents a matchup challenge for nearly every opponent. "Since Rudy gets double-teamed constantly, our players are better able to feed off that," Glick said. "They understand they have to get the ball to the open man." Off the court, Glick said, "this is the most together team I've ever coached." With the whirlwind of attention surrounding Gay, the benefit of having such a close team is obvious to both. "I think they provide a cocoon for Rudy," Glick said. "Rudy has teammates who care about Rudy the person, not Rudy the basketball player." Gay sets the tone. Dixon, his usual roommate when Spalding takes an overnight trip, calls him a "regular guy." "I try to keep that relationship," Gay said. "At this point, I've been with them most of my life. I'm as close to them as family. They basically are my family for five months."