2 GUYS FROM ITALY : Prep basketball: Marcaccini brothers are imports of import at Notre Dame.

Giancarlo Marcaccini launched his first shot for Notre Dame High nearly four years ago, firing from half court shortly after receiving the opening tip-off.

He said he was open.

Marcaccini’s coach promptly yanked him from that 1987 summer-league game to explain the essence of range and shot selection, but that wasn’t the only thing he had to learn.

In another game, Marcaccini (pronounced mark-a-CHEE-nee) was whistled four consecutive times for camping too long in the key. He finally had to ask a teammate, “What’s the key?”

“We had to explain the game to him little by little,” Notre Dame Coach Mick Cady said. “But I knew if this kid learned the game he’d be good.”

Giancarlo, who prefers G. C., has learned the game and, yes, he is good. In fact, the 6-foot-5 forward-guard has evolved from a bench-warmer on the freshman team to the Knights’ leading scorer and rebounder in his senior season with averages of 21 points and nine rebounds a game.

However, Marcaccini’s mother, Alicia, resisted his initial attempts to take up basketball, pushing him, instead, onto the tennis court. G. C.’s younger brother Monte, now a 6-3 sophomore averaging eight points for the Notre Dame varsity, already had left his private swimming lessons for basketball. Alicia vowed to keep her eldest son on the road to Wimbledon.

But the only net that caught G. C.’s eye was the kind that hangs from a rim. His move to the basket, however, came when his mother wasn’t looking.

“They got Giancarlo when I left the country for one week,” Alicia said. “I’d said, ‘No basketball, no basketball, no basketball.’ We’ve spent all of this time and money on tennis and, by God, we’ve simply got to have a scholarship, and I’ve made up my mind it’s going to be tennis.

“There’s no way we’re losing Giancarlo to basketball.”

When Alicia returned from her one-week trip to Italy, her tennis-playing son had transformed himself into a member of Notre Dame’s freshman basketball team.

Monte had persuaded G. C. to put down his racket and take up basketball. The younger Marcaccini fell in love with the game when he was sent from Italy to live with his American grandparents in Tarzana nearly five years ago to get private swimming instruction.

It was during that visit in 1986 that he befriended El Camino Real High’s Sam Sarpong, the nephew of former Laker Michael Cooper (who now plays professional basketball in Italy). The two youngsters attended numerous Laker games and Monte hasn’t put down the basketball since.

Both G. C., 18, and Monte, 16, were born at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, but Alicia and her husband Giancarlo raised the boys primarily in Rome, with frequent visits to California. The elder Giancarlo is a native Italian who speaks little English. Alicia is American--a Valley native who left Cal State Northridge after three semesters to pursue an acting career in Europe when she was 20 years old. A former 1961 Miss Reseda, she graced several Italian national magazine covers by the time she met Giancarlo, an international businessman.

In order to keep their American heritage intact, the boys went to an English-speaking school, American Overseas School of Rome. G. C., Monte and younger brother Giandrea, 14, are bilingual but speak only Italian when their father is home from his frequent business trips to South America and the Eternal City to buy and sell fish.

A second language has aided G. C. and Monte on the court.

“We tell each other plays in Italian so the other team can’t understand,” Monte said. “Like, ‘I’m gonna lob it up to you this time.’ ”

Monte, also a guard-forward, is less flamboyant and less demonstrative than his older brother. Nobody guessed that the two would be on the court together as much as they have this season--not even Cady. “We looked at the stats (earlier in the season) and said, ‘Hey, the kid (Monte) is doing a lot when he’s in there.’ He can light it up,” Cady said.

In fact, Monte is expected to become better than G.C. over the next two seasons. “He’s developing fast for a sophomore,” Cady said. “He’s got to be one of the best sophomores in the area.”

Having brothers on the same team poses a few problems for Cady. G. C. sometimes berates Monte when his brother’s performance isn’t up to snuff. “Sometimes I have to separate them because I feel uncomfortable,” Cady said. “But generally they are very loyal to one another.”

It is easy to mistake the Marcaccinis. They look strikingly similar despite the two-year age difference. Cady gets confused.

But make no mistake. When both are in the game, it’s double trouble for the opponent. The two guys from Italy twice have combined for more than 50 points and have helped the Knights to an 19-4 record, 10-1 in Mission League play.

Scott Hamilton, Cady’s assistant who has coached lower-level teams at Notre Dame for four seasons, liked G. C.’s talent from the start.

“He has so much to offer. He’s like a diamond in the rough,” Hamilton said. “He has a huge heart and a great work ethic. I remember one day when we spent an hour working just on a layup.”

The Marcaccinis bring high expectations to the court in addition to their physical skills.

“The thing I really like about the kids is they’re winners,” Hamilton said. “They’re very confident. Sure, they’re going to make mistakes, but they don’t hang their heads, look in the mirror and say, ‘God, I wonder if I’m a good basketball player.’ ”

G. C. brings ample confidence to the court but doubts his ability to compete at the NCAA Division I level. His coaches disagree.

“He’s not being recruited hard enough. He is so raw,” Cady said.

G. C. is ambidextrous. He shoots outside with his right hand and inside with his left. He writes with his left and plays tennis with his right. “In three years, he could be a bona fide player, because he has the athletic skills and the confidence where he’s not afraid of any player,” Cady said.

G. C. never shies from tough competition. Three weeks ago, when the Knights played at St. Bernard with first place on the line, G. C. went man to man against the Vikings’ 6-8 center, Wyking Jones. Jones, who has committed to Loyola Marymount, came into the game with a 21-point average, but G. C. limited him to just nine points in a 60-58 Notre Dame victory.

The tenacity and confidence that the Marcaccinis demonstrate are byproducts of playing pickup games nearly every night at Tarzana Park.

“I play two kinds of basketball: by myself (at the park) and then team ball,” G. C. said. “Everyone (at Notre Dame) is so fundamentally sound, but I play off athletic ability and instincts.” A dream of G. C.’s and Monte’s is playing professional basketball--in Italy. They would be considered Italians in a league that allows only two non-Italians per team.

In the meantime, while the boys have replaced childhood sports with basketball--their chosen sport--they have found no worthy substitute in the United States for what they miss most from Italy.

“Oh, I’d pay a hundred bucks for a real pizza,” Monte said.