Stanford point guard Jamila Wideman, for one, was shocked when she first met the gangly, rail-thin Starbird at a prep all-star game four years ago.
''She introduced herself and said, 'Hi, I'm Kate Starbird,' '' Wideman said. ''I said, 'No you're not.' She didn't look the part.''
The unassuming Starbird is used to it by now. With a slight frame, old-fashioned knee pads, flopping ponytail and matchstick legs, she carries just 150 pounds on a 6-foot-2 frame. ''The curse of genetics,'' Starbird said.
Grab a Stanford team photo, try to pick out the superstar, and Starbird would be your last choice. But boy, can she play.
Recently crowned the 1997 Boost-Naismith national Player of the Year, Starbird has averaged 21 points in propelling Stanford to its third straight Final Four. As a senior, her dream is to go out with a national title in Cincinnati this weekend.
UCLA coach Kathy Olivier saw a tape of Starbird's twisting reverse layup that gave her a school-record 44 points against Southern Cal last year and said, ''It was scary. It was a Jordan-like move.'' Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer has labeled some of her moves ''Jordan-esque.''
Starbird shakes it off with an oft-quoted line: ''I'm just a nerd.''
A computer science major with a 3.3 average, she indeed has a T-shirt that reads, ''I'm a Nerd.'' She is as proud of producing a computer pinball game as she is of her basketball accomplishments, which are expected to lead to a bidding war between the two pro leagues once the Final Four is over.
A native of Tacoma, Wash., Starbird was a Parade magazine All-American in high school and set the Washington state career scoring record with 2,753 points. But she never dreamed of all this.
''I really didn't think I would be a star,'' she said. ''I was just hoping to get a Stanford education.''
It is her opponents who have been schooled. With a career shooting percentage of better than 50 percent and a three-point percentage near 40, Starbird has become Stanford's all-time leading scorer (nearly 2,200 points and counting) and has become so famous that she cannot walk across campus without getting stopped several times.
No wonder she sometimes wears a T-shirt that says ''Stanford swimming.''
''My best disguise,'' she said.
Yet she is the most regular person you could meet. She drives a cream-colored 1984 Chevrolet Camaro notable for its dust on the dashboard and lack of a back seat. A case of Ensure, a dietary supplement for maintaining weight, sits in the back instead.
Reporters have written countless stories trying to unlock the mystery of Starbird. There is her goofy-looking jump shot, which is more of a shot put than a real shot. As a little girl, she wasn't strong enough to shoot the ball 10 feet high, so she just heaved it toward the hoop. She has not changed her style, and coaches have not been foolish enough to tinker with it.
''I thought she would fit in with our system, because she's such a great open-court player and we run a lot,'' VanDerveer said.
Starbird is so good that even the thoroughly prepared VanDerveer did not have to do much background work to recruit her.
''I never saw her play in person, but I saw her on two videotapes,'' VanDerveer said. ''Based on that, we offered her a scholarship. I could see she knew how to get the ball in the basket, and that's something that you can't teach. You either have it or you don't.''
Starbird is ''an instant highlight film,'' VanDerveer said. While she can kill teams and change entire games with her three-point shots, Starbird is at her best on the transition game when she flies down court, all arms and legs and flying hair. She dribbles behind her back and weaves through traffic with a deft precision that often brings fans out of their seats.
Yet, she is embarrassed by how good she is. After one 37-point game this year, she said, ''I had become such a spectacle.'' And spectacle is not her.
''Kate's our Jerry Rice,'' is a frequently repeated VanDerveer quote. ''He scores a touchdown, puts the ball down and goes about his business. That's her game too - she'd rather play it than talk about it. Being the center of attention is the last thing on her mind.''
A West Regional game at Missoula, Mont., last weekend was an example. Starbird had just scored 22 points to lead Stanford past Virginia, but she was happier to learn there was a back exit so she would not have to meet fans. Crowds make her skittish, but she will sign autographs when noticed.
''And once I start,'' she said, ''I can't stop.''
Her unique surname leads some to call her ''Scorebird,'' but to her teammates she is simply ''Bird.'' And she cringes at ''Kate the Great,'' as some have tagged her.
The female Michael Jordan does not pretend to be, well, Michael Jordan. Among the flood of e-mail she receives have been letters from men writing to say, ''I could beat you one-on-one.''
Said Starbird, ''They're probably right. If they're bigger than I am, I'm sure they could.''
But so far, no one has stepped forward.
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