USC struggles to stay afloat amid sea of despair
Loss of head coach, dearth of key players sinks Trojan
spirits
By Ross Bersot
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Maybe Jim Harrick should call the Sports Arena just before the
UCLA men’s basketball team hops on the bus to take the short trip
on the Santa Monica freeway for its 7 p.m. matchup with USC – just
to make sure his team will have an opponent when it gets there.
A once-inspired Trojan basketball team that harbored post-season
aspirations has seen hope go by the wayside, along with a head
coach and a starting guard. Interim coach Henry Bibby may have to
use every finger and every toe to plug the holes long enough so the
sinking ship, that is Trojan basketball, can remain afloat for the
remainder of the regular season.
An assistant to head coach Charlie Parker during the team’s Jan.
24 loss to the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion, Bibby gained the top job
for the remainder of the season on Feb. 7, when athletic director
Mike Garrett fired Parker. Circumstances surrounding Parker’s
dismissal are dubious at best, considering he guided a team that
had finished 7-21 in the previous season to an 11-10 record and a
.500 mark in Pacific 10 play.
"We talked to some of the players and they were very unhappy
about the decision," UCLA center Jelani McCoy said. "I think it’s
still on their minds, but they’re just going to have to come out
and play, and forget about the coaches. They have to play for
themselves and the team."
If the controversy surrounding Parker and his sudden
unemployment didn’t make Bibby’s job difficult enough, star center
Avondre Jones missed the team flight to the Bay Area on Feb. 8 and
was suspended from the team.
After sitting out the Trojans’ last four games, the
6-foot-11-inch junior may return for tonight’s game – a much-needed
boost to a squad that had only seven of 13 scholarship athletes
available for its last game. One of those unavailable is sophomore
Cameron Murray, who averaged 7.4 points and 4.5 assists as a cog in
USC’s three-guard lineup, before quitting the team with six games
remaining to focus on academics.
In the absence of Jones, the Trojans (11-14, 4-9 Pac-10) have
gone 0-4, which is also Bibby’s record at the helm, and have lost
by double digits in all four games.
Despite the best efforts of guard tandem, junior Stais Boseman
and senior Brandon Martin, who leads the team and is sixth in the
conference with 15.6 points per game, USC appears, once again, to
be overmatched by UCLA (18-6, 11-2).
In their first meeting, a 99-72 trouncing of their cross-town
rivals, the Bruins broke a school record with their 73.1 field-goal
percentage.
"We’ve talked about Stais Boseman. When he’s on the floor, he’s
a tremendous athlete, he’s someone who’s capable of taking over a
game," UCLA assistant coach Steve Lavin said. "He seems to always
play well against us, and obviously, a cross-town rivalry, it’s
always going to be a tremendous, high-level, super-intensity kind
of game.
"Brandon Martin’s a senior, and he’s shooting the ball real
well, so those are the two guys we’re talking about the most."
Rounding out the Trojan lineup are forward Jaha Wilson, whose
8.2 boards per game place him third in the league, little-used but
much-improved center David Crouse, and true freshman guard Damion
Dawson.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu