USC’s Farmer Just Loves It at Pauley

Desmon Farmer was the first Trojan out of the locker room for warmups at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday, bobbing his head and fairly skipping around the court.

When he finally left after scoring 28 points in USC’s wild victory over UCLA, he spread his arms and did a little spin, as if to say, “Look at me now.”

That was pretty much the attitude of the USC fans in the rafters at one end.

With eight seconds left, they started the chant they’d been waiting to begin.

“Just like football.”

One small difference: The Trojans that shared the national championship blew out UCLA by halftime and ended up winning by 25 points.

The Trojans who strutted out of Pauley victorious Wednesday for the second time in a row led by 20 points at halftime, then held on in a frantic finish, 76-69.

So they’re still learning.

Either way, said Gregg Guenther, the tight end who also plays basketball.

“It feels great.”

To understand how rare it has been for USC to win at Pauley, consider that the Trojans hadn’t won two in a row in the building since 1992 and 1993, when George Raveling was coach.

Farmer practically professed affection for the place.

“I enjoy playing here because the crowd taunts me,” he said. “That’s what gets me up, the crowd trying to get me off my game.”

They tried, but they failed.

Farmer scored 40 points in the upset of Arizona -- that’s the best scoring performance in the Pacific 10 Conference this season -- and made 11 of 21 shots against UCLA, including three three-point baskets and numerous slinky, twisting layups.

Missed free throws down the stretch threatened to mar his performance, but UCLA couldn’t capitalize.

“A lot of people deserve credit,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “Desmon, the next day, you read about him, but a lot of people deserve credit.”

Give Farmer only one game a season to play the Bruins, and he might choose to play it at Pauley.

“Home court advantage is nice, but for me, personally, I like the crowd. I’d rather play here.”

New UCLA Coach Ben Howland’s introduction to the rivalry wasn’t a pleasant one.

The book already has been written on UCLA this season

Don’t think for a minute that Henry Bibby, with his Westwood education, couldn’t read it.

The book says to throw a zone at the Bruins, and watch them founder.

Lute Olson did it, and UCLA lost to Arizona by 25 points.

Mike Montgomery took note, and Stanford beat the Bruins by 15.

California’s Ben Braun mixed in a zone, and won by 14.

Bibby did it too, and watched UCLA struggle to score in the half court, particularly in the first half.

Bibby added another chapter -- title it “The Zone Press” -- against a team that is seriously short of ballhandling ability, and it helped the Trojans force 18 turnovers, 13 in the first half.

But UCLA came back in the second half behind the three-point shooting of Dijon Thompson and a career-best 21-point performance by lanky center Ryan Hollins, as well as the passing of Cedric Bozeman, who was credited with 10 assists for the second consecutive game.

When Howland reviews this game, he’ll be looking for ways to get those kinds of performances from Bozeman and Hollins again.

Despite all the talk about defense and brawn since Howland has come to town, his real gift in building the programs at Pittsburgh and Northern Arizona was adapting to the type of talent he could get at those schools.

At UCLA, in theory, he should be able to get whatever kind of players he wants.

Until they arrive, he has the assortment of long-limbed athletes that a Stanford player noted last week “all look alike.”

What this group of UCLA players does best is play transition basketball, and if the alternative is flailing away running set plays against a zone, maybe Howland’s best alternative is to let them run.

In the half-court, Bozeman is often limited because he is a negligible three-point threat. In transition, however, he excels.

Hollins is too slender to bang inside, but he can run and jump and slip behind defenders when the middle isn’t clogged up.

Those are UCLA’s problems.

USC, a team that lost to Western Michigan and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo early in the season, doesn’t appear to have many at the moment.

“We need to keep the killer instinct,” Guenther suggested.

“That’s something Coach [Pete] Carroll brought. That mentality wasn’t here before he got here.”