USC women’s basketball: Cynthia Cooper pleased after first scrimmage
New USC women’s basketball Coach Cynthia Cooper thinks quickly on her feet. She also wants her team to play quickly on the floor.
The Trojans played a scrimmage Sunday before the men’s team at Galen Center and Cooper was asked if her team was going to have a nickname.
She wants her players to run up and down the court as quickly and as often as the men’s team under new Coach Andy Enfield, whose speedy squad at Florida Gulf Coast University earned the nickname of “Dunk City” last season as it became the star of March Madness and made it to the Sweet 16, the only No. 15 seed to ever do so.
Cooper’s eyes focused quickly on a sign lying on the floor that said Southern California and had the S of Southern and the C of California intertwined. Cooper’s eyes lit up. “We’re going to be Score City,” Cooper said. “See? S for Southern, C for California.”
The Trojans’ standout player in the scrimmage was 6-foot-2 senior forward Cassie Harberts of San Clemente who is a candidate for the women’s Wooden Award honor that will be given out at the end of the season.
“My eyes got so big when I saw my name on the list,” said Harberts, who averaged 18 points and 8.2 rebounds a game last season and had 11 double-doubles.
The Trojans were picked to finish sixth in the conference at Pac-12 media day last week.
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