Trojan NCAA Hopes Rest on Newell Theory

Pete Newell, who understands a thing or two about such matters, believes he knows the reason for USC’s surprising success this season.

To Newell, it all comes down to two elements--character and confidence.

Both will be tested at 7:37 (PST) tonight when the Trojans (19-9) meet Illinois State (21-7) in the first round of the NCAA tournament on the campus of Oral Roberts University at Tulsa, Okla.

Few expected the Trojans to get this far. USC was picked to finish no higher than seventh in the Pacific 10 in a preseason poll of coaches and reporters. Instead, it shared the Pac-10 title with Washington.

Newell, who has more than a passing interest in tonight’s game, says USC has prospered because it’s a team with considerable character and because Coach Stan Morrison has instilled confidence in his players.

Newell was Morrison’s coach at California in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. He is also a confidant of Indiana Coach Bob Knight, whose former assistant, Bob Donewald, is Illinois State’s coach.

Newell won an NCAA championship at Cal in 1959 with a team of overachievers, and Morrison’s team fits that mold, if not in ability, at least in attitude.

“Stan helped his players get confidence in themselves and that was manifested by USC’s great road record (10-4 overall, 8-1 in the Pac-10),” Newell said. “What a team does on the road is more of an indication of its character than what it does at home.

“You don’t have many things going for you on the road. You’re kind of banding together against a whole bunch of things. You don’t have the officials, you don’t have the crowd. You don’t have anything really going for you except each other.”

Morrison is an optimistic sort, and his optimism and confidence were reflected in his team, according to Newell.

“Through Stan they believed things in a positive way,” Newell said. “As a result, they kept a positive attitude through the whole season. Once in a while it would be like Cinderella after midnight and they’d begin to think, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good.’ About that time, they would play individually and get blown out.”

Newell said that USC had more reason to fall back on excuses for losing than most Division I teams.

“They played some of their home games at Cal State Dominguez Hills and they occasionally practiced off campus,” Newell said. “Those are reasons for a team to lose if it doesn’t have a lot of character. I think there are more teams looking to rationalize a loss than there are teams thinking about winning.”

Newell said a team often unites in adversity, taking on a sort of us-against-them outlook.

“When I first started coaching at USF, we practiced in a little old gym that somehow escaped the San Francisco fire. We didn’t have a gym on campus,” he said. “It was only an 84-foot court and, when it rained, you couldn’t practice at one end because the floor was all wet. We had hot and cold showers. Monday they’d be hot, and Tuesday they’d be cold.

“That team came out of that place and won the NIT in 1949. Our team thought that once they got out of that gym, every other place is going to look good. In a sense that’s the attitude Stan’s team has.”

Morrison has said that playing Illinois State will be like looking in a mirror. Both teams are inside-oriented on offense and both are sound defensively. Newell agreed.

“Bob Donewald is one of the fine young coaches in the country,” Newell said. “It’s a team that’s capable of being very good and is well organized. Illinois State beat Tulsa, which is a very good team.

“I think that Illinois State has a height advantage over USC, but the Trojans have a little more team speed.”

USC has been vulnerable on defense lately to opposing centers or forwards who post up. John Brownlee and Mike Wacker got 55 of Texas’ 71 points in a 71-70 win over USC March 3. Oregon State center Steve Woodside burned USC inside with 25 points as the Beavers won in overtime Saturday, 60-58.

“Clayton Olivier (USC’s center) is not that quick or active,” Newell said. “If a team swings the ball, he’ll defend on one side, but he’s not quick enough to defend you on the weak side. That’s what happened against Oregon State. They’d swing the ball and there would be Woodside, posting up.

“Illinois State will post up. All of Bobby Knight’s teams (Donewald is one of Knight’s disciples) do this well. The guards throw that baseline bounce pass and it’s very effective.

“Stanford gets the ball into the post real well (USC lost twice to Stanford). One of the keys for the Trojans is to be able to stop Illinois State’s inside game.”

If USC beats Illinois State, the Trojans will most likely play Oklahoma, top-seeded in the Midwest Regional, in a Saturday afternoon game. The Trojans would appear to be overmatched in that one. Oklahoma is the nation’s highest-scoring team, averaging 91 points a game.

Newell, though, isn’t so sure that the Sooners would overwhelm the Trojans.

“Season records and which teams should win by such a score don’t mean as much the higher you advance in the NCAA tournament,” he said. “Teams that were not supposed to be there suddenly get a lot of tiger in their blood. Other favored teams play as if they don’t want to lose, instead of playing to win.

“It’s an attitude of ‘we can’t lose to these guys.’ Playing not to lose is as good a way to lose as anything.”

Trojan Notes USC’s game with Illinois State will be televised by Channel 56. Other first-round Midwest Regional games today at Oral Roberts: Ohio State (19-9) vs. Iowa State (21-12), 10 a.m.; Louisiana Tech (27-2) vs. Pittsburgh (17-11), 12:30 p.m.; Oklahoma (28-5) vs. North Carolina A&T; (19-9), 5 p.m. . . . North Carolina A&T; features guard Jimmy Brown, who is averaging 19.2 points a game. Brown, son of former NFL star Jim Brown, was on USC’s roster in 1981 before transferring. . . . USC reserve guard Ivan Harris has the flu and didn’t accompany the team to Tulsa. His place on the roster was taken by forward Marcus Cotton, who also plays linebacker on the football team.