Blame Me, Raveling Says of USC Defeat : Trojans Shoot Just 33% Against Stanford, Fall to 0-4 in Pac-10

USC doesn’t figure to win many Pacific 10 basketball games, considering the team’s relative inexperience.

So the Trojans have to beat teams of their own caliber, especially at home.

But USC is still looking for its first conference win after it lost to Stanford, 64-58, Monday night at the Sports Arena.

Instead of scolding his team, USC Coach George Raveling assumed all the blame for the defeat.

“I accept full responsibility for the loss,” Raveling said. “I didn’t do a good job of preparing the team. If I had done a better job, it would have been reflected in the way the kids played.”

Of course, Raveling doesn’t do the shooting for his team and the Trojans, a poor shooting team all season, slipped another notch with a 33.3% performance from the field.

USC also went six minutes without scoring in the second half after leading, 49-45, with 10:17 remaining.

During this dry spell, the Cardinal went on a 14-0 run and the Trojans couldn’t make up the deficit.

So USC is 0-4 in the Pac-10 and 5-7 overall. Stanford improved to 2-2 in the conference, 8-5 overall.

The Cardinal has beaten USC six straight times, but Raveling wouldn’t hold with any talk of a jinx.

“We should have played in a more aggressive manner,” he said. “That’s no excuse. It’s suffice to say that Raveling gets the loss. Our shooting was horrendous.

“We also didn’t read the defense well, especially when the ball went inside and they covered down with three guys. We didn’t have the patience to put the ball back out. And our offensive rebounding was almost nonexistent. This was right there with our poorest performance of the season.”

Some of Raveling’s players wouldn’t allow him to assume the entire blame for the defeat.

“You can’t put it all on him,” guard Brad Winslow said. “We didn’t play as hard as we could until it was too late. We’ve been doing that lately, not playing as hard as we should in the first half.”

Stanford led, 32-29, at halftime, but USC spurted behind reserve forward Chris Munk, who was largely responsible for USC taking a 49-45 lead.

Then, the Trojans disappeared for a time.

They made a run at the Cardinal, though. Guard Ivan Harris hit a jump shot, Winslow made two free throws and guard Rich Grande dropped a three-point shot to cut Stanford’s lead to 59-56 with 1:56 left.

But that was the closest USC was to come. Center Howard Wright made a free throw, and guard Novian Whitsett, who had a season-high of 17 points, added two more, and Stanford pulled away again.

USC forward Derrick Dowell, who has been bothered by stomach flu and back spasms, was questionable for Monday’s game. He played, but he said, in effect, that he should have remained in bed.

“I never should have played,” Dowell said. “I felt like I was going to throw up. I took the team out of sync and just messed myself up.”

It seemed that almost everyone was willing to assume the blame for the loss.

Dowell, who came into the game with a 22.7 scoring average, got only 12 points while playing 31 minutes. He was 5 for 13 from the field, which was considerably better than Winslow and Grande, who were 2 for 10 and 2 for 11, respectively.

Raveling didn’t want to downgrade Stanford, but he said the Cardinal lulled his team to sleep.

“We fell right into their hands,” he said. “They played at a slow, methodical tempo. We guarded them as if they were quick players, instead of slow players.”

Raveling said he didn’t get his team ready to play both technically and emotionally.

“We were flat coming into the game and didn’t build to a crescendo,” he said. “We went into the Cal game (a 79-76 loss Friday) with a sense of purpose, but we didn’t have a sense of purpose against Stanford. It was like we just showed up tonight because we were required to do so by the league.

“What’s sad is that we were coming off two great performances against Tennessee (an 81-76 overtime win) and Cal. Stanford did what they had to do to win. They created a tempo favorable to them and hustled to rebounds.”

Even so, USC out-rebounded Stanford, 36-32, but the Cardinal shot 54.2% from the field, while the Trojans couldn’t locate the basket when the game was on the line.

Raveling wouldn’t let up chastising himself.

“George Allen once said you should never lose to a team that was better prepared,” he said. “I’m not insecure, so I’m not going to blame it on the kids. Raveling just did a horrible job of coaching.”

Mike Montgomery, Stanford’s new coach, had a different view.

“I thought we played very good defense and we made USC struggle to score,” he said. “We weren’t very smooth in our offense, but we didn’t let them do much either.”

Stanford lost to UCLA, 95-75, Friday night, and Montgomery said that USC’s athletes aren’t comparable to UCLA’s, especially in creating their own shots.

“I told our guys this was the most important game on our schedule and we needed it to even things (league record) up. It’s going to take awhile before you see some separation in the Pac-10 race.”

He must not have been referring to USC, though, because with an 0-4 record and a trip coming up against Arizona Thursday and Arizona State Saturday, the Trojans may soon be adrift from the rest of the conference.