Trojans, Reeled In by Raveling, Sport New Look : They’ll Continue Playing at a Slower Pace Tonight Against Colorado State

Some people believe that basketball should be played in the fast lane. Others prefer it at a slower, more deliberate pace.

The latter style will be featured tonight at 7:30 when USC plays Colorado State in a nonconference game at Loyola Marymount.

Boyd Grant, Colorado State’s coach, is known for his patient, methodical teams. Don’t knock it. He was a big winner in his nine seasons at Fresno State, turning out three Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship teams and winning the National Invitation Tournament in 1983.

USC Coach George Raveling is not so stereotyped. In fact, he thought he had an up tempo, freelance-type of team at the start of the season.

However, when USC lost seven of its first eight games with this style of play, Raveling decided he had to alter his coaching strategy with his predominately young team.

So the Trojans suddenly began to run time off the 45-second clock before shooting and work harder on defense.

The new look was introduced Dec. 23 against California at Berkeley, where USC beat Cal, 58-56, in double overtime after being routed by Stanford, 88-62, two nights earlier.

Then USC beat Western Kentucky, 53-47, last Monday night at the Sports Arena with the same format.

Raveling philosophized about his change of direction from the fast lane to the shoulder of the road Sunday when he said:

“You don’t throw a 17-year-old into a sports car. For the first few times he’ll handle it carefully. Then, he’ll start racing up the freeways and side streets.

“We weren’t winning and we had to do something different. We were losing games with a three-point shooting, loosey-goosey way of playing. So we’ve become a more patient, patterned, tempo-oriented team.

“The other way may be more entertaining to watch, but the bottom line is to win. We’ve put our team into a position to win.”

Raveling pointed out that his Trojans fell 12 to 13 points behind Cal and Western Kentucky before winning. “When we fell that far behind in earlier games, it was all over,” he said.

In keeping with his revised offense, Raveling has now settled on a starting lineup that includes three players who are familiar with his system--guards Brad Winslow and Rich Grande and forward Bob Erbst. They’re joined by two newcomers on the front line, Ronnie Coleman and Chris Moore.

Winslow, who had been in a shooting slump before the Cal game, has now scored 34 points in the last two games while replacing freshman Anthony Pendleton, the three-point shooting specialist, as a starter.

Pendleton has had minimal playing time the past two games.

“Pendleton has just been victimized by Winslow’s good play,” Raveling said. “Winslow and Grande play better as a tandem and you can see it in their defense, too.”

As for Colorado State (7-2), Raveling said: “It’s a typical Boyd Grant team. The only difference from Fresno State are the uniforms.

“They run a well-conceived, deliberate offense. I looked at them the first of the year and, ability wise, they have far exceeded expectations.”

Raveling said that the Rams have accurate, jump shooting guards in David Turcotte and Trent Shippen, who are averaging 17.9 and 8 points a game, respectively.

He added that 6-8 forward Pat Durham, who is averaging 16.9 points, is an agile leaper and a tremendous athlete.

Grant was reportedly burned out when he left Fresno State after the 1985-86 season. He created his own monster, winning 72.4% of his games during his tenure at the school.

It was only a temporary condition, though, and Grant is now seemingly comfortable since he has returned to Colorado State, where he was an assistant coach from 1962 through 1972.

The pace of tonight’s game shouldn’t precipitate any anxiety attacks from either coach.

Trojan Notes

USC will resume Pacific 10 competition Thursday night, meeting Oregon at the Sports Arena. The Trojans will play Oregon State Saturday afternoon at Loyola Marymount. The Ducks and Beavers have yet to play a conference game. “I wish we had that schedule,” said USC Coach George Raveling, noting that his team had to play two conference games on the road in December. Tonight’s game will be only the fourth home game for USC since the season began Nov. 27, if Loyola can be regarded as a home court.