USC Makes 50-Point Turnaround as Pack Sparks Rout Against ASU

When guard Robert Pack transferred to USC from Tyler (Tex.) Junior College last year, he knew it would take time for him to adjust to college basketball.

Pack, USC’s starting point guard, is feeling comfortable running the offense now.

“When I first got to USC I thought it would be pretty smooth, but then I realized that the players would have to get used to playing with a new point guard,” Pack said. “But it’s all coming together now.”

Pack scored 18 points and passed off for seven assists as the Trojans crushed Arizona State, 88-63, Saturday before 6,851 fans at the University Activity Center.

“Pack just killed us,” Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said after USC handed ASU its worst loss of the season less than 48 hours after Arizona routed USC by 25.

USC, which has been searching for a good point guard throughout Coach George Raveling’s tenure, finally seems to have found one in Pack, who has scored a total of 42 points in his last three games.

“I thought Robert Pack played as well as he has since he came to USC,” Raveling said. “He had a good sense of the game today. He read situations instinctively well.

“I really thought he was a big, big key to our win. A lot of people did well, but I thought he did particularly well.”

The Trojans employed a three-guard offense, using Harold Miner, Rodney Chatman and Pack as they outran the slower Sun Devils.

“I think Robert plays better in an open court,” Raveling said. “This was a little bit more Robert’s type of game, pressing and running. I thought he made good decisions on the shots he took.”

USC center Chris Munk said Pack is running the offense like a veteran.

“I think Pack is really picking up and coming into his own,” Munk said. “Every night Pack goes out and plays as hard as he can. That was a pretty typical game for Pack.”

Pack said the Trojans wanted to run on Arizona State.

“We wanted to get the ball up the court pretty quick and get our fast break going,” Pack said. “In the first half, we were able to get it going and in the second half it just continued.”

Ironically, Arizona State forced USC to use a three-guard offense.

“In a way they kind of forced our hand,” Raveling said. “If they used a box-and-one against us and the box-and-one was hurting us, we were definitely going to go with three guards. And the longer we played (with three guards), the more it became obvious that that was the best way to go.”

While USC’s guards played well, its front line also did a good job.

After failing to score or get a rebound in the loss at Arizona, Munk redeemed himself by scoring eight points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

“I thought Munk kind of made up for his (bad game against Arizona),” Raveling said. “He resurfaced after that Arizona game.”

Said Munk: “I was out to prove something to myself as well as the team. I probably didn’t play as well as I could have the other night, so today I just wanted to go out and play as hard as I could.”

Munk did a good job on ASU center Isaac Austin, who missed eight of 12 shots from the floor.

“When you play against a big guy like that, you need to attack him,” Munk said. “Not only does it put him in a bad position, but it puts me in a position where I can score or draw a foul against him.”

Freshman forward Keith Greeley played his best game of the season, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds off the bench.

“Greeley manhandled us coming off the bench,” Frieder said.

After scoring just 13 points in the loss to Arizona, Miner scored 22 points Saturday, hitting 10 of 16 shots, including two three-point attempts.

Raveling was worried about how his team would respond after suffering its worst loss of the season against Arizona.

“All of us were shocked at the way we played against Arizona,” Raveling said. “We certainly weren’t shocked that we got beat, it was just the way we got beat.

“To be honest with you, I was worried when the kids came back in from the warmups because there just wasn’t any enthusiasm. I was scared to death because they didn’t look like they were up.”

But Raveling had no need to be concerned.

Trailing 12-9, USC blitzed ASU 21-4 in a 5:16 span in the first half to take command. The Trojans led by as many as 28 points before Raveling cleared his bench.

Trojan Notes

Ed O’Bannon, a star forward from Artesia High, attended the game with his parents. O’Bannon is considering USC, UCLA, Arizona State, UNLV, LSU and Syracuse. . . . It was USC’s biggest margin of victory in a Pac-10 road game since a 90-64 win over Stanford in 1968. It was also USC’s first road win of the season and its fourth consecutive win over ASU. USC is 8-11 overall and 3-8 in the Pac-10. ASU fell to 12-10 and 5-8.