COLLEGE FOOTBALL REPORT / WEEKDAY UPDATE : USC

Linebacker Willie McGinest hoped to play basketball for USC, but after nine football games, the former All-Southern Section forward from Long Beach Poly High School isn’t so sure.

“I want to get freshened up before I go out there--get a little rest,” McGinest said. “I wouldn’t mind playing two sports, but I’m just wondering if I can.”

McGinest has ability, basketball Coach George Raveling said. “There’s no question that he could be a starter for any team in our league, if he devoted himself full time to basketball,” Raveling said of the 6-6, 220-pound freshman. “I don’t know if he’d be a starter, necessarily, as a freshman, but he certainly would be a starter and an impact player in our league as a junior or senior.”

Would Raveling want him this season?

“I’d want to do what’s best for Willie,” Raveling said. “I’m not totally convinced that playing basketball would be best for him, from an academic standpoint, from a career standpoint. Unless he would give full-time attention to basketball, I doubt that he would be a pro basketball player. He obviously is going to be a pro football player.”