Duane Cooper Gives USC a Different Perspective : Basketball: After sitting out a season with an injury, the guard says he sees game like a coach.

Duane Cooper dreamed of playing football at USC. He idolized tailback Charles White and hoped to win the Heisman Trophy, as White had in 1979.

Cooper made it to USC and he even wears White’s number, 12, but he’ll never be a Heisman winner, simply because he switched from football to basketball at Lakewood High, where he was an all-state guard.

“Football became easy,” Cooper said. “I didn’t have to work in football, but I have to work in basketball. It’s more of a challenge.”

Cooper has a new goal--helping the Trojans reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.

“Now my goal is to go to the NCAA playoffs and go to the Final Four,” Cooper said.

Off to its best start in 15 years, USC (5-1), which plays Augusta of Georgia today at the Sports Arena, has won four in a row since Cooper replaced senior forward Calvin Banks as a starter and the Trojans went to a three-guard offense.

“People used to laugh at us,” Cooper said. “I think they’re beginning to respect us, but we’ve only chipped the iceberg. We can get a whole lot better. We don’t want a year like we had two years ago when we started off good (4-0) and finished poorly (10-22). I won’t let us get complacent.”

A 6-foot-1 redshirt junior, Cooper started 19 games at point guard in 1988-89, averaging 4.1 points and 2.7 assists. But he missed last season after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot a week before the season opener.

Cooper wore a cast for eight weeks, then was cleared to practice. But after practicing for only eight days, his foot snapped, right where the crack had been. Doctors inserted a screw during an operation and Cooper wore another cast for 2 1/2 months.

He went to every home game, though, sitting behind Coach George Raveling, who said that it helped Cooper view games from a coach’s perspective.

“By sitting out last year I’m able to see things that Coach sees,” Cooper said. “I’d see him get mad at the other guards and I’d say to myself, ‘What would I have done?’ I know what he wants and I can transfer information from him to the other players and I can tell him things that I think we should be doing.”

Cooper also helped Raveling in recruiting, talking with potential recruits during campus visits.

“He’s probably the most unusual kid I’ve ever coached,” Raveling said. “Not many guys would go out and recruit players when they know they’re going to have to compete against them for playing time. He’s our best recruiter.

“Some kids say they’d do anything to win, but Duane would. It wouldn’t make any difference to him if he never shot in a game as long as we won.”

When Cooper returned this season, he was unable to win his old job from Robert Pack, who had replaced him in the starting lineup. But after the Trojans collapsed in the final 12 1/2 minutes of a 72-59 loss at Maryland, Raveling revised the lineup, inserting Cooper in place of Banks.

“Cooper has been the catalyst in our improvement,” Raveling said. “I felt that the Maryland game was going to be the turning point of the season because it forced us to do something different. And that was to go to a three-guard offense.”

The Trojans have defeated Miami, San Diego State, Colorado State and Notre Dame since Cooper became a starter. He has averaged 6.5 points, 6.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds in that span. He had seven points, a career-high six rebounds and a career-high eight assists in last week’s 105-95 victory at Notre Dame.

USC’s defense also has improved since Cooper became a starter. Opposing starting guards have made only 37.8% of their shots since the change and the Trojans have forced 14.3 turnovers a game.

Cooper’s presence in the lineup has also helped free Pack. After averaging 10 points in USC’s first two games, Pack has since averaged 17.5.

“Coop adds a lot to the lineup,” Pack said. “With him in the lineup we can run more because other teams can’t key on me getting the outlet pass. Plus, we’re able to pressure on defense with three guards.”

Although Cooper and Pack are both point guards, there has been no conflict between them in the three-guard offense, which also features shooting guard Harold Miner.

“We’re all willing to accept the roles we have,” Cooper said. “Robert’s a point guard, but he’s not selfish. If I get the ball then he can run the lane and if he gets the ball I can run the lane. It creates a wide-open game and gives us more speed and it creates a lot of one-on-ones for Harold.”

Miner, who averaged 25.5 points in USC’s first two games, scored 31 points against Miami in Cooper’s first game as a starter and he had a season-high 35 against Notre Dame.