Pack Is Back in USC’s Attack : Three-Guard Offense Allows 6-2 Senior to Fulfill His Scoring Potential

Heads turned when USC guard Robert Pack ran onto the court wearing dark goggles before a game against Arizona.

“Look, it’s Robo Pack,” a fan said.

Said another fan: “I think they make him look like M.C. Hammer.”

Said a USC teammate: “He looks like Darth Vader.”

Pack wasn’t trying to start a new fashion trend, he was merely trying to protect his eyes. Oregon State forward Charles McKinney elbowed Pack slightly below his left eye while going for a rebound in the Trojans’ 70-68 victory over the Beavers last month.

Pack was hit underneath his right eye during the Trojans’ next game when UCLA guard Gerald Madkins bumped into him while attempting to steal the ball.

“The next day in practice I told the trainers I’d like some goggles to play in and they ordered them,” Pack said.

But the wrong goggles arrived. Instead of the clear ones that were ordered, a darkly tinted style arrived.

“The goggles came at 6 p.m. and the game was at 7:30, so I had to play with them,” Pack said.

Wearing dark goggles indoors hasn’t hindered Pack’s vision. He had a career-high 11 assists when USC defeated Arizona by four points Feb. 7 and scored 22 points in the Trojans’ next game, a five-point loss to Arizona State.

“(The dark goggles) may give me an advantage because (opponents) can’t see my eyes when I come down to make a pass,” Pack said.

A 6-foot-2 senior, Pack has averaged 16.4 points in his last nine games, including four 20-point games. He has made 52% of his shots during that span.

Pack is averaging 5.4 assists, second in the Pacific 10 Conference behind UCLA’s Darrick Martin.

Although guard Harold Miner and forward Ronnie Coleman are the Trojans’ leading scorers, Pack might be USC’s best barometer. Over the last two seasons, the Trojans have won 15 of the 18 games in which Pack has scored 15 points or more.

“I think right now Robert Pack is playing as well as he’s played at any time since he’s been at USC,” Trojan Coach George Raveling said.

“He has an excellent variety offensively. He’s penetrating and giving it up. He’s running the break for us. I just couldn’t be any more pleased with him. He’s showing a lot of discipline on defense because he’s not gambling as much.”

Pack’s teammates say he has played a key role in the Trojans’ resurgence.

“He’s more adjusted to our system and knows what ‘Rav’ wants,” said guard Duane Cooper, who starts with Miner and Pack in USC’s three-guard offense. “He doesn’t have to think as much as he did last year. He can just play.”

A transfer from Tyler (Tex.) Junior College, Pack overcame a sluggish start to average 12.1 points and 2.4 rebounds last season, his first at USC.

Thrust into the starting lineup after Cooper broke his right foot during preseason practice, Pack averaged 14.5 points and 6.9 assists in USC’s first six games.

But he foundered in the next 10 games, averaging only 7.3 points, 5.4 assists and committing 34 turnovers as the Trojans lost seven games.

“Right off the bat I was just thrown in there to run the team,” Pack said. “I think if Duane had been there to help me adjust to the players it would have helped my game. But I had to go in and get adjusted to my players and the coach while the season went on.

“It was hard coming in and adjusting to new players. I knew I got into trouble with mistakes. I didn’t know the way they were going to play. I took it for granted that it was going to click right off the bat, and it didn’t.”

Pack broke out of his slump in the Trojans’ 76-75 victory over UCLA last season, scoring the first 10 points of the second half to spur USC’s comeback. He averaged 15.9 points and only three turnovers as the Trojans won six of their last 11 games.

Although he didn’t tell anyone, Pack played the second half of last season with a dislocated right shoulder that he suffered during the UCLA game. It never healed.

“After every game it would come out of place when I’d shoot and I’d have to pop it back in and keep on playing,” Pack said. “A lot of times no one, not even the coaches, would know that it came out.”

Pack said he didn’t reveal the severity of the injury because he “just wanted to play.”

“I thought it was going to keep me out, so I didn’t tell anyone,” he said.

“No one really knew what I was going through last year.”

But when the shoulder popped out of place while Pack was shooting a free throw in a Pac-10 tournament game, he decided that he needed treatment.

He underwent surgery to repair the shoulder a week after the season ended. And it hasn’t been a problem this season.

It’s the second major injury that Pack has suffered while playing basketball.

A star guard at Lawless High in New Orleans, where he averaged 29 points, nine assists and six rebounds, Pack missed the second half of his senior season in 1987 after suffering a broken right wrist while playing a pickup game in a physical education class.

Fearing that the injury would scare away college recruiters, Pack played one game with the broken wrist, dribbling and shooting left-handed.

But the wrist was placed in a cast after the game and it was immobilized for six months, until July.

Although recruiters still sought him, Pack could not get into a Division I program because of his test scores. He said he carried a 2.8 grade-point average in high school, but he scored 14 on the ACT, missing the athletic eligibility standard by one point.

Although he didn’t use it as an excuse, Pack said that having a cast on his right hand didn’t help when he took the test.

“It was real frustrating,” Pack said. “I took it twice with my left hand and I couldn’t finish the test. I think I would have passed if I’d been able to use my right hand because I was unable to finish segments of the test.”

Ineligible to play at a four-year college, Pack enrolled at Tyler.

Pack quickly regained his shooting touch after the wrist injury, averaging 19 points and nine assists at Tyler, where he led the Apaches to a 50-11 mark over two seasons and an appearance in the final four of the state junior college tournament.

Pack also improved his study habits at Tyler. A sociology major at USC, Pack says he will graduate on time in May.

“The biggest thing will be coming across that stage (at graduation) and seeing my mother’s eyes wide and knowing that what she wanted most was for me to graduate. I’ll be the first in my family to graduate from college. That’s why I want this--as much for them as I do for me.”

Recruited by Oklahoma, Providence, Texas Arlington, Baylor, Florida, Tulane and USC, Pack signed with the Trojans because he felt he would have a chance to play immediately.

But Pack, who had never experienced a losing season, was frustrated as the Trojans lost 16 of 28 games last season.

“At one point I couldn’t take it,” Pack said. “It was just loss after loss. It was hard trying to get myself motivated to play knowing that it might be the same result the next night.

“I talked to my parents a lot. I guess they knew something was wrong when I started calling a lot because usually they have to get on me about calling home. What really kept me here was my parents. They gave me the confidence to stick with it.

“After a point I just realized that I was going to have to put all the losses behind and just play and keep myself as intense for every game.”

Said Pack’s father, Robert: “I told him he wasn’t a quitter. He overcome adversity before and he had to hang in there.”

Considering that the Trojans (14-8) have a chance to earn their first NCAA tournament bid since 1985, Pack is happy he followed his father’s advice.