Fowl Food Offered to the Trojans’ Skeptics

A year ago, the USC athletic department was being reviled because of the decision to release the basketball coach. A number of folks, The Times prominent among them, were trying to turn this into some sort of big story, rather than simply a well-managed athletic department doing its job.

This year, with the new coach, the USC men’s team finished second in the tough Pacific 10 Conference and reached the NCAA tournament.

The question that needs to be asked of the naysayers, Times sportswriters prominent among them, is how do you like your crow pie? Plain or a la mode?

P.M. BRADY

Pasadena

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This letter is in response to the Sunday article written by your unknowledgeable, biased and incompetent writer, Bill Plaschke, in which he states that “Mr. Bibby’s guys will not make the NCAA tournament, nor do they deserve to.” He further states that next year “only Stais Boseman will be difficult to replace.”

I guess that Mr. Plaschke was unaware that USC was 12-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference and tied for second place with Stanford and California and a full game ahead of Arizona. And that the Pac-10 was the third-highest rated conference in the RPI.

USC played the 13th-toughest schedule in the country, and it defeated North Carolina Charlotte, Arizona, California and Stanford, all of whom are deservedly in the NCAA tournament.

As far as the statement about losing only one player who will be difficult to replace, Mr. Plaschke obviously has never seen David Crouse, Jaha Wilson and Rodrick Rhodes play.

JOHN MELNIK

Beverly Hills

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Congratulations to USC on being one of the 22 schools to place both its men’s and women’s basketball teams in the NCAA tournaments. It is a significant accomplishment, especially for the “undeserving” (according to Mr. Plaschke) men’s team that overcame the challenges of starting the season with nine new players, a winless head coach, a lack of fan support and a lack of coverage by the local media.

TREVOR VALLOW

Arcadia