USC Enjoys a Smashing First Night

Brian Scalabrine had plenty of reasons to get jittery.

The junior college transfer was starting his first game at center for USC, playing his first minutes of Division I basketball.

But with the Trojans pressing on defense and running on offense, he was too busy hustling up and down the floor to be nervous.

“Now it’s time to play defense, now it’s time to play offense,” the 6-9 Scalabrine said. “There’s not much time in transition to think.”

There was just enough time to score a game-high 14 points as Scalabrine and a cast of many overran a flustered and frustrated San Diego State, 101-54, in a season opener on Tuesday night before 2,381 at the Sports Arena.

“They have great depth,” San Diego State Coach Fred Trenkle said. “They don’t have any bad players.”

And Trenkle saw just about everyone USC had as Coach Henry Bibby kept a constant flow of fresh bodies in the game.

This is how Bibby envisioned his team before the season, as a perpetual motion machine, as wave after wave of mostly freshmen and sophomores scrambling across the floor.

That translated into an impressive season-opening performance as the Trojans shot 51% from the floor by generating easy shots, by forcing 31 turnovers and making 22 steals.

“This is the way we want to play,” Bibby said. “Our defense created a lot of offense for us.”

Not that the Aztecs did all that much to slow them down. This is a team that has eight freshmen on the roster and only two scholarship players back from a 13-15 team last season.

After a quick three-pointer by guard Donte Wilson, San Diego State could not manage another basket for six minutes. Nor could Wilson and his backcourt mate, David Abramowitz, handle the full-court presses and zone traps USC threw their way.

“We knew they were young so we wanted to get in their faces,” said Brandon Granville, the Trojans’ freshman point guard. “We came out with a lot of intensity. We threw a lot at them.”

There was Sam Clancy muscling his way inside for two points after guard Elias Ayuso picked Abramowitz clean. There was Shannon Swillis scoring on a fastbreak ignited by a Scalabrine rebound.

And there was Granville, diving for a loose ball, feeding Jeff Trepagnier for a dunk.

“We felt real good,” Trepagnier said. “We just kept pressing so hard and they just folded.”

“It was just a nasty, ugly game,” Trenkle said.

When the dust settled, San Diego State tied a record for its worst loss ever. Only one player, Brady Trenkle, the coach’s son, scored in double figures. The Aztecs shot 30% from the field and only 32% (10 of 31) from the free-throw line.

As Fred Trenkle said: “Grade school kids shoot that.”

Meanwhile, USC revived memories of a lopsided 117-71 victory over Arizona State that ended last season.

Seven Trojans scored in double figures against San Diego State, with Trepagnier scoring 12 and Clancy 11. Clancy led the team with 10 rebounds, Scalabrine had nine and forward Greg Lakey had eight.

The Trojans certainly showed enough good things to figure they have a chance when they travel to Nevada Las Vegas on Friday to play a veteran team that made the NCAA tournament last season.

“I’m not going to say we’ll blow them out like we blew out this team,” Bibby said. “But I think we can compete with a lot of teams.”

Of course, Scalabrine figures he’ll be nervous all over again.

“There’s home nervousness and road nervousness,” he said. “We get new nerves for the road.”