Trojans Start to Press the Issue

The remaining December games against Long Beach State, San Diego State and Northwestern should provide USC more than the opportunity to sharpen its shooting skills.

Those opponents should also give the Trojans the game conditions they need to develop defensively for Pacific 10 Conference play.

In blowout victories over Hawaii and Loyola Marymount, the Trojans spent half the time using a full-court press and trap zones along with their usual defenses, not just to force the tempo but to force turnovers. And it worked, getting USC numerous easy baskets.

That kind of pressure probably won’t affect Arizona and Stanford as easily as it did Hawaii and Loyola. But it could make the difference in games against the Oregon and Washington schools and California, the teams USC definitely has to beat for a shot at the NCAA tournament.

Those styles can also, at times, mask USC’s other defensive weaknesses, in particular, getting beat off the dribble by slick ballhandlers who can drive through the heart of the Trojan defense.

“I’m not worried about our scoring,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “The biggest thing we have to do is play defense. That’s something we should be able to do every night. And we should be able to rebound.

“The shots are not going to go in every night. Not even Michael Jordan’s shots go in every night. But I think you can play defense and rebound every night. That’s something we haven’t done. We’ve set goals on what we want the team to score and we’re not meeting those goals at this point. We’re about five points off that, and we’re giving up about five points more than we want to.”