Bibby Happy Team Will Face Big Test

No matter what the outcome in Monday’s nationally televised game against No. 5 North Carolina in the Maui Classic, USC figures to come out ahead in Coach Henry Bibby’s way of thinking.

“You can’t get better exposure than that,” Bibby said. “I know there are some coaches who say, ‘Hey, I want to win 10 nonconference games and it doesn’t matter who I play.’ Playing North Carolina gives us credibility to say we’re not backing down from anybody.

“We’re out there to get better as a basketball team. Playing those teams early, like North Carolina and Duke, the quicker we’ll see where this program is and where we have to go as we progress through the season. It’s gonna give us [the kind of] exposure that USC hasn’t gotten in a long time.”

USC is winless against North Carolina in five previous meetings, the most recent a 99-84 loss in the 1996-97 season. USC’s last victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent was an 87-81 overtime victory against Duke in the 1977-78 season.