Granville Leads, Trojans Follow

The magic moment?

He doesn’t know. Maybe it was the inbound pass to Sam Clancy midway through the second half against San Diego for a quick basket. Or the kick-out pass to Tyler Murphy for the three-pointer the very next play.

One of those plays last week made Brandon Granville the all-time assists leader at USC, replacing Larry Friend.

“I didn’t even know I was that close until Coach [Henry] Bibby brought it up before the game,” Granville said of the record. “I think he was looking through the media guide and he was surprised himself. He said, ‘You might break this record tonight.’ ”

The dawning moment? When the 5-foot-8, 175-pound junior knew he was a legitimate Division I college basketball player?

That is clear.

First Granville, coming on the heels of leading Westchester High to the City Section 4-A and the state Division I championships, endured an up-and-down 1998-99 freshman season. He was the starting point guard and led the Trojans in assists at 5.0, but he averaged only 7.7. points as he learned Bibby’s system and endured the coach’s tongue-lashings in practice.

“From the beginning Brandon got yelled at a lot,” teammate and good friend David Bluthenthal said, “because Coach knew he could take it.”

But while the skin was thick, doubts swirled inside Granville’s head. “Even working out in the summer I wondered if I could excel at this level like I did in high school,” he said.

Then he grew--figuratively--last season as the Trojans’ floor leader. He averaged 13.1 points a game and led the Pacific 10 Conference in assists at 8.3. His season total of 248 assists set a school record, and he also set a Trojan single-game assists record with 15 against Memphis in the Maui Invitational tournament.

And he knew.

“After the [season], seeing what I accomplished--being fourth nationally in assists, being second to Jeff [Trepagnier] in the Pac-10 in steals--showed me I could play at this level,” Granville said.

It’s that level of confidence Granville has brought to this season and to the 15th-ranked Trojans for today’s 2:30 p.m. game against 18th-ranked Utah in the Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond.

In directing the undefeated Trojans to season-opening wins against Bradley, San Diego and Loyola Marymount, Granville is off to an excellent start. He is second on the team in scoring, averaging 16.3 points a game, and--of course--leads the Trojans in assists at 8.0 a game. His .462 field-goal percentage is well above his career average of .375.

“He’s got a lot of strengths,” San Diego Coach Brad Holland said. “He’s a very good defender. On offense he has a couple of gears to get by people and put pressure on a defense. He can penetrate, but you must guard him on the perimeter because he’s a quality shooter.

“On top of that he’s got the ability to lead his team. There are some point guys who have skills but not leadership ability. But it seems to me he has good command of his team. They look to him for leadership, and he provides that.”

Bluthenthal, who was Granville’s teammate at Westchester, said Granville always has had the ability to absorb what the coach wants and translate it to the team.

“He’s a sponge,” Bluthenthal said. “He not only knows the offense, but he can suggest to Coach Bibby things that he sees on the court that can work during the game. And lots of times he’s right.”

But it’s not enough.

Granville wants more. In part because Bibby wants more.

“The key to our team is Brandon because he is the coach on the floor,” Bibby said. “He handles the ball 99% of the time, and makes the decisions. That’s a lot of pressure on a kid for the system we play. We may have six to eight options on any one play, which is why I need a cerebral point guard.

“I still don’t think he has it all, he’s still a young kid, but he’s a better cerebral player than I was. I had more ability, but he is a more intellectual player in analyzing the game. So I want to put other drive in him. Being quick and playing hard all the time, being a pest all the time, demanding things from the other players. If he went game speed all the time, there might not be a better point guard than Brandon.”

Granville knows all too well that Bibby knows what he’s talking about. The USC coach was an All-American at UCLA, winning three national championships, and was a member of the 1972-73 NBA champion New York Knicks. As a point guard.

“It’s hard playing point guard for someone who’s played it at every level,” Granville said. “[Bibby] expects a lot out of you. He expects leadership, he expects you to score. He expects you to get everybody involved.

“Basically he expects you to do everything and take control out there on the court. At times it seems like it’s never good enough. But when I think it’s really hard and I can’t live up to what he expects, then I look back and appreciate how hard he pushes me.”

But even that appreciation has been stretched taut at times.

“Coach really gets after me because he uses me as an example a lot,” Granville said . “I kinda know how to deal with it, and I try to take it in stride as much as I can. Sometime my lip gets out of hand and I talk too much in practice and we have to run. But I think, for the most part, I handle it pretty well.”

What Granville and the Trojans want to find out against the 4-1 Utes is whether they can handle--and win--a big game.

This is not the Utah of Keith Van Horn or Andre Miller. But it’s still a Utah team capable of stretching its current streak of 20-win seasons to seven and defending its Mountain West Conference championship. The Utes also have two excellent juniors in guard Kevin Bradley, formerly of Compton College and Crenshaw High, and forward Jeff Johnsen, both averaging 11.8 points a game to lead the team.

More important, Utah has a reputation that gets serious NCAA consideration at tournament time. A win today would go a long way in helping USC get that kind of reputation.

“It’s something me and Brian [Scalabrine] have talked about the last two days,” Granville said. “As a chance to make a statement, this is pretty much it. This game will determine how our preseason goes. If we win, it’s huge. We still have big games with Northridge and Pepperdine and some other local teams, but we won’t have a chance to play another ranked team, except maybe in the Pearl Harbor if we play Iowa State.

“If we’re gonna make it happen, and try and go into Pac-10 in the top 10, this is where we’ve got to get it done.”