Trojans Starting to Lose Luster

A good deal of the national respect USC had been building this season was squandered Wednesday.

The 16th-ranked Trojans ran into a smallish Northwestern team (no starter taller than 6 feet 8) that played with a big heart and upset USC, 63-61, before 3,882 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Led by Tavaras Hardy, who scored a game-high 20 points, the Wildcats (7-5) scored the game’s first 15 points then spent the rest of the time holding off the Trojans for their first victory over a ranked team since they defeated No. 14 Purdue here Jan. 27, 1999.

USC (9-2), paced by David Bluthenthal with 17 points, never led and lost for the second time in three games. And as was the case in the loss to Mississippi Friday in Hawaii, the Trojans can look back on a trunkful of chances they had to pull out a victory.

Though they were outrebounded, 36-31, the Wildcats didn’t waste their shot attempts, making 52% from the field. At the same time, their variety of zone defenses took away most of USC’s inside attack and forced the Trojans to shoot jumpers. They shot 42% for the game.

Yet four times in the second half USC, which trailed at halftime, 38-29, got within one point of Northwestern. The last time was with 1:02 to play, after Brian Scalabrine rebounded a missed shot and put it back in to make the score 61-60.

And with nine seconds left, the Trojans had the ball under their basket. But Scalabrine’s pass intended for Sam Clancy (15 points, 11 rebounds) was intercepted by Wildcat guard Ben Johnson. He was fouled and made both shots to put Northwestern ahead by three.

USC drove frantically down the court, and Brandon Granville was fouled before he could get off a shot. He made the first foul shot, then missed the second. Jason Burke of Northwestern got the rebound with 2.4 seconds left, was fouled, and missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. Scalabrine’s desperation heave from the backcourt bounced harmlessly off the backboard.

“The kids deserve all the credit,” said first-year Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody, who spent the past 18 seasons at Princeton. “I didn’t take a shot or get a rebound. I was scared when we got that 15-0 start because I knew [the Trojans] had come back from a 20-point deficit to BYU in the second half and won. But our guys knew it too.

“I don’t know if you can call this a building block for the rest of the season, but it’s something.”

Afterward, USC Coach Henry Bibby said the Trojans, who play their final nonconference game Saturday against Long Beach State, have done enough good things to deal with this latest setback.

“I’ve been pleased with what we’ve been doing,” Bibby said. “We’ve been winning games. We’ve let two games get away, and I think--hopefully--the kids understand why they got away. It’s not that anybody beat us; we beat ourselves.”

No matter, the players said they realize they keep digging these deep holes, and that they can’t keep living on the razor’s edge without getting sliced up now and then.

“You can’t keep overcoming stuff like this on the road,” said Granville, who had 11 points, five assists and four steals. “At a neutral site some things can happen for us, but on the road it’s our own fault.

“I thought we were getting better each game, but now it looks like we’ve hit a little slump. We’re not peaking going into the Pac-10, the toughest part of our schedule. We’ve got to go back to practice; we’ve got a lot of stuff to work on.”

The game started out bad enough for USC because Bibby, for disciplinary reasons, did not start Bluthenthal or George Farmer, who were late for Monday’s practice.

Both went on to have good games; Farmer pitched in with 12 points and Bluthenthal had seven rebounds to go with eight-for-16 shooting from the field.

Had they started, could they have made a difference?

“Yes,” said Bluthenthal, who did not argue Bibby’s decision. “I don’t think they go off 15-0 if we’re in the game.”

Among those at the arena was Chicago Bull General Manager Jerry Krause, whose team is a virtual lock for the NBA lottery. Krause may have been in the house to get a look at Scalabrine, who was coming off a fine holiday tournament in Hawaii. But Scalabrine, the Trojans’ leading scorer (18.2), was hampered by stomach flu and scored only six points, making three of eight shots, in 16 minutes.

Those are the kind of obstacles the Trojans have been overcoming this season.

But not Wednesday.

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Missing the Kids

Rick Majerus has been suffering during an extended absence from the Utah Utes, Chris Dufresne writes. D6