Bibby Likes Trojans’ Chances

USC got off to the start it had hoped for in Pac-10 play, winning its first two games. But the next five--against UCLA and the Arizona schools at home and the Oregon schools on the road--figure to have an impact the rest of the conference season.

If the Trojans aren’t playing their best ball, they can be pulled into the kind of losing streak--they lost six in a row--that wrecked last year’s conference season.

UCLA is more than an intra-city rival. The Bruins, having won the last 10 meetings, are a mental albatross the Trojans must shed. And after beating top-ranked Stanford on the road, Arizona is now the favorite to win the conference title.

As long as Arizona State has the incandescent Eddie House, it will be in every game. And traditionally the Beavers and Ducks are twice as tough at home as on the road.

USC Coach Henry Bibby, however, won’t allow defeatist thinking on his team, which has won four in succession and six of the last seven.

“People say Stanford, Arizona and UCLA are locks for the NCAA,” Bibby said. “There’s no shoo-in for any team in the Pac-10 [except the conference champion].

We have a game plan and we’re going after these guys. I think there are games we can win in the Pac-10, and there are games that we have to play our best ball ever to win. The guys believe very much. But we have to treat each game as the last one we’ll ever play. We have to do things well, like rebound, play tough, solid defense, get easy baskets, make jump shots and have an inside-outside game.

“We have to do all those things. And when we do those things, we can win some games.”