Trojan Bubble About to Burst

Many prognosticators are saying the Pacific 10 Conference is assured of getting five teams into the NCAA tournament, and that USC is one of those teams.

USC had better not believe everything it hears.

The Trojans, who play at Oregon tonight, have picked the wrong time to be playing their worst basketball of the season.

Concerned he had been driving the team too hard after the 44-point meltdown against Arizona last week, Coach Henry Bibby tried to make Thursday’s game against Oregon State more relaxed. There were no pregame lectures, no lists of what to do on the locker-room blackboard. Once the game started, he let the players run the plays they wanted to against the Beavers.

“You get to be a fragile team sometimes at this point,” Bibby said Friday. “You have to be concerned with how the kids are thinking, and are they ready to get over the hump, and start making that happen. So I tried to give them some leeway to get back on track and get comfortable with their play.”

The move backfired. The Beavers, with a roster so injury-depleted they’ve had only eight players most of the season, ran up a 21-point lead in the second half en route to a 67-52 victory.

Whether Bibby was risking the season to make the Trojans understand why coaches run the team instead of the players, he didn’t say. But the setback gives him the license to change the starting lineup today.

“Absolutely,” Bibby said. “I’m looking at a couple of changes; I’m not sure who yet. But we have to make some adjustments tomorrow.”

The candidates appear to be David Bluthenthal and Jeff Trepagnier.

Bluthenthal has volunteered to sit.

“I told [assistant] Coach [Dave] Miller last night to tell Coach Bibby I didn’t think I deserved to start,” Bluthenthal said. “. . . Whether he starts me or not, I won’t blame him. Maybe it will help. Hopefully I can bring some energy off the bench, that I can see where I can fit in and have an impact.”

Something needs to happen soon, because the Trojans are pressing.

“It seems that way,” forward Sam Clancy said. “We were terrible last night, and we talked among ourselves, but I really don’t know what the problem is. We’re not playing smart or hard. We have to be more focused on our goal, and try and make it work.”

There are other issues.

* USC has not been the same since losing for the second time to UCLA.

The Trojans were coming off a great weekend in the Bay Area, barely losing to top-ranked Stanford and routing California. They had all the motivation: the home crowd behind them, and an opponent the Trojans felt had gotten away with dirty play when the teams met the month before at Pauley Pavilion.

But instead of leaping into the second half of conference play, the Trojans fell hard, 85-76. Since that game they are 1-3, are shooting a wretched 37.7% from the field and an even more painful 25.7% from three-point range. They are being outscored by an average of 81.2-67.2, and are getting outrebounded, 40-35.

“I don’t know if we doubt we can compete with teams,” guard Brandon Granville said. “But there may be some doubt on which [USC] team is going to show up.”

* Trepagnier’s return to the starting lineup in place of Desmon Farmer has not given the Trojans the lift Bibby thought it would.

Trepagnier, who sat out the first 12 games because of a foot injury and a suspension during an NCAA investigation (he was cleared), has had one great game, against Cal, when he had 19 points and 11 rebounds. In 11 other games, Trepagnier is averaging 6.2 points (after averaging 15.9 last season) and he’s making only 34% of his shots.

Trepagnier said he’s thinking too much instead of just playing.

“I’m trying to do whatever I can to help the team win,” Trepagnier said. “I want to get to the [NCAA] tournament because I’ve never been to it. All of the seniors--Jarvis [Turner], Brian [Scalabrine], Tyler Murphy, myself--feel we have a pretty good chance to go this year. . . . We have to regain the chemistry we had last year.”