Bibby Concentrates on Road Ahead

A UCLA game means more than your average Pacific 10 Conference game. But USC Coach Henry Bibby doesn’t want the Trojans to lose sight of the fact that tonight’s outcome counts as only one game.

“[The media] think I downplay this game,” he said. “I don’t. It’s a very big game for us. But so were the Washington and Washington State games at home.

“For us to give the Pac-10 a run, we also have to win on the road. This is a road game we need to put a lot of emphasis on to win. It will be the same thing next week when we go to Arizona. We’re looking to see what road games we can pick up and win, and UCLA is one of those road games we have to pick up.”

It won’t be easy, Bibby said, because he feels the Bruins--who, like the 19th ranked Trojans, are on a three-game winning streak--are playing very good basketball now.

“UCLA should be favored,” Bibby said. “We’re playing at their place, and usually teams are favored in their place. And UCLA is playing very well; their last three games have been unbelievable. They’ve done some good things. They should be favored.”

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Bibby said he understands the intensity of the rivalry from his playing days at UCLA.

“We hated USC and wanted to beat them every chance we got,” said Bibby, who played on three national championship teams at UCLA.

“I knew guys from Los Angeles who talked about the games in the summertime. USC guys would come over and play in Pauley Pavilion in the summer and try to win the summer league games. It carried over from the season.

“Not being from Los Angeles, I didn’t understand it my first year. But after being here a year, I learned.”

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USC doesn’t have a specific go-to guy, but the Trojans have several guys they can go to for points.

Four players have led the team in scoring this season, and five have scored at least 20 points in a game. Sam Clancy (31), David Bluthenthal (29, 25), Brian Scalabrine (28) and Desmon Farmer (24) have all scored at least 24 points. Brandon Granville is the fifth player to crack the 20-point barrier.