Sophomore Curtis Takes Step Forward

Two games into the season, three projected starters already have been benched and USC has suffered a controversial last-second overtime loss to Rhode Island.

But the most surprising aspect of the Trojans’ nascent season has been the inspired play of sophomore power forward Nick Curtis.

Curtis, the youngest member of the team, turned 19 on Nov. 23 but has played like a veteran for the Trojans, averaging 13 points and a team-high 8.7 rebounds. He averaged one point and 0.8 rebounds in 5.1 minutes per game as a freshman.

“He’s taken more of a leadership role and it’s something that has surprised me about him,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “He’s talking more and he’s coming out and fighting for what he thinks is right for the basketball team. We need somebody to do that.

“It’s so interesting what one game can do for a kid. I think that game in Rhode Island just took him to another level of play. He played 45 minutes.... He made four big free throws for us down the stretch. One game can get a guy over the hump.”

Curtis, who is 6 feet 8, 220 pounds, grew up in Oxnard and will have a homecoming, of sorts, tonight at UC Santa Barbara, where numerous friends and family members will join the Thunderdome crowd.

“I figured I’d have a bigger role this year, yeah, but I got a big look in that Rhode Island game,” said Curtis, who also considered attending Santa Barbara and California. “It does give me confidence.”

Bibby said chats with Curtis’ mother, Colleen, gave him a clue about what buttons to push.

“I think he has to get mad at times to play,” Bibby said. “That’s what his mom talked about, that someone needs to really push him and punch him and make him get mad so he’ll go out there and dominate. He can dominate if he wants to.

“He’s right along the lines of Sam Clancy, what he was his sophomore year. Sam wasn’t a super freshman. He got better his sophomore year but his junior and senior years he just blossomed into a great player. I think Nick Curtis can be that.”

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Bibby also talked about the prospect of the Trojans’ contested loss at Rhode Island being overturned and the result being vacated: “There might be too much egg on everybody’s face to do that. There should be some fairness but like they said, the fair is in Pomona.”

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TONIGHT

at UC Santa Barbara, 7 p.m.,

Channel 56

Site -- Events Center.

Radio -- KMPC (1540), KPLS (830).

Records -- USC 2-1, UC Santa Barbara 2-2.

Update -- Sophomore starters Errick Craven and Rory O’Neil, who were held out of Saturday’s win over Morris Brown, have made amends and their brief suspensions are over.