At Face Value, Granville Excels

Brandon Granville’s face is just about at elbow level when he ventures into the lane.

And the 5-foot-9 senior point guard has been taking a lot of blows to the face of late, including the two he absorbed against No. 11 UCLA on Thursday, the second of which sent him to the bench for more than eight minutes when he experienced blurred vision.

“I don’t know what’s up with that,” Granville said with a smile, trying to explain the frequency with which he has been hit this season. “I guess they’re after me.

“It’s just a freak thing though.”

Granville is sporting a shiner under his right eye after his latest encounter, which occurred with less than 10 minutes to play in the Trojans’ 81-77 victory over the Bruins. But it came not from an opponent but from Sam Clancy, USC’s 6-7, 240-pound power forward.

“I tried to take a charge on Billy Knight,” Granville said. “Sam went up for the block and I was on the floor and Sam came down and hit me with his knee in the eye.

“But I’m straight now.”

During preseason workouts, Granville took an elbow to the mouth from his then-roommate and backup point guard Robert Hutchinson that loosened Granville’s front teeth. He has been wearing a special mouthpiece on the court since and is USC’s second-leading scorer, averaging 12.8 points overall, 16.2 in conference.

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With two blocked shots against UCLA, Clancy pulled into a three-way tie for ninth place with Arizona’s Ed Stokes and Stanford’s Tim Young on the Pacific 10 career list with 167.

Clancy is USC’s all-time leading shot blocker.

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The 13-2 Trojans are 5-0 in Pac-10 play for the second time in school history. The 1999-2000 team won its first five conference games.

The 1960-61 Trojans also won their first five league games, but that was when they played in the Athletic Assn. of Western Universities.

USC won the league title that season by going 9-3 and finished 21-8 after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

With a victory at No. 20 Arizona on Thursday, the Trojans can become the first USC team to begin league play 6-0 since 1942-43, when USC played in the Southern Division of the Pacific Coast Conference.

USC’s 1932-33 team started a school-best 9-0 in PCC play.

The Trojans’ nine-game winning streak, which began Dec. 12 at Long Beach State, is their longest since the 1991-92 season, when USC, led by Harold Miner, won nine in a row en route to a 24-6 finish and No. 8 final ranking.

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USC had not been ranked in the coaches’ poll since the week of Nov. 12, when the Trojans were No. 23. They are No. 23 in this week’s poll.

The Associated Press poll, which last ranked the Trojans at No. 24 the week of Nov. 19, will be released today.

Paul Gutierrez