He's a Substitute for Success

By PAUL GUTIERREZ

March 6, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There’s a fine line between a player who is fearless on the court and one who becomes the court jester by being foolishly out of control.

It’s a line Desmon Farmer has walked often this season.

The USC sophomore guard’s season of frustration may very well be of his own doing, but after a feel-good breakout-type game against Oregon State on Saturday, Farmer insists he has turned the corner.

And that’s a good thing for the 22nd-ranked Trojans. Farmer, who can score in bunches when he’s in the right frame of mind, is USC’s biggest X-factor off the bench in its quest to duplicate the success it enjoyed last March, when the Trojans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament under Coach Henry Bibby.

“Until Saturday night, I wasn’t really performing like Bibby wanted me to,” said the left-handed shooting Farmer, who seemingly exorcised his demons by going for 17 points, six rebounds and three steals in 20 minutes without a turnover.

“Coach has been getting in my tail about that. This has been a learning experience for me this year.”

Farmer came into the season expecting to take the starting shooting guard spot vacated by the departed Jeff Trepagnier. Farmer did, after all, average 8.5 points in 16 starts with Trepagnier serving a suspension.

But after starting five of USC’s first seven games this year, Farmer began reverting to his erratic ways. And with the emergence of steady freshman Errick Craven, a reluctant Farmer was relegated to the bench.

It was a blow to his pride. Yet he said the right things publicly, assuring everyone that he was accepting his role, that he was comfortable taking in the beginning of a game and getting a feel for it from the bench before coming in to impart his brand of instant offense.

But Bibby doles out playing time on a merit system, rewarding those who practice hardest, especially at the beginning of the season. Farmer apparently wasn’t cutting it in the North Gym and his minutes began to reflect Bibby’s thinking.

After Farmer started USC’s first three games, in which he scored a combined 19 points, Bibby took him on the road to Bradley to teach him an old-school lesson.

Down on Farmer’s work ethic, Bibby sat the sophomore for the entire game, knowing that a dozen members of Farmer’s family had made the trek from not-so-nearby Flint, Mich., to see him play. Bibby later acknowledged that while he thought of leaving Farmer in Los Angeles as punishment, he purposely benched Farmer in front of his family to drive the point home.

“That hurt because I had my people there,” Farmer said. “But I’m cool now.”

He would have more time to cool out and go into a slow burn while his minutes fluctuated.

Consider: Farmer played 24 quality minutes at Oregon and followed that with four minutes at UCLA. He then played seven minutes against Arizona State, 18 against Arizona, 11 at Stanford, 16 at California and four against Oregon before his 20-minute outing against Oregon State.

As a result, his average in minutes played took a precipitous fall. After averaging 23.9 minutes in the Trojans’ first 11 Pacific 10 Conference games, Farmer averaged 10 minutes in their next six.

His ever-present smile, accentuated by the mouthpiece he wears, was gone and he looked disinterested during team huddles when he wasn’t in the game.

“It’s been hard on him and it’s hard to see him go through it as an older brother but I’ve been telling him to just work harder,” said Tim Farmer, USC’s director of basketball operations. “I tell him that he came here for a reason, that if he’s deserving, he’ll get the playing time.”

Said the younger Farmer, dismissing rumors that he was considering a transfer: “I wasn’t thinking that this wasn’t the place for me, but I was struggling with my minutes going up and down. I was wondering what [Bibby] was thinking.

“With my time going up and down comes droughts and the confidence just goes away. I’m just going to stick it out and ... hopefully my role will grow next year.

“But I’m hungry for the tournament this year.”

That’s fine with the Trojans, who begin Pac-10 tournament play Thursday against Stanford.

“He’s going to be huge for us in [tournament] games,” senior forward Sam Clancy said of Farmer. “We’re going to need a guy off the bench to get us that offensive spark. When he comes in looking to pass first he’s struggled. He needs to come out and look for his shot.”

Bibby agreed, to a degree.

“I want my subs to come in and kind of be out of control,” he said. “We’ve had some of the subs come in and just be on the floor. You can’t be that as a sub. Desmon Farmer has to come in and be out of control where I either leave him in the game to play five more minutes or I’m going to take him out then.”

Farmer, who’s averaging 7.5 points in conference, had a sit-down with Bibby last weekend and, combined with his performance against Oregon State, insists his confidence is back.

“I’ll just go in there and play,” Farmer said. “If I mess up, I mess up. If I don’t, I don’t. Just roll.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

PAC-10 TOURNAMENT

First Round, Thursday

at Staples Center, Fox Sports Net

1 p.m....Oregon (1) vs. Washington (8)

3:30 p.m....USC (4) vs. Stanford (5)

6:30 p.m....Arizona (2) vs. Arizona St. (7)

9 p.m....California (3) vs. UCLA (6)

Friday’s Semifinals, Fox Sports Net

6 p.m....Game 1 vs. Game 2 winners

8:30 p.m....Game 3 vs. Game 4 winners