Don’t Like Today’s Sweet 16? There Are That Many Games Friday Too

With seven tattoos adorning his body, Jerry Dupree is USC’s Illustrated Man.

None of the artwork tells the full story for the Trojans, however.

It’s a tale about Dupree and teammate Desmon Farmer throwing a joint coming-out party for themselves at Staples Center last week, a get-together that did more than pull them out of their respective funks and massage their damaged psyches.

Their performances in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament as emotional sparkplugs also lengthened USC’s bench, a key component for success in the NCAA tournament, which begins today for the 18th-ranked Trojans with a South Regional game against North Carolina Wilmington in Arco Arena.

“I think we’re a lot deeper now because we’ve got D-Farm finally playing like he should have been all year,” All-American forward Sam Clancy said. “And Jerry, same thing with him too. Those guys are finally starting to step up and do what coach wants them to do.

“It makes us a real good team because [opposing teams] can’t just focus on just me or someone else because now we’ve got other guys coming off the bench who are providing too.”

During USC’s run to the Elite Eight last year, the Trojans got an average of 22.3 minutes off the bench in four NCAA tournament games.

In last week’s Pac-10 tournament, in which USC advanced to the title game against Arizona, the USC bench contributed 49.3 minutes per game. And that was with Dupree starting twice.

“They’ve really helped us and Desmon Farmer should have probably been all-tournament the way he played,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “He won those games for us. The bench won those games for us. They stepped in and gave us a whole different look.”

Despite coming off the bench, Farmer was USC’s second-leading scorer in the tournament, averaging 17.0 points in 26.7 minutes. He was more electric than erratic in making 58.1% of his shots, 40% (six of 15) of his three-pointers.

This was even more impressive after he averaged 7.5 points in conference games.

Dupree, meanwhile, averaged 10.3 points and blocked a team-high six shots while shooting 73.7% from the field.

He was averaging 3.0 points before the league tournament.

“We’re real deep now,” Farmer said. “Last year, we only went six or seven deep. This year, we’re up to about nine players.”

With Bibby figuring to start Dupree today and Farmer one of the first off the bench, USC also has viable substitute options in Derrick Craven, Robert Hutchinson and Rory O’Neil, who should see more time today against the half-court-oriented Seahawks.

But it’s the emergence of the high-flying Dupree and Farmer that makes USC such a different team.

“He gives us another great shot-blocker,” Bibby said of Dupree. “We struggle a little offensively with Jerry because he’s [still] kind of learning what we’re doing, but defensively he just adds another dimension to us.

“One of the reasons I didn’t play him as much the second half [of the tournament title game against Arizona] is because we needed to run [offensive] stuff and he wasn’t really running what we wanted to run and I had to go to guys that were running the offense for us.

“When you get to the best teams, you have to execute your offense. You can’t just go out and run and play and outjump people. You have to have a game plan, you have to stick to that game plan and you have to execute.”

There were times this year when it looked as though Bibby was ready to execute both Dupree and Farmer, what with them often being lost in practice and in half-court sets and looking uninterested during team huddles. Dupree was, after all, kicked out of a team film session two weeks ago after skipping an optional shoot-around.

But that all changed last week, along with the face of the Trojans entering the NCAA tournament.

“It’s been riches to rags to riches,” said Dupree, who started the Trojans’ first three games of the year before entering Bibby’s perpetually occupied doghouse, a stay that included a two-minute outing at San Diego.

“But I guess everything was meant to happen for a reason.”

USC assistant coach Damon Archibald confirmed Wednesday that he had been contacted in an unofficial capacity regarding the head coaching vacancy at Boise State, his alma mater, and fellow assistant Kurtis Townsend also said that he has an interest in the Long Beach State job. But both said their immediate concerns were with the Trojans and would not actively pursue other jobs while USC is still playing ....USC moved to a different hotel for the second year in a row during the NCAA tournament. The Trojans, who were staying at a Holiday Inn, set up shop at a Doubletree Inn on Wednesday. Bibby said he didn’t make the switch out of superstition. “Two elevators weren’t working and with more people coming in I wanted to get out. Same thing as last year,” he said.