Farmer Is Latest to Get Booted From Practice

Junior guard Desmon Farmer, the Pacific 10 Conference’s second-leading scorer in league games with a 23-point average, was kicked out of practice Tuesday by Coach Henry Bibby, becoming the fourth USC player in eight days to be sent home early.

“He wasn’t focused, working hard or sweating and he wasn’t doing what we need for him to do for us to be a better team,” Bibby said. “He was sulking around for the second straight day.”

Asked why Farmer would be sulking, with things going well for him, Bibby shrugged.

“You’ve got me,” Bibby said. “I don’t know what goes on in his head. Guys have to be accountable for their play.”

Farmer, who was unavailable for comment, was pulled early in the Trojans’ 76-74 victory over Arizona State on Saturday after missing a defensive assignment, although he returned and finished with 16 points in 28 minutes.

“This is not [merely] punishment,” said Bibby, who added that Farmer would travel to the Bay Area for the Trojans’ games at 25th-ranked California on Thursday and Stanford on Saturday. His playing status will be determined by his effort at today’s practice.

“It’s to make them better basketball players,” Bibby said. “I don’t have a doghouse.”

Bibby booted Jerry Dupree, Robert Hutchinson and Jonathan Oliver from practice on Jan. 13.

*

Counting as wins a pair of games that Cal later forfeited for using an ineligible player, the Golden Bears have beaten the Trojans nine of the last 10 times they’ve met in Berkeley. Last year’s 83-64 win at Haas Pavilion was Cal’s largest margin of victory over USC.

But with a different cast of characters, Trojan sophomore guard Errick Craven expects a different outcome.

“Last year we didn’t execute well in half court,” Craven said.