Craven Finally Gets Comfortable

After muddling through a pressure-packed nonconference schedule, Errick Craven has stopped worrying about scoring and being “the Man” at USC.

And wouldn’t you know that as soon as the fretting ceased, the sophomore shooting guard’s scoring went up, along with his groove for the game.

“I knew what people expected, but I really didn’t know how to follow through with it,” Craven said. “At first I thought it was just [about] scoring. I’m being more vocal now.”

In last weekend’s home split with Arizona and Arizona State, Craven’s actions spoke louder than words as he averaged 21.5 points. He has scored at least 20 points in three of his last four games; the surge has elevated his scoring average in Pacific 10 games to 18 points.

Conversely, the Trojans’ leading returning scorer, who averaged 11.8 points as a freshman, is averaging 11 points in eight nonconference games.

“I don’t think he was enjoying himself at the beginning, and I take the blame for putting a lot of pressure on him,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “I told him, ‘This is your team, you’ve got to make it happen.’

“Sometimes guys aren’t ready for that. He’s a young kid who played sparingly last year ... and that was wrong for me to do. I’ve learned from this process also.”

Bibby now shies away from making Craven the lone go-to guy.

“It’s a team effort.... It’s four or five guys that can step up and give us big nights, and I look forward to that.”

So does Craven.

“One day I decided to just go out and play and it felt just like high school,” he said. “No pressure, just playing.”

And scoring.

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Desmon Farmer declined to comment Wednesday night on being kicked out of Tuesday’s practice by Bibby for what was termed a poor work ethic.

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Junior forward Jerry Dupree (sore right foot) did not practice for the third straight day and is doubtful to play tonight.

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TONIGHT

at No. 25 California, 7

Site -- Haas Pavilion.

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

Records -- USC 7-6, 3-2; California 12-2, 5-0.

Update -- Cal senior forward Joe Shipp, the Pac-10’s leading scorer with a 21.4 overall average, already has four 30-point games and is averaging 29 points on 68.1% shooting from the field in his last three games.