Bibby Clears Confusion Over His Contract Status

A miscommunication between USC’s athletic department and the school’s sports information department led to a false impression that men’s Coach Henry Bibby was going into the 2004-05 season as a lame duck.

“I have a multi-year contract,” Bibby said Wednesday. “I’m very happy where I am.”

Bibby was anything but pleased, however, with the perception that his contract with the school ended at the conclusion of next season, as the school’s media guide has read since 2000, when the school announced that he had signed a contract extension Aug. 4, one “which will take him through the 2004-2005 season.”

Said Bibby: “I never said I only had one year left.”

Nor did he, or anyone else in the athletic department for that matter, care to correct the error, which has been carried in every media guide since 2001, when Bibby was apparently rewarded with another year after the Trojans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

“He absolutely has a multi-year contract,” Athletic Director Mike Garrett said. “But I don’t discuss the specifics or the status of contracts.”

It is believed that Bibby’s contract runs through the 2005-06 season and brings him about $600,000 annually.

The apparent lame-duck status of Bibby has been fodder for fans antsy for a change, as well as for opposing coaches who are recruiting against USC, which is coming off consecutive losing seasons for the first time in Bibby’s eight-year tenure.

Still, Bibby said all has gone well on the recruiting front, and while the late-signing period extends through May 14, the Trojans are looking to add forward Nick Young of Reseda Cleveland and a guard to last fall’s three-man class of guard Gabe Pruitt of Westchester High, center Robert Swift of Bakersfield High and forward Emanuel Willis of Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va.

With the NCAA looking to repeal the rule on scholarship limits, the Trojans are interested in Kansas transfer guard Omar Wilkes.

The Trojans will have seven seniors on the team next season.

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The promotion of Bob Cantu from administrative assistant to assistant coach is expected to become official within days.

Cantu, a former assistant at Cal State Sacramento who has maintained his certification to recruit since joining Bibby’s staff in 2001, has been recruiting for USC since Marvin Menzies left for Nevada Las Vegas last month.

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USC has delayed its Dec. 11 nonconference home game against St. Mary’s a year so the Trojans can take part in a basketball doubleheader at San Diego’s Cox Arena that day.

USC will play San Diego, and San Diego State will play host to California in the second game.