Trojans Playing Well Early but Crumbling Late

Compounding the frustration felt by USC in its losing ways is the fact that the Trojans have played well ... at the beginning of games.

Only once in Pacific 10 Conference play have the Trojans been outplayed from start to finish -- by Oregon in the league opener.

The Trojans led at halftime at Washington State and jumped to a 9-0 lead against the Cougars on Saturday. USC held a 15-point advantage against Arizona State and led late against California, led unbeaten Stanford by six at the half and led Washington by 11 on Thursday.

Yet USC lost each of those games and is sitting at 4-7 and in eighth place in the Pac-10, 9-11 overall, leading to more annoyance with the Trojans’ recent hodgepodge lineup.

“Changes? We’ve played every possible lineup we can play to see who’s going to step it up,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “Everyone’s had an opportunity.”

Bibby has started four different lineups in the last five games and of the Trojans’ 10-man rotation, only tight end-turned-power forward Gregg Guenther has yet to start a game.

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USC’s frontcourt players -- notably power forward Jeff McMillan and center Rory O’Neil -- carried the Trojans in their nonconference games.

But the two were virtually invisible in the 60-51 loss to Washington State, O’Neil going for five points and four rebounds in 29 minutes and McMillan for four points and three rebounds in 15 minutes.

“Our big guys were getting eaten up inside,” Bibby said. “There just wasn’t enough production from them. The [Cougars] were undersized, but they outworked us. Our guys didn’t work to post up to get to score.”

The lines for the other USC big men: Guenther was scoreless and had one rebound in six minutes, forward Nick Curtis had six points and one rebound in 14 minutes, and center Jonathan Oliver had two points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.

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The 51 points USC scored against the Cougars were the fewest it had produced at home since Feb. 12, 1998, a 73-43 loss to California. It was also USC’s lowest-scoring game since Nov. 24, 1999, a 52-50 loss to Utah State in the Maui Invitational.