Cougars Making Progress, Slowly

Errick Craven scratched his head last spring when he heard that Dick Bennett was taking his brand of grind-it-out basketball to Washington State.

The USC junior guard had a South Bay high school rival and friend in Cougar point guard Marcus Moore, an up-tempo gunner who had declared himself available for the NBA draft last spring before withdrawing his name.

“The new system is slow and I was like, ‘I don’t know if Marcus will like that,’ ” Craven said Friday. “Marcus is used to just doing his thing. I don’t know.... That’s not his game at all.”

Moore, who played three seasons at Redondo Union High and one at Compton Dominguez, and the rest of the Cougars have adapted. The’ve already won as many games as they won all last season, even if Moore’s scoring average has fallen by more than four points, from 18.2 to 14.

Bennett’s method, which took Wisconsin to the 2000 Final Four, has the Cougars (7-6, 2-1 in the Pacific 10) averaging 54.7 points, their opponents 56.3.

It should make for an interesting afternoon, what with the frenetic pace the young and restless Trojans prefer.

“We haven’t been a patient team, so it could be a factor,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “... Hopefully we can get them to speed it up where we can get some deflections and steals like we got [Thursday at Washington]. I think we created that with our defense.”

Expect the Trojans to press and trap in hopes of setting the tempo as they did in the 88-80 victory Thursday night, when they had 17 steals and forced 29 turnovers.

“We control the game with our defense,” said freshman point guard Rodrick Stewart. “If we come out sloughing on defense, we’re going to be in for a long night.

“It’s only going to be as hard as we make it. We do the things we’re supposed to do, listen to the coaches, it shouldn’t be hard at all.”

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Bibby stripped junior guard Derrick Craven of his co-captaincy and replaced him with junior center Rory O’Neil. Bibby did not say how Craven took his “demotion.”

“I didn’t ask him, it’s not up for discussion,” Bibby said. “It’s not a demotion. Sometimes you have to relinquish certain things to other people to get back up on top again. I need Derrick Craven. I need him to play, I need him to focus, I need him in the game.”

Junior forward Jeff McMillan remains the Trojans’ other co-captain.

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Senior guard Roy Smiley, who has not played this season after breaking his leg in the final game last season and underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee last week, will take a medical redshirt and return next season.

“Now I can get focused on what I need to,” said Smiley, a Seattle native who made the trip with USC, “get my head in the books and take care of my rehab.”

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TODAY

at Washington State, 1 p.m.

Fox Sports Net

Site -- Spokane Arena.

Radio -- KMPC (1540), KSPA (1510), XEMM (800).

Records -- USC 7-5 overall, 2-1 in Pacific 10; Washington State 7-6, 1-2.

Update -- The Trojans’ travel travails continued as their 9 a.m. flight from Seattle to Spokane was canceled. They left an hour later. Delays kept them from arriving in Seattle from L.A. until almost 3 a.m. Thursday, some eight hours late.