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SoCalHoops College News

Daily News Notes: USC Not
Rated High Enough--(Nov. 5, 1999)

That will teach Henry Bibby to show up more often at those media day luncheons. Hah, think you can get away with sending Paul Mokeski in your place? We'll show you. . . 7th Place. There, take that. Mwahahahahaha.

Henry Bibby was not pleased with the media. But then that's nothing new. The preseason media poll released yesterday at the Pac-10 Media Day event had the Trojans projected to finish 7th in the Pac-10 this year. And interestingly, whether Bibby is please or not, the media day poll has correctly picked the Pac-10 champions the last five years in a row. But then at least Henry showed up to the event, unlike the Southern California D-I Coaches' Media Day Luncheon a couple of weeks ago at the LA Athletic Club sponsored by the Wooden Foundation, where he sent USC's new and towering 7'-0" coach, Paul Mokeski in his place and stead.

On second thought, with a 7th place pick, maybe Henry should have sent Mokeski again.

"What do they know?," Bibby told the Daily News' Scott Wolf, in an article published in the Daily News and Long Beach P-T. "I don't know how they picked us that low when we finished 15-12 and beat Stanford, and some other good teams. I don't know how they can do that. Everyone's gotten better on our team. I don't worry about that."

And Bibby's right. The Trojans are much better than 7th place. But then somebody's got to be picked in these silly polls in 7th place. Why not the Trojans? They can be everyone's whipping boys. Heck, they're the only team in the conference without an on-campus arena. . . . sounds like 7th place to us. . .

Wolf's article (we'd link to it, but what's the point? The internet article will be gone in about 15 hours from now) also had some other news about the Trojans, who have their first game tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Lyons Center against on of the Double Pump "California All-Stars" teams. Here are some other tidbits from Wolf's article:

Junior center Brian Scalabrine expects the Trojans to sneak up on the Pac-10's elite. "We're the team that's going to catch up from behind and try and knock off the top teams," Scalabrine said. The starting five: USC's starting lineup will consist of point guard Brandon Granville, shooting guard Jeff Trepagnier, small forward David Bluthenthal, power forward Sam Clancy and Scalabrine. Senior forward Jarvis Turner will be the Trojans' sixth man. "Those are the six guys that showed maturity," Bibby said. "Jarvis can do more off the bench. He can accept coming off the bench more at this time than David." The Trojans should have six reliable players and will hope two or three newcomers will contribute. Bibby thinks junior-college transfer Rashad Jones will contribute at point guard, and 6-foot-11 freshman Kostas Charissis can back up Clancy and Scalabrine.

Apparently Bibby also told Wolf that Nate Hair (6'-4" Fr. SG) is about " two-to-three weeks away from practicing." Hair was injured during his senior season in high school, then after recovering, suffered a stress fracture in his knee last month. "He lost all the conditioning that he had," Bibby told Wolf. So it looks like we shouldn't expect to see Nate in any games any time soon, and a medical redshirt this season might be a better option for him, but only time will tell.

Oh, and about the Sports Arena: At least until the new on campus arena is built, the Trojans will have the place all to themselves, which is why, Wolf notes, they've repainted the floor: "USC's floor at the Sports Arena has been repainted and will have "Trojans" printed across the center. The free-throw lanes have been painted cardinal. The floor was previously blue and red to reflect the Clippers' colors."

Now if they can just get rid of that terrible aroma at the place. . . .