They Are Profiting From Sharing

One of the staples of USC’s five-game winning streak has been the unselfish play among the starting five. Not only have the Trojans shared the ball, they have done their best to spread around the shots.

In victories over San Diego State, Northwestern, Washington State, Washington and UCLA, the most shots any USC player has taken is 18. That was by Brian Scalabrine, and that was in an overtime game against Washington.

During this same stretch, the Trojans have averaged 19.8 assists, slightly higher than the 17.4 average they had in their first 10 games.

“I think all the guys [are looking for each other]. I’ve been very pleased with that,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “It’s something we haven’t talked about a lot, but I think all the guys are looking for each other. That’s something that is changing here. When I first got here, we weren’t necessarily doing that. We were more selfish.

“We can get a little selfish at times. But I think they want to win. They’ve done a nice job of looking to each other and distributing the basketball. We’ve had a lot of assists this year that we haven’t had in the past. They’re really trying to make that extra pass. We don’t always complete it, but we try.”

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With three more steals in the UCLA game, Jeff Trepagnier raised his season total to 60 (in 14 games). He needs only three more to break the school single-season record set by Derrick Dowell in 1987.