It’s Tough to Convince USC It Isn’t Half Bad

The USC men’s basketball team had a bad second half against Washington State on Saturday, being outscored, 39-21, in a 76-61 loss.

Reader Rick Van Kirk recalled a bad first half that USC had against UCLA in 1974, Bill Walton’s senior season.

UCLA had suffered back-to-back losses in Oregon that season and needed to beat USC in the final regular-season game at the Sports Arena to win the Pacific 8 championship and advance to what was then a 25-team NCAA tournament.

“Sufficiently motivated, the Bruins led the Trojans at halftime, 47-13,” Van Kirk said. “During the break, Trojan Coach Bob Boyd, while reviewing the stat sheet said, ‘And look at this, we only had two assists the entire half.’ To which senior guard Dan Anderson said, ‘But Coach, we only made four baskets.’ ”

USC went on to lose, 82-52, to finish second in the Pacific 8 and played in the Commissioner’s Conference Playoffs.

Trivia time: UCLA had won NCAA men’s basketball championships and gone 30-0 in Walton’s first two seasons on the UCLA varsity. What team stopped UCLA’s title run at seven in a row in the 1974 national semifinals, and who were the star and coach of that team?

Tables turned: “Pete Rose was told for 14 years that all would be forgiven and he would get into the Hall of Fame if he would admit he bet on baseball,” said KFWB’s Bret Lewis. “He did, and there has been a huge backlash.... So Pete is upset and says it’s not fair.

“Hey, Pete. I speak for America. We lied. How do you like it now?”

Unwanted caller ID: Last week, Associated Press accidentally transmitted an internal list of sports figures’ phone numbers. An AP spokesman said the list went only to certain media customers, who immediately received a high-priority “kill” message.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The list containing hundreds of numbers has since been copied and pasted and is making the rounds.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported “within 24 hours, angry sports figures were calling the AP to ask why their confidential numbers were released.”

Foreign support: TNT’s Charles Barkley, on why he likes foreign players:

“They play really hard, and they don’t have posses. They come over here and they work hard, and they are not spoiled. America is the greatest country in the world, but we have some spoiled ... “

Trivia answer: North Carolina State, led by David Thompson, defeated UCLA, 80-77, in double overtime, at Greensboro, N.C. The coach was Norm Sloan, who died last month.

And finally: Driver’s education teacher Bob Nodolf, whose former students in Cambridge, Wis., include Winston Cup champion Matt Kenseth, told the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison about a scolding Kenseth once received for skipping an English class.

According to Nodolf, the English teacher told Kenseth, “Do you think you’ll be driving a race car for the rest of your life?”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.