Trojan Jugglernaut : Bibby Mixes and Matches His Lineup Because of New Players, Injuries and Suspensions and Still Has USC Thinking Tournament

He has been called a poor father, criticized for running up the score on hapless UC Irvine and began his career at USC by losing his first nine games.

So it is no wonder that as USC prepares to face UCLA tonight at the Sports Arena for first place in the Pacific 10 Conference, what is least mentioned about Trojan Coach Henry Bibby is what may be the most obvious.

“That he can coach,” USC center David Crouse said. “Everything that has been said about him [in the past] has been about his personal life; what hasn’t been said is that he is a good coach.”

Bibby must be doing something right to have a team that ended the 1995-96 season with 10 losses in a row, nine under Bibby, off to a 9-5 start (4-2 in conference), challenging Stanford and UCLA and talking about an NCAA tournament appearance--something not achieved since 1992.

Bibby has done this with nine new players, despite several injuries and suspensions, and with media scrutiny on his pending divorce and relationship with his son, Mike, a freshman guard for Arizona.

“There have been distractions, and we have put him in situations [with suspensions] that we shouldn’t have,” forward Rodrick Rhodes said. “But he still does his job and deserves more credit.”

Bibby’s best coaching move may have come before the season, when he and his staff recruited nine players in 45 days to add to the four returning seniors.

Six of the first-year players (five junior college transfers and freshman Jarvis Turner) have played inspired basketball during the team’s recent success, making up for the loss of two-thirds of the freshman class (Danny Walker and Shannon Swillis to season-ending injuries) and Rhodes, who is day to day because of a twisted knee.

Bibby knew about Turner, one of the top high school seniors in the state, but to hear him talk about the recruitment of the others is to understand how quickly the team was thrown together.

Gary Johnson: “Saw him play on tape in a hotel room.”

Anthony White: “Never saw him play.”

Gary Williams: “Saw him play in an all-star game and he didn’t score a point.”

Ken Sims: “Saw him play one game.”

Elias Ayuso: “Watched him play half a game, but couldn’t even pronounce his name.”

“We have a couple guys who were supposed to be good and a bunch of guys who came out of nowhere,” said Crouse, a fifth-year senior. “But coach still puts us in a position to win every night.”

USC has had nine different starting lineups this season because of the injuries and suspensions, but it is during those setbacks that Bibby’s team achieved the most.

The Trojans are 3-1 when Rhodes does not play significant minutes, routed Ohio State when Rhodes, Boseman and Williams were suspended for breaking curfew, and played well at Stanford when senior Jaha Wilson was suspended for walking out of a meeting.

Bibby has juggled lineups, benched veterans, all while convincing players that he is doing what’s best for the team.

“I’m fair to the guys,” said Bibby, who replaced Charlie Parker as interim coach last February, becoming head coach in March. “If they don’t do the job, then some other player needs that opportunity.”

A good example is Crouse, who in victories over Arizona and Arizona State last week scored a combined 24 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, drawing praise from Bibby. Much of the season, Bibby had called him an underachiever and benched him in losses to North Carolina and Nevada Las Vegas.

“When I was a freshman, people would criticize me, and I would think, ‘Here we go again, bagging on Dave.’ But Coach Bibby has a way of criticizing you and demanding things from you but still keeping it within the team focus.

“He’ll say in a meeting or practice, ‘David Crouse, where are you, we need you to do this and this,’ and you don’t feel like he is being critical but just telling you what the team needs.”

Said Rhodes: “He talks about how people never told him how life without basketball would be. That they weren’t straight with him. But there is one thing he always tells us, ‘Whatever you’ll say about me, the one thing you can say that is true is that I’ll be real with you. I’m not going to hold any punches. I’m going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.’ ”

Bibby has managed to not offend his players with his honesty, which is biting at times. Only Wilson was rumored to be unhappy with his role as sixth man, and Bibby denied there was a problem.

Each of his moves is backed by a grading system in which coaches rate each player’s performance in every practice. Bibby uses those marks to determine who deserves more playing time and who sits.

“It is the fairest possible system if you are a player,” assistant coach David Miller said. “We can look back and see who played well on Oct. 14, Nov. 7 or Dec. 23, see who was doing the right things, and who deserves to play.”

Because of that system, Ayuso went from not playing at all to a starter averaging 12.2 points in Pac-10 play, and Johnson went from the third guard off the bench to a starter against Arizona.

Bibby has also said that no player is exempt.

“When Stais [Boseman] wasn’t playing well, I told him that if Danny Walker wasn’t injured, then he would have started in his spot,” Bibby said.

That would have been simply another unorthodox move by Bibby, most of which have worked. Consider:

--Wilson, a starter last season, was sent to the bench before the first game and told the team needed a top reserve. And until the death of his grandmother before the California game Jan. 9, he was the team’s most consistent player.

--Boseman was switched from point guard to small forward and Rhodes moved to the point, helping produce victories over Washington and Washington State. And in the six games at the new position, Boseman is averaging 17.6 points and, as Bibby said, “has shown again that he is one of the top players in the Pac-10.”

Said Miller: “There is not one thing we will face that he has not seen 1,000 times in his career. He can look at a tape once and see something that maybe takes me three times to see.”

The suspensions have been a nagging problem for Bibby, and they have come from the least likely players--three returning seniors and Williams, a junior.

“We are changing old habits and old attitudes around here. And if guys don’t want to abide by that, then you are not a part of the team,” Bibby said. “And I am backed 100% by [Athletic Director] Mike Garrett on that.”

Said Garrett: “I was impressed with [Bibby] last year when they went to 0-9 and the only thing I questioned was if he was going to get some kids to come in and join the four players we had coming back and then give them a winning attitude. And he has done that.”