This town ain’t big enough for both of us

Wednesday, January 21, 1998

This town ain’t big enough for both of us

M.BASKETBALL

By Emmanuelle Ejercito

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

It’s a given.

If you go to UCLA, the colors maroon and gold send your body
into convulsions as you bleed blue and gold from your veins.

The UCLA-USC rivalry ranks amongst the premier in college
athletics. A losing football season can be salvaged with a win over
the Trojans. And perhaps if Southern Cal had stopped UCLA’s winning
streak at six, former USC football head coach John Robinson would
still have a job.

But that’s football. What about basketball? Does the
Bruin-Trojan rivalry run as deep on the hardwood than it does on
the grass field?

Rivalries are rivalries because they’re about two teams battling
for the top spot. The beauty of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry was the
fact that the two teams played for the World Championship almost
year in and year out in the 1960s and ’80s. So as far as UCLA
basketball goes, could USC really be called a rival?

The Bruins lead the series 111-93 with the Trojans winning most
of the games before World War II. In the last 30 years, UCLA has
won 45 of the 60 games. No player on the current Bruin squad has
lost to USC. And as for the two teams contesting each other for
titles? Well …

The 1996-1997 season marked the first time that USC gave the
Bruins a chase for the conference championship since the 1991-1992
season. And the Trojans have yet to win a national
championship.

"I don’t feel the cross-town rivalry," Bruin freshman Baron
Davis said. "I guess it’s something you have to gain by
experience."

If success is the determinant, then maybe the real UCLA
basketball rival is Arizona. In the last 10 years there are only
two teams that have won the conference title outright – the Bruins
and the Wildcats (Oregon State shared the Pac-10 crown in 1990 with
Arizona). Moreover, UCLA and Arizona are the only two Pac-10 teams
to win a national championship since Kennedy was president.

"I like to think of Arizona (as a rival) because this year they
are a tougher opponent," Bruin senior J.R. Henderson said, "but I
think that USC is the big game. It may not always turn out the way
it is pumped up to be, but still, going into it, everyone’s spirits
are high, the students are into it. It’s a big rivalry."

Last year, it was Henderson who stoked the flames of the rivalry
by saying, "I don’t plan on losing to ‘SC."

Though the UCLA-USC basketball rivalry doesn’t normally
determine national champions, it is about bragging rights. And
there’s no better feeling than beating your cross-town neighbor and
claiming to be the best in Los Angeles.

"I think that the rivalry is still big, in terms of who controls
this city," former Bruin basketball star and current USC head coach
Henry Bibby said.

The game also pits players who had faced each other while
growing up on the blacktops of Southern California.

"I think the Los Angeles thing is still there," UCLA head coach
Steve Lavin said. "Growing up playing each other in high school
like Baron Davis, (USC’s) Greg Lakey (from Lynwood High) and Kevin
Augustine (from Mater Dei High) that will be there."

The UCLA-USC basketball match-up has produced some memorable
moments for Bruin fans.

More recently, there was last year’s game at Pauley Pavilion,
where senior Toby Bailey had to score 24 points to help UCLA erase
a Trojan lead in the first half and to win, 82-60, in a game that
would decide first place in the conference.

Then there’s Charles O’Bannon’s last-second shot on his 21st
birthday that put USC away, 61-59, at the Sports Arena on Feb. 22,
1996.

For the Trojan fan, they have the 1984-85 season in which USC
swept the Bruins with the first game going into double overtime,
78-77, and the second game going into quadruple overtime,
80-78.

"(The USC game) was a game that was marked on the calendar,"
said Bibby, recalling his days playing the point for UCLA in the
early ’70s. "It was a game that we had to win."