Bibby builds bright future for ‘SC hoops

  KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Henry
Bibby led USC to their first-ever Elite Eight.

By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

PHILADELPHIA “”mdash; There is no one label to describe USC Head
Coach Henry Bibby. And that is pretty much how he likes it.

You can call him a champion, since he’s won titles at the
NCAA, CBA and NBA levels as a player.

You could call him stubborn, since he’s implemented his
pro-coaching style with the USC men’s basketball program
amidst controversy and turmoil to bring respectability to the
basketball program at a school heralded for its football
tradition.

But over the past three weeks, the most popular tag has been
“hot commodity.” After overcoming a familiar
late-season slide at USC he brought his squad to its first-ever
Elite Eight in the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

“It was a great run,” said departing senior forward
Brian Scalabrine, a possible lottery selection in the upcoming NBA
draft. “What we have done this year has helped USC
tremendously as far as everything we want to do (for the
program).”

USC, a program that had not climbed past the second round of the
NCAA Tournament since 1954, finished with a 24-10 record.

Bibby, a former UCLA player, took hold of the reins in the
middle of a mediocre 1996 season with a USC team that had only four
active scholarship players at one point. He lost his first nine
games to close out that season.

At 11-19, the only place to go was up. The following campaign
saw a turnaround for the Trojans, who finished 17-11 overall and
were runner-ups at 12-6 in the Pac-10.

This year, by returning to the Madness for the first time in
five years, Bibby solidified his spot as head coach of his alma
mater’s crosstown rival.

Bibby sits with a 57-57 coaching mark at USC, and it’s his
outspoken, no-nonsense attitude that is responsible for the
improvement of the Trojan hoops program.

“I tell the players the truth,” Bibby said. “I
don’t throw any curves. When I played, I never wanted to be
lied to. I try to help the players accept their
responsibilities.”

It’s only fitting that Bibby gained his expertise from the
greatest tactician and straight-shooter that the college game has
ever seen.

Under John Wooden’s tutelage between 1970-72, Bibby
bridged the gap between the Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul Jabbar),
and Bill Walton eras with an 87-3 college record in Westwood.

“From day one, Henry Bibby was fantastic,” said
former teammate Andy Hill, with whom Bibby shared the Seymour
Armond award for most outstanding UCLA freshman player in 1969.

“It was clear that he was going to be a major
contributor,” he added.

Bibby not only contributed, but orchestrated the fabled Bruin
fast break offense. With such other scoring greats like Sidney
Wicks, Jamaal Wilkes, Greg Lee and Walton surrounding him during
his senior Bruin season, “Instant Offense” ““ as
Bibby called it ““ led UCLA to a perfect 30-0 record and
Wooden’s eighth national title in 1972.

That squad became the highest scoring Bruin team in school
history at 94.6 points per game, with Bibby adding 15.7 per game,
the second highest on the team. He ended his career as one of 13
players with three NCAA championship rings.

“If Henry says he can do it, he can do it,” Walton
said. “All his life, he’s proved he can do whatever he
puts his mind to.”

Averaging 14.4 points per contest as a Bruin, Bibby still holds
the top spot in the record books for consecutive free throws made
at 36.

But it was his jaw-dropping play in the postseason that made
Bibby a favorite among his teammates and Wooden. With a 15.3 ppg
clip in March Madness, he scored double-digits in 10 of 12
postseason games and was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding
Player his junior and senior seasons.

Then the NBA came calling. A fourth-round pick by the New York
Knicks, he picked up right where he left off at UCLA. Winning an
NBA title during his rookie season in 1973, Bibby helped guide the
Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals in 1977 and 1980.

But his hardwood resume was far from complete. After a playing
and coaching stop in the Continental Basketball Association and
Venezuela, Bibby returned to Los Angeles. But instead of going back
to Westwood, he merged downtown ““ towards USC.

Having tasted glory and climbed the ladder to raise three of the
11 banners that hang in Pauley Pavilion, Bibby knew that lofty
aspirations would get the motor running on the Trojans’ ride
out of basketball’s cellar.

“This school is like me because it’s a school that
was never a star (in basketball), and all of a sudden we have a
chance to be in the ballgame with the big boys,” Bibby said.
“I’ve got a chance to start and get this program in
with the elite schools.”

While the Bruin faithful may call Bibby a traitor to UCLA
basketball, Bibby ignores it all and goes to work on his dream of
making USC basketball mirror the success of its crosstown
rivals.

“We want to be where our program recruits itself,”
Bibby said. “We’re not there yet. But we’re not
too far away.”

After this year’s magical run that ended one game away
from the Final Four with a 79-69 defeat to perennial powerhouse
Duke, there is much for Bibby to look forward to next season. The
task of replacing Scalabrine and guard Jeff Trepagnier is countered
by a recruiting class that includes Errick Craven from Bishop
Montgomery High School in Torrance.

The wheels are also turning on the construction of an on-campus
arena next year so that USC can move out of the archaic Los Angeles
Sports Arena. With all this going on, the future is only the
beginning for Bibby.

“I’m very proud of the kids,” he said.
“I have been proud of the kids all year. We somehow got
things going with four games left in the Pac-10 schedule and we got
on a roll. We are that good and I knew we were that good all
along.”

Bibby’s confidence extends to his team, who trust in their
coach completely in the game of basketball.

“I really learned to listen,” Scalabrine said.
“We have this saying on our team: buy in. Buy in to what
Coach is saying and that’s what we hoped to do.”

Whether it’s improving on a 1-9 coaching record against
UCLA at Southern Cal, or taking his style to a school that he feels
is dedicated to its basketball program, Bibby is full of pride
beneath his self-protective exterior. And it stems in the success
and happiness he finds pacing the sidelines.