Some Coaches Get No Breaks

LONG BEACH, Calif.--Poor George Raveling. You've really got to feel sorry for him.

The USC men's basketball coach had to watch his Trojans nip Harvard by only 27 points on December 28. For USC (only 7-1 at the time, only 8-1 after crushing Brooklyn College the next night), the victory was only its sixth in a row. And Raveling was furious.

"We lost focus of what we were trying to accomplish," Raveling huffed after the Trojans' 103-76 squeaker, here at Long Beach Arena. "We put them on the foul line much too much because of lazy defense...We were never really a cohesive unit."

Awwwww. It's just not fair what Raveling has to put up with. Players like Ronnie Coleman, the ultra-consistent senior forward, who should move to the top of the USC all-time scoring list some time this year. Players like Harold Miner, the ultra-explosive sophomore guard, who should replace Coleman atop the list some time next year.

"Tonight, I thought Miner was bored out there," Raveling grumbled.

So bored, he only scored 31 points in 27 minutes. Once word about Miner's abysmal performance starts getting around, Street & Smith's will probably take him off the cover of the West Coast edition of its college basketball preview. Dick Vitale will probably claim he was just kidding when he called Miner "the best thing to happen to USC since football." The basketball world will stop calling Miner "Baby Jordan."

Why would anyone want to call him that? Just because he wears #23 Just because his tongue dangles somewhere around his chest region during double-pump, 180-degree, Air Jordan slams like the one he pulled off against Harvard?

Against the Crimson, Miner was practically invisible. Of course, he did knock down a couple of buckets to kick off USC's 17-2 run that turned a close 26-22 game midway through the first half into a blowout six minutes later. He did answer Harvard's best second-half rally by swishing two straight off-balance three-pointers. And he did throw down that awe-inspiring take-off-from-the-foul-line-and-fly reverse dunk that left the arena in an uproar. But those were lucky. The stiff would have been shut out if Harvard hadn't been...uh... double-teaming down low, where Coleman was held to...uh...18 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

Coleman and Miner aren't the only two pitiful players Raveling has to drag around to road games. Just because guards like Robert Pack and Duane Cooper could dominate an Ivy League Game doesn't mean they aren't dead weight.

"I love their guards, and I'm not talking about Harold Miner, because everybody talks about Harold Miner," Harvard Coach Peter Roby said. "Without them, he's a guy who scores a lot of points on a team that doesn't win. Pack and Cooper are terrific. They have no egos."

Roby was obviously being facetious. No, really. You could tell. Pack and Cooper stink. Why else would Raveling call time out to scream unprintable things at them near midcourt?

"The contest is never between you and the other team," Raveling growled. "It's never USC vs. Harvard, or USC vs. UCLA, or USC vs. Arizona. It's always USC vs. USC. Tonight, the scoreboard said we won. But in reality, we lost."

Don't laugh. After a tough loss like this, you'd be angry, too.

Trojans, 103-76 at Long Beach, Calif. HARVARD  32-44--76 USC  53-50--103

HARVARD (77): Tyler Rullman 7-15 0-0 15; Ralph James 4-14 5-6 13; Ron Mitchell 4-7 10-16 18; Tarik Campbell 1-2 0-0 2; Matt McClain 4-10 1-2 9; Peter Condakes 3-8 5-5 11; David Lapointe 0-0 0-0 0; Jabbar Abdi 3-5 0-1 6; Matt Vaughan 0-1 0-0 0; Anikar Chhabra 1-3 0-0 2.

Totals: 27-65 21-30 76

USC (81): Ronnie Coleman 9-13 0-1 18; Mark Boyd 2-6 0-0 4; Duane Cooper 5-6 0-0 12; Robert Pack 3-10 4-4 11; Harold Miner 11-19 7-7 31; Rodney Chatman 3-6 4-6 10; Thurman Brown 1-1 0-0 2; Keith Greeley 2-4 1-2 5; Phil Glenn 2-5 0-0 4; John Masdea 1-1 0-0 3; Bosco Kante 0-0 0-0 0; Calvin Banks 0-0 1-3 1; Yamen Sanders 1-2 0-0 2; Kraig Conger 0-3 0-0 0.

Totals: 40-72 17-22 103

Three-pointers: James; Cooper 2, Miner 2, Pack, Masdea. Fouled Out: Campbell. Rebounds: Harvard 36 (Rullman 9); USC 45 (Boyd 10). Assists: Harvard 17 (Campbell 8); USC 27 (Pack 10). Steals: Harvard 3 (Rullman, Mitchell, Campbell); USC 12 (Chatman 3). Blocks: Harvard 0; USC 3 (Boyd 2). Total Fouls: Harvard 17; USC 24; Turnovers: Harvard 20; USC 13.

Attendance: 1351.