| | LOS ANGELES -- Jeff Trepagnier owns a 40-inch vertical leap
and some of the quickest hands in college basketball.
He and his Southern California teammates were in top form Wednesday as they stole a victory from UCLA at the Sports Arena.
|  | | Jeff Trepagnier shows off his 40-inch vertical leap. |
Trepagnier scored a career-high 26 points in leading the Trojans to a 91-79 win. That broke a 10-game losing streak against the Bruins. USC's last win over UCLA had come six years ago.
The Trojans (10-5) opened Pac-10 Conference play
last weekend with a sweep of the Washington schools, leaving them
tied for first place with Arizona at 2-0. They're riding a
five-game winning streak.
In beating UCLA, the Trojans got a big win for coach Henry Bibby, who before Wednesday had gone 0-6 against his alma mater in four seasons as coach.
"He deserves to beat them," Trepagnier said before the game. "He wouldn't
admit it, but I think it'll be a bigger win than just another game.
We want to have bragging rights to L.A."
Trepagnier certainly does in his hometown of Compton. He's a
bright light in an impoverished city with a national reputation for
its street gangs and hard-core rap music.
"All the kids know who I am. They look up to me," Trepagnier
said. "A lot of adults in the community are proud of me. They tell
me good job, keep doing what I'm doing, keep my head on straight
and stay focused."
Steered down the straight and narrow by his self-described
"good parents," Trepagnier managed to stay out of the gangs at
Compton High, where he was a standout player who averaged 19 points
as a senior.
"I could have gone the other way every day," he said. "I had
a lot of friends that are gang members, but I felt that wasn't the
right direction, so I just stayed in school and played
basketball."
The pressure to do anything but good lessened as Trepagnier
blossomed playing basketball and football. His friends in gangs
came out to games to support him.
Now, the biggest pressure on Trepagnier is requests for tickets
and shoes.
"I tell them just wait a little while and maybe if I get to the
NBA, I'll hook them up, but not right now," he said.
Trepagnier, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, leads the Pac-10 in steals
and is second in the nation with 4.4 a game. He's six away from breaking the school season record of 62.
"When he plays defense, he can get bored doing it, so that's
why he goes for the steal," center Brian Scalabrine said.
|
“ |
I could have gone the other way every day. I had a lot
of friends that are gang members, but I felt that wasn't the
right direction, so I just stayed in school and played
basketball. ” |
|
|
— Jeff
Trepagnier |
When his quick hands aren't stealing the ball, Trepagnier is
often unleashing spectacular dunks, punctuated by jubliant shouts
to the crowd. USC tracks Trepagnier on a dunk-o-meter that has
registered 27 so far.
"If I get a dunk, it lifts the team and gets us going," he
said. "I try to get a little feedback from the crowd and get them
going."
Bibby would like to see more defense out of Trepagnier, and has
tagged him as USC's defensive stopper.
"He's an aggressive player and to put him with that label, that
gives him something else to work towards," Bibby said. "We need a
guy to go out and play defense and he can do that with his quick
feet, quick hands. He never gets tired. He could play 50 minutes
and play another game after that."
Trepagnier's athleticism impressed Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski,
who called him as good an athlete as the Blue Devils have played
against. Trepagnier had 15 points and 12 rebounds in an 81-68 loss
to the Blue Devils in the Wooden Classic on Nov. 27.
"That made me work harder," he said of Krzyzewski's praise. | |
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Trojans end Bruins' hex as Bibby finally beats his alma mater
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