USC HAVING ITS FUN OFF THE COURT, AS WELL.Byline: LEE BARNATHAN University Beat As the team steps out of its cars and onto the sidewalk in Westwood Village, the players giggle. They're wearing their USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. clothing, and it's only a matter of time before the looks, snickers
Snickers is a sweet bar made by Mars, Incorporated. and comments fly. They're only there to get some ice cream, but the fact they have even dared the 12-mile drive into Bruins territory causes more giggles. How dare we, they think. The women's basketball Women's basketball is one of the few games which developed in tandem with men's. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, in large part via women's colleges. team takes it in stride Adv. 1. in stride - without losing equilibrium; "she took all his criticism in stride" in good spirits . They're having too much fun to care what others think. Whether they're making silly videos of themselves dancing, going to dinner or shopping, or injecting life into fraternity parties with their silly dances, these players are the life of their own never-ending party. And when the party breaks up, they page each other through the night. Even in practice or in games, there's levity lev·i·ty n. pl. lev·i·ties 1. Lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate; frivolity. 2. Inconstancy; changeableness. 3. The state or quality of being light; buoyancy. and togetherness, whether it's Carmen Carmen throws over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190] See : Faithlessness Carmen the cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr. Krause blowing kisses at the UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX fans as she dances off the court or everyone coming to Ebony Hoffman's aid as she gets tangled with UCLA players. ``This year is a lot more fun,'' Hoffman said. ``This year, I just can't wait to be around my teammates.'' Last year, infighting in·fight·ing n. 1. Contentious rivalry or disagreement among members of a group or organization: infighting on the President's staff. 2. Fighting or boxing at close range. , ego clashes and seniors who didn't appreciate the underclassmen's talent caused the Trojans to underachieve at 13-15, 8-10 in the Pacific-10 Conference The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I. Membership Full members . This year, with its act together, USC is 9-7, tied for second in the conference at 5-2 and 1 1/2 games behind In sports, the phrase games behind, often abbreviated as GB in tables, is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. Stanford heading into tonight's home game with Arizona. Hoffman won't play, serving a one-game suspension for fighting. Nor will Tiffany Elmore play because of a badly sprained ankle A sprained ankle, also known as a ankle sprain, ankle injury or ankle ligament injury, is a common medical condition where one or more of the ligaments of the ankle is torn or partially torn. . But no one is too concerned. Against UCLA, Elmore didn't play, starting guards Aisha Hollans and Jessica Cheeks and backup guard Ryane Alexander were in foul trouble, so Lauren Smith-Hams played a season-high 10 minutes in the first half without a drop in quality. Also, with Hoffman double-teamed, Krause scored a career-best 14 points. ``Those bench people stepped up tremendously and we went up by 20 when that specific group was in,'' Hoffman said. ``It was Lauren Smith-Hams, Erin Young, Carmen Krause, Rachel Woodward and me, and we went up by 20. That showed a lot of grit and gut for them to just sustain an effort when these starters were out, and they've been doing that all year long.'' They also laugh it up wherever they go. At fraternity parties, when people are just standing around and drinking, the players lighten the mood with crazy dance steps such as the jumping box step. Woodward often carries a video camera to capture the funnier moments, and the players have labeled each member of this family. Krause is the mother who worries about everyone, Smith-Hams is the intellectual mother who corrects her children's mistakes. There are aunts, Young (the sweet one) and Hoffman (the crazy one); crazy cousins (Portia Mitchell and Hollans), a shy cousin (Cheeks), impressionable yet precocious youngsters (Kim Gipson and Woodward, who likes to go to Westwood), the older sister (Elmore) and the nosy nos·y or nos·ey adj. nos·i·er, nos·i·est Informal 1. Given to prying into the affairs of others; snoopy. See Synonyms at curious. 2. Prying; inquisitive. neighbor (Alexander). ``They are the most unique, and the biggest handful,'' USC coach Chris Gobrecht said. ``They have such varying personalities. They can be fun-loving or sullen. They're as varying as their games are, everything from the extremely fundamentally sound player on this team (Elmore) to the ones that make you pull your hair out (everyone at one time or another). That's the way their personalities are, too.'' There are no cliques, but everyone clicks. COLLEGE SCENE UCLA The bad joke around the women's basketball program is: Score too many points and you're sure to sit out at some point. Michelle Greco has too many concussions, Kristee Porter left school to join a new U.S. professional volleyball league, and, now, forward Shalada Allen, who has averaged 10.6 points in conference, will sit out tonight's game against No. 24 Arizona State to serve a one-game suspension for fighting Sunday against USC. Coach Kathy Olivier said freshmen Krystle Johnson and Sissy sis·sy n. pl. sis·sies 1. A boy or man regarded as effeminate. 2. A person regarded as timid or cowardly. 3. Informal Sister. Picket will play more. Although both are tall (Johnson is 6-foot-4 and Pickett is 6-7), only Johnson has appeared in a conference game, and neither average more than 0.5 points per game. ... Sophomore gymnast Jamie Dantzscher Jamie Annette Dantzscher (b. May 2, 1982, Canoga Park, California, U.S.) is a retired American gymnast. She was a member of the fourth-place US team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. , the 2000 Olympian from Palmdale, tied the school's career perfect-10 record with eight. Her first chance to break it is Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. USC The women's basketball team is 5-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference, tied with Arizona State for second place and 1 1/2 games behind leader Stanford. ASU ASU Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) ASU Appalachian State University ASU Arkansas State University ASU Angelo State University ASU Alabama State University ASU Australian Services Union and USC play Saturday at the Sports Arena, but first USC must try to get by Arizona tonight without Tiffany Elmore (sprained ankle) and Ebony Hoffman (one-game suspension for fighting in Sunday's game against UCLA). ``Arizona ought to feel like they hit the jackpot,'' said USC coach Chris Gobrecht, who was reprimanded by the conference for her conduct and comments Sunday at UCLA. ``If I'm them, I'm thinking, `I don't want to blow this.' '' ... The 1-3 start for the men's volleyball team could be expected. The Trojans moved several players to new positions, so they'll need time to work on their passing and hitting. USC beat La Verne but lost to Pepperdine, UCLA and UC Irvine in the Irvine tournament. Coach Pat Powers said it takes about 30 days to get in sync. Today is day 16. ``You've got to work on it on a daily basis,'' he said. CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge An early-season loss might be the best thing to happen to the men's volleyball team, coach Jeff Campbell hopes. Cal State Northridge played almost flawlessly in sweeping Quincy (Ill.) last week, but the next night against Quincy, the Matadors lost in five games. Campbell said it shows the Matadors always need to play at their highest level. They also saw how setter Ty Tramblie needed to make some adjustments when the passing is poor. Campbell hoped CSUN could make the necessary fixes in time for Wednesday night's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation is a college athletic conference whose member teams are located in the western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I. opener at UC Santa Barbara, where the Matadors haven't won since April 1994. LOYOLA MARYMOUNT Two local basketball players, Kent Dennis from Cleveland High in Reseda and Eurskine Robinson from College of the Canyons College of the Canyons is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state. According to the National Junior College Research Association, College of the Canyons consistently ranks in the top 50 community colleges in the nation. , are contributing to the Lions' success. Dennis, who transferred from West Virginia, averages 7.8 points a game. Robinson averages 6.4 points but scored 18 recently against UC Santa Barbara. ... If opposing women's basketball players try to stop Bryn Britton, chances are Kate Murray will score more. Murray has led the Lions in scoring in four of the past five games, including Saturday, when she had 20 against Saint Mary's. She also scored 25 at New Mexico. She averages 12.8 points per game this season and is second in rebounds with 6.1. PEPPERDINE Losing to UC Irvine in men's volleyball didn't surprise coach Marv Dunphy. The Anteaters return everyone and are solid. What surprised Dunphy was how poorly the Waves served in the Irvine tournament. Pepperdine had 16 service errors against Irvine and 10 in the win over UCLA. Some of the errors can be attributed to the staff tinkering with players' serves. But there needs to be more consistency. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Ebony Hoffman (32) and Lauren Smith-Hams, left, are part of a fun-loving USC team. David Sprague/Staff Photographer Box: COLLEGE SCENE (see text) |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion