Trojans Easily Get Past Razorbacks
Southern California 77, Arkansas 60
Saturday, March 17, 2007; 1:30 AM
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Freshman Taj Gibson did his damage this season on the West Coast, far from the spotlight and well after most of America's basketball fans had gone to sleep.
Now, America gets to see how the Southern California star stacks up against another multitalented first-year player _ by the name of Kevin Durant.
  Southern California forward Taj Gibson, left, goes up against Arkansas center Steven Hill in the first half of an NCAA East Regional first-round basketball game, Friday, March 16, 2007, at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) (Elaine Thompson - AP)   The Gators are too much to handle in an 84-75 victory over Ohio State for their second straight national championship. On Hoops: Florida is a team for the ages, because in winning back-to-back national titles they took a very good team's best shot and still came out victorious. The Buckeyes are setback by the Gators' three-point shooting every time they try to make a run. Greg Oden, the public introvert, and Joakim Noah, the unabashed extrovert, share a common desire to savor college. Select CompanyFlorida joined a small group who repeated as men's basketball champion:Oklahoma State 1945-46 Kentucky 1948-49 San Francisco 1955-56 Cincinnati 1961-62 UCLA 1964-65, 1967-73 Duke 1991-92 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPFINAL FOURREGIONAL FINALSSouth West Midwest EastMULTIMEDIA Photos: Snapshots from the 2007 NCAA tournament. Video: Charting Texas freshman Kevin Durant's rapid rise to the top. Video: Post columnist Sally Jenkins talks about Durant. ON OUR SITETeam-by-Team Analysis:Coaching Tree: The Six Degrees of March's Mayhem (PDF) Flashback: A Quarter-Century Worth of Memories (PDF) TOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets. |
On the big stage of the NCAA tournament, Gibson finished with 18 points and eight rebounds Friday night to lift the fifth-seeded Trojans to a 77-60 victory over Arkansas.
Next up for USC (24-11) in the East Regional: A second-round Sunday game against Texas and Durant, the freshman many consider the best player in college basketball.
Think Gibson hasn't thought about this one? He and his teammate, Nick Young (20 points), were laughing before the first question about the matchup had even been completed.
"We're just trying to play as a team," Gibson said. "Whatever Coach says goes. If that chance comes, it doesn't really matter, as long as we get a `W.'"
Ducking, pivoting, swatting three shots and altering a handful more, Gibson was the best player on the court for most of this first-round game against 12th-seeded Arkansas. His highlight-reel moment was a rim-rattling dunk early in the second half that drew a technical foul, but might have been worth it just for the show.
The Razorbacks (21-14) got 15 points from their own star freshman, guard Patrick Beverley, but saw their second straight season end unhappily in the first round of the tournament.
This was their chance to build more job security for embattled coach Stan Heath and prove they really did belong in the tournament after being picked as one of the final bubble teams in a decision that enraged fans at Syracuse, Drexel and elsewhere.
They failed on both measures, getting off to a quick start and outhustling USC for the first couple minutes, but falling behind by double digits after 15 minutes and never making a serious run after that.
It left Heath to answer some predictable questions.
"I know there are sources and speculations and people who have all the answers," he said. "But the guy who is in charge, my boss, he hasn't changed since I've first been here."
