USC coach Tim Floyd walks through his team’s locker room at the new Galen Center and glances at the No. 12 jersey hanging in a locker. It’s a reminder that there’s more to life than winning games.
The jersey belonged to Ryan Francis, who a year ago started all 30 games for the Trojans at point guard, earning honorable mention All-Pacific-10 Freshman honors. But the jersey sits unused this season after Francis was shot to death May 14 while visiting his mother in his hometown of Baton Rogue, La.
“It’s right there with all of us every day,” Floyd said. “You walk by his locker and glance at it. … As long as I’m here, that locker will be as it is.”
The death of Francis hasn’t affected USC’s play. The Trojans are 15-5 and broke into the national rankings at No. 25 this week. Still, the emotion of losing a teammate has stuck with the team, Floyd said.
“He’s talked about all the time, and I think that helps,” Floyd said. “They love the guy and Ryan loved them. It was a really special bond. … It’s not like he’s been forgotten and we’ve moved on.”
The school is selling bracelets to memorialize Francis, and profits from the sales go to a scholarship fund that has been established in Francis’ name. Francis’ former teammates chant his name as they go on the floor and say “Franchise” – Francis’ nickname – at the break of each huddle. Francis’ number is painted on the court and there’s a bench with his name in front of the new arena.
Floyd said he has kept in close contact with Francis’ mother and used his connections – in this case former USC football star Reggie Bush – to secure her tickets to a New Orleans Saints’ playoff game in the Superdome earlier this month.
Cats cold: Washington isn’t the only Pac-10 power that is off to a slower than expected start. Arizona, which had been ranked as high as No. 7 in the nation, has lost three straight and four of five to drop to 4-4 in the conference and is in seventh place heading into this week’s games against Arizona State and North Carolina. The Wildcats have fallen to No. 17 in the Associated Press poll.
Arizona coach Lute Olson said the reason for his team’s slide has been poor shooting. Arizona shot 39 percent in a loss to UCLA, 38 percent in a loss to USC and 39 percent while being beaten by Washington State. The only loss in which the Wildcats shot particularly well was against Oregon, when they shot 48 percent.
In particular, Arizona’s 3-point shooting has been off. Normally a 37 percent shooting team from the outside, the Wildcats have made 24 percent of their 3-point shots in the four losses.
“We haven’t shot the ball well and that was one of our strengths early,” Olson said. “Teams are defending well and we haven’t been as patient as we’ve needed to be to get the same shots we were getting in non-conference.”
Go West young man: Whenever Washington State coach Tony Bennett needs to give guards Kyle Weaver and Derrick Low a rest, he can rest assured that he won’t lose much with either player on the bench. That’s because he can sub in sophomore Taylor Rochestie, who two years ago earned all-conference freshman honors at Tulane. A serious knee injury and Hurricane Katrina convinced Rochestie to return to the West (he’s a Santa Barbara, Calif., native) and as WSU’s backup point guard, he’s averaging nearly 11 minutes a game as he works his knee back into shape.
“He’s not 100 percent yet, but he’s got quickness and as he gets more comfortable my hope is he’ll be able to give us even more,” Bennett said.
No Farmar, no problem: It’s not that UCLA coach Ben Howland wishes Jordan Farmar had decided to return for another year, but having sophomore Darren Collison taking over at the point has eased things, and then some. Farmar’s backup last season, the sophomore has emerged as one of the top point guards in the league. Collison ranks second in the league in assists (6.0), first in steals (2.3) and 3-point percentage (50.9) and averages 13.3 points on 53 percent shooting.
“We expected him to come in and have a very good campaign this year,” Howland said. “Typically your biggest improvement is from freshman to sophomore year. He plays with great confidence. He creates a lot of havoc with his defense and he’s a very good 3-point shooter. He’s doing a lot of good things.”
Looking far and wide: While traditionally good programs like Arizona, Washington, Stanford and UCLA can go after some of the better prep talent in recruiting, a school like Oregon State has to take a different route. For coach Jay John, that means heading overseas to find potential players. The Beavers have five players from foreign countries on their roster.
“All of a sudden within this special class, there’s a ton of size,” John said, “for us, we got our size from The Netherlands. You need to be able to have a quality big man in this league. At Oregon State, we’ve been undersized so we have looked overseas to fill in the gaps.”
The second-leading scorer for Oregon State is 6-foot-10 Sasa Cuic of Croatia. The top backup center is 6-11 freshman Roeland Schaftenaar of The Netherlands and there’s also 7-3, 300-pound junior Liam Hughes of England, who has seen limited action. Angelo Tsagarakis of France is a key backup guard and Vojin Svilar of Serbia has played in 11 games as a backup.
Sun Devil women lose guard: Arizona State freshman guard Dymond Simon, the Sun Devils’ third-leading scorer, will miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
Sun Devils coach Charli Turner Thorne said Simon, who averaged 9.7 points per game in a reserve role, would likely have surgery soon. Simon was injured in the first half of ASU’s 62-54 win Sunday against USC.
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