LOS ANGELES — Oregon students hurt USC head coach Henry Bibby’s feelings with personalized chants during the Ducks’ win at Eugene on Feb. 2.
Saturday, it was Bibby who was doing the talking, and he appeared to hurt the feelings of Pacific-10 Conference official Charlie Range.
Range issued a technical foul on Bibby with 1:50 remaining that sealed the deal on No. 2-seed Arizona’s 81-71 win over the fourth seeded Trojans in the championship game of the Pac-10 Tournament in front of 18,997 at the Staples Center.
Afterwards, Bibby was not apologizing for his on-court actions, which included ignoring the request of Grange to hand the ball over and simply dropping it to the floor. Bibby received the technical after continually getting in Grange’s face.
“I don’t think a technical foul was warranted,” Bibby said. “I don’t go out and abuse and curse at the officials. I think you guys should be able to question the officials on what they saw out there.”
When asked for his interpretation of the technical, Grange had a decidedly different take on the situation.
“It was the fact that Mr. Bibby kept berating me,” Grange said. “It was unprofessional. The things he was saying were unnecessary. There’s a code of conduct in the rules on berating an official.
“Each coach is responsible for his conduct, and he went over the line.”
Bibby was clearly frustrated with how drastically the game changed in the second half. The Trojans, who advanced to the title game after beating No. 1 seed Oregon on Friday, used a 17-2 run to open up a 39-31 halftime lead.
But after the break, the Trojans were a different team and had no answer for the surging Wildcats. Arizona opened the second half with a pivotal 19-4 run that ended after Luke Walton muscled home a layin with 13:43 to play.
“It was like two different games,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson said of the two halves.
After Walton’s bucket, Arizona never trailed and held off the Trojans, who appeared to be more concerned with the officials than the game.
“It was tough,” USC senior Sam Clancy said. “I mean, damn, call a foul.”
“I’m not commenting on the refs,” USC guard Brandon Granville said. “I might be here all day.”
Bibby sure was commenting, though, and after a question of whether the Trojans “hit a wall” in the second half because of fatigue, he again turned the conversation toward the whistle-blowers.
“We hit three walls in the second half,” said Bibby, referring to the game’s three officials. “I know where the game was lost.”
Bibby was asked to elaborate but coyly replied, “No. I take the Fifth” Amendment.
Arizona took full advantage of the distracted Trojans.
Freshman Salim Stoudamire, cousin of the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damon Stoudamire, had a near-perfect performance. The Portland native made 9-of-10 field goals, including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, and all six of his free throws en route to a career-high 29 points.
“He made every shot,” Granville said.
Arizona’s Luke Walton contributed 23 points, much to the delight of his father Bill Walton, dressed in Arizona red and being quite vocal from his second row seat.
“Luke is just a tremendous competitor,” Olson said. “He has a talent and reactions you can’t teach. It’s in his genes.”
When the game was over, Walton and his Wildcat teammates were given championship hats, T-shirts and basketballs. They were hugging each other and dancing on a podium at center court. On the Staples Center big screen, the Arizona logo shone with the words “Pac-10 champs.”
They were then awarded the Pac-10 Tournament championship trophy, which glistened in the air while the Wildcats hoisted it up together.
But even after the celebration, their veteran coach of 29 years didn’t budge on his heated opposition of the Pac-10 Tournament, which was brought back after a 12-year absence.
“I’m still not (in favor). It doesn’t change things,” Olson said. “If we think about the student-athletes and not the money then we wouldn’t have this.
“It’s ridiculous for us and (USC) to have played 21 conference games.”
Two of those games for each team were losses to regular season champion Oregon, which flew home from Los Angeles on Saturday morning. Some may think the Ducks got the better end of the deal, having only played two games in L.A., while Arizona and USC each played three in three days.
“I’ve always said that the team that plays three games is going to be a tired basketball team,” Bibby said.
Whether having a conference tournament helps or hinders the Pac-10 will be found out with this week’s opening of the Big Dance.