And here you thought out-muscling such wide bodies as Washington's Jon Brockman in the paint and soaring for rebounds over the likes of Stanford's 7-foot Lopez twins took some doing.
Those feats are dwarfed by the seemingly endless series of academic hoops that Taj Gibson jumped through merely to reach USC. It's been a start-and-stop odyssey for the Brooklyn native who, at 21, is the Trojans' fourth-oldest player as a freshman.
There was the year his parents held him back in middle school because they felt he hadn't learned anything, two years of home-schooling that the NCAA said would not count toward college entrance requirements, and the mad scramble last summer to complete online and correspondence courses that would allow him to enroll at USC.
"I was about to just say, 'Forget it,' " Gibson said. "I probably would have been just another street basketball player out there in New York like every other guy."
But if there was one thing those streets had already taught him, it was perseverance. He learned it growing up in a hardscrabble neighborhood where he worked some nights as a furniture mover to help his family make ends meet. And he had it instilled in him while competing on the famed blacktop of Rucker Park in Harlem, often against players three or four years older.
"He grew up playing up in parks with one ball and 50 guys waiting to play, and if you got beat you had to sit for two hours," USC Coach Tim Floyd said. "So every possession was big.
"He persevered because playing was important to him, and he put himself in a position to get to the floor through a lot of hard work."
Gibson has emerged as one of the best freshmen in school history and a major reason that, entering tonight's game at Washington, the No. 23 Trojans (21-8 overall, 11-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference) are closing in on their first NCAA tournament berth in five years.
The 6-foot-9 forward's first name was given in honor of the majestic Indian mausoleum, and he's lived up to it by providing the kind of menacing interior presence that USC lacked a year ago.
Gibson's length and shot-blocking ability have also helped the Trojans hold 23 of 29 opponents to 42% shooting or worse.
"He's been a factor defensively," California Coach Ben Braun said. "He's also a guy that can stretch the defense a little bit, meaning if they throw it in they can get some looks inside. Now you've got to send some guys down there against them. That gives them the balance that they have right now."
