Usc Game

Hale D. Baney, 64, of Los Angeles, a longtime supporter of the USC women's basketball program, died after collapsing during halftime of Saturday night's USC-Washington women's game in the USC campus gym. The teams, nearing conclusion of their halftime warmups, left the court as paramedics worked for more than 25 minutes on Baney. According to a hospital spokesperson, Baney was was taken to California Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from what was believed to be a massive heart attack.

Staggered by a financial scandal that unfolded on their watch, the public officials who run the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum are preparing to turn over control of the taxpayer-owned stadium to USC under a lease that would deliver it into private hands for up to 42 years. The deal would essentially end the Coliseum Commission's stewardship of the 88-year-old landmark - built as a memorial to World War I veterans - whose mismanagement led to a sweeping criminal indictment of key executives last month.

Regarding Earl Gustkey's Countdown to 2000 of Nov. 21, noting the USC-Notre Dame game of 1931: I was sitting in Cal Stadium in Berkeley, probably at the Cal-Stanford game. At one point, the public address system announced: "At South Bend, with two minutes to go, Notre Dame 14, Southern California 13." Later, another announcement: "Final score at South Bend. Notre Dame 14--(then, with just the right amount of pause)--Southern California 16." Never in the following 68 years have I experienced the spontaneous outburst of the crowd on that day. Even Bobby Thomson's home run couldn't top it. GEORGE FRENCH Torrance

This just in: NBC has traded Bob Costas to CBS for Ashton Kutcher and the entire library of "Green Acres" reruns. The deal has not been finalized, but Chris Paul has threatened to try to block the deal, citing many of the "Green Acres" episodes as kind of schlocky and in need of another rewrite. This just in: Washington has traded the Lincoln Memorial to St. Louis for the Arch, three Italian joints and the Rams. Chris Paul has sued to try to block the deal, citing the Rams as a fictional entity with no real market value.

What a great day. It was so much fun tailgating before the USC game, joining Donn and Meg Carper and all my fellow Trojan fans to laugh and laugh at the UCLA Frauds. We stood around a huge bucket of Mary Richardson's chili, which certainly had more kick to it than the Bruins' offense, and talked about what it must be like to be a UCLA fan. That's when everyone started drinking.

Talk about your different drummers. Tiggy plays the kitchen sink. She has it strapped across her hips like a snare drum and bangs at it with sticks, producing a rattle-whompus-Seussian sound, like a junkyard truck crossing the tracks. Nice. One edge of the old stainless steel sink, the one facing out, is broken off and lethal as a switchblade. No worries. Tiggy knows what she's doing. I think. I am marching with the Stanford band, legally known as the Leland Stanford Junior (pause)

Pepper Rodgers had been around football rivalries most of his life. He had grown up in Atlanta and played for Georgia Tech, whose annual game against Georgia has been chronicled in the book "Clean Old-Fashion Hate." He had been an assistant at Florida, coaching against Georgia in a series called "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." Then he came to UCLA. "How different is this one?" he said.

Trivia Time (from Aug. 21 Morning Briefing): What is the highest number of tickets requested for a Notre Dame home game? Trivia answer: 57,048, for the 1997 USC game. Next question: Was I supposed to know this? BOB COX Mission Viejo

In "Topic A" (Nov. 16), Pamela Warrick refers to the annual UCLA/USC game as "The Big Game." You owe an apology to all students and alumni of UC Berkeley and Stanford University. "The Big Game" has referred to the Cal/Stanford game for well over five decades, and the usurpation of this title by the lesser Southern California schools is a considerable insult. UCLA has already stolen the colors, mascot and fight song from the University of California (while I'm sure that USC simply bought theirs)

Arizona, USC's foe Saturday in Tucson, is 4-0 against the likes of Texas El Paso, Pacific, Illinois and Oregon State. Said Arizona Coach Dick Tomey Tuesday: "We'll know a lot more about our defense after this week. We haven't played an outstanding quarterback or offensive line, like SC has. SC has played better competition." * Starting left guard Joel Crisman's big toe injury will cause him to miss his third straight game Saturday. . . .

Norm Johnson, a former UCLA place-kicker, was checking television listings the other day and one thing jumped out at him. "The 1981 UCLA-USC game was on college football classics," Johnson said. "I was upset. " Sure. Blocked field goal, no Rose Bowl — it was a bad day. But that wasn't the reason Johnson was upset. "I would love to see that game," he said. "I have never seen the replay. " Why he would like to relive a 30-year-old nightmare isn't clear. One second he was lining up a 46-yard field goal to send the Bruins to Rose Bowl.

The Jones boys should be pardoned if conversation around the house this week got a little heated. Especially if someone mentioned the fumble. When USC played UCLA at this time last season, Marshall Jones — a safety for the Trojans — latched on to his kid brother Malcolm — a tailback for the Bruins — and ripped the ball free. Officials ruled the play dead, no turnover, but that didn't settle the issue. "I tell everybody I stripped the ball from him," Marshall insists.

Talk about your different drummers. Tiggy plays the kitchen sink. She has it strapped across her hips like a snare drum and bangs at it with sticks, producing a rattle-whompus-Seussian sound, like a junkyard truck crossing the tracks. Nice. One edge of the old stainless steel sink, the one facing out, is broken off and lethal as a switchblade. No worries. Tiggy knows what she's doing. I think. I am marching with the Stanford band, legally known as the Leland Stanford Junior (pause)

USC's passing attack has thrived as quarterback Matt Barkley and receiver Robert Woods break or flirt with records seemingly every game. But what of the running game? USC ranks 71st among 120 major-college teams, averaging 136.6 yards a game. "It's just been very up and down," Coach Lane Kiffin said Monday. "Not near enough explosive plays. " USC has passed for 14 touchdowns and rushed for four. Marc Tyler is entrenched as the starter, but the coaching staff has not settled on a consistent complement.

USC's 23-14 victory over Utah sent Las Vegas sports books into a tizzy Saturday night. The game originally ended with USC winning, 17-14. But two hours after the game, the Pacific 12 Conference overruled game officials who had not allowed a last-second touchdown by USC's Torin Harris after a blocked field-goal attempt. Contacted about the finish by The Times, a supervisor at the MGM Mirage Sports Book said, "That cost us huge. We needed USC to cover the 8½ and when they didn't allow that touchdown, that killed us. " That was around 10 p.m. Informed the score had been officially changed, the supervisor said: "I haven't got that information.

USC's season-ending victory over UCLA was a microcosm of the season. For both teams. USC showed in its 28-14 victory that it was capable of a dominant rushing attack, as it had done sporadically in 12 previous games. Quarterback Matt Barkley gritted through an uneven performance on an injured left ankle, looking sharp at times on passes to freshman standout Robert Woods but also showing that his decision-making is still a work in progress. And the Trojans' defense took advantage of turnovers, as it had done occasionally, but stayed true to form with a requisite last-minute lapse that allowed the Bruins to trim the final margin.

I am neither a Trojan nor Bruin fan, but I was shocked and appalled by Terry Donahue's lack of class and sportsmanship during the second half of the USC game. With the score 38-0, one would think that he would put in his second- and third-string players. Yet, there was Matt Stevens rolling out and throwing passes in the fourth quarter. Brendan McCracken did little else but run the wishbone on third-down plays. Ron Caragher, who had not played a single down all year, did not get an opportunity to play in the final game of the year.

First we are treated to a full-page spread, a la Rodney Dangerfield, whining and crying about CSUN's treatment on the road. Wrong or right, in 90% of games, there is a definite home-court advantage. Those are the joys of playing Division I basketball (go to a USC game). Then ignoring the perennial powerhouses such as UCLA, Arizona, Indiana and Duke etc., Mike Hiserman singles out Cal to imply they won a game in the East only because the team brought its own referees, which poor CSUN couldn't do. Now we read his "unbiased" version of the CSUN-Cal game.

The mistake-fest went too long into the night, UCLA certified as the crummier team as expected, but no time to listen to what nonsense Coach Rick Neuheisel had for the UCLA fans still in attendance behind the Bruins' bench. I'm sure it was inspiring, and included a promise of better days ahead. In other words, last year's speech. The joke, of course, is that both of these teams could drive anyone to drink. But there was nothing funny about the lunacy taking place at the Rose Bowl Saturday, beginning with the administrators' decision to open the permit parking lots at 6. In the morning.

A year has passed since a near brawl at the end of the UCLA- USC game. Has time healed all wounds? "I think that is behind us," UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel said. "I don't think it merits much conversation. " That party line didn't quite trickle down to the masses who will huddle Saturday. "It was disrespectful," UCLA defensive tackle David Carter said. "We have a chance to come back and get them. " USC had the game in hand, running out the clock with a little more than a minute left last season.