Oct. 12, 1999

THIS WEEK - The defending NCAA champion USC men's water polo team (12-1 overall, 2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), coming off a first-place finish in the Northern California Tournament, heads north again for a pair of matches this weekend. USC visits UC Davis (7-14) on Friday (Oct. 15) at 3 p.m. for a non-conference game, then heads to Pacific (9-5, 1-1) for an MPSF game on Saturday (Oct. 16) at noon.

RANKINGS - USC was ranked No. 3 in the Oct. 5 U.S. Water Polo Top 20 Poll (but will likely move back to No. 1 in this week's poll). UC Davis was ranked No. 20 and Pacific was ranked No. 5.

OPPONENTS - USC leads the series with UC Davis, 11-0 (since 1980) ... USC leads the series with Pacific, 23-5 (since 1982).

LAST WEEKEND - The Trojans captured their fourth Nor-Cal Tournament title in five years after coming in as the No. 3 seed. After beating Santa Clara (17-3) and Air Force (16-6) in the first day of competition, USC defeated No. 2 Stanford, 12-10 in overtime, in the semifinals, then beat No. 1 UCLA, 7-6, in the championship. Ivan Babic hit a go-ahead two-pointer with 1:03 left in the game. Over the weekend, Allen Basso was the leading scorer with 12 points, leading to MPSF Player of the Week honors.

JOVAN VAVIC - After serving as co-head coach for the last four seasons, Vavic takes over as head coach in 1999. The last year has been a good one for Vavic, as he helped the USC men to the 1998 NCAA championship, then led the USC women to the 1999 national championship as their head coach. Entering this season, Vavic's record as co-head coach was 89-18 (.832).

RICHARD McEVOY - After earning All-American third team status the last two seasons, Richard McEvoy (Pembroke Pines, FL/Cooper City HS) may very well be the best goalie in the country as a 1999 senior. He has made 119 saves (first in the MPSF) in 1999, 9.2 per game, and is allowing just 5.8 points per game (third in the MPSF). He ranks fourth on USC's career save list with 511. McEvoy made the All-Southern California Tournament second team.

ALLEN BASSO - One of USC's most veteran players, senior driver Allen Basso (Lake Forest/El Toro HS) is off to an impressive start. He has scored an MPSF-best 36 points, a career high, the best on the team and twice as many as the team's No. 2 scorer. He has connected on a team-high six two-pointers. He made the All-Southern California Tournament first team. He has been named MPSF Player of the Week twice already. The first honor came after scoring five points in the season opener against Long Beach State. The second came after he scored 12 points in four games to help USC to the Nor-Cal Tournament championship. Last season Allen made All-American honorable mention and scored 25 points.

GEORGE CSASZAR - USC's leading scorer in 1998, George Csaszar is off to another good start as a 1999 junior driver. A native of Hungary, he is second on USC with 17 points this season. He made the All-Southern California Tournament first team. Last year he made the All-American second team and scored 60 points.

OTHERS - In addition to McEvoy, Csaszar and Basso, the Trojans feature three other All-Americans from a year ago ... Senior 2-meter man James Castle (Hacienda Heights/Wilson HS), an All-American second teamer in 1998, was slowed by injury to start the 1999 season. He has scored 11 points ... Senior 2-meter man Peter Janov (Bratislava, Slovakia) is considered USC's ironman because of the amount of minutes he plays. An All-American honorable mention last season, he has scored 12 points this season ... Sophomore 2-meter man Ivan Babic (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is another standout who also made All-American honorable mention last season. He has 11 points in 1999.

LAST SEASON - The Trojans captured the 1998 NCAA championship by beating Stanford, 9-8, in overtime in the title game. USC finally won an elusive championship after finishing second six times, including four of the previous five years. Marko Pintaric, who hit the game-winning two-pointer against Stanford, was named the NCAA Player of the Year. The Trojans finished with a school-record 25-3 mark.