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Former Triton B-Ball Star Rocks USC

Cassie Harberts is one of the Women of Troy's leading scorers on the hardwood and looks forward to a chance in the WNBA.

Coming off one of the best freshman seasons in the Pac-10 Conference -- of course, it’s now the Pac-12 -- University of Southern California sophomore power forward Cassie Harberts is setting her sights on an NCAA Tournament berth.

But first the 19-year-old former San Clemente High School star and her fellow Trojans must navigate some rough waters in what’s always been a tough conference, along with some key non-conference games during the holiday season.

As of Dec. 14, the 6-foot-2 Harberts was fourth on USC (4-3 as of Dec. 14) in scoring with 11.3 points per game and she was second in rebounding with 5.4 board per contest. There were two players ahead of her who have averaged a little more than 11.5 points per game and the leading scorer, Briana Gilbreath, has averaged 12.4 per game.

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Not bad, considering she’s still adjusting to the college game at its highest levels. Plus the other leading scorers have made at least six 3-pointers, while Harberts is not asked to shoot any threes.

Last season, USC advanced to the finals of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, losing 76-68 to Toledo. Some adjustments have been made for this season as Harberts experienced traveling across the country in a national tournament for the first time as a college player.

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In the WNIT final, she led the Trojans in scoring with 14 points and she had seven rebounds. Five Trojans were in double figures in scoring, but Rockets guard Naama Shafir scored 40 points.

“We decided to go into the (Women’s) NIT,” Harberts said. “That was an extra couple of weeks of playing, so that was a lot of practice and a lot of extra games and it took a lot on the body.

"It was at their house and there were (more than) 7,000 fans," she said. "It was insane. We were traveling to five different states in a few days. It was a lot in a little amount of time. But we want to try to get into the NCAA Tournament this year and that experience really helped us.”

Harberts was a big part of two major accomplishments–one last season, one this season. This season, Harberts was part of a team ranked No. 23 in The Associated Press preseason women’s basketball rankings, which was the first time since 2006 the Trojans were ranked among the Top 25.

Stanford is considered the front-runner–it has been for most of the past several seasons.

“That was huge,” Harberts said. “I think people really looked at how we played in the NIT and that carried over into this season.”

November losses to then-No. 12 Georgia and then-No. 3 Notre Dame, along with Nebraska, knocked USC out of this season’s rankings. But it also beat Gonzaga, No. 24 at the time, 58-51 on Dec. 4 in Spokane, Wash.

“We pretty much beat ourselves,” Harberts said. “We should have won. We had a terrible shooting drought (during a three-game losing streak)…. We’re normally such a good shooting team that sometimes we rely on the 3-pointer a lot. That wasn’t falling for us. Turnovers have always been a difficulty for us.”

The other major accomplishment was an individual one, during last season’s Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Tournament. March 9, against Washington State, a then-freshman Harberts scored 31 points and added 14 rebounds in a 78-66 win.

It was the most points a USC freshman had scored on the women’s team since 1981. She was also named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team and to the Pac-10 All-Tournament Team last season.

“Coach Cooper has told me to be more selfish,” Harberts said. “I always look to pass first. I just wanted to do whatever I could to help the team, whether it was score some points, grab more rebounds, get 10 assists. I just grabbed a few more offensive rebounds here and there, hit some free throws, I didn’t even know I was scoring that many points. I didn’t feel like I was carrying the team or anything.”

Cooper said he had Harberts on his recruiting radar for quite some time. In an email, Cooper said that entering his first year as USC’s head coach, it was important for him to gain the commitment of the top recruit in Southern California, which was Harberts.

“We knew with Cassie we were getting an exceptional student athlete who brings a consistent work ethic and production that you can count on day in and day out,” Cooper said. “Her high school and AAU careers showed us that she could be both the go-to-player who does it all, as well as the consummate team player who works well in a system of elite players.”

Harberts said there are bigger, taller, stronger young women at the collegiate level, as opposed to her high school days as a two-time South Coast League Most Valuable Player with the Tritons, where she averaged 25.3 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks per game.

She also played club ball for Cal Swish for Vanguard University head coach Russ Davis, who Harberts credited for helping her prepare for and get recruited by colleges. She played for

“The physicality is a lot different,” Harberts said. “There are some girls who are 6-foot-5. We play against guys (a scout team) in practice and it helps us in games. I played point guard and all five positions in high school, so I got to work on my ball handling and passing. So it helps me a lot in college.”

As for leadership, outside of Stanford or Tennessee, Harberts probably could not have asked for a better head coach than Michael Cooper. The 55-year-old Cooper is the only person to have won a championship either as a player or a head coach at the NBA, WNBA and NBA Developmental League levels.

He led the Sparks to consecutive WNBA titles in 2001 and 2002, and reached the finals in 2003 as well. Cooper was also an interim head coach with the Denver Nuggets in the 2004-05 season. He was also a five-time NBA champion as a guard with the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as a five-time all-NBA Defensive First Team selection.

“His basketball IQ is amazing,” Harberts said. “Sometimes it is so hard for me to comprehend what’s going on. He’s really good at understanding us. We have a lot of plays, like around 60 during the course of a season … he’s the sweetest guy ever, he’s very approachable. He’s very encouraging, he cares about his players.”

Cooper returned the compliments.

“Cassie was thrown right into the fire as a freshman, asked to be an immediate threat for us offensively,” Cooper said. “She took that challenged and excelled. This year, Cassie has taken that challenge and is increasing it to be the inside presence for us at both ends of the floor. She is a player that leads by example with her consistency and her determination. She wants to be great and does what it takes to make this team great, even if it means coming outside of her comfort zone.”

The story of how Harberts got to USC took a few winding turns. According to ESPN.com, On March 26, 2009, she committed to former USC head coach Mark Trakh, who resigned on April 8, 2009. On Oct. 5 of that year, Harberts then committed to Arizona State University, but then de-committed on Oct. 25, 2009, and on Oct. 30 committed again to USC.

Coach Cooper was hired on May 1, 2009, but because of his Sparks contract, he was not allowed to take over until Oct. 1. So Harberts primarily dealt with associate head coach Ervin Monier.

“I really liked the girls who I was going to be playing with and the school and the location near my home,” Harberts said. “He (Cooper) was the cherry on top.”

Again, Cooper is confident that by the time Harberts is done playing, she has a chance to be among the greats of the Women of Troy.

“Cassie's name will be mentioned among some of the USC greats,” Cooper said. “Her work ethic will open so many doors for her. She will most certainly have an opportunity to play basketball at the next level upon graduation. Once she retires I also expect her name to mentioned among some of the most distinguished alumni, no matter what career she chooses.”

Harberts also played on the under-18 USA team, practicing and playing against some of the top players in the world. She said she has aspirations of one day playing in the WNBA and possibly the Olympics, like the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, for example.

“Whatever happens I guess will happen,” Harberts said. “Whether I end up in the WNBA or overseas. I’m trying to focus on what I’m trying to do here. If that is in my future, that would be amazing. People have told me that I could be a WNBA draft pick, I’ve heard it from my coaches.”

Harberts looks up to her 22-year-old brother, Daniel, as an inspiration. A Cal State Northridge senior, he has a rare kidney disease.

“He’s still battling it, but he’s doing great,” Cassie Harberts said. “He’s one of the strongest people I know. My family’s Christian, so we call him our miracle child. The doctor gave him a 20 percent chance of living when he was three years old. We’ve had a lot of faith to bring him through.

"To see what he’s gone through, all the surgeries, all the chemotherapy and cancer he’s battled, he never gives up," she said. "He’s one of the happiest people I know, despite what he’s been through. Every time I get frustrated or angry, I remember what he’s been through. I asked him one time, ‘If you could go back and not have cancer, like if you could be a healthy boy, would you do it?’ And he said, ‘No.’ And I was flabbergasted. I said, ‘Why not?‘ And he said. ‘Because it made me who I am today.’”

Harberts has adjusted to balancing school and basketball, among other things, while majoring in kinesiology.

“Being in-season and being in school is so much harder than I ever thought it was going to be,” Harberts said. “We travel a lot and we have a lot going on during the season. We miss a lot of classes, and our homework and tests (while making it up later), so just being on top of our schoolwork is really important. We have four-hour blocks of practice, and we go to class and we have tutoring, so it’s a lot.”

Harberts has an ambitious goal–to one day go on a mission and volunteer as a doctor or medical professional in South Africa.

“I read this fiction book when I was a little kid,” Harberts said. “It was about this woman who went to South Africa and worked in these orphanages. I wanted to be a nurse or one day a doctor and I was thinking, what could I do with that? I wanted to be in a poor country that needs help.”

But for now, Harberts is doing just fine helping the Women of Troy winning basketball games.

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