Midnight Madness follows the March variety

Tim Floyd had the creaky Sports Arena and a USC basketball team coming off a last-place Pacific 10 Conference finish heading into his first season as the Trojans’ coach.

His second season brought the debut of the Galen Center but also the heartrending loss of slain guard Ryan Francis.

So maybe it was sensible for Floyd to wait until his third year to unfurl his first Midnight Madness.

“I think if we’d have done it the first year, nobody would have shown up,” Floyd said Thursday after the John R. Wooden Award Tip-Off Luncheon at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

There will be plenty of enticements tonight at the Galen Center besides giveaways including iPods and free tuition. The free event, which starts after the women’s volleyball game between USC and Oregon that begins at 7 p.m., will mark the unofficial debut of what might be the most heralded recruiting class in school history, led by standout guard O.J. Mayo.

The Trojans’ first Midnight Madness since 2002 will also give fans a chance to celebrate the team’s school-record 25-victory season and Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA tournament.

The event will include a dunk contest, a three-point-shooting competition and a 10-minute scrimmage. The women’s basketball team will also participate and conduct a separate scrimmage.

“We’re trying to change the profile of how we’re viewed not only nationally but locally, and Midnight Madness is a part of that,” Floyd said. “I have no idea if we’ll have 100 people show up or 7,000, but there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to try it.

“Hopefully, there will be some curiosity about this great recruiting class that we have coming in and the excitement that we have going on around our program, and people will show up.”

Sophomore guard Daniel Hackett and freshman forward Davon Jefferson are not expected to participate in the event because of injuries. Hackett is recovering from a broken jaw and Jefferson from a sprained knee.

Floyd said Hackett lost 11 pounds in the first five days after being hit in the jaw Sept. 27 and was projected to lose between 25 and 30 pounds because his jaw was wired shut. Floyd said the cause of the injury was “an inadvertent elbow” from Mayo during a pickup game.

“That’s all I know,” Floyd said. “I wasn’t in town.”

Hackett’s initial estimate of being sidelined for only six weeks might be a bit optimistic, according to Floyd.

“The first day I heard all year, then I heard eight weeks,” Floyd said. “Daniel’s telling me six weeks. I think he’s being optimistic. I have literally no idea.”

Floyd declined to talk about his contract situation in the wake of UCLA counterpart Ben Howland’s recent seven-year extension. Floyd is entering the third year of the five-year deal he signed in January 2005.

“I just never talk about contracts,” said Floyd, who guided USC to 42 victories in his first two seasons, the most of any Trojans coach over the same span. “That’s one of the beautiful things about being at a private school -- you don’t have to.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com