Hackett is cleared to resume practice

When Daniel Hackett returned after a six-week injury layoff in November, it was as if his game had been magically fortified.

The USC sophomore guard scored a career-high 21 points in a victory over the Citadel and then topped that with the first triple-double by a Trojans player in at least 30 years in a win over South Carolina two days later.

Hackett, recovering from a stress fracture in his lower back, isn’t expecting that kind of production Thursday against Arizona if he is cleared to play in his first game since Feb. 9.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to go,” Hackett said Tuesday. “I’m trying to go out there and first of all, give [my teammates] a blow if I can -- five minutes, six minutes, I don’t know how much Coach [Tim Floyd] is going to give me.”

Hackett has been cleared to resume practice today and has been working out on an exercise bike and elliptical machine to maintain his endurance.

“I feel like I can play,” said Hackett, who averages 9.4 points and a team-high 3.6 assists. “The thing I don’t know is how my body’s going to respond in the long run, after an hour and a half of practice or after 20 minutes of playing out there [in a game].”

Hackett said he wasn’t concerned he might exacerbate his stress fracture and torn oblique muscle by returning prematurely because “it’s the end of the season.”

The challenge now will be integrating him back into a lineup that has played without him for two weeks.

“The team has been playing without me and they have been playing well,” Hackett said. “Now I’ve got to get back and fit in again. I will try to slowly do that, not doing too much out on the court and taking my time in seeing how I can help them.”

Hackett’s teammates, some of whom played 36-plus minutes in two games during his absence, are longing for his return.

“Any minutes Hackett can give us, it will be great,” sophomore forward Taj Gibson said.

Unlike the six weeks he sat out in the fall while recovering from a broken jaw, Hackett’s activities have been severely restricted until the last few days. He said he’s experienced tightness in his hamstrings and legs from starting to run again, which places a premium on stretching to stay loose.

Once he resumes playing, Hackett said he initially might “be a little winded, but it will come back. I think in a couple of days it will be OK.”

And should he see a ball bouncing out of bounds, like the play in which he fell and injured his back against Arizona on Jan. 31?

“I probably won’t be able to dive like I did last time,” he said, “like Dennis Rodman.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com