Tar Heels are formidable

The USC Trojans are like a kid at a theme park who starts off on the carousel before graduating to more pulsating rides.

Top-seeded North Carolina presents about the scariest conceivable opponent for the fifth-seeded Trojans (25-11), who will try to topple the Tar Heels (30-6) for a second consecutive season when the teams meet about 6:45 p.m. Friday in an NCAA East Regional semifinal at East Rutherford, N.J.

After routing 12th-seeded Arkansas by 17 points in the first round and then whipping fourth-seeded Texas by 19 points on Sunday, USC faces a far more daunting challenge in North Carolina, which features its usual slew of McDonald’s All-Americans, including freshman forward Brandan Wright and freshman guards Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson.

“They’re young, but they’re very, very talented,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said Sunday. “We know they want to run it and they want to push it. But so did Arkansas and ... Texas and we’re just going to have great awareness like we did getting back defensively” against the Longhorns.

The Tar Heels possess tremendous depth, with 10 players averaging at least 10 minutes a game. Sophomore swingman Marcus Ginyard and sophomore guard Bobby Frasor, who started against the Trojans last season, are now lower on the depth chart because of the influx of talented freshmen.

Lawson averages 10.5 points and 5.6 assists while running the point, Wright averages 14.6 points and Ellington averages 11.9. Sophomore forward Tyler Hansbrough, who averages a team-leading 18.6 points and 7.9 rebounds, and senior forward Reyshawn Terry round out a starting lineup that includes three players 6 feet 8 or taller.

USC defeated then-No. 17 North Carolina, 74-59, on Dec. 21, 2005, at the Sports Arena behind outstanding guard play. Freshman Ryan Francis had 12 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals.

“He played huge in that game,” Floyd said of Francis, who was fatally shot last May in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La. “He really did.”

Floyd said the Trojans should draw confidence not so much from that victory as from finishing tied for third in the difficult Pacific 10 Conference this season and playing national powers UCLA and Kansas tough until the final minutes.

“You guys have shown you can play to the wire with anybody who is supposedly a 1 or 2 seed,” Floyd said of his players. “Now it’s a matter of getting a little better in this area or that area.”

USC junior guard Gabe Pruitt, who figures to draw the assignment of guarding Lawson, said he hopes prognosticators continue to dismiss the Trojans as a potential Final Four team.

“I kind of like it when guys pick us not to win,” Pruitt said. “It’s that much more motivation when people don’t believe that we can win and make it this far. We just feed off of that.

“I think people overlook us and how good we are.”

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The Trojans will resume practice today after taking Monday off.... USC is 10-1 when scoring 80 or more points this season and 19-5 when holding teams to 69 or fewer points.... The Trojans have held opponents to 42% shooting or worse in 26 games, going 20-6 in those contests.... USC has out-rebounded 16 opponents, twice as many as it out-rebounded all of last season.

ben.bolch@latimes.com