Trojans Cannot Afford Another Cardinal Sin

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard doesn’t have to play Stanford anymore, and good riddance. He says that Tom Davis coaches a style that is “funny, tricky little basketball.”

Hazzard’s Bruins beat the Cardinal twice this season, but USC has to contend with Stanford again tonight at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, and the Trojans aren’t overjoyed by the prospect.

Now why would anyone give Stanford a second thought? The Cardinal is the last-place team in the Pacific 10 at 2-11, while USC shares the lead with Arizona at 10-3.

Although Stanford seldom wins, it can occasionally make a better team look bad. USC knows all about that, having lost to the Cardinal, 60-54, last month at the Sports Arena.

USC players say that Stanford distorts the game with its funny bounce passes, its swarming, pressing defense and its stubborn zone.

Davis’ players aren’t especially skilled individually, and they are shooting only 41% in conference games.

But they keep coming at you, with Davis substituting as if he was running a fire drill. They just won’t quit. For example, UCLA wasn’t in danger of losing Monday night at Stanford, but Davis’ team prolonged the game by fouling and lost by a respectable score of 72-66 when by all rights it should have been blown out.

Playing Stanford is like playing tennis with someone who only lobs. You know you can beat him, but his style is wearing and sometimes unsettling.

“There are very few guarantees going into a game, but I’ll guarantee you that Stanford will play as hard for those 40 minutes as any team we’ll ever play against,” USC Coach Stan Morrison said. “I’ll also guarantee you that they’ll be ready for us, even though they played Monday night. Those are built-in factors of Tom Davis’ system.”

There are also no guarantees that USC can retain its share of the lead, given the nature of Pac-10 basketball this season. There are no dominant teams, just some good ones that are contending for the championship. Others, such as Stanford and Cal, can jump up and bite you at any time.

“The key word for us this week is persistence,” Morrison said. “We just have to keep after it and keep playing.”

Every game is critical for the Trojans now. They don’t have a cushion after losing to Arizona, 60-55, Saturday at the Sports Arena.

Not only does Arizona share the conference lead with USC, but Oregon State (8-4), Washington (9-5) and UCLA (8-5) are still in contention with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

USC hasn’t lost two straight games this season, and curiously, it has played better on the road than at home. The Trojans are 6-0 away from home in conference play and only 4-3 in games played at the Sports Arena and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Trojan Notes Center Clayton Olivier has been able to practice this week and may play tonight. He has a ruptured blood vessel in his right foot and didn’t play against Arizona or Arizona State last week. . . . The Trojans will play Cal (4-8) Saturday night at Berkeley in a game that will be televised by Channel 11 at 7:30. . . . Washington is idle, but three other Pac-10 contenders will play tonight: Oregon at Arizona, Oregon State at Arizona State and UCLA at Cal. . . . Point guard Larry Friend got into foul trouble and played only 15 minutes in USC’s loss to Stanford last month. USC shot only 37.2% in that game, and the Cardinal was worse at 34.5%. But Stanford made 28 of 40 free throws, while USC made only 14 of 20. . . . Forward Wayne Carlander needs only 17 points to move ahead of John Block into second place on the all-time USC scoring list. Block finished his career with 1,423 points. John Rudometkin is the leader at 1,484. . . .The USC-Oregon State game March 9 has been switched from Cal State Dominguez Hills to the Sports Arena at 3 p.m.