USC May Be in Cold as Race Heats Up

The Pacific 10 is generally knocked by ESPN’s Dick Vitale and other Eastern media types as a basketball league that doesn’t measure up to the Atlantic Coast, Big East and Southeastern conferences, to name a few.

From a competitive standpoint, though, this season’s Pac-10 race shapes up as a mad scramble that probably won’t be sorted out until the last weekend of the regular season.

At the nominal midway point of the season, five teams are clustered near the top with some surprising contenders.

Washington (7-2), a consensus preseason pick by conference coaches to win the title, is in first place. But the Huskies don’t have much breathing room as Arizona (6-2), California (5-4), Oregon State (5-4) and Stanford (5-4) all are in contention.

The Cardinal is the most surprising team of the conference. Although Coach Tom Davis lost starters Earl Koberlein and Steve Brown because of injuries, his team swept the Oregon schools last weekend on the road, muddling the race.

In Sunday’s game, freshman Todd Lichti scored 13 points, three of them on free throws in the last minute, in a 56-52 upset of Oregon State. The victory was the first for the Cardinal at Corvallis since 1975.

Stanford was picked to finish ninth by the conference coaches, and Cal and Arizona were relegated to fifth and eighth, respectively.

Even some second division teams, such as UCLA (4-4) and Washington State (4-5) are within sight of the leaders.

As for USC (9-9 overall, 3-5 in the Pac-10), the Trojans are just treading water and could stay afloat or become submerged according to how they fare against the Washington teams this week at the Sports Arena.

The Trojans play Washington State Thursday night, then face Washington Saturday afternoon in a televised game (Channel 4, 3 p.m.).

“Washington State is playing like the team I thought they would be,” Morrison said. “(Guard) Keith Morrison is always tough and can beat you in so many ways.”

The Cougars beat the Trojans Jan. 9 at Pullman, Wash., 65-58. The Huskies pounded USC two days later at Seattle, 91-76. The Trojans committed 33 turnovers in that game.

A year ago at this time, USC had a 6-2 conference record and was on its way to the co-championship with Washington. The Trojans won eight of nine conference road games in 1984-85, though, compared to a 0-4 mark this season.

Trojan Notes Although Oregon State is sliding after a 3-0 conference start, Stan Morrison still believes that the Beavers will win the conference championship. . . . Morrison on USC’s 66-56 loss to UCLA last Wednesday night in Pauley Pavilion: “We didn’t play well and UCLA had a lot to do with that. Walt Hazzard prepared his team well and they carried out a great game plan. Pooh Richardson played a great game. We didn’t pick him up high enough and he penetrated very well against our defense. I closely watch other teams warm up before a game and he really asserts himself.” . . . Morrison said his team hadn’t practiced Thursday, Saturday or Sunday. “The guy (forward Tom Lewis) who needed the rest the most I found lifting weights on Friday and he told me later that he worked with his shooting coach (Des Flood) Saturday and Sunday. He’s determined to lick his shooting slump.” . . . Lewis is 11 of 41 from the field in the last three games. . . . USC forward Derrick Dowell has the most impressive numbers on the team. He is No. 2 in rebounding in the Pac-10 with a 9.2 average, is tied for the team scoring lead with Lewis at 17.7 points and has 31 steals, 34 assists and 16 blocked shots.