Trojans, Thinking Positively, Look to Move Up

It would seem on the surface that USC might be about to write off this basketball season, considering its low conference standing and dwindling prospect for any dramatic improvement.

Not so, according to Coach George Raveling. He says his team has a positive attitude and is eager to prove that it is better than the record indicates.

The Trojans, 7-10 overall and 2-6 in the Pacific 10, are tied for eighth place--it also could be interpreted that they are tied for last place--with Washington State and Arizona State.

USC has an opportunity, though, to move move up modestly in the standings tonight and Saturday afternoon against Washington State and Washington, respectively, at the Sports Arena.

“It’s hard to believe that anyone in the league has made more improvement than the Trojans in the last three weeks,” Raveling said. “The team is extremely positive, perhaps the most positive and confident it has been all season.

“I hear the team talking more about winning, more about finishing in the top six, more about the (conference) tournament. You would think looking at this team’s record that it would have a somber attitude.

“But I don’t think that North Carolina’s attitude is any better than our attitude right now.”

In other seasons, a goal of fifth or sixth place wouldn’t be much of an incentive for a team.

But there’s a new “season” now at the end of the regular season, the conference tournament at Pauley Pavilion. The sixth-place team will get a first-round bye and, well, a team may get hot . . .

So there’s still hope for Raveling’s team. He says that practices have been intense and that even a few fights have enlivened the sessions.

“I think the players understand the system better and their roles within the system,” Raveling said. “Equally as important is that they’re comfortable with it. It surprises me how goal-oriented this team is.”

USC has won two of its last three conference games, but lost to Tulsa Saturday at the Sports Arena, 55-51. The Trojans floundered offensively in the last 3 1/2 minutes with fouls and a turnover and failed to score.

That’s been the rub. USC works hard on defense and executes its offensive patterns crisply but the patterns are often culminated by missed shots, even high percentage ones from inside. USC is shooting only 41.7% from the field for the season and has been under 40% in many games.

Trojan Notes Tonight’s game starts at 7:30 and will be broadcast by KNX. . . . Washington State won its opening conference games against USC and UCLA but hasn’t won since. WSU forward Joe Wallace missed last week’s series with the Oregon schools because of the flu but is expected to play tonight. Wallace, forward Brian Quinnett and center Dwayne Scholten made 18 of WSU’s 23 field goals in a 70-60 win over USC Dec. 20. The Cougars also burned the Trojans from three-point range, making 8 of 13 shots. . . . Kittrick Taylor, a reserve guard and a wide receiver on the WSU football team, won’t play tonight. He is attending an NFL evaluation camp. . . . The first 3,000 fans admitted tonight will be given T-shirts. Since USC has been averaging 3,096 for home games, everyone will most likely get a T-shirt.