Trojans Have Plenty to Laugh About This Time : They’re a Loose Group After 66-37 Wipeout of Cold-Shooting Washington St.

USC coach George Raveling revealed ruefully Thursday night that his team will open against North Carolina next season.

So that prompted the tongue-in-cheek question, “did your Trojans sound a warning to the Tar Heels tonight?”

That was the the way the questioning went in the loose USC dressing room. And why not?

USC had just blown out Washington State, 66-37, at the Sports Arena. The Trojans are unaccustomed to such comfortable winning margins and they relished it.

The game, if such, was over in the first half. USC streaked to a 31-6 lead, settled at halftime for a 35-15 cushion and poured it on from there.

Raveling was clearing the bench in the closing minutes and a crowd of 3,531 cheered USC’s version of the twin towers, 7-2 Carl Polland and 6-11 Ivan Verberckt.

But the fans reserved their biggest cheer of all for Marcus Cotton, who made an appearance with 1:42 left to play.

Cotton is, of course, the All-Pacific 10 linebacker on the football team.

“When I put Marcus in, I told him that a zone wasn’t the same as in football. You had to match up with someone,” Raveling said. “Then, I added ‘don’t hit anyone.’ ”

Cotton managed to hit one free threw, but he missed on a basket from three-point range.

“That was a four-point shot,” Cotton corrected.

Cotton also was debited with a goal tending call, prompting Raveling to say, “He was practicing his goal line defense and was trying to impress Larry Smith.”

In any event, it was the 6-4 Cotton’s first appearance on a basketball court since the 1984-85 season when he played in one game.

“I played 18 seconds in that game to be exact,” Cotton said smiling.

Now Cotton has a problem. He told his teammates at halftime that if they won by 20 points, he’d buy them all a steak dinner.

That’s 15 steak dinners, matching the number of Trojans--the entire team--who got to frolic in a rare rout.

By winning, USC improved its overall record to 8-10. The Trojans are 3-6 in the Pac-10 and have eighth place all to themselves since they previously shared that spot with Washington State and Arizona State, which lost to Arizona Thursday night.

As for the forlorn Cougars, it was their seventh straight loss after opening the Pacific 10 season with wins over USC and UCLA.

It got so bad for the Cougars in the first half that four of their five starters didn’t even score. Forward Brian Quinnett got 13 of his team’s meager 15 points in the first half.

USC came into the game shooting only 41.7% The Trojans lost their heads against the Cougars, shooting 50% from the field in the first half and 48.8% for the game. Washington State shot 26% for the game and committed 12 of its 21 turnovers in the first half.

Guard Brad Winslow made all four of his 3-point attempts. Curiously, he missed on six shots inside the 3-point line.

Forward Derick Dowell led the Trojans with 24 points on 10 of 17 shooting. He also grabbed nine rebounds and made five steals.

Trojan Notes

Washington State’s 37 points were the fewest scored by a USC opponent since Oregon State got 35 in the 1954-55 season. . . . George Raveling on opening against North Carolina in the Richmond tournament next season, a schedule that he said he didn’t make: “I’m more used to playing Eastern Washington and the Little Nuns of the Poor.” . . . Raveling on his team’s improvement since losing to Arizona, 78-44, Jan. 8: “Back then, we had to get Reagan to negotiate our release from McKale Arena.” . . . It was USC’s largest winning margin since it beat The Citadel, 95-62, during the 1984-85 season. WSU Coach Len Stevens on his team’s inept performance: “We put ourselves in a hole and the game was over in about 10 minutes. It has been a trait of our play the last couple of games.” . . . . USC resumes conference competition against Washington Saturday afternoon at the Sports Arena.