COLLEGE BASKETBALL NCAA TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS : USC’s First Foe Is Florida State : Trojans: In first appearance in six years, Raveling’s club will face 20-10 Seminoles.

After several preseason basketball magazines predicted USC would play in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985, USC Coach George Raveling framed the articles and distributed them to the team because he wanted to give his players a goal.

“Our goal was to make that suggestion a reality,” Raveling said.

The Trojans achieved their goal Sunday, receiving their first NCAA tournament bid in six years.

USC (19-9) will play Florida State (20-10), winner of the Metro Conference tournament, in a Southeast Regional first-round game Thursday at Louisville, Ky.

The Trojans gathered in a Heritage Hall Lounge to watch a broadcast of the announcement of the tournament pairings Sunday. A cheer went up when they saw that they had made it.

Raveling and the players said they were confident that they would receive the bid and their only concern was the identity of their opponent.

“To tell the truth, and I’m being 1,000% honest with you, I never was worried at all,” Raveling said. “I just wanted to find out who we were going to play and if they were going to send us someplace where they had good restaurants.”

In the final year of a five-year contract, Raveling guided the Trojans to their first winning record in six years. USC Athletic Director Mike McGee said school officials will meet with Raveling’s attorney after the season ends.

“I know there’s been a ton of questions about the contract,” Raveling said. “But in a lot of ways McGee and I understand each other a lot better than maybe some people think we do. It was never a great concern of mine.

“I’ve never once gone to him and asked whether or not I was going to be here. The central issue wasn’t the contract, it was trying to get this team to perform to its maximum ability level.”

Both USC and Florida State have improved as the season progressed. After losing their first four Pac-10 games, USC won 10 of its final 14 conference games to finish in a third-place tie with Arizona State. After a nine-point loss at Syracuse last month, the Seminoles won their final seven games.

If the Trojans defeat Florida State, they would face the winner of the Indiana-Coastal Carolina game in the second round. Raveling was an assistant to Indiana Coach Bob Knight on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.

“I like the bracket that we’re in,” Raveling said. “I said to one of my assistants yesterday in the shoot-around that I thought we were going to play Indiana in the first round. At least we’re in the same neighborhood with them.

“We’d certainly like to beat Florida State, because there’s nothing more that the kids or I would like to do than to have an opportunity to play a marquee team like Indiana. But obviously, we’ve got a great challenge in Florida State.”

Trojan Notes

USC guard Harold Miner, who set a school single-season scoring record of 665 points, made the All-Pac-10 team for the second consecutive season and Trojan forward Ronnie Coleman, who established a school scoring record of 1,712 points, made it for the first time in his four-year career.

* USC WOMEN: The Trojans will play host to Utah in the NCAA tournament. C14.