Miner Wants a Better Show : Midwest Regional: But USC star says he doesn’t have anything to prove against Northeast Louisiana tonight.

USC guard Harold Miner set out to prove that he was one of the nation’s best college basketball players when the Trojans met Florida State in an NCAA tournament first-round game last season.

Instead, Miner suffered through one of the worst shooting performances of his career, making only seven of 27 shots as the Seminoles eliminated the Trojans, 75-72.

After his embarrassing showing in last season’s NCAA tournament, Miner will be out to redeem himself when eighth-ranked USC (23-5) plays Northeast Louisiana (19-9) in an NCAA Midwest Regional first-round game tonight at 7:30 (PST) at the Bradley Center here. But he says he no longer thinks he has something to prove.

“I think I’ve proved to everybody what kind of player I am over the course of the year,” said Miner, a first-team All-American. “Last year’s not a big issue. I just want to get in and win some games.”

Coach George Raveling is confident that Miner has put it behind him.

“I think he’ll know how to deal with (playing in the NCAA tournament) better than he did last year,” Raveling said. “He went in there last year in an environment he’d never been in before. They picked him as the outstanding player of the region before he ever played a game. Everybody had already given him all the accolades and it was tough for him to live up to people’s expectations.”

Miner averaged 26.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in leading the Trojans to their second consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament. It’s the first time in 31 years that USC has played in the event in back-to-back seasons.

Elated last season at making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985, USC shot poorly in the loss to the Seminoles.

“I think we’ll have a different mind-set than we did last year,” Raveling said. “I think either consciously or subconsciously, we went into the tournament just happy to be there. It was like a big Beverly Hills party where you knew there were going to be limited invitations and you were just happy to be there.

“This year we’re going in with the idea that we want to stay around and advance. And we’re going to be disappointed as hell if we don’t make it to the Sweet 16.”

The Trojans, who beat two No. 1-seeded teams, sweeping UCLA and defeating Ohio State, were seeded second in the Midwest, behind Kansas, and drew 15th-seeded Northeast Louisiana, which has never won a postseason game.

But Raveling is wary of the Indians, who won their final six games to earn their third consecutive NCAA bid.

“Every coach I’ve talked to that has played them has said the same thing to me, ‘George, you better caution your kids to understand that this is not going to be an easy game just because no one has heard of this team,’ ” Raveling said. “That’s the problem when you get in the NCAA tournament and play one of those directional schools, like northeast, southwest. Every time you play those directional schools, everybody seems to think think that they’re no good.

“After watching about 10 minutes of video, it was obvious to me that Northeast Louisiana was a team that should be highly respected by us. One coach I talked to said, ‘If you think it’s going to be an easy game, you better call (Louisiana State Coach) Dale Brown.”

Northeast Louisiana opened the season by losing to LSU on Nov. 22 at Baton Rouge, 77-76, the Indians squandering an eight-point lead in the last two minutes.

Ryan Stuart, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, is averaging a team-high 21.6 points and 9.1 rebounds for Northeast Louisiana. A transfer from Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Tex., Stuart was voted the Southland Conference player of the year and the conference newcomer of the year.

Trojan Notes

USC canceled its scheduled one-hour practice at the Bradley Center Wednesday night and held a two-hour workout at a suburban high school instead. Coach George Raveling thought that he could accomplish more without the distractions of conducting a public practice at the Bradley Center, where the Trojans will have a shoot-around today.

If USC wins, it will play the winner of the Houston-Georgia Tech game Saturday at 4:15 (PST). Raveling refused to play Houston in the Freedom Bowl tournament last December at UC Irvine because he didn’t think the Trojans were ready for the Cougars. “It wasn’t a question of running scared,” Raveling said. “My job is to do what’s best for the USC basketball program, not to try and satisfy other people’s expectations. If I had to do it all over, I’d still do the same thing.”