COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT : Stanley Brings Trojan Tradition Back : West Regional: After a rough start, she has USC in the finals tonight against Stanford.

Marianne Stanley has kept the newspaper clipping tucked away in her office, never far from easy reach.

“It was a mid-year wrap-up during my first year at USC,” Stanley said Friday. “We were struggling at 6-15. There were capsules listing the biggest surprises and the biggest disappointments.”

Stanley remembered the first listing under Biggest Disappointments:

“ ‘USC--under first-year Coach Marianne Stanley--a team that once dominated its opponents can barely compete against them now,’ ” Stanley said. “I just clipped it out and put it under my blotter. And I’ve looked at it the last two years every day.

“It just reminds you that you’re never far from the curb, I guess.”

The USC women’s program was already veering way off course by the time Stanley arrived in Los Angeles in 1989. The Trojans had a 12-16 record in the 1988-89 season and failed to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time.

And things got worse before they got better. Stanley’s team won only two more games that first season.

Two years later, the team that resided near the bottom of the Pacific 10 standings is among the elite in women’s basketball. There are eight teams left in the NCAA tournament, and No. 23 USC is one of them. The Trojans (23-7) play No. 3 Stanford (27-3) tonight in the West Regional final at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

“I have to give Marianne a lot of credit,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She took over a team that had a lot of tradition, and that’s a lot of pressure. It was a coup of (then associate athletic director) Barbara Hedges because she went out and got a great coach. (Stanley) came to USC and you kind of go, ‘Oh, damn,’ because you know it’s just a matter of time. It’s the same with Joan Bonvicini going to Arizona.”

Although Stanley won three national championships at Old Dominion--two Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and one NCAA--even she didn’t expect such a quick turnaround at USC. By defeating No. 4 Stephen F. Austin in the regional semifinals, the Trojans reached the final eight for the first time since 1986. In 1986, USC lost to Texas in the NCAA championship game.

“I looked at it as a place with a tremendous basketball tradition,” Stanley said. “And I was excited about helping USC win a championship. I’m a person who likes challenges. And our players have brought us up over the hump. I wanted a steady improvement, but I didn’t have a timetable.”

Said VanDerveer: “I wouldn’t have predicted them getting this far. And I wouldn’t have predicted us getting here, either. Both teams have come a long way.”

For USC, the turning point was a 73-51 defeat by Stanford at home on Feb. 16. The Trojans led at halftime, 33-29, but wilted in the second half when Stanford completed its regular-season sweep of USC. Stanley realized her team needed better conditioning and took immediate measures.

“We didn’t even realize it at the time,” USC’s Joni Easterly said. “But once we saw the tape, we were pretty embarrassed.”

Said Stanley: “That game told us we were not in shape to make a run. I learned a lesson and now we’re in much better shape.”

That may have been the best film the Trojans ever watched. Since then, they have won nine consecutive games and will try tonight to show the Cardinal how well they learned their lesson that February day at USC.