WOMEN’S BASKETBALL / EARL GUSTKEY : First-Place USC Has Reason for Optimism

It seemed like a fair question after the USC women’s basketball team had beaten UCLA Friday, 66-57, raised its conference mark to 11-3, held on to first place in the Pacific 10 Conference race and won its 15th consecutive home game:

Is this a Final Four team?

“I think so, sure,” said Coach Marianne Stanley, who should know a Final Four team when she sees one. She coached three national championship teams at Old Dominion and played on two at Immaculata College.

“I think we have all the physical ingredients, the experience, the height, the quickness and the depth.

“Our players are all veterans, and they’ve run the gamut of all the experiences they need. They’ve come from behind to win, they’ve won the close games, they’ve had to play hurt, they’ve played tough defense--they’ve really done it all.”

Moreover, as the Trojans start the Pac-10 season’s final two weeks--against the Washington and Arizona teams--the players feel the same.

“We’ve shown we’re as good as Stanford, so I don’t see how anyone can say we can’t do as well as they did last year,” said Lisa Leslie, USC’s 6-foot-5 center. She was referring to the Trojans’ 67-55 victory over the defending national champions this season at USC.

USC followers might see Leslie at another position in the NCAA playoffs, if Kim Gessig and Jualeah Woods can handle the offensive rebounding.

Leslie has at times been spectacular in the post, but driving against man-to-man defenses from the wing, she has seemed unguardable at times.

“Lisa’s very effective on the wing,” Stanley said. “She can do a lot of damage out there.

“But it’s a calculated risk for us to put her there. It’s great on nights when we’re shooting well and there aren’t that many offensive rebounds, and when Gessig and Woods can fill up the slack on the boards.

“Lisa is effective on the wing because she has three-point range, she can drive and she’s an excellent passer. If the right situation presents itself, I won’t hesitate to put her out there.”

Finding a position for another USC player, Joni Easterly, is much less difficult for Stanley.

Easterly plays all of them.

In two games this season, as in some last year, Easterly played all five positions.

When Stanley was asked what the 5-11 Easterly’s true position was, she was stumped.

“That’s kind of blurred,” she said.

Easterly, called by some the Pac-10’s most complete player, can be both spectacular and steady.

For example, against UCLA on Friday night, Easterly, a senior, was knocked on her back while shooting a sideline jumper. The shot went in, and as her teammates picked her up, she asked, “Did that go in?”

And in the second half, on an offensive rebound play, she soared over other players for the ball, couldn’t quite reach it, but tipped it to Leslie, who scored.

“She really doesn’t have a true position because she can play everywhere,” Stanley said.

“In games when she doesn’t have big numbers, she’s still been a factor. I know if I look at her afterward, she’ll have a couple of floor burns.

“Right now she’s our backup point guard (behind Nicky McCrimmon), but she hardly ever practices there. We list her at 5-11, but she might not be that tall. I don’t know if she has a true position. To me, she’s a small forward with three-point range who can also post up and also play point guard.

“If I asked some of our other players to play out of position, I might get an ‘I can’t’ answer, or I’d see doubt in their eyes. Joni just says ‘Sure,’ and she just does it.”

Women’s Basketball Notes

The NCAA women’s basketball playoffs might expand from 48 to 64 teams next year, according to Judith Holland, senior associate athletic director at UCLA and chairman of the NCAA’s women’s basketball committee. “When we cut it down to the last few teams a year ago to get to 48, we were really splitting hairs,” she said. “And I took a lot of heat when we got five Pac-10 teams in.”