In a Snap, Trojans Are in Trouble

The last hope just lost hope.

One day after UCLA’s distress flare of a game against Arizona came the news that USC would be without forwards Sam Clancy and Jarvis Turner for six to eight weeks because of foot injuries.

And now the prospects of high-level college hoops around these parts look dim.

The Trojans were off to a promising 4-0 start in conference play, their best since the Pacific 8 became the Pacific 10 in 1978.

“I could feel the excitement,” said USC guard Jeff Trepagnier, who creates most of the stir with his rousing dunks. “The team sort of gelled a little bit. We’re starting to play off each other.”

Now they’ll have to learn how to play without Clancy, the team’s leading scorer.

The Trojans’ season is snapped in half right when it was starting to get interesting. They have a showdown with conference leader Arizona (5-0) at the Sports Arena today in what should have been an enlightening look at the state of this USC team.

Now it doesn’t seem fair. They can’t be expected to contend with the league’s best without their top dog.

And it’s not as if the Trojans were deep in the first place.

Saying Coach Henry Bibby relies on his starters is like saying a car relies on gas.

In USC’s 95-92 overtime victory over Arizona State on Thursday, the reserves scored one point.

Uno.

For the season, the starters have produced 93% of the team’s points.

“We’ve got to deal with it,” said center Brian Scalabrine, who assumes the role of the team’s top scoring threat in Clancy’s absence. “If we keep losing all these games because Sam doesn’t play, that’s an excuse.

“A lot of things happen in basketball. Injuries happen. They’re missing a guy because he’s got a fracture in his foot--Richard Jefferson is a great player, and he’s out. [Losing] Sam hurts us a lot, but it’s just part of the game--come back and deal with the adversity.”

The Trojans came back quite well after losing four of their first seven games. They’ve done what you ask of any college team: get better as the season grinds toward March.

The Trojans swept the two Washington schools. Although they’re the two worst teams in the conference at the moment, USC did win back-to-back on the road.

Then the Trojans trounced UCLA, and followed that with the Arizona State victory.

“The success we’re having is early on, and that has to keep on moving forward, keep on moving forward,” Scalabrine said. “If all of a sudden we’re 4-0, we’re happy, we go downhill, then what kind of success is that?

“The team actually feels like we’re a lot more confident. We believe in what the coaches are telling us and what to do, and that’s translating onto the court.”

It’s nice to know at least one of the local Pac-10 teams is drawing confidence from the coaching staff.

There isn’t much of anything going on at UCLA, which is off to a 1-3 start in the Pac-10 and is offering little evidence that it merits a place among the conference elite.

How is a team that couldn’t win at USC supposed to win at Arizona and at Stanford?

All of a sudden the Bruins face a steep ascent merely to qualify for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. They sure have a way of making those high points (DePaul, North Carolina) disappear quickly.

The Trojans had simple goals, and were on their way to meeting them.

“We wanted to be in the top half [of the Pac-10],” Trepagnier said. “We wanted to win the games we were supposed to win. We still have a lot of confidence, even though we don’t have a couple of our players now.”

Expect the Trojans to come out with a strong effort tonight. Teams usually play above their means for short bursts when they know they must compensate for the loss of key players.

But it’s difficult to sustain that level for long stretches, and after today the Trojans play five of their next seven games on the road.

“We hope for the best, but we know it’s going to be tough now,” Trepagnier said. “Everybody’s going to have to step it up a little bit now.”

It’s a shame. Tonight’s game should have been as exciting as anything the Southland had to offer on a busy weekend that includes the Lakers’ matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers tonight.

Instead there’s a nagging feeling it could have been something more, which might end up as the summary for USC’s season.

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‘J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.