USC ‘Hawks’ Eagerly Await UCLA’s Visit

The Sports Arena tonight will be no place for the weak or timid.

USC and UCLA will rumble on the court. The teams will be wearing shorts and sweatbands instead of brass knuckles. There will be three men in striped shirts trying to keep some semblance of order. Fans might see the occasional rainbow three-pointer or artistic move to the hoop.

But the game means more than its impact on the Pacific 10 Conference basketball standings or national rankings. It’s personal, even more than usual in this cross-town rivalry.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30, but it might as well be at high noon.

The No. 22 Trojans have reminded anyone who will listen that not only did the Bruins beat them last month at Pauley Pavilion, they beat on them with what USC felt was excessive fouls.

Although USC Coach Henry Bibby said that the Trojans aren’t playing for revenge, their film sessions have been highlighted by reruns of the hard hacks that Bruins Dan Gadzuric and Earl Watson applied to Trojans Desmon Farmer and David Bluthenthal.

“They’re coming into our house,” said USC forward Sam Clancy, whose team is 10-0 at home this season. “And when someone comes into your house unwanted, you have to kick their butts.”

“This game we will be prepared for whatever they do,” Trojan guard Brandon Granville said. “It will be a war. We don’t lose here. We don’t plan to [tonight].”

Pardon the Bruins while they stifle a yawn. Even in lean years, they have had a strong grip on the rivalry (117-93), and had won five in a row at the Sports Arena before USC beat them there last year. Any bulletin board material from the Trojans carries an asterisk as far as UCLA is concerned.

“Basketball isn’t a circus,” Watson said. “I respect the game. I don’t know if [the Trojans] respect us at all, from the comments I’m hearing.

“Of course, I expect a physical game tonight. We made it that way. We created the whole physical USC-UCLA thing my last three years. We took the first step and now they’re going to try to match us. But while they match us, we’re going to continue taking some steps. Now they’ve got to catch us.”

That’s true in the conference standings as well. At the halfway point in the Pac-10 season, USC (16-5, 6-3) is tied for fourth and trails UCLA (13-6, 7-2) by a game. The Bruins are tied for second with Arizona; all are chasing Stanford, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation before losing to UCLA last Saturday.

Both local teams are playing well. UCLA has won nine of its last 11, including the first meeting with the Trojans, 80-75, at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 11.

“UCLA has gotten better since then,” Clancy said. “But we have too.”

USC has won four of its last five, the loss coming at Stanford last week.

That’s another game the Trojans thought they could have won.

“They’re probably going to be the best team in the country when we play them,” UCLA’s Billy Knight said. “They’ll be playing at the top of their game, sort of like how Cal did against us.” The Bears beat the Bruins by 29 points in Berkeley last Thursday night.

Statistically, this game is a tossup. UCLA is averaging 80 points in conference play, USC, 79.4. Defensively, the Trojans allow 70.3 points, the Bruins 75.2. USC shoots better from the field, 47.3% to 45.1%, while UCLA gets more rebounds, 38.1 to 35.8.

USC’s main task is to reduce the 28 turnovers it had last time. Eight came against the full-court press UCLA has been using, but Bibby said the Bruins scored only four baskets off those errors.

“We can always get into our offense,” he said. “The problem in that game was we were careless with the basketball. We did not value the basketball. . . . And that’s what we have a concern with at times, we don’t value the basketball.”

The Trojans need to maintain the level they had in the Bay Area, where Clancy did not have to carry the offense on his back. They lost by six to Stanford but beat Cal by 14.

As for UCLA, it depends on which team shows up. The Bruins can go from poetry in motion to the Bad News Bears in a single fastbreak.

If it is a tight game, UCLA no doubt will like its chances because it is accustomed to beating USC.

‘We’ve been fortunate in winning close games against [USC],” Bruin Coach Steve Lavin said. “At times certain teams have a favorable record against another team. Stanford has had our number the last few years. USC is a team we’ve had success against. But that’s more an indication that we’ve had some good seasons.”

Then again, when these teams are involved, desire might go as far in determining the outcome as talent.