They’ll Make It to the Postseason

Brian Scalabrine and Jeff Trepagnier have been invited to postseason tournaments for seniors being evaluated by NBA scouts. Both will participate in the Portsmouth Classic in Virginia, April 4-7, and the Nike Senior Desert Classic in Phoenix, May 1-5.

Trepagnier has also been invited to appear in a college dunk contest during the Final Four weekend in Minneapolis if the Trojans are not playing a game.

*

With his 23-point effort against Arizona State on Thursday, David Bluthenthal became the most recent of the current five starters to have scored at least 750 points in his career. Bluthenthal’s total stands at 770. Scalabrine and Trepagnier have topped 1,000, Sam Clancy has 877, and Brandon Granville 906.

*

If you’re going to beat Arizona, it’s best to keep the Wildcats out of the 80s. Arizona is 11-0 when scoring 80 or more points, and 6-7 when held below. Over the last three seasons, Arizona is 39-3 when scoring 80 or more. The Wildcats have reached the 80-point plateau in seven of their last 11 games.

In winning three of the last four games against Arizona at the Sports Arena, the Trojans held the Wildcats below 80 points twice.

*

The Sports Arena won’t be quite as loud as it was for the Trojan-Bruin battle last week, when a record-crowd of 16,409 showed up. But USC officials are expecting around 10,000 today.

TODAY

vs. No. 8 Arizona, 11 a.m.

Channel 2

* Site--Sports Arena.

* Radio--XTRA (690).

* Records--USC 17-6, 7-4 in Pac-10; Arizona 17-7, 9-3.

* Update--The Trojans haven’t played a home game this early in the day since meeting Oregon at the same time on Jan. 8, 1994. USC won, 77-69. The Wildcats are grumpy about more than the starting time, having lost an overtime game to UCLA on Thursday and dropping to third in the Pac-10. USC can still use a quality win in conference to impress NCAA tournament officials. Among the keys to the game: Can USC’s Sam Clancy and Arizona’s Michael Wright stay out of foul trouble while battling in the low post? Brandon Granville and Jeff Trepagnier will also have full days trying to contain the Arizona guard tandem of Jason Gardner and Gilbert Arenas.

* Tickets--740-4672.