Now Comes the Tough Part

USC, riding a three-game winning streak, is heading into the toughest part of its Pacific 10 Conference schedule.

Starting with Thursday’s road game against undefeated Stanford, the next five games could have a major effect on the Trojans’ NCAA hopes.

After Stanford, they face a California team that has beaten them six consecutive times. Then USC returns home to play UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State.

A victory over Stanford, UCLA or Arizona would be a major boost to USC in the eyes of the NCAA tournament officials. Beating Cal, tied with USC for fourth in the Pac-10, is just as important to the Trojan psyche as it is to positioning in the Pac-10 race.

And if the Pac-10--despite its decent nonconference showing--is hard pressed again to get more than four teams into the NCAA tournament, USC cannot afford give-away games to teams such as Arizona State, which remains winless in Pac-10 play.

“They will all be tough games for us,” Coach Henry Bibby said.

Which is why Bibby will challenge the Trojans in practice this week to stop depending on one or two players to have a hot hand and carry them to victory.

“Not having enough guys play well at once has been crippling us this year,” Bibby said. “To be 15-4 we’ve found a lot of ways to win games. And I look back at the four we’ve lost and felt we had a chance to win them if more people were playing well that night.

“The better the teams you play, the more people you have to have playing well. At least three to four every night. We have to have four to five playing well going into Stanford, to have a chance to win. But I believe we have a shot.”

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With victories over Oregon and Oregon State, USC moved up to No. 21 in the Associated Press poll. Stanford is No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week.