Controlling Tempo Remains Key

Eleven games into the Pacific 10 Conference season and perennial league also-rans USC and Oregon are playing for sole possession of first place.

“No one in their right mind would have expected it,” USC senior forward Sam Clancy said.

“But that’s the way it turned out. Oregon’s a good team and I saw that they weren’t ranked. They don’t get any respect either, so it’s the teams of no respect battling each other for first place.”

Oregon senior guard Frederick Jones said the Ducks have known for a while that their winning mind-sets were anything but delusional.

“The only people we’ve surprised is pretty much the media and the other teams in the conference,” Jones said. “We knew ourselves that we were a good team. We’re used to battling USC for those middle spots [in the Pac-10 standings]. It’s nice to see both of us now fighting for that top spot.”

The 23rd-ranked Trojans, picked to finish third in the preseason media poll, and the Ducks, picked sixth, are at the epicenter of a Pac-10 power struggle that will unfold today at venerable McArthur Court.

Fresh off its blowout victory against UCLA, Oregon is the league’s highest-scoring team in conference games, averaging 88.9 points. USC is second, averaging 83.1.

“We like chaos and they like chaos,” Oregon Coach Ernie Kent said. “They like to play that way and we like to play that way. It will be a great, entertaining game [with] a lot of up-and-down stuff and that’s when we’re at our best, when we can get out in transition or have to scramble and make plays because we’re a very skilled basketball team.”

But USC, which punishes teams with various and relentless full-court press defenses, may not want to run with the Ducks or get into a shootout with them.

The Trojans might actually ease up on the tempo and sit back in a zone defense.

“I don’t think they slow the ball down at all or run a lot of half-court sets,” said Brandon Granville, the Trojans’ senior point guard. “They’re at their best when they’re pushing the ball and just shooting, shooting open shots. We’re still going to try to create turnovers and that’s probably going to be our main objective, but it’s also going to be to slow them down and get them into a situation that they’re not used to.”

USC is coming off a 64-51 victory against Oregon State on Thursday night in which the Trojans committed a season high-tying 17 turnovers. The victory ensured the Trojans of at least a split on the trip, the main goal for most Pac-10 teams on the road. In USC’s two previous weekends, it lost the first game--to Arizona and California, respectively--but came back to beat Arizona State and Stanford two days later.

“There’s no pressure on us,” USC senior forward David Bluthenthal said. “I think anytime there’s no pressure on you, not that you necessarily play looser, but we can just go out there and play our game.”

Meaning the Trojans don’t believe in the Mac Court Mystique, which Oregon has proved with a 12-0 record at home this season.

Kent, though, doesn’t think the Trojans’ senior trio of Bluthenthal, Clancy and Granville will allow USC to play scared.

“Those guys have been starting since [they were] freshmen,” Kent said. “They’ve been to the [National Invitation Tournament] they’ve been to the NCAA, they’ve been deep into the tournament last year. They should have beat Duke. I mean ... they won’t get rattled.”

Besides, USC has enjoyed a modicum of success at Oregon.

In coming back from 12 points down with 5:22 to play last season to pull out an 87-80 victory in overtime, the Trojans have won three of their last five games in Eugene.