End of the Race, but Not the End of the World, for USC

Sometimes it was a ballet of the incompetent at the Sports Arena Thursday night. Basketballs were bouncing off heads and backsides, skittering out of bounds, flying into the crowd.

Sometimes it was the stampede of the desperate, two basketball teams in a thunderous race to a rebound, to a defensive position, to a place where the jump shot was wide open and available, to first place, to a grasping, clasping share of the Pac-10 regular-season title.

Even with the newly reconstituted Pac-10 tournament, the Pac-10 regular season championship is highly valued. So highly valued that USC and Oregon alternated between breathtaking brilliance and comedic clumsiness.

USC alum Tom Selleck came to the game and when we’re stargazing at the Sports Arena, that’s a sign the event is a big deal.

But let’s not make it too big a deal.

The Ducks came from 11 points behind with 11 minutes to play and beat the Trojans, 67-65. For the fourth time this season, the Trojans were beaten just before the buzzer. Everybody in the Sports Arena stood for the final 20 seconds, after David Bluthenthal had tied the score with a three-pointer. The collective groan that came after Frederick Jones scooted free for the winning basket with one second left rumbled and shook the old building.

The loss cost USC a shot at any part of that regular-season title and, yes, that is a very big disappointment. It is an honor and a point of pride and something Trojan male basketball players have not been able to brag about for a very long time.

“We’ve got the tournament,” Sam Clancy said, “and if we win that, everybody will forget about these losses.” Clancy was speaking of this game and of last Saturday’s bad outing at California.

And maybe he’s right.

With so many teams so close to first place, and sixth place, it is dangerous to make too much of a single game. It is not the time to take one game at a time, nor is it the occasion to chew over one game for more than a moment.

In games like Thursday’s, between teams almost certain to find themselves in the NCAA tournament, it is more about finding one’s way. It is the time for teams to work out the kinks, to learn how to pat down the wild emotions, find out how to make shots even when your mouth is too dry for spit, to rein in the need to make the dangerous full-court pass when the solid, sound pass is the safe and right way to play.

There was no predicting, from moment to moment, which of these teams was going to have the momentum. There was no predicting, from moment to moment, whether Clancy, the senior, wouldmake an 18-foot jump shot or miss a layup, whether Errick Craven, the freshman, would wow the crowd with a fancy reverse or a goofy pass to nowhere.

Oregon’s shooters were good at finding the safe spots and not always good at making the shots.

This is the spotlight USC and Oregon aren’t accustomed to. UCLA, Arizona, Stanford, those teams have played in the glare of expectations, accepted the pressure of being at the top of the conference, of playing deep into the NCAA tournament.

Even after their Elite Eight run of a year ago, the Trojans have not been considered by the “experts” a true basketball powerhouse in the Pac-10. And Oregon was picked to finish sixth in the league.

When USC was up, 50-39, a blowout seemed imminent.

But Clancy got his fourth foul with 10:13 left and the Trojans leading, 53-46. Clancy went for a block of a Luke Jackson shot and it appeared he may have gotten the block cleanly. The officials disagreed. Coach Henry Bibby said afterward that he considered the block a clean one and Clancy’s aggressiveness the right thing.

“He’s playing basketball,” Bibby said, “and that was a basketball play. And I thought it was a pretty good play.”

But as a senior--and on a night when his senior teammates, Brandon Granville and David Bluthenthal, were going to shoot a collective three for 17 from the field--Clancy must understand that he might need to pass up the block attempt and keep himself on the court. When he came back in the game nearly five minutes later, the Trojans were one point behind.

“If I play with four fouls,” Clancy said, “I’m tentative.”

The argument wasn’t about whether Clancy should stay in the game with four fouls, though. It was about trying for that block. Clancy, who finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, was needed on the court and not the bench.

“At times,” Craven said, “we depend on Sam. When Sam went out, the offense kind of stagnated. Without Sam, everybody was kind of standing around.”

Granville and Bluthenthal also needed to come up bigger on this night of grand opportunity. Granville scored four points, Bluthenthal five and that’s not enough. It’s not enough for USC to score 65 points and it’s not enough to keep losing these great games at the buzzer and it’s definitely not enough for Granville and Bluthenthal to total nine points in the biggest game of the season.

But Clancy is right. This game will mean nothing if the Trojans win the Pac-10 tournament or have another great NCAA run. This game will be forgotten if the Trojans beat somebody at the buzzer next week at Staples Center. And this game could mean everything if the USC seniors take from it the resolve to play hard but also smart, to calm the nerves and make the shots and stay in the game.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com