Shackleford Is Expected to Get the Call

With Errick Craven’s recent ineffectiveness and a lingering ankle injury, Dwayne Shackleford is poised to replace the senior guard in the USC rotation.

“Oh yeah, Shack could easily take my minutes,” said Craven, who today will have an MRI test on the right ankle he severely sprained in practice on Dec. 27. Earlier X-rays were negative.

“The reality is, I could only get two minutes a game. It’s been like that since my freshman year. Now I’m just like, ‘OK, whatever.’ I’m going to work hard but there’s not a lot of room for error.”

Shackleford, who has had two arthroscopic knee surgeries since arriving at USC last summer as a junior college All-American, has not played for the Trojans since Dec. 23. Before playing in all three games of the Rainbow Invitational, he had been considering applying for a medical redshirt.

“I’m trying to go out there and practice hard, keep the same enthusiasm,” said Shackleford, who averaged 6.5 points in 18.3 minutes over the Trojans’ first four games. “It’s been rough for us going through this situation. Like [interim] Coach [Jim] Saia says, we’ve got to stay motivated.”

Shackleford said he was at “about 85%,” in his fitness level.

“I just want to be as healthy as possible,” he said. “I love playing ball. I’m a competitor.”

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Incoming Coach Tim Floyd began recruiting in an official capacity Tuesday and said he would essentially be on the road for three weeks.

“I’m just going to keep moving my feet out on the road,” Floyd said. “We’ve got a monumental task, in terms of trying to sign four big guys and 90% of the players gone.”

Saia said he’d spoken with Floyd Tuesday morning and that Floyd was impressed with the play of next season’s nucleus -- specifically freshmen Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young -- in the Trojans’ loss to UCLA on Saturday in which USC blew an 18-point halftime lead.

“He tells me to hang in there, he didn’t want me to be down on myself,” Saia said of Floyd. “He saw the game. He saw what he saw ... he is excited. He realizes that if he gets some post players, we could be pretty good.”

We?

“It’s always a we-thing with me,” Saia said. “Even if I’m not here, I’ll always root for these kids.”