More Time to Lose for USC

Good news for USC doesn’t take the court these days.

A deal to bring in Tim Floyd as the Trojans’ coach seems inevitable. Construction on a basketball arena continues. And, hey, that USC football team sure had one heck of a season.

But as to what has been happening baseline-to-baseline, well, USC fans can still talk about that Orange Bowl.

The Trojans were at a loss, again, after being handled by Washington State, 69-52, in front of 2,155 Saturday at the Sports Arena. It left USC 0-4 in the Pac-10 games and its players a little befuddled as what to do to deviate from this wayward course.

“If you know what needs to be done, let me know,” Trojan center Rory O’Neil said. “We’ve just got to keep fighting and do what we can.”

What the Trojans did Saturday was minimal.

Washington State shot 58.7% from the field, with Jeff Varem making 10 of 13 shots and scoring 21 points. So the defense leaked.

USC shot 34% from the field, with Lodrick Stewart going four for 10, the best shooting performance by a Trojan player above walk-on status. So the offense sputtered.

And the coaching? Calling Washington State Coach Dick Bennett “a hall of fame coach,” Jim Saia, the Trojans’ interim coach, said, “I got outcoached in every aspect of the game.”

And this, for the Trojans, seemed the winnable game sandwiched between Thursday’s 84-59 pasting at the hands of 12th-ranked Washington and Thursday’s encounter with 13th-ranked Arizona.

“It’s pretty frustrating because this was a team we should beat,” guard Gabriel Pruitt said. “We’re a better team than this. We haven’t learned how to play a full game yet. Right now we are playing 10-15 minutes.”

Washington State (7-6, 2-2) didn’t exactly have a smooth, wire-to-wire effort, but the time its players put in was more than enough.

The Cougars’ plow-horse offense came up with quality shots again and again in turning the game into a rout. They made 14 of 22 shots in the second half. The Trojans (7-8, 0-4) made only 17 field goals for the game and finished with a season-low in points.

“They shot 58%, that’s disturbing,” Saia said.

Things went bad for the Trojans down to the finish. Pruitt slipped while trying to catch a pass and suffered a bruise to his left knee with two minutes left. He is listed as day-to-day.

That Pruitt’s injury was not severe might have been the silver lining for the Trojans.

That, and the fact it would take a complete collapse to match USC’s worst-ever conference start (0-11 in 1988-89).

A sloppy first half ended with Washington State leading, 32-27. The Trojans were fortunate to be so close, as the Cougars treaded water at times.

Washington State led, 21-20, with eight minutes left in the half. On the next five possessions, the Cougars turned the ball over four times and missed the front end of a one-and-one and still led, 21-20.

The Cougars outscored the Trojans, 8-2, to close the half, then opened the second half with a 10-2 run for a 42-29 lead with 14:37 left. USC never got closer than nine points.

“I’m very concerned, but we’ve got 14 more games left,” Saia said. “We’ll try to get into the Pac-10 tourney. Maybe we can turn things around and it’ll click. We have hit a lull. We’ve got to try to fix it.”