Injury Curtails Craven

Errick Craven’s senior season of discontent is quickly coming to a close, and the shooting guard has grudgingly accepted his lot.

“It was kind of depressing at first,” said Craven, who entered his final campaign within striking distance of USC’s top 10 career scoring leaders as well as becoming the first player to lead the Pacific 10 Conference in steals four consecutive years.

“After my ankle [injury], I just kind of forgot about all that.”

Craven, who was hailed by former coach Henry Bibby as the best freshman he ever coached, has seen his numbers regress every season since and has admitted to being lackadaisical at times, averaging 5.9 points and less than one steal after entering the year averaging 12 points and 2.3 steals.

He butted heads with interim Coach Jim Saia early and was suspended for a game after, sources said, questioning Saia’s decision to start freshman Gabe Pruitt ahead of his twin brother, Derrick, in a practice.

The Cravens cast a wary eye at Saia after he was promoted to interim coach after the Dec. 6 Bibby firing, what with Saia’s past at UCLA, where the Bruins reportedly wanted to offer Errick Craven a scholarship out of high school in 2001 but did not have room for Derrick.

Saia, though, said any real or imagined hard feelings are long gone, especially with Errick healing from the sprained right ankle he suffered in practice Dec. 27.

“I want Errick Craven ... to do well, but I still have to be myself and [use] discipline,” Saia said. “I let Errick be Errick to a certain point and then I have to reel him in.

“Errick is a nice kid, a good kid, a heck of a talent. We need him to win, no doubt about it.”

Craven, who moved past Don Carfino (1,127 points) and Jeff Trepagnier (1,128) for 19th place in the Trojans’ defeat of California on Thursday, has 1,129 career points and 214 steals, 15 behind USC career leader Brandon Granville.

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Incoming Coach Tim Floyd has been recertified by the NCAA and will begin recruiting Jan. 31.

“My wife is undergoing surgery Monday and I’ll nurse her through the week,” he said. “Then after that I’ll basically be in a different town every day for three weeks.”

Floyd also wants current assistant Bob Cantu to continue recruiting previous USC targets. Among them, Jeremy Barr, a 6-foot-9, 260-pound senior power forward from Westbury Christian High in Houston who is also being recruited by Oklahoma State and Maryland, and Theo White, a 6-7, 235-pound sophomore small forward from Tyler (Texas) College who has already orally committed to the Trojans but is still being chased by Texas Tech, Texas A&M; and Washington State.

Floyd is expected to travel to Texas to watch the two play in early February.

USC is also still interested in high school juniors Derrick Jasper, a 6-6 point guard from Paso Robles, and Chase Budinger, a 6-7 small forward from Encinitas who is being recruited by UCLA and Arizona and whose father, Duncan, attended USC .

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TODAY

vs. Stanford, 3 p.m., Channel 7

Site -- Sports Arena.

Radio -- KMPC (1540)

Records -- USC 9-9 overall, 2-5 in Pac-10; Stanford 9-7, 3-3.

Update -- The Trojans are looking for their first in-season sweep of the Bay Area schools since 1997 and their first three-game conference winning streak since 2002.

Tickets -- (213) 740-4672.