Pruitt takes point role

Having fretted over grade points for the last six months, Gabe Pruitt can now focus on a different kind of point.

The junior guard is expected to handle much of the ballhandling duty today when he returns from academic ineligibility and makes his season debut as the Trojans play Kansas State in the Las Vegas Classic at the Orleans Arena.

Pruitt, who was primarily used as a shooting guard last season, when the Trojans let freshman Ryan Francis handle the point, will now try to help shore up the primary weakness of a team averaging a Pacific 10 Conference-worst 19.1 turnovers a game. Freshman Daniel Hackett has predominantly been running the point after Pruitt’s ineligibility and the fatal shooting of Francis last spring.

“We’re hoping that he’ll settle us down,” Coach Tim Floyd said of Pruitt, who hasn’t played much point guard since his freshman season. “We know that he’s going to be able to make shots, but we’re hoping that he’s going to be able to get us into an offense.”

Pruitt, who averaged 16.9 points as a sophomore, said he’s willing to “do whatever I can to help contribute.”

Pruitt says he is eager to move beyond a difficult 10-month stretch in which he suffered a broken bone in his knee; lost a close friend in Francis; was the victim of a prank pulled by California students, who set him up with an imaginary female student over the Internet; and had to sit out the Trojans’ first 11 games while academically ineligible.

“I’ll put this behind me now, but I’ll always look back on it because I don’t want to get back in this position,” Pruitt said.

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Floyd said the full-court presses the Trojans employed in victories over Charleston Southern and Longwood might become a more regular part of the team’s defensive scheme.

“We may very well utilize it a bunch as we move forward, because we like our quickness, we like our athleticism and we like our length,” Floyd said.

USC actually forced fewer turnovers in its last two games -- an average of 16.5 -- than it did in its first nine, when it forced an average of 18.2.

TODAY

vs. Kansas State in the Las Vegas Classic, 5

Site -- Orleans Arena.

Radio -- 710.

Records -- USC 9-2, Kansas State 8-3.

Update -- Kansas State features two potential NBA players in senior forward Cartier Martin and freshman forward Bill Walker, who has averaged 13 points in two games since making his collegiate debut Sunday. Floyd says the Wildcats exhibit the same aggressiveness on defense that was characteristic of Coach Bob Huggins’ Cincinnati teams. Kansas State has made more than 50% of its shots in four consecutive games.

ben.bolch@latimes.com