A Force for Change

Arizona’s Marcus Williams averages more points. UCLA’s Luc Richard Mbah a Moute pulls in far more rebounds. Washington’s Jon Brockman shoots for a higher percentage.

But among Pacific 10 Conference freshmen, no one has made more game-changing plays than USC point guard Ryan Francis.

Consider what he did last week during the Trojans’ first road sweep of the conference’s Oregon schools in nine years: Francis made two steals in overtime against Oregon State and rebounded a missed free throw to help secure a victory over Oregon.

“He’s as tough a guy as I’ve had,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said. “I’ve had some guys as tough, but I haven’t had anybody tougher on my teams through the years.”

For Floyd, what best illustrates that characteristic might typically be construed as a sign of weakness.

After USC lost its season opener to Cal State Northridge, Floyd entered the locker room and found Francis in tears.

“I knew that he hadn’t learned how to lose,” Floyd recalled. “I thought, ‘Well, OK. This guy’s got a chance.’ ”

It was a chance to become one of the best defenders in the Pac-10. A chance to help form -- along with Gabe Pruitt and Dwayne Shackleford -- one of the best backcourts on the West Coast. And, perhaps most important, a chance to help the Trojans shake the defeatist attitude that had engulfed the program before his arrival.

“Sometimes I feel that some of the team, if we’re down by four or something, and there’s a minute and some left, they just put their head down like they have a losing mentality,” Francis said recently. “But I haven’t seen it lately. They’re getting [better].”

It helps when your point guard, who appears closer to 5 feet 8 than his listed height of 5-11, can come up with big plays and contain the top opposing guard the way Francis has so many times already.

Alaska Anchorage’s Kemmy Burgess had scorched South Carolina for 28 points two nights before Francis held him to 12. Eastern Washington phenom Rodney Stuckey, who would later score 45 points against Northern Arizona, could muster only 15 against Francis on six-for-17 shooting.

More recently, the assignments Francis has drawn read like a Who’s Who of Pac-10 guards: Stanford’s Chris Hernandez, Arizona’s Hassan Adams and Washington’s Brandon Roy.

And then there was the game-saving steal he made Jan. 14 against Washington State’s Josh Akognon. With the Trojans up by two points with only seconds to go, the Cougar guard tried a crossover dribble that Francis foiled before feeding Nick Young with a pass that resulted in a game-sealing dunk.

On the offensive end, Francis has played with the poise of a veteran despite efforts to throw him off his game. During a December game against Loyola Marymount, opposing fans heckled him with chants of “Gary Coleman!” to no avail. He was typically solid, making both shots he tried to go with three assists and four steals.

Francis has 73 assists and 51 turnovers, which ranks him seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio in the Pac-10. He ranks fourth in the conference with 38 steals.

Anyone who doubted Francis’ steadying influence only had to watch the way the Trojans wilted over the final 8 minutes 23 seconds after Francis fouled out during USC’s 86-77 loss to then-No. 13 Washington on Jan. 12.

“That little guy, Francis, that made the difference in the game when he fouled out,” Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “He’s a tough competitor.”

So tough that he was back in the starting lineup against UCLA on Jan. 18 despite a bruised right knee that kept him from practicing the previous two days.

Francis, who has played five turnover-free games, brings plenty of grit to a team that hasn’t had a winning record since the 2001-02 season.

While the Trojans were on their way to a 12-17 record and last-place conference finish last season, Francis was the driving force behind a Baton Rouge (La.) Glen Oaks High team that finished 36-0 and won the Class 4-A state title.

Losing has never been acceptable to Francis, whether it was a game of cards, checkers or basketball.

“If you have that losing mind-set, you’ll be satisfied with it,” he said. “You’ll make an excuse like, ‘Oh, I did good. I’ll get it next time.’ ”

Francis has been super-competitive since childhood, when he would irritate his mother with the noise he made shooting wadded-up paper balls into a basket he had fashioned out of a hanger.

“I had to eventually buy a little plastic basket and I put it on the back of the door,” Paulette Francis said. “Then after a while, we got it going outside.”

Taking his game outdoors meant staging daily competitions with cousins, dribbling between their legs, heads pointed skyward, while walking down the street.

“If anyone messed up,” Francis said, “they would have to start over and try to catch up.”

Even though he had developed into a capable ballhandler and defensive menace by his senior season of high school, Francis wasn’t pursued by any brand-name programs, in part because he played only sparingly on the club-team circuit before suffering an injury.

Francis had committed to Louisiana Lafayette when Floyd started recruiting him toward the end of his high school career. One of the reasons he switched to USC: He wanted to show other major programs what they were missing.

“That’s been driving me since Day 1,” Francis said. “When I was little, I was always under-recruited, if you want to call it that. No one really wanted to look at me because of my size.

“When Coach Floyd came, I was like, ‘I’m going to do something to change the program. I’m going to do whatever it takes.’ ”

He’ll be at it again Thursday against Arizona at the Sports Arena, where a victory could move the Trojans, 14-6 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-10), to as high as a tie for second place in the conference standings.

“I’ve been pretty pleased but not satisfied, because my high school coach told me once you get satisfied, you’re beat,” said Francis, who is averaging 6.7 points, 3.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds.

His favorite moment so far did not fuel a victory over a nationally ranked team or secure a triumph over a conference rival. It came against Alaska Anchorage, an NCAA Division II team, when he stole an inbounds pass and drew a foul in the final seconds to help complete a comeback victory.

“The one that I really love the most was the Alaska game because I had just turned the ball over and I had told one of my teammates, ‘We’re going to be all right. We’re about to win,’ ” he said.

“Then I went in and got a steal. That’s the one that sticks in my mind the most.”

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Fiery Francis

Starting point guard Ryan Francis has been a key player in his first season at USC. Francis, the 2005 Louisiana Class 4-A player of the year at Glen Oaks High in Baton Rouge, La., is fourth in the Pac-10 in steals and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference.

GP; Avg-M; FG-FGA; FG%; FT-FTA; FT%; OR-DR; A; TO; S; PPG

20; 31.4; 47-122; .385; 33-47; .702; 12-50; 73; 51; 38; 6.7

Avg-M -- Minutes-per-game average; A -- Assists; TO -- Turnovers; S -- Steals