Oregon Schools Loom

USC enters a pivotal stretch this week as it plays host to Oregon and Oregon State, two teams chasing it in the Pacific 10 Conference men’s basketball standings.

If the Trojans can maintain or improve upon their sixth-place conference standing, they would receive a first-round bye next month in the conference tournament. With a 7-7 conference record, USC leads Oregon (6-9) by 1 1/2 games, Washington State (4-10) by three games and Oregon State (4-11) and Arizona State (4-11) by 3 1/2 games.

“You can find an incentive with every game in conference play, but that is one that we have discussed with our team,” said Coach Tim Floyd, whose Trojans play host to Oregon tonight at the Sports Arena.

USC seems to match up well with the guard-heavy Ducks, one of two teams the Trojans have outrebounded in Pac-10 play. Floyd joked that USC out-rebounded Oregon, 29-28, last month in an 84-78 victory at Eugene only “because they made so many shots, they couldn’t go back and get them off the board.”

The Ducks shot 52.9% and made 12 three-point baskets, six by reserve guard Chamberlain Oguchi, who has since catapulted into the starting lineup by averaging 20 points over the last four games.

“We’ve made a star of him,” Floyd said. “He was about a three-point-a-game guy until we let him know that he could be a great player in this league and he’s never looked back.”

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RouSean Cromwell received clearance to play tonight, but the freshman forward’s minutes will be limited by his conditioning and understanding of offensive and defensive sets that have evolved since he broke his right foot two months ago.

“We just are having to go back through everything again” in practice, Floyd said. “He’s forgotten so much. What you do see is activity and intensity with what he’s doing, but he hasn’t gone to the same place twice.”

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An Internet report that highly touted forward Davon Jefferson has committed to USC is incorrect, a source said. USC still has not committed its fifth and final scholarship for next season.

Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 standout from Hawthorne listed as a five-star recruit by scout.com, attended Lynwood High last year before transferring to the Patterson School, a boarding school in Lenoir, N.C. Jefferson recently left the school and still must complete coursework and achieve a qualifying SAT score to meet NCAA eligibility guidelines.

Jefferson rescinded a commitment to Nevada Las Vegas last year.

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Sophomores Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young have been selected to the All-District 15 first team by the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches.... USC’s regular-season finale against California on March 4 at Berkeley is set for 5 p.m. It will not be televised in Southern California.

TONIGHT

vs. Oregon, 7:30

Site -- Sports Arena.

Radio -- 1540.

Records -- USC 16-9, 7-7 Pacific 10 Conference; Oregon 12-15, 6-9.

Update -- Oregon sophomore guard Bryce Taylor, a former North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake star, has sat out the last four games because of a hyperextension in the right knee and is doubtful for tonight. Taylor scored 18 points in the teams’ first meeting last month at Eugene. “He hadn’t been ruled out,” Floyd said. “He’s coming back to L.A., and I’ve seen guys coming back to L.A. get well quick.”

Tickets -- (213) 740-4672.