Scrimmage won’t be a gauge

Nobody could watch and the details were not disclosed to the public. Those were about the only positives USC Coach Tim Floyd could take from his team’s closed scrimmage last November against Air Force.

The Falcons won, 79-41, in the first unofficial game played in the Galen Center.

“I left there and wanted to come up with some type of illness that might last about four months,” Floyd recalled Friday. “I didn’t want anything that would kill me, but something that they’d say, ‘You’re going to get well but you need about four months to rest.’

“I really didn’t think we’d win a game [during the season]. I don’t believe I’ve ever been as down in my career.”

With four key players sidelined by injuries, Floyd is dreading today’s closed scrimmage against Cal State Fullerton at the Galen Center nearly as much as last year’s debacle. The Trojans will play without sophomore guard Daniel Hackett (broken jaw), sophomore forward Taj Gibson (sprained ankle), freshman guard Marcus Simmons (sprained ankle) and freshman center Mamadou Diarra (hernia).

“The reality is, I don’t need it as a measuring stick,” Floyd said of the scrimmage. “I already know how far we have to go. What it does, it validates it in the players’ minds because they don’t know, especially young players. They’ll learn, and that’s what’s good about this setting.”

Fullerton features a familiar face in guard Josh Akognon, who sat out last season after transferring from Washington State, where he was the Cougars’ leading scorer during the 2005-06 season. The game is closed to the public per NCAA rules.

Diarra may finally get some relief. The freshman forward will undergo surgery Monday for a hernia that he said has been bothering him for four years.

“It’s not something new,” Diarra said. “But surgery is something new.”

The 7-footer will not be able to exercise for five weeks, meaning he might not return until late December at the earliest.

Floyd said he did not know that Diarra’s injury had been bothering him for so long.

“I’m sure part of that is the language barrier,” Floyd said.

Diarra is from Mali and is still learning English.

USC was ranked No. 18 in the first Associated Press poll, marking the first time the Trojans have been ranked in the preseason since they were No. 20 in 2001. Sophomore guard Dwight Lewis said rankings this time of year don’t matter.

“Preseason doesn’t really count,” Lewis said. “Just look at our football team.”

Among the ranked teams on the Trojans’ regular-season schedule are five other ranked Pacific 10 Conference teams, plus they could meet No. 24 Southern Illinois in the Anaheim Classic. USC also plays No. 3 Memphis and No. 4 Kansas.

Freshman guard O.J. Mayo required two shots for tonsillitis Friday afternoon, Floyd said, but practiced anyway.

“That’s what the really great ones, the ones who really get it at the next level, do,” Floyd said. “That showed me a lot.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com