Lewis knows pain of displacement

USC sophomore guard Dwight Lewis can empathize with the thousands displaced from their homes by the wildfires throughout Southern California.

“It kind of brings me back to Katrina,” Lewis said.

Hurricane Katrina uprooted Lewis before his senior year of high school while living in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, La. Lewis’ family vacated its home the day before the hurricane made landfall in August 2005 and moved in with friends in Katy, Texas.

The storm flooded Lewis’ home and made it unlivable.

“I had a little depression stage and all that, but my family and I got through it,” said Lewis, whose family eventually fixed the home and rented it out, with much of the family remaining in Texas.

More recently, Lewis’ anguish has switched to the physical variety as he struggles to recover from a nagging quadriceps injury that has severely limited his practice participation.

“We’ve seen less of Dwight than anybody on our team right now,” Coach Tim Floyd said, “so I can’t really gauge his improvement at this point because he just hasn’t been out here practicing with us.”

Lewis said his quadriceps was getting better and that he expected to participate in Sunday’s intrasquad scrimmage at the Galen Center.

Still needing to raise nearly $300,000 of the $500,000 necessary to endow the Ryan Francis Memorial Scholarship, USC will hold a fundraiser Nov. 6 at the Galen Center. Participants can watch practice from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and then meet Floyd and the players afterward.

Tickets are $175 and include drinks and hors d’oeuvres and a chance to participate in a silent auction for team basketball merchandise.

Those donating $1,200 for a patron sponsorship will receive a team-autographed basketball and two courtside seats to the event.

Francis, a former Trojans point guard, was slain during a shooting in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., in May 2006.

For more information, call (213) 740-4155.

USC checked in at No. 18 in the first ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, the first time the Trojans have been ranked in the preseason since they were No. 24 in the coaches’ poll in 2001. . . . The Trojans will hold a closed scrimmage against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 3 at the Galen Center. . . . Former USC guard Lodrick Stewart said he expected to play for the D-Fenders, the Lakers’ Development League team that opens its season Nov. 25 against the Utah Flash at Staples Center. . . . Athletic officials have sold seven of 10 luxury suites in the Galen Center for this season.

ben.bolch@latimes.com