Improving Trojans wary of road test at Pullman
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Treacherous and nearly impassable.
Descriptors that applied to road conditions from Spokane to Pullman on Friday also pertained to USC as far as the Trojans’ ability to make life miserable for other Pacific 10 Conference teams on their home floors.
USC has won four conference road games -- as many as last season -- with three to play.
To say the road only gets tougher for the Trojans might be something of an understatement.
USC Coach Tim Floyd said his team had made arrangements to charter a plane from Spokane to Pullman this morning for today’s game against 17th-ranked Washington State after officials closed every county road in southern and western Spokane County on Friday afternoon because drifting snow had made roads perilous.
Floyd said the latest report was that roads would reopen as of 9 this morning, “but you can’t really bank on that,” so the team forged ahead with plans for the charter.
“Maybe we’ll bail out of that if we get some early morning report that the roads are clear,” Floyd said.
Though skies were clear and temperatures hovered above freezing well into the evening, transportation officials still were confronted with the remnants of several recent winter storms.
The Trojans shouldn’t expect a warm welcome once they reach Pullman, given that Washington State has lost three consecutive home games and is in desperate need of its own course correction.
“It’s called [playing] Arizona at Arizona and playing Stanford, UCLA and Cal,” Floyd said of a recent stumble in which the Cougars have lost five of eight games. “I think they’re still a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament. They will present all kinds of problems for us, I know that, just based on the first game.”
Washington State throttled USC, 73-58, at the Galen Center on Jan. 10 and hasn’t been the same since. Neither have the Trojans, who have won six of seven games to move into sole possession of third place in the Pac-10.
USC will feature one not-so-little wrinkle it didn’t in the first meeting with the Cougars: 6-foot-8 freshman forward Davon Jefferson, who was held out of the game against Washington State for undisclosed disciplinary reasons.
“I don’t have anything to prove against them. I’m just trying to get a win,” Jefferson said Friday. “It’s just another team that we’ve got to go through and beat to get where we need to be.”
That the Trojans lead the conference in defensive field-goal percentage (38.1%) is all the more amazing considering they give up an average of 17.1 offensive rebounds in Pac-10 play.
“Normally, if you’re giving up that high of an offensive rebounding number, that defensive field-goal percentage jumps because of so many easy putbacks,” Floyd said. “If we weren’t doing that, there’s no telling what our defensive field-goal percentage would be.”
Floyd, who once coached the New Orleans Hornets and the University of New Orleans, said he “wouldn’t have to” listen if Louisiana State officials called to inquire about his availability in the wake of the firing of Coach John Brady.
Having long maintained that USC would be his last job, Floyd reiterated that he would remain with the Trojans “as long as [Athletic Director] Mike [Garrett] wants me here. If things change and we lose seven in a row, maybe I’ll be calling them.”
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TODAY
at Washington State, 12:30 p.m., Ch. 7
Site -- Friel Court, Pullman, Wash.
Radio -- 710.
Records -- USC 15-7 overall, 6-4 Pac-10; Washington State 17-5, 5-5.
Update -- Sophomore guard Daniel Hackett was unable to practice after experiencing back spasms, a lingering symptom of the bruised right pelvis he suffered Jan. 31. Floyd also disclosed that Hackett tweaked an ankle Thursday, but said he expected Hackett to play today.
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