Trojans know the A-B-Cs of playing ‘D’

Ten minutes before USC tipped off against Texas last March in an NCAA tournament second-round game, Trojans Coach Tim Floyd approached Daniel Hackett in the locker room.

The freshman guard was starting that day, his coach told him, and his defensive assignment was Longhorns freshman Kevin Durant. It was an unlikely pairing -- a part-time starter going up against the national player of the year.

“I had nothing to be nervous about,” Hackett recalled. “I was a freshman. I had nothing to lose.”

With the 6-foot-5 Hackett and 6-5 teammate Dwight Lewis continually flustering the 6-9 Durant by staying underneath him and limiting his touches, USC upset Texas, 87-68, and advanced to its first Sweet 16 in six years.

Effective defensive schemes have become the norm since Floyd and assistant Phil Johnson came to USC three years ago, be it the triangle-and-two set the Trojans used in victories over UCLA and Arizona this season, the full-court press they unveiled during a win over Stanford this month or the stifling man-to-man format that is the hallmark of Floyd’s teams.

Sometimes the coaches immediately conceptualize how they want to attack an opponent’s strengths. Other times it comes to them while watching tape in the early hours of the morning or walking through plays with their team in a hotel ballroom.

“We have tried to play at times the 60-by-two rule, which means trying to take the other teams’ two best players out of the game,” Johnson said.

That rule will certainly be in effect Thursday in Omaha when sixth-seeded USC (21-11) plays 11th-seeded Kansas State (20-11) in a Midwest Regional first-round game. The Wildcats’ top players -- freshmen Michael Beasley and Bill Walker -- average a combined 42.3 points, more than half of the Wildcats’ 78.7 points a game.

“We’ll look to come up with a big plan for stopping those guys,” Hackett said. “Obviously, you have to try to limit a guy who scores 30 a night.”

Beasley, who averages 26.5 points, said there was no defensive plan the Trojans could devise that would surprise him.

“I’ve seen a lot,” he said. “I’ve seen about everything you can see.”

Actually, he hasn’t seen a USC defense that ranked first in the Pacific 10 Conference in field-goal percentage defense and 14th nationally in scoring defense this season, limiting opponents to 39.1% shooting and 63.2 points a game.

The Trojans limited high-scoring Kansas to 55 points in December and have held several standout players -- including Memphis’ Derrick Rose, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless and Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin -- well below their scoring averages.

“Everything we do is dependent on how well we defend,” Johnson said. “You go back through this year and the nights we defended really well we had a great chance to win.”

In addition to a trio of quick guards who can stick with their counterparts and eliminate easy transition baskets, USC has a shot blocker in sophomore forward Taj Gibson, whose 81 blocks led the Pac-10.

“They’re athletic all over the floor, they can pressure you, force you to drive, force you to go against shot blockers,” said Oregon Coach Ernie Kent, whose team is 2-5 against Floyd’s USC teams. “I think it’s the big key to what they have gotten done.”

Floyd said his defensive philosophy was formed more than 20 years ago as an assistant to Don Haskins at Texas El Paso “and we’ve never really deviated from that. It’s based on trying to take away easy baskets. . . . We try to get back on defense, take away layups. We try not to foul and put teams at the line and we try to guard inbounds plays, take away those easy baskets.”

Teaching Floyd’s principles takes time, and freshman guard O.J. Mayo estimated that the Trojans spend 85% to 90% of their practices on defense.

“Defense, defense,” Mayo said, repeating the word for emphasis. “We take a lot of pride in our defense.”

Not that they always execute. Mercer and California blistered the Trojans for more than 90 points this season, and Arizona’s Chase Budinger dropped 29 points on USC during a Wildcats victory in January at the Galen Center.

Johnson said the Trojans’ inexperience -- seven of their top eight players are either freshmen or sophomores -- has resulted in occasional lapses.

“We are so young and are still learning,” Johnson said. “A lot of things we talk about in the film room, we are still addressing some pretty basic things. This team, at times, has shown signs of being a really good defensive team and at times we have taken a step back and not been so good.”

Kansas State Coach Frank Martin said he was expecting USC at its stifling best Thursday. He expects Floyd is already formulating a plan to stop Beasley and Walker, but he knows better than to expect the courtesy of a heads up.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com