For a Change, USC Isn’t Content With Spoiler Role

Here’s how much things have changed in one season for USC basketball:

Adam Spanich, the player who shot down Arizona in USC’s upset in overtime in March, is simply one more guy fighting for minutes now.

And the Trojans actually went into their game against Arizona on Monday thinking of it as a must-win. That’s right, Arizona.

Arizona won this time, but not until coming back from nine points down at halftime for an 87-78 victory at the Sports Arena.

“They’re good,” Arizona point guard Jason Terry said. “I think they’re going to knock off a lot of teams and be in the Pac-10 race all year.”

Arizona Coach Lute Olson, who has a job on his hands with a freshman bunch this season--by the way, we believe you now, Lute, your team was overrated--handed out some praise too.

“This is a very good team, USC is,” Olson said. “It’s not going to be easy for anybody to come in and beat them.”

That’s saying something for a revamped team that was 9-19 last season but is 9-2 now. But it’s also the sort of compliment you hear from a team that isn’t too worried about you.

The problem is, a lot of teams are going to be in the Pacific 10 race all season. And USC’s margin for error is going to be small.

So--incredible as it sounds--the Trojans believed they let one slip away against the No. 8 Wildcats.

“We thought we needed all the home games,” said Brian Scalabrine, the redheaded center who is one of the reasons USC is thriving this season, though he struggled with foul trouble against Arizona and scored only eight points. “You can’t lose at home in the Pac-10. Look around at what’s happening already. One of our goals was to go undefeated at home. They took that away today.”

Already, Washington State has upset Washington, and Oregon beat a California team that had beaten North Carolina.

“It makes you think, every night you’ve got to bring your game,” Scalabrine said. “Every half, you’ve got to bring your game. Nobody’s going to let us win. Especially because we don’t really have a name like Arizona or UCLA.”

Even the USC players’ own names aren’t that familiar.

Last season, Spanich sank a three-pointer to send the Arizona game to overtime, and another to win it.

He has gone from second-leading scorer to starting only two games this season.

“I had a bigger role last year. We just weren’t as talented,” Spanich said. “So this year my role is diminished.”

As for this year’s group, Scalabrine--Olson called him “an all-league type player” with his rapidly evolving game--has joined such holdovers as Jeff Trepagnier and Jarvis Turner.

Throw in freshman point guard Brandon Granville, who doesn’t play as if he has never been here before, along with a host of supporting players--some old, like Elias Ayuso, and some new, like Sam Clancy and Quincy Wilder.

What this USC team does best is run, and the Trojan transition game can be devastating, with Trepagnier’s exclamation point finishes.

“They are deadly out in transition,” Terry said. “If you don’t stop Trepagnier, he’ll dunk on you all night.”

Granville can shoot when needed and also delivers a calm alley-oop pass that he rarely telegraphs, playing with uncommon poise for a freshman entering a Pac-10 fray scattered with the likes of Terry, Baron Davis and Arthur Lee.

“He’s very good,” Olson said. “The thing I like about him is very seldom do you see a freshman point guard do such a good job of staying under control. His assist-to-turnover ratio is well over two to one.”

All that, and USC wasn’t good enough Monday against a very beatable Arizona team.

The Trojans were felled by foul trouble, poor shooting and an offense that is terrific on the run but doesn’t seem to have enough half-court options.

Fouls--some of them questionable, but too many of them on charges--affected Scalabrine, Granville, Trepagnier and Clancy.

Another problem was nine-for-34 shooting in the second half, putting the Trojans at less than 37% for the game.

Keep the Trojans out of transition, and it makes it tough for them to win.

“They’re the best team up and down the court in the league,” said Olson, who probably wouldn’t have said that if he were playing UCLA next.

The task is to avoid becoming just another up-and-down team in the standings--and it won’t be an easy one.