Trojans Are Still a Work in Progress

So, you think Coach Henry Bibby is looking at the Pacific 10 Conference tournament as a chance for USC to redeem itself after a disappointing regular season?

Think again.

“Is that the expectation I’ve created here?” Bibby said. “I think I’m still trying to build a program.

“This isn’t Arizona or Stanford. What does everyone expect?”

Unless the Trojans (13-14) advance to the tournament title game for the third straight season, Bibby will have consecutive losing seasons for the first time -- USC was 13-17 last season.

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Arizona was effective in pressuring the Trojan ball-handlers in the second half of the teams’ last meeting.

Derrick Craven and Rodrick Stewart had trouble getting the ball past midcourt and the Wildcats, who had trailed by nine points early on, coasted to a 97-70 win.

Is there any question then what Arizona might throw at USC on Thursday at Staples Center?

“Hopefully, we’ve figured it out [because] we expect them to do that,” Bibby said. “They were successful with it. Hopefully, they’ll be aggressive enough that fouls will be called.”

Bibby is not convinced that the depth-challenged Wildcats, who have basically a six-player rotation, will employ 40 minutes of full-court press, as the Trojans attempted when they lost the 2002 Pac-10 tournament title game to Arizona.

“I don’t know how much they can do with their limited amount of people,” Bibby said. “We had six guys and pressed. It really took its toll on us.”

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Junior guard Errick Craven, who is averaging a league-leading 2.35 steals, can join Gary Payton as the lone players to lead the Pac-10 in steals for three consecutive seasons. Payton did it at Oregon State from 1988 to ’90.

“It would be good to leave my mark somewhere,” said Craven, who is averaging 2.32 steals for his career, just below Jason Kidd’s conference career record of 2.50.

“I’ve had two [straight] disappointing years so it would feel good.”