Chris Coduto/Arizona Daily Wildcat Southern California's Nick Young pushes off Arizona's Hassan Adams during Arizona's win over USC last month. Arizona plays USC tonight at 8:30 with a chance to earn a season sweep of the Trojans.

Doldrums cloud Arizona's last visit to Memorial Sports Arena

To say that basketball at Southern California is second-rate is like saying Johnny Drama is less famous than Vince in "Entourage."

While the USC football team packs a full Memorial Coliseum, the basketball team has mired in obscurity at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, playing as the sound of the basketball bouncing echoes through the arena.

In their last year in a place where the Los Angeles Clippers reached the lower echelon of sports, the USC basketball team is making a resurgence under the tutelage of first year head coach Tim Floyd, whose attempt to take USC basketball (14-6) out of the doldrums appears to be working.

"USC being 5-4 (in Pacific 10 Conference play) would be the biggest surprise," Arizona head coach Lute Olson said.

The Trojans have done something the Arizona men's basketball team (13-7, 6-3) has not this year. They beat both Oregon schools on the road, their first sweep in Oregon since 1997, and handled North Carolina by 15, while the Wildcats' loss margin was 17. Aside from a 66-45 loss to No. 14 UCLA, the Trojans have averaged 76 points in their past four games aside from the Bruins' contest.

"With USC, they are playing much more wide open than they were earlier (in the season)," Olson said. "They are running the ball a lot more on the break. On the defensive end, they will certainly challenge us."

USC's backcourt includes sophomores forward Nick Young and guard Gabe Pruitt, the team's leading scorers, and freshman point guard Ryan Francis, who stands just 5 feet 11 inches tall but has endurance to spare, playing all 40 minutes against Oregon in their last game.

"Both (Nick) Young and (Gabe) Pruitt are continuing to light it up like they had earlier," Olson said of the duo that he saw Pruitt score 30 at Oregon while Young added 16 points and nine rebounds.

"I think you have to put good ball pressure on them," freshman guard J.P. Prince said. "They're great players, they're going to make some shots and make some tough shots. I think you have to just make it hard for them, don't give them any easy buckets to get them going."

Francis, who didn't lose a single game during his senior season in high school in Louisiana, is averaging 3.7 assists and playing 31.4 minutes a game.

"We really couldn't envision it," Floyd said of Francis' minutes, "but we knew early on that he was different than a lot of freshmen, from the standpoint of how hard he played. Generally, it takes freshmen a while to figure that part out.

"We had no idea how mentally tough he is."

Although Francis turned the ball over six times against Oregon, Floyd praised him for his ability to get the Trojans into the right sets.

"He has the ability, regardless of the game situation, to get us into an offense or a defense," Floyd said. "He just knows how to win, and he's really helped our basketball team."

Third-leading scorer and junior guard Lodrick Stewart did not start against Oregon and Floyd said he is unsure whether Stewart will start tonight. Stewart was ill and did not practice prior to the Oregon game.

Along with Stewart, big man Abdoulaye N'diaye and freshman guard Sead Odzic have played key roles up front and off the bench, respectively.

"(Lodrick) Stewart is their third-leading scorer, but with the new guys too, they seem to be much more comfortable now with what coach Floyd is having them do," Olson said.

N'diaye, a junior center from Senegal, played 31 minutes and scored 10 points against Oregon.

"I know that Abdoulaye N'diaye is better," Floyd said. "He has improved, or at least he played his basketball that he's played for us last weekend, and that helped our club."

Compared with the team that came to Tucson in early January and lost 74-63, the Trojans seem to be feeling more confident.

"We have kids who can shoot, and we've tried to build their confidence and let them know when they're open (if) they feel it's a shot they can take in an 80-80 game to go ahead and take it without looking at the bench," Floyd said.

As for the Sports Arena, it is a gym that has been notoriously tough for Arizona, where the Wildcats have dropped games in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 to lower-ranked USC squads.

"I don't think it's the gym," junior center Ivan Radenovic said. "Most of it is they feel more comfortable, like all the teams in the Pac-10 playing at home, especially because they're a young team and their fans support them."

The surging Trojans and the reeling Wildcats will meet tonight in Arizona's last visit to the Sports Arena and USC will want to make sure the Wildcats never forget it.

"They had two huge wins for them last week on the Oregon Trail," Olson said. "They have to be very enthusiastic with us coming in. It will be a huge road trip, obviously, for us."