Unranked Southern California can help its NCAA Tournament at-large status considerably on Sunday night with another win over cross-town rival UCLA; the Bruins are -5.5 on WagerWeb.com.
The Trojans (15-8, 6-5 Pac-10) have already upset the now-No. 6 Bruins (21-3, 9-2) once this season, beating them 72-63 at Pauley Pavilion last month. So USC could pull off its first season sweep since 2003-04, coach Ben Howland's first season in Westwood.
In that first game, USC shot a whopping 60.9 percent.
"They kept getting dunks, getting layups," said UCLA star freshman Kevin Love, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds in that game. "That was as poor a defensive output as we've had all season."
However, this time around injuries are thinning the USC backcourt. On Monday, tests revealed that sophomore guard Daniel Hackett had a stress fracture in his lower back and might sit out the rest of the season. On Wednesday, star freshman O.J. Mayo pulled his left groin and was unable to practice the next day. On Friday, freshman guard Marcus Simmons said he would try to play on a chronically sprained left ankle that was admittedly only about 75 percent.
The biggest loss is Hackett, who was averaging 9.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 30.5 minutes. Hackett's absence leaves the Trojans without one of their best defensive rebounders and a key component of the triangle-and-2 offense that stymied UCLA last time.
"I don't know that it will be as effective without him in there," coach Tim Floyd said. "He was maybe our most difficult matchup for UCLA."
Plus, the Trojans are coming off an ugly 74-50 loss to Washington State last weekend. In that game, USC only had six assists and allowed the Cougars to shoot 59.6 percent from the floor. Leading scorer Mayo (20.2 ppg) was held to 14 points in that game, and he has a whopping 85 turnovers on the season.
Mayo says he will be "good to go" tonight despite his injury; he had 16 points in the teams' first meeting.
A USC loss tonight leaves the Trojans squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble and only .500 in conference. UCLA has no such NCAA worries, but if the Bruins want a No. 1 seed, they need to finish strong.
The Bruins are coming off a 71-61 loss at Washington, ending their five-game winning streak. In that game last Sunday, UCLA connected on only 34.4 percent of its field goal attempts, including a 1-of-16 effort from 3-point range. The club also finished with nine assists against 16 turnovers and suffered a 44-36 rebounding disadvantage. The Bruins' season averages are 74.8 ppg on offense and allowing 58.5 ppg on defense.
Some good news for UCLA: Howland said he was "cautiously optimistic" that forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute would be back in the lineup. The starter sustained a concussion in the first half of last month's USC loss and left early in the second half.
If Mbah a Moute can play, Howland planned to have him guard USC freshman Davon Jefferson, who had a career-high 25 points and nine rebounds in the Trojans' earlier win, dominating Love.
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