By VICTORIA SUN
FOXSportsWest.com
March 9, 2011
LOS ANGELES - Heading into the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament last season, Southern Cal forward Alex Stepheson was buried in books instead of working on his post moves and head coach Kevin O'Neill was traversing the country recruiting instead of preparing his team for postseason play.
In other words, it was a miserable time to be a Trojan.
On Jan. 3, 2010, O'Neill was forced to tell his players that they wouldn't be competing in the conference tourney, or any postseason tournaments, as part of the university's self-imposed sanctions for violating NCAA rules during the recruitment of former player O.J. Mayo.
"When we had to tell our team we couldn't play in the postseason, obviously, that was a blow to their spirits," O'Neill said Tuesday after practice. "Last year at this time, we were done and we knew when the end was.
"We don't know when the end is this year. We hope it's at the end of March. We just want to play together as long as we can."
The fourth-seeded Trojans (18-13, 10-8 in the Pac-10) will take a step toward extending this season when they play fifth-seeded Cal in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday at the STAPLES Center.
USC is 3-1 against teams in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, has five wins against teams in the top 50 of the RPI, seven against teams in the top 75 of the RPI and is the only Pac-10 team to have beaten the top three teams in the league (Arizona, UCLA and Washington) this season. But the Trojans know that they aren't a lock to earn an at-large bid into the Big Dance.
So to ensure that their dance card is punched, USC players are aiming for winning their second Pac-10 tournament championship in three years to earn the league's automatic bid.
"Maybe with two wins we have a chance, but we're going for the whole thing," said forward Nikola Vucevic, an all-conference selection. "We want to win the tournament and make sure we get in it, but I think we might get in with two wins.
"We're going with the mind-set that we need to win to make it and also you want to win the Pac-10 tournament. It's great competition and you want to win it."
Though many coaches of teams on the proverbial bubble morph into politicians campaigning for their team leading up to Selection Sunday, O'Neill remained resigned to the fact the selection committee would perform its due diligence.
"I would think we have a shot at an at-large (bid), but I'm not going to make that decision," O'Neill said. "If we're good enough to be in the field of 68, we'll be there.
"They know all the details. They do this year round, so they're professionals."
If the Trojans don't earn the league's automatic bid or get an at-large berth, O'Neill had no objections to playing in the NIT. If that's the case, USC would be a strong candidate to host a first-round game on March 15 or 16.
"I would think we're a team that would be in the NIT," O'Neill said. "After the Pac-10 tournament, we'll be happy to be playing anywhere.
"We, naturally, want to be playing in the NCAA tournament, but if it's the NIT, it's the NIT."
The thought of playing in the NIT elicited a very negative response from several players who are determined to avoid that fate.
"We're not looking to play in the NIT tournament, we're looking to be in the NCAAs," guard Donte Smith said. "Yeah that'd be a big disappointment.
"I ain't even trying to think about it (the NIT), though. We've just got to take Cal, just one game at a time."
Regardless of what happens this week, the season could be considered a success given all of the setbacks the Trojans have overcome this season.
Fordham transfer Jio Fontan, who is second on the team with 10.5 points per game, missed the first 10 games because of NCAA transfer rules. Stepheson played 14 games with a cast or brace on his broken left hand.
Then in mid-January, 6-foot-5 freshman swingman Bryce Jones announced he was transferring. The departure of Jones, who averaged 7.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per game left O'Neill with a skeleton of a bench.
"I think it'd be awesome if we made it to the NCAA tournament, especially under these circumstances with the adversity we've gone through this year," O'Neill said.
Stepheson, Vucevic and guard Marcus Simmons, the Pac-10 defensive player of the year, are the only three Trojans who have played in the NCAA tournament. All three are eager to make a return trip.
Vucevic and Simmons competed on USC's team that won the 2009 Pac-10 tournament and lost to Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
"It's big, shoot, I hope we get there," Simmons said. "It's the best time in your life. Every college player, you practice in October just to get to this point. It's a great experience. It's like the best experience that I've had since I've been in college."
Stepheson participated during his freshman and sophomore seasons when he played at North Carolina before transferring to USC, but doesn't have fond memories of his last appearance. He played six minutes and mostly watched as eventual national champion Kansas pummeled his Tar Heels 84-66 in the 2008 Final Four.
Stepheson grimaced when recalling the massacre.
"They blew us out that game, they blew us out," Stepheson said emphatically. "It was a heart-breaking game, so I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from my last postseason experience.
"You never let that go, so I'm still holding onto it. I remembered it right away, I tried to block it out."
O'Neill pointed to Stepheson's inspired play as the reason USC has won five of its past six games. Stepheson recorded double-doubles in four of those contests, a figure not lost on O'Neill, and is averaging 9.9 points and 9.0 rebounds.
"I think Al has played exceptionally well, especially of late," O'Neill said. "Defensively, I thought, in the last seven or eight games, Al has been really effective.
"When he plays like he's playing now, we have a chance to win games because he's a defensive presence and a great presence on the boards."
Stepheson is content to let the team's offense run through Vucevic, who leads the Pac-10 with 20 double-doubles and has averaged 17.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
"I just try to feed off of him and just get looks wherever I can," Stepheson said.
He is hopeful the two can keep it up for a few more weeks and avoid the NIT.
"We have high expectations, and we think we're good enough to be in the NCAA tournament and make a good run," Stepheson said. "We're just going to go into the conference tournament and try to get a couple wins and try to get ourselves in there."
