Minneapolis — In a perfect world, Southern Cal men’s basketball coach Tim Floyd said he’d like his team to be able to play as many players as the opposition.
Come Sunday evening, however, Floyd’s Trojans are going to be far from a perfect world.
Lack of depth, balance could be issue for hot Trojans
USC forward DeMar DeRozan responds to a question during a press conference at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon. DeRozan is the Trojans third leading scorer by averaging 13.7 points per game.
The No. 10 seeded Trojans, who mainly rely on four players, play at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Metrodome against an MSU team that often goes as many as nine or 10-men deep.
“You’d prefer to go as deep as they go, but it’s just not who we’ve been and we don’t probably have the same depth they have,” Floyd said at his team’s press conference Saturday. “But we do recognize that you can’t go playing these guys, all three of them, 40 minutes like we did. It’s not something that will happen in Sunday’s game.”
In Friday’s 72-55 win over Boston College, DeMar DeRozan, Dwight Lewis and Daniel Hackett all played 40 minutes for the Trojans. Taj Gibson, USC’s leading scorer, played 36.
Friday’s game, where USC played only eight players, was nothing new for the Trojans. DeRozan (13.7 points), Lewis (14.3), Hackett (12.3) and Gibson (14.6) have accounted for 79 percent of USC’s scoring this season.
Despite their high workload this season, all four players said they are feeling fine physically heading into Sunday. While Hackett credited USC’s trainers and coaches for improving the players’ stamina throughout the season, Gibson said when it comes to tournament time, none of the players should feel tired.
“When it’s do or die and guys want to win games, fatigue doesn’t even matter — you just want to go out there and play hard,” Gibson said. “(We) know there’s always time to ice down (and) time for rest, but these memories last forever so the guys are taking advantage of it.”
Going for eight
The Trojans come into Sunday’s game with seven straight wins, making them a confident and dangerous matchup for the No. 2 seed Spartans.
Floyd said the key to his team’s recent success has been because of two things — defense and taking care of the basketball.
“I think teams can learn how to lose and they can also learn how to win,” Floyd said. “I think the way we’ve won has been with the consistency on the defense end and we’ve limited our turnovers and I think our players understand that.”
Winning breeds confidence, and because of those seven straight wins, Gibson said the Trojans are happy to be riding a wave of momentum heading into Sunday’s game.
“It’s going to be big, coming in and basically letting the other team know that nothing’s going to be easy and just let them know that we’re going to be after them throughout the game,” Gibson said. “Every team was coming in feeling good and just trying to let their stake be known.”
Floyd praises MSU
It was apparent early on during Floyd’s press conference that he has the utmost respect for the Spartans and MSU head coach Tom Izzo. Floyd said many things impressed him about the Spartans — such as their passion, offensive efficiency and rebounding — but it was when Floyd was talking about the Trojans defense that he let out his loftiness praise.
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“We’ve got determined defenders like Tom does, (but) I don’t know if they’re as good as Tom’s,” Floyd said. “He’s got five guys who — I’ve never seen guys who sustain a stance like they sustain a stance, it’s beautiful to watch.
“There’s a reason they’ve been in three Final Fours and I feel like from watching the tape last night they can win the national championship.”
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