Respect. That’s all they’re asking for.
But the USC men’s basketball team is hoping to prove just
why it deserves it, rather than beg for it.
“We haven’t gotten any respect yet,” Trojan
junior Nick Young said. “We’ve been going out there and
playing some good teams and we’ve gotten the job
done.”
In just a span of two weeks, USC (13-4, 3-1 Pac-10) was able to
beat No. 8 Wichita State, No. 14 Washington and No. 16 Oregon and
will be looking to add more victims to that list when it takes on
No. 4 UCLA and No. 10 Arizona in its next two home games.
But the only thing that came from those wins in terms of
national attention was a mere 13 votes in the AP Poll, 86 tallies
behind 25th-ranked Texas.
Regardless of what everyone sees or fails to see in the Trojan
squad, the team knows it is doing things right under coach Tim
Floyd, who is in his second year of trying to turn around a program
that was in shambles just years ago.
“It was kind of devastating for us,” Young said.
“We really have to keep going and keep working hard. We
can’t let what people think get on our backs.”
Prior to Floyd’s arrival at USC, the team had undergone
several coaching changes within a short period of time, but
Floyd’s ideologies have brought success to a program that has
been compared to the one at UCLA.
With the Trojans emerging as a serious threat in the Pac-10, the
dynamic of the USC-UCLA rivalry will likely shift and become more
emphasized than it has been in the past several years with the
Bruins dominating the crosstown matchup.
“The gap is closing between the two teams,” USC
senior Lodrick Stewart said. “Coach (Floyd) is bringing in a
new approach and a whole different attitude.”
For the Trojans, Saturday’s matchup against the Bruins is
more than just a rivalry game. It is a chance to prove yet again
that they belong in the national rankings and can hang with some of
the top teams.
But Floyd tries not to focus too much on how his team is viewed
by those on the outside, and shifts his attention to launching a
program to a level it hasn’t been on and keep it there in the
long-run.
“I think every game you’re trying to gain
credibility and add to the credibility that you’ve
established,” Floyd said. “And right now this is a long
journey for our program.”
When the Bruins arrive at the Galen Center on Saturday morning
to take on the Trojans, Floyd sees it as just the next step in the
process of bringing success to USC.
Even if the Trojans aren’t currently ranked, they feel it
is just a matter of time before they get to that point, and are
focusing on continuing the type of style that has gotten them to
where they are this season.
“We’re not going outside ourselves, trying to do
anything extra, we’re just playing basketball as a team and
trying to get some wins and stack them up,” Stewart said.
“We’ll get (into the rankings) sometime soon so
I’m not too worried about that,” USC junior Gabe Pruitt
added.