USC basketball: Stanford pregame

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Greetings and salutations!

Coming to you from the Galen Center, where USC (13-9 overall, 5-5 in Pacific 10 Conference) looks to exact revenge against the team that ended its eight-game winning streak a month ago today: Stanford (10-12, 4-6).

A quick word on that game, a 54-53 Cardinal win in Palo Alto: The Trojans were playing their first game since the university imposed sanctions on the team -- namely a postseason ban -- relating to allegations surrounding O.J. Mayo, and many gave USC a pass on that loss, thinking the sanctions were to blame.

Except USC Coach Kevin O’Neill. He said USC gave a ‘total lack of effort in the first half.’ Despite that, the game still came down to Trojans forward Nikola Vucevic missing a potential game-winning tip-in at the buzzer. Now, O’Neill is right; Vucevic should have made it. But most people will still give USC a mulligan for that game, considering the circumstances, whether O’Neill likes it or not.

Yet with the news of the sanctions more than a month old and the Trojans now one and a half games back of first place, any sympathy the team used to get is long gone.

But I digress . . .

Here are some facts and stats to get you ready before tip-off at 4:30 p.m. (televised on Prime Ticket and radio broadcast on 830):

USC player to watch: Vucevic

After missing the potential winning shot beneath the basket a month ago against Stanford, I’m guessing the 6-foot-10 sophomore forward is looking for a second chance against the Cardinal. Vucevic has eight double-doubles this season, third in the Pac-10, and leads the league at 9.6 rebounds a game. And with his improved outside shot, he could be effective if Stanford goes to a zone defense, which is almost guaranteed since USC has struggled against zones all season.

Stanford player to watch: Landry Fields

Fields is coming off a career-high 35 points in Stanford’s 77-73 loss at UCLA, which is the best scoring performance for a Cardinal payer since Chris Hernandez had 37 in a Stanford win against UCLA in 2005. The senior from Long Beach is also leading the Pac-10 in scoring (22.9) and has averaged 30 points in his last four games. But, and here’s the key stat, Fields has averaged just 7.8 points in seven career games against USC, including scoring a season-low 14 points in the team’s meeting earlier this year. Will he break out of his slump against the Trojans, or will it continue?

Key to the game: USC’s defense on Fields and Jeremy Green

Fields and Green account for 57% of Stanford’s scoring (40.9 points) , which makes them the second-highest 1-2 scoring combination nationally behind Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody (24.8) and Tim Abromaitis (16.9). If USC can hold those two down, the Trojans should win. If they go off, they’re good enough to beat the Trojans without much help.

-- Baxter Holmes