USC Men’s Basketball Release Game 34 • USC vs. Boston College • March 20, 2009 • NCAA 1st Round University of Southern California Sports Information Offi ce, Heritage Hall 103, L.A., CA 90089-0601 - Phone: (213) 740-8480 - Fax: (213) 740-7584 2008-09 USC Schedule USC FACES BC IN NCAA FIRST ROUND Exhibition • Trojans making school-record 3rd-straight NCAA trip • Date Opponent Result/Time 10/26 Cardinal & Gold Game ---, 90-74 LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- The No. 10 seed USC Trojans (21-12, 9-9/T-5th in Pac-10) 11/3 Azusa Pacifi c W, 85-64 will face the No. 7 seed Boston College Eagles (22-11, 9-7/T-5th in ACC) in the fi rst round Regular Season of the NCAA Tournament at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. on March 20 at 4:20 p.m. 11/15 UC Irvine W, 78-55 PT. USC has won 20 or more games and reached the NCAA Tournament the last three 11/18 New Mexico State W, 73-60 seasons, both school records. The game is being broadcast on CBS with Gus Johnson 11/20 ^vs. Seton Hall L, 61-63 calling the play-by-play and Len Elmore providing color commentary. 11/21 ^vs. Chattanooga W, 73-46 11/23 ^vs. Missouri L, 72-83 USC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT -- USC is 11-16 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, 11/28 Tennessee-Martin W, 70-43 losing last season as a No. 6 seed in the fi rst round to No. 11 seed Kansas State 80-67 12/1 San Francisco W, 74-69 in Omaha, Neb. In 2007, USC advanced to the “Sweet 16” as a No. 5 seed by defeating 12/4 #at Oklahoma L, 72-73 Arkansas and Texas, before falling to North Carolina. This is USC’s 15th appearnace in 12/15 Pepperdine W, 91-77 the NCAA Tournament (1940, 1954, 1960, 1961, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1997, 12/20 North Dakota State W, 61-57 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2009). The farthest the Trojans have advanced in the NCAA 12/22 Georgia Tech W, 76-57 Tournament is to the semifi nals in 1940 and 1954. 12/28 Oral Roberts W, 66-56 1/2 at Oregon W, 83-62 BREAKING DOWN THE EAGLES -- The Eagles are 22-11 and are coming off a 66- 1/4 at Oregon State L, 58-62 (OT) 65 loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament on March 13. The Eagles are led in scoring by 1/11 UCLA L, 60-64 senior guard Tyrese Rice who averages 17.1 points and 5.4 assists per game. USC and 1/15 Arizona State W, 61-49 Boston College have met only one other time and it was in the second round of the 2001 1/17 Arizona W, 65-64 NCAA Tournament, won 74-71 by USC. USC was a No. 6 seed that season and BC a No. 1/22 at Washington L, 73-78 3 seed and ranked No. 7 in the country. 1/24 at Washington State W, 46-44 1/29 Stanford W, 70-69 COMMON GROUND -- The Trojans and Eagles have both faced Georgia Tech and San 1/31 California W, 73-62 Francisco this season. USC went 2-0 vs. those teams, while BC went 3-0. 2/4 at UCLA L, 60-76 -- The winner of the USC-Boston College game will play on Sunday, March 22 2/12 at Arizona L, 76-83 ON DECK 2/15 at Arizona State L, 53-65 in Minneapolis against the winner of the No. 2 seed Michigan State-No. 15 seed Robert 2/19 Washington State W, 61-51 Morris game for a spot in the Midwest Regional semifi nals. 2/21 Washington L, 51-60 TROJANS AGAINST THE NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD -- USC has faced nine 2/26 at California L, 78-81 (OT) teams and played 17 games against teams that are in the 2009 NCAA Tournament fi eld, 2/28 at Stanford L, 63-75 meaning more than half of its 33 games were against teams in the tournament. USC owns 3/5 Oregon W, 80-66 3/7 Oregon State W, 68-52 an 8-9 record in those games: (Arizona 1-1, Arizona State 2-1, California 2-1, Chattanooga 1-0, Missouri 0-1, North Dakota State 1-0, Oklahoma 0-1, UCLA 1-2, Washington 0-2). Pac-10 Tournament USC CLAIMS FIRST PAC-10 TOURNAMENT TITLE -- USC erased a 15-point 3/12 vs. California W, 79-75 halftime defi cit to defeat No. 23 Arizona State 66-63 on March 14 at the Staples Center in 3/13 vs. UCLA W, 65-55 Los Angeles to capture the school’s fi rst Pac-10 Tournament title. The Trojans had trailed 3/14 vs. Arizona State W, 66-63 since the fi rst minute of the game until Daniel Hackett’s free throw with 42 seconds left gave ^ Puerto Rico Tip-off (Coliseo de PR, San Juan, PR) USC a 64-63 lead. Taj Gibson then took over, blocking a James Harden shot and making # Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series two free throws to give USC the 66-63 win. DeMar DeRozan scored 16 of his career-high 25 points in the second half to lead USC back. Hackett fi nished with 19 points and a team- -- Home Games in Bold -- leading six rebounds. Dwight Lewis added 13 points, including a clutch three-pointer with -- All times local to site -- 1:04 left to bring the Trojans within one point. USC was the No. 6 seed and became the lowest seeded team to win the Pac-10 Conference Tournament. 2009 NCAA Tournament 3/19-22 First and Second Rounds Boston College Eagles Probable Starters 3/26-29 Regionals Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Class Hometown PPG RPG 4/4, 4/6 Final Four, Championship G 4 Tyrese Rice 6-1 190 Sr. Richmond, Va. 17.1 3.9 G 15 Rakim Sanders 6-5 225 So. Pawtucket, RI 13.0 4.5 USC Quick Facts F 11 Corey Raji 6-6 214 So. Washington Township, N.J. 9.8 6.1 Location: Los Angeles, Calif. F 12 Joe Trapani 6-8 218 So. Madison, Conn. 13.5 6.6 Enrolment: 33,000 (16,500 undergrads) C 52 Josh Southern 6-10 242 So. Saginaw, Mich. 6.1 5.1 Nickname: Trojans Colors: Cardinal and Gold USC Trojans Probable Starters Head Coach: Tim Floyd (4th year at USC) Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Class Hometown PPG RPG Assistant Coaches: Gib Arnold (4th year G 13 Daniel Hackett 6-5 215 Jr. Pesaro, Italy 12.5 4.2 at USC), Bob Cantu (8th year at USC), Phil G 20 Marcus Simmons 6-6 200 So. Alexandria, La. 2.0 1.2 Johnson (4th year at USC) G 21 Dwight Lewis 6-5 215 Jr. Metairie, La. 14.1 3.2 F 10 DeMar DeRozan 6-7 220 Fr. Compton, Calif. 13.6 5.7 F 22 Taj Gibson 6-9 225 Jr. Brooklyn, N.Y. 14.3 9.4 * utilized redshirt season 2008-2009 • 1 • USC BASKETBALL IN TIM WE TRUST -- Tim Floyd has an impressive track record in the collegiate ranks along with his NBA experience. He brings 21 years of head coaching experience at the collegiate and NBA USC INFORMATION levels and owns a 327-179 record in his 16 seasons as a college head coach at Idaho (1987-88), OUTLETS New Orleans (1989-94), Iowa State (1995-98) and USC (2005-08). He won his 300th career game on Feb. 7, 2008 at Washington. Floyd posted a 63-37 record in his fi rst three seasons as USC’s head TROJANS ON THE WEB coach (the most wins by a Trojan coach in his fi rst three seasons) and is 84-49 overall at the helm of Current and historical USC men’s the Trojans. Eleven of his fi rst 16 seasons, Floyd has taken his team into the postseason (8 NCAA, baskeball information, as well as news, 3 NIT). Floyd has helped the development of his student-athletes at each stop, as 13 players in his statistics, features and cybercasts of the 15 years have made it to the NBA, including three players that did not even play high school ball. USC games can be found at the USC DESPITE MISSING PIECES, FLOYD PUTS PUZZLE TOGETHER – USC was 9-9 in confer- website: www.usctrojans.com. ence play despite having the whole team available for only 5 games. In those 5 games USC was undefeated (5-0) and has since improved to 8-0 with everyone available. Already without forwards The Pac-10 Conference web site ad- Kasey Cunningham for most of the season and Alex Stepheson the entire season, USC was forced dress is: www.pac-10.org. to play the fi rst 4 conference games without forward Leonard Washington (high left ankle sprain), and then lost then-leading scorer guard Dwight Lewis (left ankle sprain) for the 2 games in Washington. TROJANS ON THE RADIO Sixth-man Marcus Johnson missed 7 games with a strained right rotator cuff and forward Nikola All of USC’s games will be broadcast by Vucevic missed 2 games with a strained lower back. ESPN Radio 710 (KSPN-AM). TIME TO PUT IT IN NEUTRAL -- USC is 4-2 this season and 15-10 in Tim Floyd’s 4 years in TROJANS ON TELEVISION neutral site games. The following are the currently sched- uled USC men’s basketball contests THE MARK OF VICTORY -- USC is 12-0 when holding teams to under 60 points, 14-2 when set to be televised, including 9 regular holding teams to 40 percent shooting or less, 10-2 when committing less turnovers, 17-4 when having season games exclusively on Trojans a better FT% and 19-5 when taking more FTs.