Failure Motivates Players

While every Pacific 10 Conference team except USC and Oregon battled it out at Staples Center last year, Gabe Pruitt had already moved on, playing in pickup games and working toward the next season.

Outside of games involving his hometown Washington Huskies, Lodrick Stewart busied himself with everything but basketball, so embarrassed was he that his last-place Trojans had not qualified for the tournament.

Nick Young grudgingly watched part of the tournament, describing it as “difficult.” And that was before he learned participants received lavish gifts.

“My friends had the iPods and I had a CD player still,” said Young, the sophomore swingman.

So when the Trojans gathered for practice this week to begin preparations for their quarterfinal tonight against California at Staples Center, Young gleefully announced to Pruitt, “We finally made the Pac-10 tournament.”

Pruitt could only laugh. After all, every conference team was invited this year.

That didn’t diminish Young’s enthusiasm.

“Even though all teams go in this year, it just feels like we got something accomplished,” said Young, who, like every other Pac-10 player, will receive a pair of headphones.

Indeed, USC’s sixth-place conference finish earned it a first-round bye, shortening its road to the title game. The Trojans must win the tournament to secure an NCAA tournament berth and might need to win at least one game to grab a spot in the National Invitation Tournament.

“This is a must for us,” Pruitt said. “All year we’ve talked about making the NCAA tournament, and this is our chance right here. All we have to do is win three games. It’s possible.”

Said Young: “Last year we didn’t even have this opportunity, so we’re trying to make the best of it and [go] farther and farther. It’s something special. I get a gift and everything.”

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Trojan Coach Tim Floyd said he was not keeping an eye on other conference tournaments, even though they could impact whether his team receives an NIT bid.

Under new NIT selection guidelines, teams that win their regular-season conference title but fail to win their conference tournament are guaranteed bids. This potentially takes away spots from middle-of-the-pack teams from marquee conferences.

“I’m just worried about us,” Floyd said. “You don’t worry about things you can’t control.”

TONIGHT

vs. California, 6, FSN West 2

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- 570, 1540.

Records -- California 18-9 overall, 12-6 Pac-10; USC 17-12, 8-10.

Update -- The Trojans are trying to avoid losing three times in a season to an opponent for the first time since Arizona swept them in 1990.

Tickets -- (213) 480-3232.