Trojans Cutting It Close

O.J. Mayo's draft status, an unusual way of making the NCAA tournament and the secret to beating the Trojans ... it's all in this week's podcast with LA Times reporter Ben Bolch. Just click play to get all the insight:

As an added treat, here's a few minutes from Wednesday's post-practice press gaggle with O.J. Mayo. It's a pretty good representation of what life's like for USC's players and media corps:

After the jump, we've got some interesting info released by Heritage Hall ...

YOUTH WILL BE SERVED -- On a roster that features no seniors and just three juniors, the Trojans are relying on the underclassmen to handle much of the scoring. In the first 24 games, USC’s freshmen scored 852 of the 1629 points (52.3 percent) and the freshman and sophomores accounted for 1567 of the 1629 points (96.2 percent). The 96.2 percent of the team’s scoring coming from underclassmen is the highest in the country.

INSIDE THE LOSSES -- In four of USC’s nine losses, the Trojans did not have the starting lineup intact and in a fifth loss (Arizona), Daniel Hackett was injured two minutes into the game and did not return. In the loss on Feb. 9 at Washington State, Hackett played but was limited due to back spasms.

INSIDE THE LOSSES, PART II -- The composite record of the opponent in the nine games which USC has lost is 175-52, with 15 of the losses appearing on Mercer’s ledger. Five of USC’s nine losses this season are to teams that are currently or were previously ranked in the top four in the country and seven of the nine teams have been ranked this season in the Top 25.

DRIVEN BY DEFENSE -- USC has held 33 teams to under 60 points in Tim Floyd’s first 91 games as USC’s head coach.

It also seemed noteworthy that this season:

USC has had a better shooting percentage than their opponent 21 times, worse just 3 times.
USC has scored first 16 times, opponents 8 times.

Since USC is pointing out the correlation between losses and injuries, we should point out that the even the Galen Center doesn't seem immune to dings and bruises: