USC-Stanford

The Trojans injury situation the past two weeks has seemed almost like a comedy of errors. First, Leonard Washington goes out with a high ankle sprain on December 22. The day after he returns against Arizona, leading scorer Dwight Lewis sprains his ankle in practice and misses both games in Washington. Then, upon returning home Taj Gibson comes down with pneumonia and Daniel Hackett has flu-like symptoms himself. Luckily for the Trojans, everyone will be back tonight, albeit a little dinged up. Let's just hope DeMar DeRozan stays away from the injury bug.

The storyline tonight will be how effective the dinged up Trojans will be. I expect Hackett and Gibson to be fine because in a huge game like this adrenalin can carry you through most of it. Keep an eye on Lewis and Washington, however. I think USC did a good thing by sitting Dwight last weekend because he wasn't 100 percent yet, so hopefully tonight he's back close to that level. Washington, on the other hand, is still only about 50 percent, so expect decreased minutes from him. The Trojans injuries make the play of reserves Nikola Vucevic and Marcus Johnson even more critical. Both were very good on Saturday in Pullman and if they are strong again tonight, Coach Floyd can feel more confident about using his bench to give his dinged up starters some rest.

Stanford is an interesting team. They have an experienced starting lineup, but not much star power other than guard Anthony Goods. Their lineup features three seniors, a junior, and a sophomore. The Cardinal were bitten hard by the departures of Brook and Robin Lopez to the NBA, and it has been much more devastating to them than the departure of O.J. Mayo has been to the Trojans. After all, this banged up Trojans team is on pace to finish with the exact same record it had last year, while the Cardinal are far from their second-place Pac-10 finish of last year.

Expect Hackett to get the defensive assignment on Goods, just as he did with James Harden of ASU. Stanford is going to need other players to step up, such as senior guard Mitch Johnson, and senior forward Lawrence Hill. Big men have had success against the Cardinal this year. In their Pac-10 opener against ASU in Palo Alto, the Cardinal let Jeff Pendergraph go for 31 and 13 on that ass. Lawrence Hill is solid, but will be no match for Taj Gibson. If the Trojans center from Brooklyn, NY is feeling at all healthy and can stay out of early foul trouble, look for Lawrence Hill to have a long night trying to guard him or score on him. Taj has shut down the likes of Pendergraph, Jon Brockman, Aron Baines, and Jordan Hill. He is, in my opinion, clearly the best big man in the conference and will show why again tonight at home.

The Trojans need this one because Stanford has a lower RPI than them, and because a much tougher Cal team visits the Galen Center on Saturday night.

Let's play. Fight On.