USC-Washington State: It's Crunch Time!

It's a must win for the Trojans tonight as they host Wazzu at the Galen Center. USC needs to reach 20 wins to feel good about their chances to make the NCAA Tournament. The thing USC has working in their favor is their remaining schedule. Four out of their last six games are at home, where they are 12-1 this season. In addition, four out of their last six are against teams below them in the conference standings. The Trojans must win their four home games and steal one up in the Bay Area next week. They are in the exact same position right now as they were last year at this time (15-9, 6-6). They went on to win five of six and one in the Pac-10 tournament. There's no reason to think they can't do it again, especially the way DeMar DeRozan has been playing. The Trojans just need to close out games better, something they couldn't do in the desert last weekend. The thing working against the Trojans is the absence of Marcus Johnson. Not only does it take away from the Trojans already limited depth, but it takes away someone who was giving the Trojans a huge spark on both ends of the floor and someone who was averaging 8 ppg in his last three games. The Trojans should get Nikola Vucevic back tonight, which is good from a depth perspective. He also played his best game in Pullman against Wazzu, scoring 8 points. The Trojans starters will need to play a lot of minutes, but they are definitely athletic enough to do so and considering how big these games are it shouldn't be a problem. If the Trojans are going to make the NCAA Tournament this year, it starts tonight with a win over Wazzu.

The Cougars will try to slow the pace of this game down, limit opportunities on offense for the Trojans, and play solid defense. The Trojans proved they can win a slow paced game by beating Wazzu up in Pullman, but they should try to push the pace whenever possible. Washington State is a very unathletic team that cannot keep up with the Trojans if they speed up the pace of this game. It should be easier for the Trojans to dictate the tempo at home than it was for them in Pullman. The key matchup to watch will be Taj Gibson against Aron Baines. Baines did probably the best job on Gibson that anyone has done this year, but look for Taj to assert himself tonight. Gibson is usually doubled down low, so the Trojans should try to get him the ball of a high screen and roll and get him open 10-15 foot jumpers that he can nail with ease. As I mentioned already, Nikola Vucevic was huge in the win in Pullman, so hopefully he can give the Trojans a spark off the bench tonight. DeMar DeRozan should have a big night as well for USC. Marcus Johnson won't play tonight and he carried the Trojans down the stretch in Pullman with two huge shots. Look for Dwight Lewis to step up in his absence. Lewis was out with an ankle injury when the Trojans won in Pullman.

The Trojans need this win badly. If they can win tonight and get a sweep by winning Saturday, I can say with almost certainty that they will be in the tournament. That's because I think they will win at Stanford next week and easily beat the Oregon schools at home to close out the regular season. Six straight would sure be nice headed into the Pac-10 Tournament, though. Let's start it tonight. My "Let's play" slogan hasn't been working lately, so I'm going to try a new one: Now we go.

Fight On.