LOS ANGELES – When the buzzer sounded after the Pac-10 Conference tournament championship, shockwaves emitted from the Staples Center.

From Tucson to College Station, Penn., they resonated with a potentially fatal frequency.

That’s because the USC men’s basketball team (21-12, 12-9 Pac-10) clinched an NCAA Tournament berth by defeating No. 23 ASU 66-63 in the Pac-10 tournament title game.

USC coach Tim Floyd said he doubted his team’s chances to make the Big Dance without an automatic bid.

“[The NCAA Tournament selection committee] is taking every team from The Big East,” Floyd said. “You feel like there’s probably not too many spots left.”

While USC punched its own ticket, the Trojans also decimated the chances of several other teams looking to earn an at-large bid.
Bubble teams like UA and Penn State will have to sweat it out on Selection Sunday to see if they have enough to make 65-team field.

Aside from its national implications, the game was quite a spectacle in itself.

The first half belonged to ASU (24-9, 13-8) but the Trojans dominated after the break.

The Sun Devils got off to a hot start, hitting their first six shots from the field. The offense was very efficient and had an easy time getting open looks both on the perimeter and in the paint.

ASU held a 27-21 lead with six minutes left in the half before rattling off a 12-3 run to close out the first period. All of the Sun Devils points came via the 3-point shot during the run, with ASU sophomore guard James Harden nailing the final pair in the last minute.

Though he only had six points by the half and 10 for the game, Harden was a very effective playmaker and notched eight assists.

Once again, USC junior guard Daniel Hackett led the way in limiting Harden’s scoring. In three contests against the Trojans this season, Harden averaged just nine points per game.

“Hackett’s a great defender,” Harden said. “He’s a great basketball player. His job is to contain me and that’s all he has to worry about … as a team they’re great defenders as well and they did a pretty good job today.”

It was evident the tide was changing as soon as the teams hit the floor in the second half. Floyd employed a full-court press that threw the ASU offense all out of whack.

The Sun Devils committed four turnovers in their first five possessions and it easily could have been five in five.

USC used its pressure defense to spur it to an 11-2 run to start the second half. What made the pressure defense even more impressive was the fact that USC had never practiced it before.

“I don’t think we’ve ever worked on a press,” Floyd said. “So it wasn’t any coaching, we just told them to muck the game up – to go up and start trapping and doubling. I wish I could tell you that we did something really tricky, but we didn’t. It was about the heart of these guys.”

Not even three minutes had passed by and the Sun Devils’ lead had been cut from 15 to six. The game went back-and-forth until the final minute.

USC freshman guard DeMar DeRozan took over in the second half, using his elevation and pretty shot to score 16 second-half points. His shot looked impossible to defend throughout the entire game.

“[DeRozan] played like a man he didn’t play like a freshman,” Hackett said.

USC junior guard Dwight Lewis hit a corner 3-pointer right in front of his team’s bench at the 1:04 mark to cut his team’s deficit to 63-62.

By this point the pro-USC crowd was on its feet and in full effect. It went ballistic a couple minutes later, when Hackett nailed two free throws to put the Trojans up 64-63. It was USC’s first lead since holding a 3-2 advantage in the game’s opening moments.

Harden tried to lay one up in traffic with about 20 seconds left but got swatted by the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year Taj Gibson.

After Gibson hit one-of-two free throws at other end, Harden took another shot at the victory. Trailing 65-63 with four seconds left, Harden hoisted a 3-pointer over Gibson’s outstretched arm.

The ball rimmed out and floated toward the right baseline and Harden went for the offensive board. He wasn’t able to get it and USC’s Marcus Simmons bounced it off Harden’s leg as he fell out of bounds.

“It really was a classic matchup for this league,” Floyd said of Harden’s final 3-point attempt. “You had the league’s best defender [in Gibson] and the league’s MVP offensively [Harden] going head up and Taj did a great job.”

Floyd said his team didn’t switch on a screen the entire game, so he wanted Gibson on Harden just to give ASU a different look.

Lewis hit one more free throw to make the score 66-63 with 1.4 seconds left before ASU junior guard Derek Glasser’s last-second heave proved to be futile.

The Staples Center erupted in ecstasy, as the USC fans saw their team clinch an automatic bid.

Not to be forgotten among the exciting contest was the contribution of ASU senior forward Jeff Pendergraph. He finished 9-of-11 for 20 points and seven rebounds, showing off his long-range jump shot and dunking capabilities along the way.

The Sun Devils also only took four free-throw attempts to USC’s 21.
Though his team is still a lock for the NCAA Tourney, Pendergraph was visibly upset after the game.

“I can’t really describe [my emotions] right now,” he said. “It’s a lot of stuff. I don’t want to say something crazy because I’m really upset right now.”
His counterpart, Gibson, finished with only seven points and five rebounds, but that only tells part of the story. Gibson also had four key blocks and changed countless other shots in the lane throughout.

“Taj protects the basket real well he’s like a goaltender for them,” Pendergraph said. “If you can go by the guy who’s guarding you, you can guarantee [Gibson] will be there waiting. I guess we forgot about that.”

After the game, Gibson, DeRozan, Hackett and Floyd entered the media interview room bearing the smiles of a salvaged season.

Several times, Hackett looked up to the sky with both hands together as to thank a higher power. Meanwhile, DeRozan wore the net around his neck like a twine necklace after being named the tournament’s most outstanding player.

Reach the reporter at
alex.espinoza@asu.edu