USC Set to Take a Run at Vulnerable Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Roy Williams made it sound like a horror film.

“It was a little scary to be honest with you,” he said.

The Kansas basketball coach was talking about sitting in his office Wednesday night, watching on television as USC defeated Loyola Marymount with a scrambling, trapping defense.

“Their athleticism and defensive presence in the second half of that game were something to see,” Williams said. “They were all over the court.”

With USC visiting storied Allen Fieldhouse tonight, Williams might simply be trying to get his 10th-ranked team motivated to play an unranked opponent. But, the way things are going at Kansas these days, there is also reason to believe USC has more than a ghost of a chance at an upset.

The Trojans are an unexpected 6-0, with a victory at Nevada Las Vegas. The Jayhawks, at 5-2, have lost twice in two weeks and had a 62-game home-winning streak ended by Iowa earlier this week.

“I’m not going to pretend it’s business as usual,” Williams said. “I am a little concerned about this team right now.”

Kansas entered the season short of firepower after the departure of NBA draft picks Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz. The offense features 7-foot center Eric Chenowith alongside forward Kenny Gregory and guard Ryan Robertson, but the Jayhawks are scoring only 71 points a game, well short of their usual mid-80s average.

“In the preseason I was concerned about our inability to score and that hasn’t changed,” Williams said. “We don’t have any one player who you could say ‘Hey, that kid’s a scorer.’ ”

To make matters worse, forwards Lester Earl, Ashante Johnson and T.J. Pugh have battled injuries, leaving the bench a little thin.

That could play to USC’s strength. The Trojans lack a true star but are deep enough to keep fresh legs on the floor, playing aggressive defense and running the transition offense. The Trojans also have plenty of fouls to give against an opponent that makes 61% of its free throws.

“You keep running at people and you wear them down,” USC assistant coach Silvey Dominguez said. “Whether we’re capable of doing that against Kansas . . . that’s what we’re working toward.”

The thinking goes like this: Defense and hustle are more dependable than shooting, which can falter, especially on the road.

“You’re not going to have as much pressure on the offense because you’re confident you’re going to stop the [other team],” Dominguez said. “You can deal with the pressure of their crowd.”

That’s what scares Williams.

“They have good personnel and they’re deep,” the Kansas coach said. “If we don’t play better than we did [against Iowa], we can’t beat this club.”

But, before anyone gets the wrong idea, don’t expect the Jayhawks to be shaking in their sneakers.

Not with a Wooden Award candidate in Robertson at shooting guard. Not with a program that has been ranked in the Associated Press top 25 for 137 consecutive weeks and has reached the NCAA tournament nine consecutive seasons.

And not with 16,000 fans squeezing into Allen Fieldhouse, which could be enough to send a chill through USC’s freshman point guard, Brandon Granville.

“They don’t want to lose two in a row,” Granville said. “They’re definitely going to be fired up.”