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USC basketball's offseason won't compare to UCLA's, with the Bruins adding on big-time recruits Kyle Anderson, Shabazz Muhammad and Tony Parker, but the Trojans will also be a heck of a lot better in 2012-13 than they were in 2011-2012.

Of course, it doesn't take a lot to be a lot better than 6-26. But 15 wins is probably the baseline for next season's Trojans team, with 20 victories and NCAA tournament contention both legitimate possibilities. To that end, here is a projection of USC's 2012-2013 roster and lineup, taking into account the Trojans' remaining scholarship slot, which stands to be used on a transfer, probably a wing player of some sort.

That could very well be former Tennessee forward Renaldo Woolridge, who's visiting USC for the second time this weekend. So we took the liberty of including him here. It also could not, as the Trojans continue to pursue other prospects.

But here is the projected 2012-2013 lineup and, in basic order of contribution to the team, the bench. We provide brief comments on each player:

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LOS ANGELES -- Almost everything about the USC basketball team's 2011-2012 season has been a full-fledged disappointment, from the Trojans' 6-24 record to the injuries that have ravaged the squad to downright embarrassing attendance numbers at the Galen Center.

Then there's freshman Byron Wesley, who continues to be the lone bright spot in a very dark canvas. The 6-5 guard set another career-high on Thursday in the Trojans' 80-58 loss to Washington, scoring a game-high 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting.

"If there's anything good about our season," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said after Thursday's game, "it's that this guy is really becoming a guy that's going to be hard to reckon with going forward in this league."

Wesley could now finish the season averaging double-digit points per game with strong performances in the regular-season finale against Washington State on Saturday and the Pac-12 tourney.

In his first five games, the Rancho Cucamonga native averaged 4.2 points per game. In his last five, he's putting up 18.4. He's also shooting 51 percent (37 of 72 attempts) in his last five compared to 27 percent (9 of 33) in his first five.

It's not hard to see the improvement.

Said O'Neill: "He is taking advantage of his opportunity, and good players do that."

Forward Garrett Jackson added 14 points for the Trojans. Washington's Terrence Ross led the Huskies with 18 points and forward Darnell Gant, an L.A. native, had 14 and a game-high nine rebounds.

Player of the game: Wesley was clearly USC's top performer; center James Blasczyk did have a career-high 10 points but only added three rebounds in his 33 minutes.

"This guy's becoming a premier player in this league," O'Neill said of Wesley.

Ross shot 8-of-13 from the field on his way to his 18 points. O'Neill said he looked at him as a prototypical NBA shooting guard, as long as he continued to improve his defense.

A sophomore, Ross is rated by most NBA draft prognosticators as a likely first-round selection in June's NBA draft if he chooses to declare.

Stat of the game: Washington (21-8, 14-3 in the Pac-12) out-rebounded the Trojans 49-23, the 16th-straight time USC has been out-rebounded this season.

"We miss so many shots that people get a lot of defensive rebounds," O'Neill said. "They're bigger and stronger than us. We don't have the capability to out-rebound people this year."

The last time the Trojans had more rebounds than an opponent was December 29 on the road against Cal, when they somehow produced 38 rebounds to the Bears' 25.

Quote of the game: "Kevin O'Neill is a testament to good coaching. They have one game left and have lost a lot of tough games and he is still fighting. He has been fighting all season." -- Washington coach Lorenzo Romar

His Huskies locked up a share of the Pac-12 regular-season title on Thursday, but it was interesting that Romar took time to praise O'Neill's coaching abilities in his postgame press conference. The two men have been complementary of each other in their three shared years in the conference.

Final notes: Attendance at the Galen Center was announced at 2,763, the lowest-ever number for a Pac-12 game in the history of the facility...With Senior Day on Saturday, O'Neill said he might start his lone senior -- walk-on guard Eric Strangis -- in the 3 p.m. contest against Washington State. For that game, the first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a Maurice Jones bobblehead...With a 1-16 Pac-12 record, the Trojans are now locked into the No. 12 seed for the Pac-12 tourney, meaning they will play the No. 5-seeded team at 2:30 p.m. PT next Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES -- It's getting to the point now where it's near-impossible to expect the USC Trojans to beat any opponent.

They'll compete the whole game and they'll stay within reach -- at least for the first half -- but they just won't win. There's not enough offense, there's not enough depth and there's not enough experience.

The lowly Trojans kept visiting Stanford close for almost 30 minutes on Sunday at the Galen Center but couldn't keep up down the stretch and fell, 59-47.

"This is the same old thing," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said afterward. "We had our chances, honestly. We've had our chances a lot.

"I thought we played pretty hard, pretty well. But when you're not making your shots, you're not making 'em."

USC (6-20, 1-12 in the Pac-12) is now nearing all-time worst status. The Trojans' most-ever losses in a single season came into 1988-1989, when they went 10-22. Their worst-ever winning percentage came in 1976-1977, when they were 6-20.

It's very likely they'll break both of those marks this season. With five regular-season games remaining and adding on a likely loss somewhere in the Pac-12 tournament, USC has to win four of its next five to not break the school record for losses.

Currently, the Trojans have won four of their last 21, dating back to Thanksgiving.

Stanford freshman Chasson Randle led all scorers with 16 points Sunday; Byron Wesley and Greg Allen each had 13 points for the Trojans and Maurice Jones added 10 points but on 2-of-14 shooting.

Player of the game: Wesley, a freshman, was assigned to defend Stanford leading scorer and senior Josh Owens for most of the evening and did an admirable job, according to O'Neill.

Owens, who has three inches and 30 pounds on Wesley, had 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting. But the Trojans' freshman didn't have a bad game, either -- scoring 13 points in 37 minutes.

He also added two assists, a block and a steal while playing his fourth-straight game of 37 or more minutes.

"I love the way Byron Wesley plays," O'Neill said after Sunday's game. "I like his aggressiveness. He fights hard."

10 of Wesley's points came in the first 13 minutes of the game. He was then shut out for 25 minutes, until the 1:35 mark of the second half.

Wesley attributed that to a zone-defense look he saw for much of the game's second period and couldn't quite figure out.

"They did a better job on him in the second half," O'Neill said. "They were more aware of him."

As he has often said this year, O'Neill said Wesley "has a chance" to be a "real, real big-time player" over the next three years.

Stat of the game: USC was out-rebounded 45-19 by Stanford, and the Cardinal grabbed 13 offensive rebounds off of 27 of their own missed shots. By contrast, the Trojans grabbed just one of the rebounds from their 33 missed shots.

The numbers are rare, and they are damning. Stanford started three players measuring in at 6-8 or higher; USC has only one available player taller than 6-6.

Quote of the game: "I think we have a chance going into any game." -- O'Neill

The Trojans' coach was asked about the feasibility of his team winning any one of its five remaining regular-season games, at UCLA on Wednesday, at the Arizona schools next week and at home against the Washington schools the week after that.

Predictably, he brought up one of his favorite lines, about how anybody wearing "short pants" can beat anybody else at basketball. It sounds nice, but it's going to be tough for USC to win any of those games -- with the Arizona State visit being the only real winnable one.

Final notes: Stanford forward Andy Brown, a product of Santa Ana Mater Dei, made his first career field goal in the first half of Sunday's game. Brown is a third-year player but tore his ACL three times over the last four years and never suited up for a college game before last month...Only two USC players made field goals in the first half of the contest, Wesley and Allen. And only five Trojans made anything from the field all game, actually: those two, plus Jones, guard Alexis Moore and forward Garrett Jackson...USC head football coach Lane Kiffin and family watched the first half from Galen Center courtside seats.

LOS ANGELES -- For most of one half of Thursday night's game against Cal, lowly USC looked like it could actually compete against the class of the Pac-12 conference.

Buoyed by superb play from sophomore point guard Maurice Jones, the Trojans actually led, 23-19, with eight minutes to go in the first half. Then the Bears went on a 16-6 run to finish off the period, and USC was soon run out of its own building. Cal ended up outscoring the Trojans 40-20 in the second half and wound up with a 75-49 victory.

"I thought we played a pretty good first half," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said afterward. "But we have to do a better job of putting together two good halves of basketball."

USC (6-19, 1-11) has rarely done that this season, winning only two games since November and putting together only three consistent games in that span -- the two victories against Utah and TCU and a close loss at Washington State earlier this month.

"It just feels like a re-run," said Jones, who led the Trojans with 17 points in 29 minutes.

Cal was led by Allen Crabbe, who had 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Senior forward Harper Kamp added 18 points.

Byron Wesley had 11 points for the Trojans for his third straight double-digit point game.

Player of the game: Jones had a great game, scoring his 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting and turning the ball over just once. And his numbers would likely have been better had he not missed a significant stretch of the second half because of a cut on his left hand that bled.

Plus-minuses aren't kept for NCAA games, but Jones' was clearly the best on the team. Cal took advantage every time he was out of the game, including for three-plus minutes in the first half when he picked up two fouls.

"When Mo's not in there, we don't function very well," O'Neill said. "Not that we function at a high level when he is in there. But when he's not in there, it's difficult for us.

"We're asking too much of Mo."

Said Jones of his teammates' struggles when he was out of the game: "You can't blame them. They're all new to this."

Stat of the game: USC was out-rebounded 41-28 by the Bears, and Cal got a third of the available boards when on the offensive end.

O'Neill said Cal's big men were overwhelming in that department, with USC's James Blasczyk and Garrett Jackson combining for only 12 rebounds. The Bears' David Kravish, on the other hand, had 18 on his own.

"No matter what size you have, if you don't gang rebound, you're not going to rebound well," O'Neill said. "The bottom line is, those guys are more experienced and they're better and us on the front line.

"And it showed tonight. It really did."

Quote of the game: "There was a level of frustration a long time ago." -- Jones

The 5-7 guard was asked after Thursday's game if he sensed a certain level of frustration creeping into the team's mentality following another blowout loss at the hands of a conference opponent.

His answer was quick, sharp and delivered without a hint of a smile, although it elicited laughs in those he was speaking to.

Final notes: USC's two starting forwards, Jackson and Wesley, combined to shoot 7-of-31 from the field, good for a 23-percent mark...Crabbe, a product of L.A. Price High, had a contingent of two dozen or so family members in attendance at the Galen Center (announced crowd: 3,707), who cheered wildly for every one of his eight made shots...O'Neill told the Trojans not to come into the arena at any cost on Friday, giving the players a full, no-strings-attached day off Friday before prepping for Sunday's game against Stanford on Saturday.

LOS ANGELES -- As far back as he can recall, USC forward Garrett Jackson has never lost more games than he's won in a single season.

Not at any level, and not at any sport, either -- and he played four growing up.

But that much is a virtual guarantee for Jackson and the USC Trojans this year. With seven games left in the 2011-2012 regular season, USC (6-18, 1-10 in the Pac-12) would essentially have to win out, take home the Pac-12 conference tournament championship and make a run to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 to even finish with as many wins as losses.

Suffice it to say, it's not happening to a team with just two wins since November and six scholarship players suiting up most nights.

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LOS ANGELES -- A rivalry game would bring out the energy, right?

5-12 USC's chance to redeem itself a bit against crosstown UCLA would mean the Trojans would play with more focus than they had been exhibiting of late, right?

Wrong.

The Trojans played one of their worst games of the 2011-2012 season at the Galen Center on Sunday night, falling 66-47 to the rival Bruins in their sixth straight loss and ninth in their last 10 games.

"A game like that, you would think that we would come out and execute a lot better," freshman guard Alexis Moore said afterward. "Honestly, we embarrassed ourselves.

"We did a disservice to the university in our effort and how we played."

USC (5-13, 0-5 in the Pac-12) started off the game well, taking a 7-4 lead five minutes in. But UCLA (10-7, 3-2) fought back by the 12-minute mark and didn't come close to losing its lead from then on.

The Trojans shot just 36 percent from the field for the game, the sixth straight time they've shot under 40 percent. Point guard Maurice Jones had 13 points to lead them, but no other player was in double digits. UCLA had three players -- David and Travis Wear and Lazeric Jones -- with 13 points or more.

"We’re struggling to score obviously," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said. "It’s been one of our problems all year and it continues to be one of our problems."

O'Neill said he was disappointed with his team's energy on the defensive end in the first half. The Bruins shot 64 percent in the game's first 20 minutes to take a 37-19 lead into the break. The second half was more even, with UCLA outscoring USC by just one, 29-28.

Asked if he could see evidence that his Trojans are improving this season as they continue to lose games in what's now a full-fledged rebuilding year, O'Neill wasn't quite willing to say that he was.

"We are what we are," O'Neill said. "We’re pretty solid defensively, but we’re a team that struggles to score.

"We are who we are, and we obviously didn’t play well today."

Player of the game: Maurice Jones was the only USC player able to produce effectively on offense, although he again failed to shoot well. But he did finish with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, adding three assists while turning the ball over only once.

He hasn't had the type of numbers O'Neill indicated he would at the outset of this season, but the primary reason the Trojans are losing ballgames is not his performance. He is double-teamed with regularity as opponents realize no other player can produce his own shot.

Forward Aaron Fuller also earned praise from O'Neill postgame for playing 23 minutes and scoring eight points despite being bothered by injuries to both his shoulders. He didn't practice all week.

Stat of the game: USC was out-rebounded 44-19 by UCLA -- a margin that almost doubled the previous high this season, 13 against New Mexico on Dec. 10. The Bruins hadn't beaten a team by that much on the glass since Ben Howland's first season in 2003-2004.

It was also more rebounds than any USC opponent has posted this season, one more than the previous high by Nebraska on Nov. 14.

In a true rarity, UCLA rebounded more of its 25 missed shots than USC did, with 13 offensive rebounds to the Trojans' 11 defensive rebounds. (One went out of bounds.)

Quote of the game: "I was happy as hell to see that go in." -- O'Neill

Freshman guard Byron Wesley tried to throw an alley-oop pass with 1:25 left to go in the game, but the ball actually went directly into the basket for two points, which drew a laugh from fans still at the game.

It was one of two field goals the 6-5 Wesley scored on the night, as he finished with five points in 36 minutes.

Final notes: Announced attendance at the Galen Center was 8,474 -- the biggest crowd at the arena this season but the smallest crowd for a USC home game against UCLA since the arena opened in 2006...The jersey of former USC All-American Harold Miner was retired and raised to the rafters at halftime. Miner was also present at the game and gave a speech, thanking fans for the support. He said he hoped he gave Trojan fans "their money's worth each and every night" for the three seasons he played at USC...The 19-point margin of victory was the largest for UCLA in a game at USC since 1999

Leave it to USC Trojans coach Kevin O'Neill to call on the Bible to try to reach his team in advance of Sunday's home game against UCLA.

O'Neill, the Trojans' third-year coach finding himself under pressure to win now because of his team's disappointing 5-12 record, was conducting the final 15 minutes of a mid-week practice in preparation for UCLA and looking for a new way to practice shooting.

So he gave his struggling team a quick pep talk at mid-court of the upstairs practice courts at USC's Galen Center and spread them out for two-man shooting drills on the six available baskets.

In seconds, he realized the explanation he had given wasn't sufficient.

"Alexis!" he shouted from across the gym at freshman point guard Alexis Moore as he walked to one end of the court with Maurice Jones to complete their portion of the drill. "Have you heard of Noah's Ark?"

Moore looked at Jones, puzzled. Walk-ons near them snickered. Eyes went back and forth between O'Neill and Moore.

"Yes," the 18-year-old Moore said, unsure whether to laugh or look seriously at his head coach known to have a temper.

"What was it?" O'Neill asked, and the two exchanged responses until O'Neill grew satisfied that Moore -- and his teammates, from listening -- knew enough about it to let the drill go on.

His message: In the story of Noah's Ark described in the Bible, all the animals had to board the vessel in pairs to keep themselves safe and give each other company. O'Neill wanted his players to do the same for what has become the tough task of shooting this season.

"I wasn't sure our guys would know what Noah's Ark was," O'Neill said afterward, laughing when asked about his little lesson. "I bet if I'd asked some of them, they wouldn't have known.

"We were just trying to get into paired shooting, so I thought, Noah's Ark, they did things by pairs."

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LOS ANGELES -- They don't make shots, they don't defend well enough to win, and their free-throw shooting is abysmal.

You can combine those factors to come to a fairly easy conclusion about this year's USC Trojans basketball team. Or, if you're head coach Kevin O'Neill, you can sum it up in one succinct sentence courtesy of legendary college basketball coach Bob Knight: These Trojans won't be going to the senior prom.

"Bob Knight actually told me this one time," O'Neill said after Sunday's game, a loss. "When you make shots, you look pretty. You're the prom queen. When you don't, you don't get invited to the prom.

"And that's it."

It sure is. USC (5-12, 0-4 in the Pac-12) isn't getting invited to the prom this season -- not after a fifth-straight loss, this one by a 57-46 score to Arizona at the Galen Center. The Wildcats were in control all game in Sunday's matinee, never leading by fewer than double-digits once the game got going. USC put together a small, short run in the second half, getting within 10 points, but Arizona quickly squashed that with an and-one on the subsequent possession and two more baskets to follow.

Arizona's Jesse Perry led all scorers with 20 points, with no Trojan defender capable of matching his energy and inside-outside game. Former USC commit Solomon Hill had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds in 26 minutes, and Kyle Fogg also had 10 for the Wildcats, who are now 11-5 on the year and 2-1 in the Pac-12.

Maurice Jones had 14 points on 13 shots to lead USC but no assists and three turnovers. As a team, the Trojans shot a season-low 29 percent, including a miraculously bad 21 percent in the first half. The starting backcourt of Jones, Alexis Moore and Byron Wesley -- made eight of the 36 shots they attempted.

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LOS ANGELES -- This one was bad.

Bad, in that it was against a 4-9 Arizona State team with just one previous win over a major-conference squad. Bad, in that the Sun Devils played the game with just six scholarship players and managed to post their best shooting day of the season and their best road shooting day in eight years. Bad, in that USC scored the fewest points anybody's scored against ASU all season.

And bad in terms of outcome, too. The Trojans lost 62-53 to the Sun Devils on Thursday at the Galen Center, falling to 5-11 on the season and 0-3 in Pac-12 conference play.

"Our defense was very suspect," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said afterward. "We didn't do the job we normally do to give ourselves a chance to win the game."

Thursday's loss was the Trojans' seventh in their last eight games. USC's 2011-2012 season is quickly getting out of hand.

"I actually felt like we've let a lot slip away," said USC forward Dewayne Dedmon, who had eight points and seven rebounds in Thursday's loss. "But today, especially."

Carrick Felix led Arizona State with a career-high 22 points in 39 minutes. Trent Lockett, playing point guard for the first time the Sun Devils were missing two point guards because of suspension, added 19 points and four assists. The two combined to shoot a remarkable 15-of-21 -- 71 percent -- as ASU shot 61 percent as a team.

"Sure, they made some shots," O'Neill said. "But it's our job to make them miss."

"The bottom line is, if you're gonna let someone shoot 61 percent on your court, it's going to be hard to win."

Forward Aaron Fuller had a team-high 14 points for USC and guard Maurice Jones added 13, four assists and three steals.

As a team, the Trojans shot 38 percent from the field, their third straight under-40 display in Pac-12 play.

"That's not a recipe for success," O'Neill said. "That's a recipe for disaster."

Player of the game: There were no standout performances for the Trojans, but freshman guard Byron Wesley did put together a solid defensive game and double-digit offensive performance.

He finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists, although he did shoot just 5-of-15 from the field. One bright spot was his play on Felix, who he held to nine points in the second half after the ASU forward scored 13 points in the first half with Alexis Moore defending him.

"I thought he did a pretty good job," O'Neill said of Wesley's defense.

The 15 field-goal attempts were a career-high for Wesley, who had never attempted more than 11 in a college game.

Stat of the game: USC took 55 shots to Arizona State's 36 -- usually a great indicator of success.

But, while USC turned the ball over six times and forced 18 turnovers, the Trojans were so poor shooting the ball that they actually made fewer shots than the Sun Devils -- 21 to 22.

It was a statistical oddity.

"That's hard to figure," O'Neill said. "Any time you get 20 more shots than the opposition, you should have a great chance to win."

Quote of the game: "This isn't something that we're used to. This isn't something that we want. This isn't something that we want to be represented as, a team that plays hard but always comes up short. So we've gotta get back in the lab and do the little things so we can get over these humps." -- Moore

Moore, an 18-year-old freshman guard, has experienced losing like this before in his basketball career -- AAU ball growing up in Long Beach. But he said he refuses to accept it at this level, adding that the Trojans "have to win" their next game against Arizona.

USC is the only team in the Pac-12 still without a conference win.

Final notes: The Sun Devils played without three rotation players because reserve guard Chris Colvin and starters Keala King (Santa Ana Mater Dei) and Kyle Cain didn't make the trip to Los Angeles for "unacceptable conduct"...Because the game was not televised, the curtains at the north end of the Galen Center were open throughout the game, providing a view of the Downtown skyline...USC plays the Arizona Wildcats on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Galen.

LOS ANGELES -- USC's defense is legitimately great.

The Trojans consistently hold teams far below their per-game point averages and force them to alter their offensive gameplans.

It's unfortunate, then, that they're also incredibly inept on the offensive side of the ball. If the Trojans were even average at putting the ball in the basket, they'd probably be staring at a top-two finish in the Pac-12 conference and an NCAA tournament bid.

But they're not, and so Kevin O'Neill's ragtag squad of undersized athletes, junior-college discoveries and major-college transfers will continue to lose games like Thursday's to Kansas, 63-47.

"We're always going to defend well enough to have a chance to win," O'Neill said after Thursday's game. "It's whether we can make enough plays or not.

"Tonight, unfortunately, we just didn't do that."

As O'Neill indicated, it wasn't that the Jayhawks overpowered USC. Kansas came up more than 12 points short of its season average and shot just over 40 percent from the field. None of Bill Self's players scored more than 14 points.

It was just that the Trojans (5-8) couldn't score -- at all. They scored 13 points total in the first half, with four each from Aaron Fuller and Alexis Moore. Fuller finished with 19 points to lead all scorers, but Maurice Jones' seven were second, and they came on 13 shot attempts.

And, with that, even the USC defense faded some late. After holding Kansas (8-3) to 25 points in the first half, the Jayhawks responded with 38 in the second, shooting 50 percent from the field after converting just 33 percent in the first 20 minutes.

Guard Elijah Johnson led the Jayhawks with 14. Conner Teahan added 13 for Kansas, who was playing its first true road game of the season and coming off an upset loss to Davidson earlier in the week.

"The game was a grinder, and we knew it was going to be like that," Self said afterward. "They wore us out in the game."

Said O'Neill: "It's hard to keep playing good defense when you just cannot seem to get anything going,"

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LOS ANGELES -- If only they could start how they finished, the USC Trojans might actually have a pretty good record at this point.

Instead, they're 4-6 now on the season and need to sweep their remaining three non-conference games to avoid beginning Pac-12 play with a losing record. Saturday's 44-41 loss to New Mexico was just the latest example of what's been an ugly trend for Kevin O'Neill's Trojans this season.

In all six of the losses, USC has trailed early -- and often trailed big. And the Trojans had chances to win late in all but one of them. Against the Lobos on Saturday, the Trojans fought back from a double-digit deficit to take a late lead, 41-40, with 1:51 to go in the game on a 3-point play from Dewayne Dedmon, but they quickly squandered it on the next possession.

USC ended up outscoring New Mexico by five in the second half after entering the break down by eight. A few more minutes and USC might have overtaken the Lobos for good. But the slow start -- the Trojans trailed 23-10 more than 18 minutes into the game -- ended up doing them in.

"I know that," Dedmon said after the game, when asked if the Trojans would be better off with more balanced first- and second-half play. "I know we would have a better record. We just gotta come out strong in the first half like we come out in the second half.

"We've gotta figure out a way to get everybody that second-half mentality in the first half."

After the first five minutes of the game, USC didn't lead Saturday's contest once until the final 111 seconds.

"It's been like that the entire year," O'Neill said. "We eased into the game and that got us into a hole."

Maurice Jones led the Trojans with 19 points. Dedmon added seven. UCLA transfer Drew Gordon had a team-high 13 points for New Mexico and Riverside King product Tony Snell added 10.

The teams combined to make just 30 field goals in the gam and produce 39 turnovers and just 15 assists.

"It was an ugly game," said New Mexico coach Steve Alford. "We came out and wanted to play up-tempo. But then they kind of slowed it down."

Alford added the Trojans "bored" his Lobos with their defensive strategies.

Player of the game: Jones kept the Trojans afloat all game. His 19 points were a game-high, although they did come on 7-of-18 shooting.

Alford spotlighted USC's 5-6 point guard in his postgame press conference, saying he was "quick" and could "get and go." But O'Neill said he envisions his No. 1 scorer shooting the ball even more if the Trojans are going to be successful this season.

"He can always be more aggressive," O'Neill said.

Stat of the game: New Mexico didn't make a field goal in the final 14 minutes and 16 seconds of the contest and still won.

It's rare for a team to go half that long without scoring and pull off a victory. To do it for more than an entire NBA quarter -- at the end of the game, no less -- and still win is simply remarkable.

Trend of the game: The Trojans held the Lobos to their lowest scoring total this season by nine points, proving once again that USC's issues aren't on the defensive side of the ball. The defense is top-notch, really, and, if USC can continue to hold teams under 50 points, some wins will come.

Maybe not a lot, but some.

"Our defense is way ahead of where we expected it to be," O'Neill said Saturday, reiterating what he said at practice this week. "I'm happy with a lot of what we're doing. We're just not able to get wins."

Quote of the game: "Of course we're behind offensively. The day (senior guard) Jio (Fontan) tore his knee in Brazil, we were behind offensively. -- O'Neill

If USC is ahead of schedule defensively yet behind it overall, it must mean the Trojans are severely behind schedule on the offensive end. O'Neill scoffed when asked that question after Saturday's game and then said, "Come on."

81 points in their last two games clearly shows that the Trojans are struggling.

Notes: Redshirt sophomore forward Evan Smith made his season debut in the first half for the Trojans, missing a 3-point attempt on his first possession. He hadn't played in game in two full seasons due to nagging shoulder injuries that required surgery...The 15 points scored by the Trojans in the first half were the fewest in a period in O'Neill's three seasons. The team's previous low was 16, done twice this season in losses to Cal Poly and Minnesota...Announced attendance at the Galen Center for the Trojans' first home game in two weeks was 3,863.

LOS ANGELES -- At some point, certain things become a tradition.

There's usually a time element involved -- as in, do something enough times over a relatively short amount of time, and it's officially tradition.

For USC, giving up a late lead and losing to Nebraska is now officially tradition.

It's the third straight season the Trojans have let up on the Cornhuskers in the final minutes. In 2009, USC led 46-43 and then lost 51-48. In 2010, USC led 39-26 at the half and 55-52 with five minutes to play but lost 60-58.

And Monday, the Trojans led by four with two minutes left in regulation and by three with a minute left in the first overtime period before losing 64-61 in double overtime at the Galen Center.

As USC guard Maurice Jones pointed out afterward, only two Trojans who played in 2010 also played in 2011 -- and none of the '09ers stayed until 2011. But make no mistake about it: This is clearly a tradition, and one that USC obviously wants no part of.

"You've gotta value each possession," said USC forward Aaron Fuller, whose former school, Iowa, will now play Nebraska twice a year after the Huskers joined the Big Ten this year. "We had multiple times to win it and unfortunately we made costly mistakes and didn't do it."

Trailing 25-23 at halftime, USC played a smart second half to take control 47-45 with four-plus minutes left on a Jones 3-pointer, but Byron Wesley and Jones both split ensuing trips to the foul line and the Trojans didn't score after that.

In the first OT, Fuller scored three straight points but Nebraska got lucky with a 3-pointer bouncing in, and then the Huskers took a 5-point lead in the second extra period that the Trojans couldn't come back from.

"I feel like if we had just one or two more stops the outcome may have been different," Fuller said.

There were some positives, like the significantly decreased number of turnovers -- 11 Monday in 50 minutes of play after 20 Friday in 40 minutes against Cal State Northridge. And the Trojans (1-1) also hit seven 3-pointers after going 0-of-15 from deep against CSUN.

But, of course, they didn't get the positive they wanted.

"We did everything but win the game," O'Neill said.

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LOS ANGELES -- He looked around the arena, soaking it all in, and gave his one of wide-mouthed smiles. He had the look of a man ready to start off a season.

But, inside, Dewayne Dedmon was freaking out.

Just before tip-off of USC's 2011-2012 season opener against Cal State Northridge on Friday at the Galen Center, Dedmon, the Trojans' 7-foot sophomore forward, tensed up for a second and realized what he was about to do.

In seconds, he'd officially be starting a game for the USC Trojans and getting his basketball career truly underway. He's played at other places -- a few minutes here and there in high school and as a post presence but little else for one season in junior college -- but never before was he counted on in such a big way.

Dedmon knew how important he was to his team's success -- both in Friday's game and in the 2011-2012 season in total. And that freaked him out, momentarily. Then he discarded those thoughts, won his team the tip-off and got to work on making his debut a success.

"After that, it was just, 'Let's get out here, and let's play,'" Dedmon said later.

He played, alright. Dedmon had his first points just 95 seconds after the tip when he dunked in a pass from point guard Maurice Jones, and he had eight points less than nine minutes into the game after he converted three straight jumpers.

Dedmon, who didn't start playing organized basketball until he was 18, finished the game with 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes, leading the Trojans to a 66-59 win over Cal State Northridge.

"I thought he played very well for the first time playing," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said after the game. "I mean, that's more than he scored his entire high school career.

"This guy's never played. I don't know how to compare it, he's just never had a chance to play at this level."

There certainly were issues: He didn't box out well at all and lost out on several rebounds as a direct result. His right hand, which had been in a cast for much of the last month until this week, appeared to betray him on occasion. He got in foul trouble and had to sit out the final eight minutes of the first half and then had to come out of the game in the second with cramps in his right leg.

USC (1-0) didn't play particularly well as a team, either. Dedmon was one of three players with 16 points for the Trojans -- forward Aaron Fuller and guard Maurice Jones were the others -- but O'Neill's squad turned the ball over 20 times and let visiting Cal State Northridge take a 4-point lead with five minutes to go.

From there, Dedmon and Jones combined to score 12 of USC's final 16 points to secure the victory.

"We're happy to get any win," O'Neill said. "It beats the alternative."

Player of the game: Fuller quietly dominated the paint for the Trojans, putting up a team-high-tying 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

USC ran very few plays for him, but he managed to come up with points just fine. He said O'Neill instructed him to make himself available near the top of the key to Maurice Jones.

He did it often, and didn't miss many of his shots either, going 5-of-7 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.

"I thought Aaron Fuller had a great night," O'Neill said. "He really stepped up and made some great clutch plays."

"I thought Aaron did a great job getting to the middle of the court in the meat of their defense and making plays around the basket, getting to the basket and then getting to the foul line and making a few shots too."

Stat of the game: USC shot 15 3-point attempts and didn't convert a single one, good for precisely zero percent shooting from long range.

Jones and freshman guard Alexis Moore were the biggest perpetrators, each throwing up seven shots from deep. Walk-on Eric Strangis had the other failed attempt.

O'Neill has said all preseason that his team clearly lacked outside shooting, but nobody knew it was going to be this bad. He played Moore extensively -- 31 minutes -- because of his 3-point shooting acumen, but he wasn't pleased with a few of the freshman's shot selections.

"Obviously (0-for-15) is unacceptable," O'Neill said. "But I'm not worried about that at all. For the most part, I thought we had wide-open 3's. It's just somewhat we're going to have do, and we will. That's all there is to it."

Trend of the game: O'Neill started Strangis at shooting guard in a clear message to the other competitors for the spot that more was expected from them, but USC's lineup in the final seven minutes made it clear who O'Neill sees as the team's top-five players at this point in time.

The five: Jones, Moore, Wesley, Fuller and Dedmon. Asked about that trend afterward, O'Neill went off on a mini-rant on his displeasure with Moore's poor play of late.

"You know, Alexis isn't playing very well -- hasn't played very well in practice the last couple weeks, and he didn't play very well tonight," O'Neill said. "But he's a freshman, and when you're a freshman like that, you're just not going to play well. It's just the way it is.

"Unless you're one of these super guys that can drop off the moon like some of North Carolina's freshmen ... I know these guys are gonna struggle, but we've gotta play them."

Quote of the game: "Our guys think this is a kung-fu match. They think the harder I chop a guy, uh, boy, I'm a tough. I'm really tough, because I double-chopped him to the ground. Wow. That's not toughness. That's not smart basketball. What these guys need to understand is tough means doing the right thing all the time." -- O'Neill

The third-year USC coach was upset about his team's 20 turnovers and other various errors and was referencing the tomahawk-chop gesture Dedmon demonstrated after each of his three blocks.

Notes: Former USC stars DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson sat courtside for the game and were shown on the video board during the first half. DeRozan, who plays for the NBA's Toronto Raptors, was accompanied by teammate Ed Davis...Because the game was not broadcast on television, arena operators were able to keep the curtains open on the north side of the Galen Center, allowing for a view of the nighttime skyline in Downtown...The men's game was preceded by the women's basketball season opener, which the No. 23 Women of Troy won over Fresno State, 65-57...The announced crowd was 5,172.

Let’s get this out of the way, first off: 22-year-old USC forward Dewayne Dedmon is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Not necessarily better than anything you’ve ever seen, just different – significantly different.

He’s 7 feet tall, having grown four full inches between ages 18 and 21. He’s 255 pounds, having also gained upwards of 50 pounds in that same span.

And now for the weird but true, in progressive order: He’s the second-fastest player on the USC basketball team, coming in behind only 5-6 point guard Maurice Jones. He can play point guard in a pinch, Trojans coach Kevin O’Neill says. And, maybe the craziest statistic of them all: Counting exhibitions and summer league games and everything with an official and a game clock, he’s played in fewer than 100 organized basketball games in his life.

Truthfully, the last four years of Dedmon’s life – basketball-wise, at least -- have had to take the place of most kids’ entire adolescence, and probably more. He didn’t start playing organized basketball until he was 18 years old, and, even then, he didn’t play much at all until his second year of junior college.

And even then, he broke a bone in his forehead two months into the season and sat out a month. Now, 11 months since he arrived at USC, he’s finally almost fully healthy, having broken a bone in his shooting hand a less than a week into practice this October. He had to wear a gigantic makeshift cast on his right hand to be able to take part in practices until Tuesday of this week, when he had the thing removed once and for all.

He’s not pain-free, but he’s cast-free, and that’s a big step.

“This is how I explain him: He’s 7-foot and he runs like a deer,” says Jio Fontan, the USC basketball team’s captain, likely out for the 2011-2012 season with a torn ACL. “I tell people all the time, if you saw him in jogging pants just walking into the gym and asked him to shoot a jump shot, he’s gonna show you he’s a little different.

“He shoots the ball like a guard, plain and simple. But give him time. Understand that not only has he not played that many years of basketball, but he’s also just coming off sitting a whole year out.

“He’s gonna be special. It’s just gonna take time.”

The thing is, USC doesn’t have any time. Dedmon’s first major college game is Friday at 8 p.m. against Cal State Northridge, the Trojans’ 2011-12 season opener. It’ll be his first real game since February 2010. And O’Neill needs him to be the team’s No. 2 scorer and No. 1 rebounder in order the Trojans to have any real chance of getting back to the NCAA tournament this season.

It’s unlikely, but that’s what everyone said last year at this same time. And USC ended up finishing with 19 wins and sneaking into the First Four of the tourney.

Then the Trojans lost top scorer Nikola Vucevic to the NBA draft, starters Alex Stepheson, Marcus Simmons and Donte Smith to graduation and Fontan to injury. The question now is whether O’Neill can manage his new, similarly patchwork squad to similar heights.

Let’s break it down, splitting it up by backcourt and frontcourt:

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Notes and quotes from Friday's Pac-12 media day at L.A. Live not covered in our news story from the proceedings:

Typical O'Neill

USC coach Kevin O'Neill and guard Maurice Jones were the ninth tandem to the take the podium at the Conga Room, following Cal's Mike Montgomery and Jorge Gutierrez and preceding Washington's Lorenzo Romar and Darnell Gant.

As usual, O'Neill entertained the crowd with his jokes about taking care of Montgomery during his bladder-cancer surgery and his on-stage interactions with Jones.

At one point, O'Neill said that he was telling Jones right then -- for the first time -- that he'd be playing every minute of USC's games this season.

"I'm informing him of that right now," O'Neill said. "Because he's going to have to."

Then, in typical O'Neill fashion, he was very blunt about his team's chances for this season with Jio Fontan out for the year, Evan Smith out 6-8 weeks with a re-aggravation of his shoulder injury and Curtis Washington out for the year with a torn labrum.

"We're having our good days and our bad days," O'Neill said. "Sometimes we look good and some days we stink."

A sophomore leader

The good days depend a lot on the play of Jones, O'Neill has said. USC's 5-7 point guard is the team's only real on-court leader as one of only two returning players who played significant minutes last season.

The problem is that Jones can be very quiet. He may have been the least leader-like player on the team last year, often finding himself staying silent in the background while his teammates spoke up.

But that was because he was a freshman then, he says now.

"I've just got to be more vocal," Jones said Friday. "Last year was my freshman year. I was just trying to get my feet wet. This year KO told me to be more aggressive, but still keep that point guard mentality in mind and create for my teammates.

"It's going to be a long season."

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