Well, I imagine you're entirely sick of reading about USC hoops already, what with that Jeff Trepagnier-as-Jumping-Deity bit The Magazine ran back in September (he averaged 7.8 ppg this year, not so godlike) and that feature we did this winter that pretty much asserted the Trojans were going to change the way the world thought about life, death and all the unpleasantness in between (Arizona then promptly thumped USC by 40).

But I want you to bear with me here as I once again glorify these here Trojans, because after witnessing USC take out the scrappy little Eagles of Boston College, I think this time they actually deserve our love.

I'll get to the main reason, the happy-ending reason -- that would be USC guard Robert Hutchinson, a guy you, me, nobody had heard of until tonight -- I'll get to that reason last, because I want to get to the fun stuff first.

Remember Trepagnier? He may have been struggling all year but today the dude was crazy, crazy, crazy. He dropped a few of his patented mouth-watering reverse dunks on us, the kind of sick tricks that inspire us normally sedate media folks to sputter nonsense like "good gracious," and "my word." Later, in the locker room, he charmed us normally uncharmable media folks, giving us the details of his fly-by-night wedding this winter (in order to avoid the wrath of some arcane NCAA regulation that I don't care to get into) and the latest measurement of his hops. "41 inches," Jeff says.

"Um, you told me in the preseason that it was 42," I say.

Jeff looked at me and shrugged.

"Yeah, 41 or 42."

When you're dunking with your eyes above the rim, it ain't a matter of inches. But it's not just Jeff who's off-the-charts mad. Sam Clancy had two or three truly terrifying blocks, acts of cruelty that actually made me feel bad for the victim. David Bluthenthal went inside, outside, and to the line for 20. His game is nice. Then there's Brian Scalabrine, that tubby, redheaded oak tree, who although the contributor of a measly four points, said afterwards that he and the crew were taking the celebration to Hooters. I'm pretty sure he was joking, but if any waitress has the details, fire me an e-mail. As for Hutchinson, the reason you, me and everyone had never heard of this guy is because his coach, Henry Bibby, hadn't really either. The guy had played, seriously, three minutes this month, mainly because he's a point guard, and, well, junior Brandon Granville's got a pretty firm lock on the PT there. Ah, but, you know how these stories go: The lead guy goes down with an injury or fouls out or something (as Granville did, with seven minutes to play), the backup is thrust in the spotlight, and after choking his throat dry the first few nervous minutes (Hutch couldn't even get the ball past midcourt half the time, thanks to BC's nasty press), he steps to the free-throw line with the chance to be a hero. Actually, as this story goes, Hutch steps to the free throw line SIX times in the game's waning moments, including two with eight ticks left and SC holding on to a two-point lead.

Now, do you have any idea how many free throws our scrappy little hero wannabe shot this year? Well, of course, you don't. Thing is, neither did Hutch. I asked him after the game what he thought the answer was, and he just stared at my blankly. "You tell me," he says.

Well, here's the answer: Seven. He hit four of them. Four of seven: Not a great training program for this moment, to say the least.

Ah, but, I promised a happy ending, and I'm delivering one. On this day, with the game on the line, and Troy Bell whispering junk in his ears, and the proverbial crowd going proverbially crazy, Hutch sunk five of his six throws, and USC held on for the lead, and, would you look at this, Hutch was a pretty popular guy in the locker room for once.

Nice story, huh? Sure beats our earlier efforts, anyway.