Lean and hungry

Daniel Hackett's breakfasts these days usually consist of yogurt drinks and his lunches are often protein shakes. It sounds like a familiar diet plan.

Except forget about that sensible dinner.

Hackett's final meal of the day is usually some sort of unappetizing concoction, whatever the USC sophomore guard can blend that will slip between the gaps in his teeth. Recently he pureed chicken and mashed potatoes with a little milk.

"It's a weird taste," he said.

Still, it beats the taste in his mouth Sept. 27, when a bloodied and broken jaw during a pickup game started the exasperating journey that has curtailed his culinary choices, caused him to lose 24 pounds in five weeks and will keep him out of the Trojans' lineup until at least the end of this month.

Hackett said doctors have told him his jaw, broken in three places and wired shut until Friday, will eventually become "stronger than before." The 6-foot-5 sharpshooter hopes the same can be said of his game despite the lengthy layoff and a noticeably slimmer physique.

"I think the weight loss in a way has helped him a lot because it's lightened his body and has given him a sense of speed and quickness that he didn't have before," said Rudy Hackett, Daniel's father and the Trojans' strength and conditioning coach.

Hackett had already undergone a striking transformation this summer while playing with the Italian under-20 national team and practicing with a national squad that included Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors and Marco Belinelli of the Golden State Warriors.

"There's not a college guy in the country who did more than he did this summer," USC Coach Tim Floyd said of Hackett, who started 16 games as a freshman and averaged 5.3 points and 2.9 rebounds. "He played from the end of May through the end of August every day with pros in highly competitive situations.

"He was really confident and was really shooting the ball well. I just felt like, 'Boy, this guy has really grown.' "

Hackett returned to USC in late August and practiced with the Trojans for a few days before their exhibition trip to Mexico. Floyd said he did not allow Hackett to accompany the team to Mazatlan over Labor Day weekend because he wanted him to rest after his hectic summer.

Of course, Floyd had no idea how much of a break Hackett would soon be getting.

Hackett was playing a pickup game with several teammates at the Galen Center in late September when his jaw was broken and had to be surgically wired shut.