The color scheme for tonight's cross-town rivalry game at the Galen Center -- UCLA wearing its road blue, USC its home, er, black -- could go a long way toward describing how the loser might feel with a month left before the NCAA tournament.
A UCLA loss would give the sixth-ranked Bruins their first two-game losing streak of the season and further pierce their aura of invincibility in the Pacific 10 Conference. It would also endanger their hopes of gaining a top seeding in the NCAA tournament and becoming the UCLA Bruins of Anaheim come the first round.
A defeat would be even more troublesome for USC. It would move the Trojans back to .500 in conference play and put them squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, making their margin for error smaller over the regular season's final weeks.
"It's a must win game for us," UCLA freshman center Kevin Love said. "Of course we don't want to lose to SC twice in a row and it is a big rivalry game, but for us in the Pac-10, we want to win this game coming off a loss."
Black and blue also served to accurately depict the way things were going in the trainer's room at each school this week, particularly at USC.
On Monday, tests revealed that sophomore guard Daniel Hackett had a stress fracture in his lower back and might sit out the rest of the season.
On Wednesday, star freshman O.J. Mayo pulled his left groin and was unable to practice the next day.
On Friday, freshman guard Marcus Simmons said he would try to play on a chronically sprained left ankle that was admittedly only about 75%.
The injuries left the Trojans with only two fully healthy scholarship guards -- sophomore Dwight Lewis and freshman Angelo Johnson -- going into a game against one of the deepest and most physical teams in the country.
"It would be great if we huddled 30 seconds between every play and we would have enough guys to get through a game, but we don't," USC Coach Tim Floyd said.
"It's up and down and if you have foul problems, you have a lot of things you have to work through."
Nevertheless, those who give the Trojans little chance to sweep the season series might be well served to remember that A) USC won last month at Pauley Pavilion, and B) the Trojans beat the Bruins two years ago under similar circumstances after losing star guard Gabe Pruitt to a knee injury.
