USC, Pac-10 bust Obama's bracket, and his chops

To supplement Simmons, USC also threw 6-6 Marcus Johnson and the 6-5 Lewis at Rice. All Rice saw were gangly arms and legs.

But it has been Simmons' responsibility the last few weeks to initiate contact against the opponent's top scorer.

Slowed by an ankle injury earlier in the season, Simmons started to emerge in February when he played 22 minutes at California. He logged 32, 38 and 21 minutes in last weekend's Pac-10 tournament sweep, tormenting to varying degrees guards Jerome Randle (Cal), Darren Collison (UCLA) and Derek Glasser (Arizona State).

"It's his size, his length and his motor," USC Coach Tim Floyd said of Simmons. "He's 6-5, 6-6, but he has the feet of a 5-10 kid. When you have a guy playing like that it makes everyone else play defense."

Simmons had to crank the volume up to 10 against Rice.

"He's probably the best guard I've guarded," Simmons said. "In the second half, I was getting frustrated. Coach told me to keep the pressure on him, we've got other guys to defend him."

Simmons left the game shortly after picking up his fourth foul with 12: 21 left, with Lewis taking up the defensive slack the rest of the way.

Lewis credits Simmons for making everyone else pick up their intensity.

"He's been doing that the latter part of the season, taking out their best player," Lewis said. "He did that tonight."

Lewis, with his length, was equally effective.

By the time Rice made his first basket since early in the first half, a short jumper with 1:50 left, the game was over.

Rice's basket cut the Trojans' lead to 12.

"In the second half, I think they hunkered down a little bit tighter on defense and made things a little tough," Rice admitted.

Lewis said the mission against Rice was to keep a long arm in his face and a torso on his chest.

"Body him up a little bit," Lewis said. "Let him know we're there. I don't think he was getting frustrated. He's a great player, but I do think we were making it tough on him. He understood no basket was easy for him."

With Taj Gibson shooting 10-for-10 from the field, and DeMar DeRozan finally looking like an NBA lottery pick, and Lewis nailing three-pointers from the corner, and Simmons clamping down on the perimeter, USC has it in mind to mess up a few more brackets.

"We're playing our best basketball at the right time," Lewis said. "I don't think our run is over yet."

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com