Rodman set to face former program

LOS ANGELES » Less than an hour before DJ Rodman took the floor against Stanford last Saturday at the Galen Center, he fired off warm-up jumpers in the corner directly in front of sister Trinity, pausing to turn and chat with beaming smiles.

Strange, maybe, for most collegiate hoopers to take more than a brief hug with family before a game. But hardly strange for the Rodman siblings, growing up together amid court battles and bouncing from apartment to apartment, often finding stability in one another.

And Trinity, well-known as a star in the soccer world and a member of the US Women’s National Team, has been sitting in just about the same spot courtside at every one of USC’s home games thus far to support her brother.

“When I talk to her, it’s more of a, just grounding myself ... she helps me focus on focusing on my game,” Rodman said of pregame conversations with his sister, “instead of focusing on the outside environment.”

And Rodman has grown up in chaos, really, he and Trinity and mother Michelle moving constantly from evictions, a lack of physical support from a legendary father that Michelle feels has hurt her son’s confidence. She sees it, on the court. And this, transferring to USC after an up-and-down year at Washington State, was meant to be a prove-it year for Rodman. Maybe for himself, too.

“I didn’t think I was good enough,” Rodman said before the season, “to even be here.”

He’s starting to find that confidence, though, slowly but surely, after a shaky start where he felt less clear in his offensive role. Through 15 games, his numbers hardly jump off the page — 35% from the floor, 6.4 points a game, 3.9 rebounds — but the best version of Rodman can make USC click, a consistent floor-spacer and versatile defender who can heat up from deep.

“We rely on him, he’s experienced, and we need him to be productive,” coach Andy Enfield said Tuesday, “because he’s a guy that has been part of a lot of winning basketball.”

That 35% from the floor is ugly. Rodman’s at 40% from behind the arc, though, and has looked more aggressive since Pac-12 play opened, averaging 9 points a game on 44% from 3.

“I’m a math nerd, so I like to go, regression to the mean,” Rodman said after USC’s Tuesday practice, intertwining his arms against a nearby banister.

“Whatever percentage a shooter I am, I’m gonna get back to that,” he continued, “even if I miss shots.”

He and USC will face his ye-old Washington State tonight, trying to sweep a homestand and restabilize a season that’s nearly been torpedoed by ineffectual perimeter defense and bad ball control.

And “everyone’s lying to you,” Rodman said Tuesday, if they’d say playing their old team is just another game; he left the program, he said back before the start of the season, because he felt he was “coasting.”

“I just fell into the wrong situations,” Rodman said in the fall. “I just made the wrong decisions there. It was just myself being a knucklehead.”

He had only love for the Cougars on Tuesday, though, saying he “wouldn’t trade those four years for the world.”

“It’s just gonna be fun, and I’m looking forward to just playing against ’em,”

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Today: Washington State at USC, 7:30 p.m., FS1