USC, OREGON MEET WITH MORE ON LINE

The details were determined long beforehand, the changes essential in an extraordinary season, but that didn’t make a lost Pac-12 title sting any less. USC had played more games. It won more conference games.

It beat Oregon at home by 14 points in the teams’ only meeting, a game the conference insisted be played on four days’ notice. And still, the Trojans lost the Pac-12 to the Ducks, whose winning percentage was marginally better.

Resentment was still simmering when NCAA tournament fate first matched the fiery conference foes together again in the Sweet 16. That was before the Trojans’ Isaiah Mobley doused the smoldering matchup today in lighter fluid.

“They’ve been on a roll,” Mobley said of the Ducks after USC’S second-round win over Kansas on Monday. “I don’t want to say necessarily they’ve got luck. They’re a good team. But they stole the Pac-12 championship from us.”

His comment only adds fuel to the fire for a matchup at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis that neither Oregon’s nor USC’S coaches would’ve chosen themselves.

Trojans coach Andy Enfield, who regularly groused about scheduling inequity this season, made it clear he would have rather played an out-ofconference opponent. Even the selection committee would probably have preferred to keep the two Pac-12 teams apart, if not for extenuating circumstances. Bill Walton went so far as to call the scheduling “a disgrace.”

But the players seem perfectly fine with the premise.

“We know a lot about them,” Trojans forward Evan Mobley, Isaiah’s brother, said. “That’s the great thing about playing them in March Madness.”

Oregon’s Eugene Omoruyi had been hoping for the rematch in the Pac-12 tournament, but both teams lost in the semifinals. “I’m just happy to get it now,” he said.

Dana Altman is hoping his Ducks (21-6) look a little different than the last time these teams met on Feb. 22, when the Trojans (24-7) fired out to a 15-0 lead and led the entire way in a 72-58 win.

“They kicked us,” Altman said. “We got off to a terrible start. They hit a bunch of threes. We got down.”

Today’s games in Indianapolis: West Regional

(1) Gonzaga vs. (5) Creighton, 11:10 a.m., Ch. 8

(6) USC vs. (7) Oregon, 6:45 p.m.,

TBS

They never got back up that night at Galen Center. But the game would come at a critical juncture in the season for both teams.

Since then, Oregon has lost just one game — to Oregon State, which is now in the Elite Eight. The Ducks’ seven wins since the USC game have come by an average of 11 points. They’ve shot 44.1 percent (78 of 177) from 3-point range in that time.

The surge that carried USC to its first Sweet 16 since 2007 came a bit later. The Trojans lost their next two games on the road after defeating the Ducks and lost grip of the title race. That’s when Oregon took hold and refused to let go. The Ducks went 14-4 in Pac-12 play, the Trojans 15-5.

Gonzaga vs. Creighton

Top-seeded Gonzaga (28-0) has heard the resounding refrain all week.

Four more wins to capture the school’s first national championship, four more wins to finish the first perfect season in men’s basketball in 45 years.

Even coach Mark Few couldn’t resist, though he added some instructions — focus on basketball, maintain perspective and ignore the chatter — as well as a warning.

“There’s a week or, hopefully, two left in the season,” he said. “These guys are competitive and they’re smart competitors and they know from here on out that every team is more than capable of taking us down.“

Sure, Few sounds like a candidate tamping down expectations before an election rally, even a small one that might be tempted to break out the “Four more!” chant during today’s West semifinal against fifthseeded Creighton (22-8).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.