Taller Trojans Gear Up to Play the Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — TONIGHT’S GAME

WOMEN’S MIDWEST REGIONAL

USC (20-8) vs. FLORIDA (22-8)

Gainesville, Fla.

5:08 p.m.

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Having survived a storm-tossed flight, and then seeing her team bus decorated with anti-USC graffiti, Tina Thompson stood across from a ‘gator.

Yes, a real ‘gator, not the kind that dribbles and shoots basketballs.

There he was, maybe a seven-footer, soaking up some sun on a tiny man-made island in a lake on the University of Florida campus.

“Move!” shouted Thompson, USC’s 6-foot-3 senior second-team All-American.

The gator moved maybe an inch.

Disappointed, the USC women’s basketball team got back on their cleaned-up bus and headed to their hotel, bound for meetings to discuss ways of defeating more animated Gators.

A USC (20-8) win over Florida (22-8) tonight at the O’Connell Center would propel the Trojans into next weekend’s Mideast Regional at Purdue.

Tough task.

After a 68-55 Trojan win over San Francisco in the first round Saturday night, Florida--in the nightcap--looked like a Final Four team in development. The Gators pounded Florida International, 92-68.

“We need to play harder than we have at any time this season to beat Florida,” USC Coach Fred Williams said.

As always, the Trojans’ size is a worry.

“USC is a bigger team than any we’ve played,” Florida Coach Carol Ross said. “They remind me of Alabama--big and physical up front, with tenacious guard play.”

Williams wants his team to make a statement, not only for USC but the Pacific 10 as well.

He’s irked because USC never made the top 25 in either of the major polls. For most of the season, only Stanford from the Pac-10 appeared in them. The Southeastern Conference had seven teams ranked at the finish, including four in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll--Florida seventh.

Tonight’s is a matchup of third-place conference finishers. Florida was 9-3 and tied for third in the SEC. USC, 13-5, finished third in the Pac-10.

Williams would also like a repeat game by Jodi Parriott, the 6-2 sophomore wing player whose shooting kick-started USC in its second-half surge past San Francisco on Saturday. After an entire season of the coaching staff’s telling her to shoot more, she did.

“My first instinct is to pass,” she said. “I was a point guard my first two years of high school, or until I got too tall.”

A double-double from Thompson is close to automatic. She did it for the 18th time Saturday: 26 points and 15 rebounds, in 34 minutes.

USC’s major challenge tonight is 6-1 senior All-American DeLisha Milton, whose statistics run slightly under Thompson’s.

Whatever develops, it figures to be a lark, compared to USC’s flight here Wednesday from Atlanta. The twin-prop plane bounced about on the edges of a thunderstorm, unnerving everyone, especially the coach, who is a white-knuckle flier even in clear skies.

“It was like being on a roller coaster for an hour,” said guard Kristin Clark. “I held onto our trainer the whole way.”

Then there’s the matter of the desecrated bus.

USC’s Gainesville hotel is next door to San Francisco’s. Soon after arrival, graffiti artists taped onto the bus crude cardboard signs bearing insults, the only one fit for a family newspaper being: “KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING.”

San Francisco people were prime suspects. Then again, it might have been done in-house. USC has a 26-piece pep band here, and the musicians may have have seized upon an opportunity to motivate their team.

But Parriott had another theory Sunday: The Fat Gator Boys.

“Those fat guys without their shirts at the game, with those slogans painted on their stomachs--some of those slogans were on the bus,” she said.

“I think they did it.”