Dec. 29, 2005

Recap |  Box Score

USC Head Coach Tim Floyd

"You have to give Cal credit. They came in on the road and disrupted us. They had a nice plan. They did things that bothered us defensively. We had our opportunities, but we didn't take advantage. We had a lot of unforced turnovers in the open floor and we missed free throws"

"Powe is a terrific player. He creates problems. When we doubled him, we paid the price. And Wilkes and Midgley played fine games. Young did a nice job on Benson and Hardin."

"We got outrebounded, but we expected to be in trouble in that area. We hoped to make up for that by making shots and free throws. We didn't do either one."

"Cal played like a team with experience on the road."

"We were still playing with effort defensively at the end."

"I liked what we did with 6 or 7 seconds to go. We wanted to drive it. I thought Gabe had turned the corner when he stumbled and fell. I wouldn't handle it any differently. It just didn't work for us."

"Our big guys were able to stay out of foul trouble and we did a decent job considering what they'd been doing earlier this year."

"We gave up only 39% shooting. You'd think we'd make enough plays to win with that, but you've got to give Cal credit."

"We didn't get very easy baskets."

California Head Coach Ben Braun

On free-throws "Well USC has been hanging around for nine straight wins. This is not a team that is not going away. Ask North Carolina. I felt we took a little of the sting out of USC tonight. We made them beat us off the dribble. I thought our guys stayed in our stance. It was going to be a test of wills for us."

On USC's zone defense "With our man our zone, if you ask USC, they probably couldn't tell you the difference. Our zone principles and our man principles are the same. Whatever we had to do tonight, we did it. That's what you want to do defensively is keep teams at bay and not give them a rhythm."

On playing hard against a tough opponent "We've got to come out here and scrap and get everything we can. Rod Benson came in and gave us a lot of life. He played with a lot of life. Leon's making dishes and setting up Wilkes for threes."

On Leon Powe "Two things you've got to understand this about Leon Powe. He is a competitor and he plays for pride. He wants to get in there and prove that he's a pressure player. Leon will be isolated. Leon gets to the line now - that's important. I really believe he'll make a lot more free throws than he'll brick. Give him credit - today he went out there and got 14 rebounds."

On starting off on the right foot in Pac-10 conference play "We're staring at three straight road games in the league. I don't know anyone else who has to do that. Getting those teams on the road, it toughens our team. Saturday against UCLA and then to think about coming back to Stanford (on the road) it doesn't get any easier."

USC has gotten off to the best start in the long time "It was fun and it was a great atmosphere for basketball today. By the same token, USC pus as much pressure as Washington as anyone in our league. It's a tough challenge and our team can handle the challenge."

On the big road win "It's big. This is a tough game to play without Mark Smith. He's an experienced guy. He would have made it a lot easier for us and (would have) put a lot of pressure on USC. We put Nikola in the game and he steps up for us. What I like about Ayinde is that he wanted the ball in his hand."