“Right now they’ve been playing the best basketball they’ve been playing all season,” Walton said. “You can’t look at their past games because they’re not the same team.”

In terms of raw collective talent, the Trojans might be one of the best No. 10-seeds the tournament has recently seen. They have rattled off six consecutive wins, including three straight to win the Pac-10 Tournament and Friday’s 72-55 victory over Boston College.

“Sometimes when teams struggle, you don’t see why they struggle,” Walton said. “They had some players that was injured, weren’t doing as good as they thought they should be doing.

“They probably had a meeting or something like that before the Pac-10 Tournament and they kind of turned it on to what everybody thought they could be.”

Led by forward Taj Gibson (14.6 points per game) — who finished 10-of-10 from the field Friday against the Eagles — the Trojans have four players who boast double-digit scoring averages: Dwight Lewis (14.3), DeMar DeRozan (13.7) and Daniel Hackett (12.3).

Each of those players can beat you in different ways, making the Trojans very tricky to defend.

Gibson is your typical power forward, a rugged player who will beat you inside; DeRozan is a jaw-dropping athletic specimen who can beat you off the dribble.; Lewis is a sharp-shooter who will extend defenses to the perimeter while Hackett is a cagey point guard who facilitates the attack.

“They’re definitely a good team,“ junior forward Raymar Morgan said. “They’re just so athletic and an up-and-down team. Hopefully we can just create stops and get to our tempo.”

Off the deep end
Although the statistics each of the four USC stars have accrued are impressive, they might be a little deceiving because each has logged heavy minutes.

Because the Trojans lack depth, head coach Tim Floyd has been forced to challenge his starters by playing them lucrative minutes.

DeRozan in particular has been forced to work overtime. The freshman forward has played a full 40 minutes in each of his team’s past two games.

Depending on the dynamics of Sunday’s game, the Trojans could play as few as six players against the Spartans.

Despite its depth issues, Walton thinks USC will be prepared no matter what type of game-plan the Spartans throw at them.

“That’s probably one of the things we got over them, we have depth,” Walton said. “But that Pac-10 style is kind of up and down a little bit, too, so no matter what we throw at them I think they are kind of ready for it.”

Because depth issues often lead to team fatigue, Walton was asked whether the Spartans might run even more than usual.

Walton said he wasn’t sure.

“They have some very, very good guards and some very good post players that I think have a lot of endurance.”

Coaching connection
A few years ago, Izzo needed some advice about a possible career move.

Despite never talking to him before, he decided to phone Floyd, who had just finished a four-year stint as head coach of the Chicago Bulls.

“After we won the national championship, I had an opportunity maybe in the NBA, and I remember calling Tim,” Izzo recalled. “I didn’t know Tim at all then, but I said I have to call somebody who made the jump and he had just made the jump to the Bulls.

“I caught him on his cell phone and he was driving to Florida, I think, to pick up his daughter. And he said, ‘Tom, I am a bad guy to talk to.’”

That’s because Floyd, who took over the team the year after it waved goodbye to Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former head coach Phil Jackson, finished his tenure with a 49-190 record.

In their talk, Floyd said he tried convincing Izzo to stay.

“All I told him one time is I heard his name mentioned with NBA jobs and to stay put,” Floyd said. “I think that’s the first thing I ever told him when I met him. He’s too great at what he does.”

Originally posted 7:35 p.m.