Undefeated Washington State faces weekend against rising stars

PULLMAN – They are the freshest cover boys in Tinseltown. An innocent O.J. The most recent Love. Newly crowned stars in a star-driven town.

O.J. Mayo, the out-of-the-blue recruit from West Virginia, of all places, landing on Tim Floyd’s doorstep and giving his USC Trojans a unique talent to rebuild around.

Kevin Love, with the Beach Boy relative and the Shaq-like body, ready to be the next great Bruins center and destined to lead UCLA back to the national title game.

Two freshmen on campuses separated by one freeway. Two bright lights in a bright town. And two big targets for fourth-ranked Washington State this weekend.

First up for the 13-0 Cougars tonight is Mayo and his Trojans, who opened Pac-10 play last week with two surprising Bay Area defeats.

The 6-foot-5 guard came out of Huntington, W.V., carrying enough hype to break most 20-year-old’s backs. But he’s lived up to it, leading USC through a back-breaking non-conference schedule with a 9-3 record, averaging 20.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.

“A kid who gets that much attention and that much hype and delivers under that type of scrutiny, that’s impressive,” said WSU coach Tony Bennett.

“He’s settled in, adjusted and adapted very well,” USC coach Tim Floyd added.

And yet the Trojans are 0-2 in Pac-10, losing at Cal despite Mayo’s 34-point effort and at Stanford even though the Cardinal shot 27 percent from the floor.

It was a learning experience for the young Trojans (USC starts two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior).

“Sometimes you go on the road and you’re playing against a great team with great talent,” Floyd said of last weekend’s struggles. “The Stanford game, for instance. They were 0-1 (in the Pac-10) and playing at home and we got their best shot.”

That will probably happen tonight. The Cougars, off to their best start since FDR was president, expect Mayo’s best shot, and it will probably be up to Kyle Weaver to absorb it.

“He’s so athletic and physical,” Bennett said of Mayo. “For us to play against a player like that, it’s not Kyle Weaver vs. O.J. Mayo … it’s always our team defense.”

True, but for Weaver, whom Washington coach Lorenzo Romar last week called one of – if not the best – defender in the Pac-10, the challenge of guarding a player like Mayo is part of the fun.

“He’s a talent, a great player,” said the 6-6 senior who averages 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists while always guarding the other team’s top backcourt scorer. “Once again, I have to take on the challenge. I’ll be ready and I’m going to do everything I can to try to slow him down.

“Regardless of all the hype … he’s still a freshman. That’s one thing I’m going to try to take advantage of, just use my experience on both ends of the floor.”

Experience. It’s an edge both Weaver and Aron Baynes, who will be matched up with Love on Saturday morning, feel they have – and the numbers back them up.

Weaver has played 53 Pac-10 games, Baynes 34. The two freshmen have split four.

“Grinding out these seasons, just getting that experience, going through the different things I have, that’s just helped me overall,” Weaver said.

Floyd concurs.

“Kyle has just improved so much,” since Floyd started at USC three years ago, the coach said. “He’s one of those guys we talk about in terms of confidence, understanding the importance of team play and the willingness to defend. He’s an exceptional player on an exceptional team.”

The same can be said of the 6-10, 260-pound Love, from Lake Oswego, Ore. He leads the fifth-ranked Bruins (14-1, 2-0) in scoring (16.5 points per game) and rebounding (10.2 per game). But he may have never experienced anyone like the 6-10, 270-pound Baynes.

“It’s going to be another physical game,” said Baynes, a junior who has come into his own this season, averaging 11.6 points and 6.5 rebounds. “He definitely knows how to use his body. He’s got good control of that.

“He’s the one UCLA bases their offense around. He’s going to be getting a lot of touches and I’m just going to have to play position defense and hopefully match up with him pretty well with my size. There will be a few bangs down there I guess.”

Baynes believes knowing when to dish out those bangs and when not to is the most important lesson he’s learned since coming to WSU from Cairns, Australia.

“I’m about as physical as I was as a freshman, but smarter physicality,” he said. “I know when I can hit people and when I have to back off a little bit.”