just a few quick notes on tonight's game.

After much speculation Dwight Lewis will make the trip to Seattle where he hopes to play even with a sprained ankle. The question is will he play? With Lewis out it puts all the pressure on Hackett because our back-ups just aren't there yet...

That casting call has sophomores Marcus Simmons and Donte Smith trying to prove they are worthy of the role.

"We're begging one of them to come on and give us relief minutes for Daniel and Dwight," Coach TimFloyd said. "There is 22 minutes out there at guard."

Both are trying to clear hurdles to earn some, or all, of that time.

Simmons came in as a promising freshman a year ago but lost most of the season because of a high ankle sprain. He played in only 15 games. He is trying to overcome another ankle injury this season.

Smith was earmarked to be Hackett's backup but is still shaking off the cobwebs from a year without basketball. He sat out last season while attending Mt. San Antonio College. He averaged nearly 17 minutes a game through the first seven games but saw his time fall off because of ineffectiveness.

"We're really trying to give those guys as much time as we can with the first unit," Floyd said. "We see improvement in both of them."

SC swept UW last year but that was with Mayo and Jefferson, this year we are not at that level of talent. Last weekend's win against the Arizona schools was nice to see but there needs to be more of that grittiness on the road before I am completely comfortable that this team can move forward.

So, if Lewis can't be effective let alone available SC would already be starting at a negative.

[t]he Trojans face the prospect of trying to make up for the loss of a rather indispensable part of their squad.

"Obviously it's his ability to make shots," coach Tim Floyd said, assessing what his team would miss most with Lewis out. "In the past we had so many shotmakers ... he's a guy who can go get you points in bunches, which he did the other night for us. As much as coaches like to talk about defense and rebounding and turnovers, the ability to make shots is an important part of this game."

Again, not an optimal situation.

Couple that with Leonard Washington still not 100% and its an up hil climb fro SC on the road.

We'll have a game thread up later but with the game starting at 11pm EST I don't plan on staying up to watch it...I need all the beauty sleep I can get, not that it helps! Heh.