Matthew Kredell broke into the Daily News in 1998, working part time
at the paper while going to USC. The basketball team’s Elite Eight
run in 2000-01 was USC’s athletic highlight in his time at the
school, when the football team was stuck in the Paul Hackett-era.
After graduating in 2001, he started writing for the Daily News full
time. He’s in his second year covering USC, which coincides with the
rise of the program. He’ll take credit for the success, though Tim
Floyd may have more to do with it. A third-generation Los Angelean,
he grew up reading the Daily News while at El Camino Real High School
in Woodland Hills.
Credit for defensive game plan to Johnson
USC's masterful plan to guard 6-foot-9 forward Kevin Durant with freshmen guards Daniel Hackett and Dwight Lewis was devised by assistant coach Phil Johnson.
``Phil Johnson wanted to do it so I did it,'' coach Tim Floyd said. ``... Phil's been doing 16, 18 hours of film work on every team that we have prepared for all year long, and 95 percent of every plan is his.''
``It's hard to guard him with a bigger guy because, in the end, he wants to go off the dribble,'' Johnson said.
Hackett got the start and spent most of the time guarding Durant, projected as one of the top two picks in the next NBA draft. When Durant got inside, USC double-teamed with forward Taj Gibson.
``We knew Daniel was going to give a great effort,'' Johnson said. ``... We wanted to start him on Durant because we didn't want Durant to have 20 points in the first eight minutes. We thought Daniel would try to keep him from catching the ball as much as possible, and he did.''