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.
Facing Durant
``He's going to score, we understand that,'' Taj Gibson said. ``We just have to contain the guards and try to contain him as much as possible. He's one of the top big guys I've faced so far. He's more versatile than most.''
``We see Texas all the time on ESPN,'' Gabe Pruitt said. ``You hear Kevin Durant's name whenever you talk about college basketball, and we have an opportunity to play against him. ... We are getting another opportunity to show how good we are, and I think this is a perfect opportunity for us to do that.''
``We can't put too much emphasis on Durant,'' Pruitt added. ``Obviously, he's a great player, but there's other guys around him that can also play. We can't put too much attention on him and allow the other guys to go off.''
``Teams have talked about playing him physical, teams have talked about playing him soft,'' Tim Floyd said. ``I know that I'd probably would rather see him shoot threes than get to the foul line all night long, because he's shot 92 percent from the foul line over the past four games.''