*--Updated with Ben Howland quotes.

In the immediate aftermath of USC's ugly but huge 65-55 win over UCLA late Friday at the Pac-10 tournament, Trojan coach Tim Floyd was asked if his team had done enough to play its way into the NCAA tournament.
Floyd reprised the spin cycle he'd employed when asked the exact same question a day earlier -- injuries, quality of the Pac-10, strength of schedule, etc., etc., etc.
And then, finally, he got to the heart of the matter.
"We've got a good basketball team," Floyd said, "but we're going to approach it like we need to win some more games."
That's how USC has played in the first two days of the tournament -- like a team that has to win.
That's why it will have the chance to win one more -- today at 3:15 p.m. against Arizona State -- and get into the tournament without any lobbying or spinning. Or, for that matter, prayer.
It may have been a slog through the mud, but when the final buzzer sounded, as far as USC was concerned, the result was a thing of beauty.
From the Trojan perspective, the night was all about defense.
"Real proud of our overall team effort on the defensive end," said Floyd. "... I thought Marcus Simmons' defense on (Darren) Collison out front was terrific."
Collison finished 1 of 9 from the field and had four points, along with three assists -- and seven turnovers. (He also brushed off a postgame question about an injury: "I'm never going to make excuses. I was perfectly fine to help my teammates out. We had a chance to win the ballgame, that's the most important thing." Ben Howland later said Collison's back was "really affecting him.")
It wasn't just Simmons playing defense.
"We were guarding," said Taj Gibson, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 1:46 left. "We were getting through screens, we were denying the post, we were taking (away) the second-chance shots by rebounding the ball down. And we just got back. We didn't let Collison drive and kick.
"We were guarding tonight."
Still, that almost wasn't enough. That UCLA shot just 27 percent -- 19 of 70 from the field, a figure straight out of a 6-year-old-and-under league -- almost wasn't enough to assure USC a win. Because as much as there was good defense in this game, there was also a whole lot of bad offense.
"We really struggled to score," said UCLA coach Ben Howland. "Nineteen for 70 from the field I think really says it all for us. .... Some of the shots were really, really rushed. I think we took some shots too early. We didn't handle the pressure well and they did a really good job pressuring, and we need to execute better against pressure."
It would be hard to overstate how ugly this game could be. Let's put it this way: You'd see better basketball at a Clippers intrasquad scrimmage.
This was particularly true in the second half. At the TV time out with 11:10 remaining, the teams had combined for 29 possessions. Eight resulted in scores -- and 12 in turnovers. In one four-and-a-half minute stretch, there were turnovers on nine of 13 possessions, a stretch broken up by one basket (by USC's Daniel Hackett) and three missed shots.
If you think that's inefficient, consider UCLA's second half as a whole: 44 possessions, 10 for 41 shooting, 10 turnovers.
It was not only no surprise that USC led 57-42 with 2:44 to play, it was a wonder the lead wasn't more.
But then the Trojans did their very best to give the game away -- and the Bruins did their very best not to take it.
After that lead reached 15, here's what happened in the next 99 seconds:
Josh Shipp made a rare UCLA basket (57-44). USC turned the ball over, and Shipp and Alfred Aboya missed layups before Malcolm Lee was fouled and mad two free throws (57-46).
USC turned the ball over, and Aboya made one of two free throws (57-47), missed the second, and Jrue Holiday grabbed the rebound. Shipp and Holiday missed 3-pointers before Aboya was fouled and made one of two free throws (57-48), rebounding his own miss and missing a layup; USC's DeMar DeRozan made one of two free throws after getting the rebound, making it 58-48 with 1:40 to play.
UCLA's Jerime Anderson then scored on a layup (58-50). USC turned the ball over, with Aboya getting the steal and a dunk (58-52). USC pushed the lead back to 60-52 with two Dwight Lewis free throws, but Lee scored on a layup (60-54) after which -- stop me if you've heard this one before -- USC turned the ball over.
Holiday made one of two free throws on the ensuing possession (66-55 with 1:05 remaining) after which USC finally restored order with four DeRozan free throws.
Wild. Ugly.
But for USC, it didn't have to be good. It just had to be good enough, and it was.
History is written by the winners, which is why Gibson was able to contend, straight-faced, that USC "just stuck together; nobody panicked." That means that final flurry apparently featured the four calmest turnovers you'll ever see.
Still, USC did play some defense. And it did live to play another day.
Right now, the net result is way bigger than the sum of its flaws.

Attendance is clearly off at this year's Pac-10 tournament (despite some of the rather generous numbers we've seen on the box scores) and here's the utlimate proof: Staples Center PR maven Michael Roth just stopped at our section of press row to announce a special deal for Friday, if UCLA holds on to beat Washington State (at this writing, the Bruins are up by 17 with 8:33 left).
USC or UCLA students with a valid ID will be able to buy tickets for tomorrow's semifinals -- including, it appears, a USC-UCLA meeting in the 8:30 game -- for just $10.
Maybe that will fill some of the vast empty spaces in the upper sections -- though I believe Roth said the deal would be good for the available seats in every level.

So here's a knotty sportswriting etiquette problem ...
Made it back to my courtside seat about a minute into the UCLA-Washington State game, having posted that previous entry on USC's win over Cal, and found my seat occupied ... by USC coach Tim Floyd.
What, exactly, are you supposed to do at a moment like that? Kick him out?
Floyd apologized, saying he didn't know where he was supposed to sit to watch the game (but he didn't make any effort to move). So I grabbed the next seat over -- and the person who was supposed to be in that one grabbed another seat, etc.
After about 10 minutes, the USC coach departed, and we all slid back into our assigned seats with relief.

Briefly, since UCLA is about to tip off:
Doing its part to set up an all-local semifinal, USC hammered Cal on the boards -- with a 53-27 rebounding edge -- and held on to beat the Bears 79-75 after leading by 18 in the first half and 16 in the second.
"Rebounding was a big deal tonight," said coach Tim Floyd. "We get a point guard, (Daniel) Hackett, who goes back and gets nine boards. Taj (Gibson) gets 16, (DeMar) DeRozan gets 11 ... That was the big differential."
Gibson also had 21 points, DeRozan had 17 and Hackett had 15, but a couple of other players had huge impacts -- guard Marcus Simmons with his defense, and forward Leonard Washington, who made a big second-half contribution off the bench: eight minutes, six points, five rebounds.
"The way Leonard Washington came in and got big rebounds," said Gibson, "the way Marcus Simmons came in and played great defense on (Jerome) Randle the whole game, it was a full team effort."
Floyd said Simmons "was effective. I thought he got us going defensively in the first half, because point guards initiate defense, and he was at (Randle) at the 10-second line, and I thought everybody really responded. ... Randle got it going a little bit in the second half -- he's a terrific ballplayer -- but (Simmons) filled a role for us tonight."
Randle had seven points in the first half and finished with 18.