This was the last thing that Tim Floyd needed.

The USC coach lost his entire backcourt from last season's Sweet 16 team that nearly knocked off North Carolina.

He has a fairly inexperienced team that features six freshman - at least four of which who were expected to figure into the rotation.

However, the injury report has been lengthy so far and Floyd hasn't been able to see the progress simply because key players haven't been able to take the court.

``It's really been a problem," Floyd said. "We've got 10 guys for practice right now and three are walk-ons."

- Freshman Davon Jefferson just returned after sitting out for a few days due to a sprained knee.

- Sophomore Dwight Lewis has been back for three days.

- Taj Gibson, one of the top returning big men in the country, won't return to practice until early next week due to a sprained ankle.

- Talented 7-foot freshmen Mamadou Diarra will be out for about six weeks after hernia surgery that's scheduled for today.

- Daniel Hackett, whose jaw has been wired shut since it was broken via an O.J. Mayo elbow, won't be evaluated again by doctors until Nov. 9 - the day before the start of the regular-season. Hackett has already lost 20 pounds.

- Marcus Simmons, a long, athletic freshman, is out with a high ankle sprain. ``We've shut him down for now," Floyd said.

- RouSean Cromwell just returned to practice on Wednesday after missing four days.

That has really left highly touted freshman guard O.J. Mayo, fellow frosh Angelo Johnson, junior forward Keith Wilkinson, sophomore forward Kyle Austin and redshirt freshman forward Kasey Cunningham as the healthy bodies so far.

Of those five, only Mayo was expected to start for the Trojans.

``It's a sad state of affairs," Floyd said of his team. "I've never, ever had to deal with anything like this except for maybe my last year with the Hornets."

``Preseason practice is when we get better," he added. "It really wouldn't matter as much if we had a soft schedule early."

But that's far from the case. In fact, the Trojans have one of the most difficult early-season slates in the country. After a couple of tune-ups against Mercer and The Citadel, USC travels to South Carolina before playing in the Anaheim Classic, where the Trojans could meet Southern Illinois or Mississippi State in the championship game.

Then USC hosts Oklahoma and Kansas before traveling to New York for a game against Memphis.

DUKE NABS TOP WING

Duke could have used multi-dimensional forward Greg Monroe a little more, but the Blue Devils came away with one of the top wings in the country in Elliott Williams.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski's sales pitch included selling Williams on the fact that he could be the next Johnny Dawkins. That meant that Dawkins, an assistant coach on the staff who rarely gets involved in the recruiting end of things, was actively involved on this one.

With Williams' pledge, it means that Tyreke Evans is the only player in Scout.com's Top 15 that remains on the board. The 6-foot-4 Evans is looking at Memphis, Louisville, Villanova, Texas and UConn.

The other piece of recruiting news that came out last night was that the Morris Twins, who were back open after de-committing to Memphis for the second time recently, chose Kansas over the hometown Villanova Wildcats - with playing time as the primary factor.

The Jayhawks need to sign a bunch of guys in this class and now have five in the fold - power forward Quintrell Thomas and wings Mario Little and Travis Releford.

Kansas is also in the running for Dallas-area big man J'Mison "Bobo" Morgan, who will choose between LSU, UCLA, Alabama, Kansas and Cincinnati. Morgan will make his decision tomorrow at noon.

RANDOM NOTES: USC will have two of the nation's top juniors, Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson, on campus this weekend. Stephenson has already taken an unofficial visit to Indiana for Midnight Madness and also plans to go to Kansas later this month. ... Oklahoma freshman power forward Blake Griffin had 19 points and 8 boards in 21 minutes as the Sooners routed Rockhurst in an exhibition game last night.