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By MICHAEL LEV / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
LOS ANGELES ? USC is two losses away from setting the single-season school record. The way the 6-21 Trojans are going, they'll probably get there.
That's not the sort of thing you want on your r鳵m鮠But even as the defeats have piled up, Kevin O'Neill hasn't lost his team.
"The guys who want to be at 'SC and really care about the program and want to move forward with the program don't want to play for anybody else," said guard Jio Fontan, one of three starters and five players lost for the season to injury.
"We all feel like K.O.'s the right guy to be here. We see the future. We've had a couple bumps in the road. You look at any team, you take away what we had taken away, everybody's going to have the same outcome. You could have brought the Zen Master, Phil Jackson, in here, and it wouldn't have been too much of a difference."
USC's extreme injury outbreak hasn't stopped fans from blaming this historically unsuccessful season on O'Neill, whose team visits Arizona on Thursday. O'Neill's plan for restocking the roster included signing multiple transfers, which resulted in the Trojans having only 11 scholarship players available to start 2011-12. He also brought in the six players left standing who have struggled to compete.
One of those transfers, forward Ari Stewart, believes blaming O'Neill is "100 percent unfair."
"It's disappointing that people feel that way," said Stewart, who will be eligible next season. "I could see why. They want to win. We understand that. It's a business. When you're not getting wins, you're going to get bashed. But the thing is, you have to look at our situation."
O'Neill said he hasn't thought about possibly breaking the school record for losses. But he has been on the front line for every one of them, including the team's current five-game skid.
"I feel as frustrated or more frustrated than anybody," O'Neill said. "Naturally, nobody wants to be associated with that. But when it gets right down to it, I don't know if we could have done much more the way the circumstances came down."
FONTAN UPDATE
Fontan, who tore the ACL in his left knee Aug. 16, has begun running on the court and working on his jump shot. He received a favorable recovery report after visiting the doctor Monday.
"So far, so good," Fontan said.
Fontan's plan is to be 100 percent by summer. He has an invitation to play for the Uruguayan national team -- Fontan's father is of Uruguayan descent -- but plans to stay in Los Angeles to rehab and work out.
"I've already had too many bad experiences with playing summer ball," said Fontan, who suffered the injury during an exhibition game in Brazil.
Contact the writer: mlev@ocregister.com
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