Six USC seniors never saw this coming. Not after finishing their freshman season with a loss in the NCAA tournament, a second-place Pac-10 finish serving as the first of many building blocks that have long since crumbled.

Jim Saia, Tim Floyd, Henry Bibby and Seattle's Stewart twins never saw this coming, either. At this time last year, Saia was an assistant coach at UCLA, Floyd was an NBA head coach in New Orleans, Rodrick and Lodrick Stewart were freshman teammates at USC and Bibby was their coach.

Now, they are principles in the decline of USC basketball, characters that dominated a season soap opera played out on ESPN the past two months. And coming tonight to Edmundson Pavilion for a 7 p.m. date with No. 13 Washington.

Four years ago, fresh off an Elite Eight appearance, there's no way they saw this coming, from punch-drunk at the Big Dance to punchline of the Pac-10, a season in the conference cellars — standings, attendance and recruiting.

"Not in a million years," Lodrick Stewart said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "Not even half the stuff that's going on."

Here's a quick rundown: Saia joined the Trojans staff before this season as an assistant coach. Rodrick Stewart quit the team in November. Bibby was fired four games into the season and replaced, on an interim basis, by Saia. Floyd was hired earlier this month, but won't take over until next season.

Confused? That's four coaches since the season started — past (Bibby), present (Saia), future (Floyd) and almost (Rick Majerus accepted the job and gave it back five days later, citing health concerns).

"I have no idea how long it will take to get the program back on track," Floyd said. "I know that right now we're last in the league, and we only have four guys back next year (and two recruits signed thus far). I know that it's going to be a process."

The Stewart twins, stars at Rainier Beach, signed with USC in large part because of then-assistant Kurtis Townsend. Lodrick traces the start of the Trojans' demise to when Townsend left for Miami before the twins' freshman season.

"It went bad from there," Lodrick said. "From day one."

Lodrick never thought his brother would quit the team over disagreements with Bibby and sign with Kansas, where Townsend is now an assistant coach, and Lodrick would lose "the only friend I ever needed." He never thought he'd be embarrassed to show his face at the cafeteria where athletes eat at USC or that he'd wish he had taken a "longer look" at UW and coach Lorenzo Romar during the recruiting process.

He never thought he'd play for the worst team in the Pac-10 (2-7 in conference), in front of the smallest crowds (3,216 fans on average).

"I'm not a loser," Lodrick said. "I don't accept losing. I don't want to be remembered as a loser. I just want to win."

That's what makes this season difficult. The Trojans put themselves in position to win. More often than not, they crumble in the second half.

It has been a season of go-figure. USC will need a strong second half to simply make the Pac-10 tournament and avoid becoming the fifth school in nine years with a first-place football program and a last-place basketball counterpart.

"Some guys didn't prepare themselves for this season," Saia said in a phone interview. "They're having a difficult time, and we're struggling because of it.

"It's one guy who's not on the same page with his teammates, not in tune with where we're at. The problem is it's a different guy every game that makes a pivotal mistake. You plug one hole and another one bursts open."

Stewart is less diplomatic, saying, "I don't know what it is. We don't have heart. Some players don't, anyway. That will be their downfall, I guess."

Stewart adamantly says that "transferring is not an option," rare good news for a program devoid of any lately.

Floyd is already on the recruiting trail, talking from Texas yesterday, caught in a Catch-22 because his program will need bodies to fill the bench and 90 percent of the top tier of high-school talent signed in November.

"There's no way we'll use all the scholarships this year," Floyd said. "We may go through a transition period for a year. I hope that doesn't happen. But that's reality. That's what we're looking at."

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com