USC arena drops Ducks further back in Pac-10.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

LOS ANGELES - When Oregon recruited Bryce Taylor, the Ducks told him that by now, his junior year, he'd be playing in the new basketball arena that would replace the beloved but antiquated McArthur Court.

When the Ducks redshirted forward Adam Zahn, now a senior, they consoled him with the reasoning that he'd get to play two years in a new arena, instead of only one.

Ah, well, when Southern California opened its new Galen Center last fall, one former USC star recalled that he, too, had been assured that he'd play in a new on-campus building by the end of his career.

The recruit was Paul Westphal; his career came and went in the early 1970s.

If there's any program in the Pac-10 that you figure would and should take notice of Southern California's impressive new arena, it's Oregon.

As for the fact that it took USC more than 120 years to get it done - an on-campus arena was part of the school's original master plan - you wonder whether Oregon should take solace from that or, given the pace of things, be truly sobered by it.

The Ducks walked into the Galen Center for shooting practice Friday morning and were duly wowed. Coach Ernie Kent, who'd toured the building last summer, wished that Nike co-founder Phil Knight - hoped by Oregon to be the cornerstone donor for the UO's long-proposed new arena to replace the 80-year-old Mac Court - would see the place today.

Alas, Knight, who attended Oregon's loss at UCLA on Thursday, will miss today's sold-out contest between the Ducks and Trojans.

"It's just a neat building," Kent said. "It would be neat to have him see it, not that it changes him one way or another with anything, but just to be able to see what a new arena looks like with a college team in it. They've done a great job on this."

The 10,258-seat Galen Center is part of a complex that includes state-of-the-art practice facilities for basketball and volleyball, as well as administrative offices; total construction cost has been cited at roughly $145 million.

The key donors, Louis and Helen Galen, ultimately contributed $50 million to the project, which has also been financed by other private donations and by projected revenues from luxury suites - 22 of them, 11 completed for this season, at $30,000 to $50,000 annually - and from lifetime personal seat licenses for roughly one-third of the seats, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 per seat, for the rights to purchase tickets.

Although USC has talked about building an on-campus arena for decades, the latest push started in 1999, with groundbreaking in the fall of 2004.

Jim Bartko, the former UO associate athletic director who was deeply involved in planning for Oregon's proposed arena and now holds a similar post at Cal, said the Galen Center "is very similar to what Oregon is going to be doing" in terms of trying to capture an intimate, collegiate atmosphere in a new arena

The Ducks have envisioned a 12,500-seat arena, in the $160 million range - well, as of last year - on the former site of Williams' Bakery, but the project is in limbo, at least until the university selects a new athletic director.

Oregon's arena would have less than half of the luxury suites of the Galen Center, but it would contain a single balcony, with the bowl sloped as steeply as code will allow to replicate the feel of Mac Court.

When it happens, that is.

While Oregon fiddles, the Trojans are burning with enthusiasm for the new arena, and what it means.

"This building will change our program," coach Tim Floyd said earlier this year.

Signs of that are evident, not only in the fact that today's game is sold out - which just didn't happen when the Trojans played in the Sports Arena, their home since 1959 - and the fact that the Trojans have signed one of the nation's top recruits, O.J. Mayo, in part based on the commitment to the program that the Galen Center represents.

And it is, indeed, a first-class arena, every seat with a chair back, the fans close to the action, and it's impressed a city that doesn't impress easily.

"It has the best skyline view of any sports place in town, downtown rising beyond huge plate glass windows at one end," wrote Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times.

"It has the best sports scoreboard in town, with a constant video feed that is sharper than my home television.

"The seats are padded, the sound system is powerful, the sightlines are near-perfect.

"It makes Pauley Pavilion look like an 11-banner barn.

"And you know that, when it comes to recruiting, it's going to eventually make Ben Howland turn powder blue."

Except that, over at UCLA, where Howland coaches the Bruins, USC's cross-town rivals are raising funds for a major renovation (think $100 million) of Pauley Pavilion.

Planned for completion in October 2010, to celebrate the 100th birthday of coach John Wooden - and who'd dare bet against the gentleman being there himself? - the Bruins' projected improvements include adding new locker rooms in addition to upgrading the arena's existing locker rooms, and adding a video room, a media room, a medical treatment area and dedicated practice facilities.

There would also be additional concession areas, restrooms and modern arena technology, and perhaps a new main lobby and retractable seating system on the baselines to bring fans closer to the court.

Around the league, other programs that Oregon is expected to compete with and defeat on the basketball court have invested millions upon millions in improvements to their arenas within the past decade.

In 1999, Cal replaced Harmon Gym with the Haas Pavilion, at a cost of $57.5 million. A year later, the University of Washington introduced its refurbished arena, Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, an investment of $40 million. Stanford just put $26 million into improvements at Maples Pavilion.

Now USC, and, soon, UCLA.

"If you're talking about the recruiting aspects of keeping up with everybody, we're falling behind," Kent said, inside the Galen Center on Friday. "As you can see, we're definitely falling behind. ... "

Zahn and Taylor, both from Southern California, saw the Trojans and Los Angeles Clippers play in the Sports Arena while they were growing up.

"It was starting to smell funny, even," Zahn said. "The Sports Arena was just grungy. ... This is something special right here."

Zahn said he hopes the Galen Center inspires the powers-that-be at Oregon. "I hope they see what it does for the community, and recruits ... ," Zahn said. "I hope it motivates us, seeing what the competition has got going."

Asked what he thinks the Galen Center will mean to USC's basketball program, Taylor said "a lot. It's already a great school in a great location. SC has that reputation of being a place that people like to be at, and now with this new arena, especially for young guys from L.A., it adds a whole other element to getting top guys to come in here. ...

"If Oregon could get something like this down the road, it would definitely be a helpful recruiting tool, and just a great place to play."

As they play today, the Ducks and Trojans are tied for second in the Pac-10 standings. And yet, as you look around the Galen Center, you get the sense that, in the bigger picture, Oregon just fell behind.