Nick Rakocevic says he won't even look at the NCAA tournament projections, and that might be a good thing after a rough road trip in which USC's health and postseason probability were each significantly strained.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi, in his latest "Bracketology" projections earlier this week, has the Trojans as one of the last four teams getting into the tournament field and having to play in the First Four opening round in Dayton, Ohio.

Needless to say, coming off two straight losses, probably still not at full strength and with just three regular-season games plus the Pac-12 Tournament to go, the Trojans (19-9, 8-7) have some work to do still.

"I never look at that stuff. After my sophomore year, they kind of ruined that for me -- we had 23 or 24 wins, came in second place in the Pac-12 in the regular season and in the tournament [and didn't make the NCAA tournament], so I never look at that," Rakocevic said. "I just try to worry about the next game and who's coming in and beating that team. … That's all noise that we don't need to hear."

The next team is Arizona (19-8, 9-5), which visits Galen Center on Thursday night having won three of its last four games. The Wildcats beat USC 85-80 a few weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz.

The Trojans had seemed to regroup after that stretch, which included a season-long three-game losing streak, but now they're looking to end another skid after losing at Colorado (70-66) and at Utah (79-65) last week.

USC played that Utah game undermanned as freshman forward Isaiah Mobley managed just 10 minutes on his injured ankle, fellow forward Rakocevic played just 5 minutes while dealing with a bad illness, senior guard Jonah Mathews also played through sickness and freshman backup point guard Kyle Sturdivant remained away from the team following the death of his father earlier this month.

"It's something you don't like to go through as a team with so many players out, when your rotation is completely different than it has been all season," coach Andy Enfield said. "We had four players basically out -- well three and a half because Jonah tried to play for a few minutes and actually played well when he was in there. ... We took a little bit away from the Utah game -- we did some good things, we made some mistakes -- but with the lack of size and length in our rotation, it was very challenging."

Rakocevic said he was so sick during that trip that he lost 16.5 pounds since Friday.

"It just got progressively worse when he were in Utah. It just affected my appetite, so I wasn't eating. I was getting fluids, but everything I was putting in kept coming out of me. ... It was scary," he said. "It was probably the craziest sickness I've ever had to deal with. I was cramping up in my hands and my feet and my hamstrings. They still don't know what it was -- some type of stomach virus."

The senior forward, who had 18 points and 7 rebounds the last time against Arizona, said he still feels fatigued, but he'll play through it.

"I need my energy to come back. It doesn't matter how much I weigh, I'm just more concerned about my energy coming back to me," he said.

Enfield expects to have all his players except Sturdivant available Thursday night, but that doesn't mean the Trojans will be operating at full strength.

"We should have everybody suit up. I'm just not sure who will be able to play the normal minutes they would or not. We won't know that till game time," he said.

As he also noted, though, now is not the time for excuses.

The Trojans will either play themselves into or out of the tournament. USC is 2-7 against "Quad 1" opponents -- a gauge of performance against the top echelon of teams in the country -- and needs every boost to its season resume it can manage the rest of the way.

"I think we have to win some games here. We have three left at home and we have to come out [Thusday] againt a very good Arizona team and play as hard as we can, and take it game by game," Enfield said.

"They know what's at stake. Half the team's been sick, they know when they show up here there's no excuses. No one cares if you've been sick or not, you have to come and bring everything you have. If you can't play, then we'll get a sub in for you, but everybody on the court has to play as hard as they can."

The Trojans, who missed the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons, close out the schedule with three home games -- against Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA -- and with all near the top of the Pac-12 standings, those are opportunities for impact wins.

"This is our season, this is what we need to do to advance to the tournament. We've got to get these next couple games," Rakocevic said. "I don't think anybody's really stressing about it, to be honest. I think we've got a pretty solid resume. We've got a lot of games left to be played. Obviously we have to win a couple here of these next three, but I don't think anybody's too stressed about it. … Obviously that's our goal, we want to compete for a championship. But our resume's pretty strong the way it is, and I think after these three games and the Pac-12 tournament our resume should be pretty much locked in."

When: 7 p.m. PT Thursday

Where: Galen Center, Los Angeles

TV/Radio: ESPN/KABC-790 AM

About the Wildcats: Arizona is led by freshman big man Zeke Nnaji (16.3 PPG, 8.7 RPG) and freshman point guard Nico Mannion (13.7 PPG). Mannion had 20 points the last time vs. USC, while Nnaji had 18 points and 11 rebounds and Josh Green also scored 18.