At USC, impact of rout huge
34-point victory over KU shows program ‘on rise’
Southern California coach Andy Enfield is taking another program to the Sweet 16.
The only surprise about this one? How handily his Trojans took apart No. 3 seed Kansas.
Isaiah Mobley hit four 3-pointers and scored 17 points, All-American little brother Evan added 10 points and 13 rebounds, and sixthseeded USC rolled to an 85-51 victory Monday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — more than doubling the worst margin of defeat for the Jayhawks in 49 trips to the NCAA Tournament.
“This game meant a lot to our program and our fans. USC basketball is on the rise,” said Enfield, who coached No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and now has the Trojans there for the first time in 14 years.
They will face seventhseeded Oregon in a Pac-12 showdown Sunday night.
Isaiah White contributed 13 points, Tahj Eaddy had 12 and Chevez Goodwin 10 for the red-hot Trojans (24-7), who went 11 of 18 from the 3-point arc, shot 57% from the field overall and nearly doubled up the Jayhawks on the glass.
Advice for Oral Roberts:
Take it from someone who experienced up close the magic and mania of being the lowest-seeded team to reach the Sweet 16: Spending this week in the relative isolation of the single-site tournament will only help Oral Roberts as it prepares to play Arkansas.
Michael Fly, now the coach at Florida Gulf Coast, was an assistant on Enfield’s 2013 “Dunk City” team that became the first No. 15 seed to make it out of the tournament’s first weekend.
Eight years later, Fly remembered how the sudden celebrity, new fans jumping on the bandwagon and a week’s worth of media hype overwhelmed the staff and players and ultimately caught up to them.
On the court, Oral Roberts is on the same path as FGCU, having upset a No. 2 seed (Ohio State) and a No. 7 (Florida) going into Saturday’s game against a No. 3 in the Razorbacks.
Off the court, and in the cocoon of the tournament setting as a precaution against COVID-19, access to the Golden Eagles will be limited. They will primarily be at their hotel and at practices.
Fly’s message to Oral Roberts’ players: “Don’t believe your own hype, don’t read your press clippings and try to stay as locked in as possible even with everybody around you going crazy going into that next game.”