Enfield calls season of bad health an `anomaly'
The outcomes, on paper, might look the same. But this isn't 2015 anymore.
Andy Enfield knows it. The goal a decade ago when he was hired at USC, a former shot-guru turned rising architect, was simply to infuse the program with some talent; the school was fading into college basketball irrelevancy. So Enfield recruited. The Trojans emerged from the mud, and aside from a slip in 2019, USC has been on an upward trajectory ever since — continuing to stockpile some of the top names in the country.
There are few lessons to be learned at the moment, evidently, from the doldrums of Enfield's first years: 1121, 12-20. “This is completely different,” he said after practice on Wednesday, when asked about any parallels amid a losing season. And it's true — they have the talent now, from Boogie Ellis to Isaiah Collier to Bronny James — big names, length, athleticism, shooting. Talent, however, cannot always beat out the injury bug, and USC is now 8-13 overall and 2-8 in Pac-12 play in what is shaping up to be the worst season in Enfield's tenure, considering the expectations.
“Some seasons you're very fortunate to stay healthy and other seasons like this are an anomaly,” Enfield said Wednesday, continuing to point to Collier, Ellis and others' missed time. “But you have to stay positive and keep working and keep trying to improve, and keep fighting. That's what we plan to do here, and I think our players really bought into — no matter who's on our roster, we're gonna have good practices and go compete.”
Not a day later, his tune shifted.
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Yes, they'd improved defensively in recent games, Enfield emphasized multiple times, to a postgame question about the program buying into him and the coaching staff. But the head coach also took aim — more directly than at any point in the season, following a frustrating loss to Oregon in which bad body language was rampant. He mentioned players would “blame the coaching staff” when they didn't play minutes. He spoke sharply of growing “tired of the same mistakes” in scouting report execution. He rattled off a list of names of former standout big men in USC's program, praising their toughness and calling his current core group of bigs “poor” defensive rebounders.
How do you want to respond to that? a reporter asked freshman big
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Arrinten Page after the game, about Enfield's comments.
“Provin' him wrong,” Page said, after a pause. “Just having that chip on your shoulder to go get it every time.”
This season has been an anomaly, yes, in sheer volume of bad health.
“I've never been part of a team that's had this many injuries, in my coaching career,” Enfield said Wednesday.
And when asked postgame what he could do to get the group going, Enfield responded it would be nice to have Collier healthy; the freshman is still following an original four-to-sixweek timetable, Enfield said Wednesday, after suffering a hand injury on Jan. 10, placing his return in midFebruary.
Collier's return, though, clearly won't wave a magic wand on this group. He was improving as a decision-maker, and USC's offense along with it, before going down; but arguably too much was already being placed on his 19-year-old shoulders, and widespread growth is needed elsewhere to salvage what remains of this year. Ellis has more turnovers than assists since returning from a hamstring injury two games ago. James needs to look at the rim more. Kobe Johnson is still playing great defense but shooting 27% from 3-point range. USC's big men, as Enfield so profoundly stated, need to crash the glass.
“We had some guys that were in the program that were younger last year that now have elevated roles,” Enfield said Wednesday.
“And now it's their turn to try to figure this out.”