USA TODAY International Edition
USC looks for return trip to NCAAs
LOS ANGELES College basketball is seeing a resurgence in Los Angeles, and it’s more than just UCLA and the Lonzo Ball show.
After making the NCAA tournament last season for the first time in five years, Southern California is on the verge of consecutive trips to March Madness — that hasn’t happened since O. J. Mayo was in a Trojans uniform ( 2007- 08).
“I think our program has evolved into a very competitive team that can compete with anyone in the Pac- 12 and anyone in the nation,” coach Andy Enfield said.
Enfield would know. The former Florida Gulf Coast head coach — who made his name guiding the Eagles on an improbable run to the Sweet 16 in 2013 — quietly has engineered a revamp of the Trojans basketball program the last four years, taking a team that won all of two conference games and finished last in the Pac- 12 in his first season to a decent 10- 8 finish in conference play this year. That’s just the second time USC has ended the season with a conference record above .500, and its 23 regularseason wins are its most since 2006- 2007.
Now, there is a sense of respectability and a positive culture built on success and confidence that was hard to find in prior years. The Trojans have landed better recruits and have brought in transfers from top- end programs — Shaqquan Aaron from Louisville and five- star recruit Derryck Thornton from Duke who is sitting out this season.
Aaron, a winger, was thrust into a pivotal role almost immediately. The redshirt sophomore, who is averaging 8.5 points per game and broke out for 23 in an upset of UCLA in January, said he is adjusting well to USC and already sees his team as a factor in the front- loaded Pac- 12.
“I feel like we’re one of the top teams in the Pac- 12,” Aaron said. “We’ve had a couple one-, twopoint losses. If we won those, we’d be right at the top of the pack.”
Instead, the Trojans finished in the middle of the pack in the conference — sixth- seeded USC faces Washington in the first round of the Pac- 12 tournament Wednesday in Las Vegas — a step in the right direction but not nearly at the level of Oregon, Arizona or UCLA. What’s stopping Southern California’s fast- paced offensive system from leading it to the top is a matter of being more consistent at the other end, according to junior co- captain Jordan McLaughlin. USC is seventh in the conference in opponents’ field goal percentage, allowing teams to score at a 52.8% rate.
“One thing our coach touches on that ( the elite teams) do is defense,” he said. “They’re holding teams to shooting below 40%. That’s one of our goals when we play teams is keep them under 40%. … Their defense is able to dictate some of their offense to get some of the easy ones in transition.”
Still, it’s something Enfield can live with. Speaking slowly and purposefully, he rattles off what his team has done this season: beat two top- 15 teams in UCLA and SMU, had the toughest schedule in the Pac- 12, was the only team to play Oregon, UCLA and Arizona twice, beat Texas A& M on the road and Brigham Young — which handed Gonzaga its first loss — on a neutral court.
He emphasizes the team’s youth, saying USC ranked 328th out of 351 NCAA teams in experience entering the year — the Trojans had four returning players to mix with four freshmen and two transfers — a stat further magnified by the loss of key forward Bennie Boatwright, who missed 18 games with a knee injury.
“Some of our margins of vic- tory early in the season or without Boatwright — some of the statistical analysis of our team is misleading, because it doesn’t take into account common sense, it doesn’t take into account injuries or youth,” Enfield said.
Having just two seniors on the team means there are few holdovers from the early struggles of the Enfield era. McLaughlin is one of them. A crafty ballhandler with a capable jump shot, McLaughlin has seen the program bloom before his eyes.
“Everybody’s getting better,” he said. “Once you’ve been in the system for a year or two — for me, three — you know what to expect. You know what to do on offense and on defense. Our freshmen — they came in right away and knew a lot of our stuff that we run. It was a good transition for them.”