Trojans to continue tradition of defense despite turnover

LOS ANGELES >> There was a lot of uncertainty about the USC men’s basketball team heading into the season. Talent lost, so many new faces, so many of them young and inexperienced and unaccustomed with how USC conducted its business.

To some extent, much of that uncertainty remains, at least on offense. USC hasn’t found much consistency on that end of the court, averaging 13.9 turnovers and with as many games shooting above 40% from 3-point range (two) as there have been games shooting in the teens.

But on defense, the area of the game that has defined USC’s success for the past three seasons, the Trojans have looked like their old selves.

Through a 7-3 start to the season, the Trojans are ranked 14th nationally in field-goal percentage defense at 36.9%. Only three opponents have shot above 40% in a game. USC has held four teams below 60 points.

“Everybody understands that we have to defend to give ourselves a chance to win,” said head coach Andy Enfield, whose team will try to continue the trend tonight against Long Beach State (4-5). “Even when our offense is turning the ball over too much or we’re not making 3s or we’re just not as efficient as we need to be, we can still be in the game if we play good defense.”

In recent years, the USC defense has been built around big men like Evan and Isaiah Mobley, Onyeka Okongwu and Chevez Goodwin. With two bigs and long, twitchy guards, the Trojans were able to frustrate most teams they faced.

This season’s roster construction is different. USC has largely relied on fourguard lineups with a big — usually center Joshua Morgan, sometimes power forward Kijani Wright — patrolling the paint.

But because USC still has such noticeable length at guard, it’s allowed Enfield and his staff to rely more heavily on zone than they have in the past. While zone was a weapon in certain matchups in previous seasons including during the Elite Eight run of 2021, USC has been quicker to inject it into games this season.

In the Battle 4 Atlantis matchup with Tennessee, USC ran a zone for the last 35 minutes or so of play.

“I think we just realized through the first few games that it’s really worked for us,” senior guard Drew Peterson said. “It’s exciting to see us have success with that and coaches trust us to be in those spots and make the right reads.”

With so many inexperienced faces, including five freshmen, there was no guarantee that USC would be able to continue this trend of defensive play into this year. But veterans like Peterson, Morgan and Boogie Ellis ensured that the younger players understood the expectations and the concepts to be able to do so.

“From Day 1, that’s what really made my transition smoother,” freshman Tre White said. “Drew brought me in, he was like, ‘Let me teach you how to guard the ball.’ Everybody just shared some of their wisdom with me and I feel like that allowed me to take a deep breath coming onto campus. They still do it every day.”