‘They’ll be ready’: USC rides winning streak into Pac-12 Tournament
After a season of bad health and subpar head-scratching losses, the Trojans men’s basketball team faces a do-or-die gauntlet in Vegas
Luca Evans (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — Forty-six hours until they start dancing in Las Vegas, this is all business.
There is little emotion within a near-silent Galen Center on Monday afternoon, an hour after what could be the final home practice of the season. Team managers bustle, worker bees stacking luggage and equipment to be carried to the team bus to the airport. USC assistant coaches Chris Capko and Kurt Karis get in a quick final lift. A set of Jersey Mike’s subs are set out for players on a side table. Just one cry, of something to the extent of Vegas, Baby! echoes down the hall.
Captain Boogie Ellis carries steel in the lines of his face as he grabs food from the door.
“It’s a lot more detail, a lot more things to lock in,” the fifth-year senior says of facing a win-or-go-home situation in the coming week. “And gotta play every game like it’s my last.”
It very well could be, ninth-seeded USC’s season over in a quick snap if it loses a single game in this Pac-12 Tournament, starting Wednesday afternoon against eighth-seeded Washington. This is an unfamiliar situation for Ellis, whose previous USC teams had locked up at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament before heading to the desert for the conference tourney.
These Trojans have known, ever since a crippling February loss to Stanford, that the only path to March is winning the Pac-12 Tournament in the conference’s final season. And a hugely disappointing regular season – the third-worst by record in Coach Andy Enfield’s 11-year USC tenure – means USC won’t have a first-round bye, finishing as the ninth seed in the conference.
No matter. All business. This is a team few should want to face in the desert.
“Honestly, I feel like – I know we’re a nine seed or whatever, but I don’t really feel like we’re a nine seed,” Ellis said Monday. “So, I mean, whoever has to play us – we’re definitely looking to prove that … we expected to be a lot better this year.”
“But,” Ellis finished, “we kinda clicked late.”
Suddenly, though, USC has won five of its past seven games after a triumphant win over a top-10 program in Arizona on Saturday night. Suddenly, a team unable to put away teams has closed three wins in a row. Suddenly, the roster is healthy and visibly recharged, with a 10-4 record when it starts its opening-game five of Ellis, Isaiah Collier, Kobe Johnson, DJ Rodman and Joshua Morgan.
“We did lose six games in a row, when we had those injuries in January, and it’s hard to recover in the regular-season standings from losing six games in a row,” Enfield said Monday. “We understand that. Our seeding would have been significantly different if we didn’t have them, in our opinion.”
This run, however, goes far beyond simple health. “Everybody’s roles are figured out now,” Johnson said after Thursday’s victory over Arizona State.
Clear individual growth has led to faster starts and USC adopting a more stable late-game identity.
Collier has made the biggest leap, rounding into the top-ranked recruit USC envisioned, one of the best freshman guards in the country honing his on-ball defense and IQ reading the floor. Ellis, despite a couple of off nights, is shooting 47.5% from 3-point range in his last six games. Rodman has become a hyper-efficient spot-up threat, cutter and irreplaceable rebounder. Johnson has settled into a complementary offensive role, shooting 40% from behind the arc and averaging 3.3 steals per game since losing and regaining his starting spot in early February, a member of the All-Pac-12 Defensive Team as announced Tuesday.
The Trojans haven’t strung together four consecutive wins all season, and it will be an ordeal to start in the desert. But the Pac-12, frankly, is wide open. USC plays Washington on Wednesday – a team it beat, 82-75, on March 2. A win would mean a rematch with top-seeded Arizona – which it beat Saturday.
“I think the way our team has been playing lately,” Enfield said, “they’ll be ready.”
USC vs WASHINGTON, Wed, noon, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Pac-12 Network/790 AM
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Trojans Take Game 1 of the Pac-12 Tourney
Game-long nailbiter, but USC (Boogie Ellis hits 25 pts and 2002 for career) finally salts it away late 80 – 74 over UW.
Bronny is strong off the bench.
USC outscores UW 43-32 in the 2nd half.
Extremely hard-fought USC/UW game. Hot shooting. long-range UW (9 of 13 from 3) leads 42-37, with the Trojans missing a few “zero-footers” (1 for 6 on layups), to use an old Steve Lavin term.
These games at near the season’s end are so much more competitive and better played than the early season stuff.
College BB is all about March, even before the Madness starts.
THE DAWN STALEY AWARD – 2024 FINALISTS
This year’s winner will be announced the weekend of the Final Four. The virtual award ceremony will be held Thursday, April 11th.
I wonder how high USC would be if the NCAA hadn’t been so corrupt. Three inopportune coaching hires that nearly ruined the program followed the flawed NCAA process of illumination can be credited with dropping USC out of the top five.
Frankly, I was happy to see USC as high as #6, after so many disappointing years since the NCAA tried to ruin Trojan football. Here’s a look at the justification numbers, which show USC not being close to #5 ND. The AP’s annual national champion (or No. 1-ranked team) receives 25 points, the No. 2 team gets 24 points, and so on. Total points are based on AP Poll finishes since 1936, which would not incorporate USC’s ’28, ’31 and ’32 NC teams coached by Howard Jones. Plus this is a year-old March 27, 2023 ranking, not reflecting USC’s disaster… Read more »