USC spears Kansas badly to showcase the arrival of a major power!?
As the successor to Kevin O’Neill, who had taken the Trojans to the NCAA tournament once and was fired with 15 games left in his fourth season, Enfield inherited a foundering program. He promised that his team would play an up-tempo game. Players would have room to be creative, and they’d enjoy themselves.
Not at first they didn’t. Neither did he.
“In the first two years, we were last place in the Pac-12,” Enfield said. “Year 1 and 2 we were dead last. We were 5-31 in Pac-12 play.”
On Monday, not quite eight years after Enfield arrived to reorganize USC’s men’s program, the Trojans arrived as a major power.
“Yes, there’s a lot of pressure to win, especially in Los Angeles. If you don’t, it’s not fun,” Enfield said. “But our players have done this the right way.”
The Trojans’ 85-51 rout of Kansas on Monday in the second round of the West regional was stunning in its thoroughness. USC’s stifling defense held the Jayhawks to 29% shooting, a remarkably good follow-up after they’d held Drake to 29.4% shooting from the floor in the first round.
Freshman forward Evan Mobley (left), a generational talent, shared the spotlight with his older brother, sophomore Isaiah, who had a game-high 17 points in addition to eight rebounds, four assists and one block. The brothers from Murrieta combined for 21 points in the first half, which matched the Jayhawks’ team total.
“This is what you always dream for,” Isaiah Mobley said after the Trojans clinched their first berth in the Sweet 16 since 2007.
Like so many dreams, this one came true because of hard work — and because of Enfield’s vision in the face of frustration. He persisted through those first two miserable seasons of 11-21 and 12-20 records, turning things around for a 21-13 finish in 2016 and a first-round NCAA tournament exit. The next season, the Trojans were 26-10 overall and made a second-round departure.
The Trojans reached the second round of the NIT in 2018 but took a step back in 2019, with a 16-17 record. Their 2020 postseason hopes were wiped out, as were everyone else’s, by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This season, playing in a conference that was badly underestimated by those who saw it only occasionally if at all, the Trojans were ranked as high as No. 17 nationally. They lost to Colorado in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament but recovered well, taking care of business against Drake in the NCAA tournament, and bringing the same efficient, focused approach against Kansas.
The Trojans steamrolled the Jayhawks from the start Monday at Hinkle Fieldhouse and never stopped, taking a significant step in a progression that seemed unlikely when Enfield was the new kid in town and the basketball world wondered if his success at small-time FGCU had been just a big-time fluke.
“We came out tonight, we were extremely hungry. The coaches were just as hungry as our players,” Enfield said.
That showed against Kansas, which got leading rebounder Jalen Wilson out of COVID-19 protocols only Monday morning and got forward David McCormack back from a bout with the coronavirus before its first-round game against Eastern Washington.
“I think they were obviously more prepared, played better, coached better,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of USC. “We shot it miserably.
“We played from a hole the entire time. That’s about as poor as we could play. I’m sure Andy would say that’s certainly one of their better moments, better games. It was a bad combination all the way around for us.”
USC made it worse for the Jayhawks at both ends of the floor. “Our offense, I felt like we really shared the ball and took good shots. We have had silly turnovers at times,” Enfield said. “But Kansas is such a good defensive team. To score over 80 points, they’re a top-10 defensive team in the country. I thought our players made the right plays, they were patient and they were poised.
“It all starts with defense for us. I’m really, really proud of our defense tonight.”
Enfield credited assistant coaches Jason Hart, Chris Capko (left) and Eric Mobley —the Mobley brothers’ father — for helping bring stability to a program that badly needed it not so long ago. As he noted, the Trojans have won at least 20 games in five of the last six seasons, and they’re 46-16 the past two seasons, third behind Baylor and Kansas.
“And we just beat Kansas today,” he said. “Look, we know we haven’t won a national championship yet, but we’ve really improved our program, and we’re extremely proud of where we are right now at USC basketball.”
Enfield began his postgame remarks by dedicating the win to his late father, Bill, a former high school and ninth-grade basketball coach in Shippensburg, Pa. Bill Enfield died in September, shortly before his 80th birthday.
“He meant a lot to me. I thought about him a lot,” Enfield said. “In fact, I saw a picture right before the game that my mother sent me, at a table with his board out, his note cards from coaching. He was giving me advice.”
Here’s some advice for Oregon on Sunday and for every other team still dancing: Watch out for USC.
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I haven’t read Helene Elliot in a while, but then again, I don’t read the Times. Say hi to Dan Weber, Helene, I miss his brilliance.
Not to be a Debbie Downer but USC played ONE lights out game. Now do it again and again and again, then let’s talk! But come out and lay an egg Sunday night and they are forgotten.
Maybe not totally forgotten, mainly because of the amazing Mobley Brothers. But ya, USC is nowhere near a “major power” in basketball as Helene Elliott of the Times suggested. I found that label utterly ridiculous, which is why I passed it along here.
So USC finally makes the Sweet Sixteen (basically a function of seedings and pairings), and suddenly it’s a major basketball power? I know we live in a different world nowadays, but instantaneously becoming a “major power” in a Covid-complicated season isn’t my idea of how a program truly becomes a “major power.”
USC and UCLA have never reached the Elite Eight in the same year.
Thanks for that info. This is really an unusual year. I think there is a good chance it happens.
Has USC BB arrived? Not really, not yet. Remember the inconsistency at seasons end when there was nobody except Evan playing decent basketball. We have to consider the fact that this team is gone when they finish the tournament. It would be nice to have the brothers back, but these days that isn’t happening. So what does Andy do to maintain a high level of BB at USC? Recruit another one and done. He has had eight years to get here, but the roster looks weak for next season. Can he do it year after year with the transfer portal?… Read more »
I take that as a firm no. But I do think that if USC makes the Elite 8, some recruiting doors will be open that haven’t been available to the Trojans, if not already. I certainly don’t think the description “major power” applies to USC yet. But the Trojans are a heckuva lot better off than we were a year ago. And USC has never looked this promising under Enfield. So, I’ll take it, knowing that the Mobley Bros (and father as well) just may have altered the always frustrating USC hoops saga forever. Maybe, I say. Demolishing a brand-name… Read more »
Allen, having a big man in the middle with Mobley’s confidence, it should be expected the team is where it is. What this and hopefully getting into the great eight tells recruits, is HC Enfield can help you get into the big dance. It’s what the football program sorely needs today and hopefully this will put more pressure on AD Bohn to eliminate remaining obstacles on the football side. Andy Enfield needs to keep the team loose and believing in itself now with the higher level competition it now faces. Maybe and it’s a big maybe, Pop Mobley will have… Read more »
Mr. Mobley will never try to hold back top three choice Evan from going to the NBA as soon as eligible. You know it as well as all of us, so I don’t think a “big maybe” is even remotely suitable in this instance. We are watching the very last of Evan in a USC uniform. It’s been great to see.
Absolutely Allen — beating Kansas by 34 is like a recruiting brochure for now.
I do think, though, that the Oregon game is a big deal too. Losing to the Ducks after a big win like that would taint that image some.
Losing to the Ducks on Sunday would be a huge, giant setback IMO.
USC gets to the Elite 8 about once every 50 years. Come on!
Steveg, I totally agree. I now have a lot more respect for Enfield than I did prior to the last two wins. This is the first time in eight years (seven really as we cannot count last year) that Enfield’s team has (1) made the tournament and (2) played outstanding BB in the tournament. We have seen the same thing before in football. Bob Toledo was great with Cade McNown (should have won a NC – thank you Brandon A for torpedoing it!) and a dude without him. Bobby Petrino was great with Lamar Jackson and a bust without him.… Read more »
MSN.com (Matt Zemek) — “Remember when Pat Haden hired Andy Enfield in 2013? It was easy to think UCLA and Steve Alford were going to have the clear upper hand over Enfield for the next several years. In 2017 — when Alford brought Lonzo Ball to Westwood — that was certainly the case. Yet, over a longer period of time, USC has been the better and more stable program compared to UCLA. Relative to reputation, stature and resources, Enfield has done more at USC than Alford did in his tenure. The Bruins are good right now, but not tremendous. USC… Read more »
All those years Bob Boyd played 2nd fiddle to Wooden is just hindsight as only the conference champion got into the big dance Bach then. But if it was like it is today, Boyd would have gotten his teams into the top 64 numerous times.
You play the hand you’re dealt. Boyd was a good coach, but UCLA was a great team in the ’60’s and ’70s (I definitely remember!) and they single-handedly kept USC from making any real mark. To this day, USC has no basketball tradition to speak of. I’d say the Wooden hangover was amazingly substantial and long-standing.
Finally, USC has a team that many think will actually get to the Elite 8. Hopefully, USC won’t blow it on Sunday, and lose to a team they easily beat 72-58 on Feb 22.
Yes, As a student from 1968 thru to June 1972, with Paul Westphal and company then Gus Williams and Company we had very very good teams that would have been in the DANCE had it been expanded as today. No human being can tell me that in the 1970-71 season there was any team better in the nation other than the Westwooders.
I was in High School when Paul Westphal was playing for SC and then a student at SC when Gus Williams was a player. Westphal’s brother Bill, a forward for SC in the mid-1960s, was my 12th Grade PE teacher and our Basketball Coach at Glendale HS (GHS), CA. Paul would come and practice in our gym quite often and I’ve never seen someone up close and personal who could shoot the ball like him with either hand. A natural right hander, he could sink 10-12 in a row from dead corner, baseline with his left hand. Paul was a… Read more »
Sincerely, no disrespect intended, but don’t you think it’s a little silly (for lack of a better word) for USC fans to STILL be talking about how Paul Westphal’s Trojan teams would have won it all were it not for the Bruins 50 years ago? Number one, that’s 100% pure speculation, and the history of March Madness has shown us that, if anything, tremendous upsets occur so frequently, it’s literally one of the main reasons to watch the tourney. USC could have easily lost an early, mid-round, or Final Four March Madness game with Westphal. Easily. But with the way… Read more »
You have no idea what you’re talking about, Mister AW. You, the proudly self-proclaimed “I never attended an SC basketball game [in my 4-years at SC].’
That was a sensational guard-oriented team, with Westphal displaying some of the greatest skills of all time, no matter which century you are in.
And the team also had a remarkable rebounder in Riley. It was a team for the ages, even in the year 2021, if earth’s citizens are lucky enough to make it that far.
Mister AW will probably delete this honest post, as he has many of mine through the years.
I never said I was “proud” to have never attended a USC basketball game while in school. That’s just a made-up fiction you created for your own convenience. And since you have no crystal ball, and never did, you have absolutely no idea if Westphal’s best team would have ever won the NC had it not been for Wooden and Bruins. “In year 2021, If earth’s citizens are lucky enough to make it that far.” Really? What planet are you dialing in from now LJ.? Try not to get too nasty or out-of-line now as you have been in the… Read more »
LawyerJohn and Allen, we are all Trojans! We are on the same team and support our university. Whether Allen went to USC basketball games or not is not important now. LawyerJohn, I know how you feel about Westphal and Gus Williams and those teams. I feel it too. I supported all of our teams as best I could. I remember watching Debbie Green, the best women’s volleyball player at her position playing in the gym in the old PE building across from the track in the 1970’s. They were the best and these were not even NCAA sanctioned events at… Read more »
I remember Debbie Green as well when I was an Undergrad/Grad Student from 1973-1979. We were required to take PE classes when I was a Freshman and I took a Basketball/Volleyball class in the old gym. I remember the shower room pipes were so old and leaky that you barely got any water out of the shower head. Behind one of the baskets up near the ceiling were seats for about 25 people I would guess. Fond memories of some of the best times in my life.
The old PE Building, across from heavily used Cromwell Field, was a great, hallowed place you would expect to find on-campus at a venerable place like USC.
We used to sneak in late at night and play on the handball courts to our heart’s content.
Talanoa Hufanga VJ — 35.5″
Still looks like Vera-Tucker will be the only Trojan taken on Day 1.
LB Palaie Gaoteote hasn’t moved on to another school yet — and remains on USC’s spring roster, but is also still in the transfer portal. Helton remains open to his return.
Is Palaie related to Lorig? Enquiring minds want to know. 😉
Clay likes to play the looooooong game with these guys. The door’s always open, and so far, it’s a tactic that seems to have worked well for the Trojans.
Respect your elders. Check out this great video of Brian Scalabrine putting a youngster in his place.
Dominating Trojan
USC Pro Day hand-held forty times. Not too impressive, though Tufele’s isn’t bad:
Amon-Ra St. Brown 4.51 (38.5 VJ as well)
Talanoa Hufanga 4.61
Tyler Vaughns 4.62
Jay Tufele 4.97
Alijah Vera-Tucker 5.10 (32 VJ)
NFL Network reporter Mike Silver on why no apparent real market for Sam Darnold, at least not much of one now:
“Sam Darnold is broken right now. You might think you can fix him, but are you entrusting your future to him? I do think there will be suitors.”
The urge to play Pro can cloud your thinking about when you should enter the draft. But look at Sam’s options a few years back. He was playing with an OL that put his health in jeopardy and a HC that wasn’t trying to remedy that situation. We know now CH just wanted to kick back and wait for something good to happen with the players and coaches in the program. The administration was negligent in having an AD who just wanted the title and little else. Sam could have transferred to a better program (he had the extra years… Read more »
Outgoing Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, whose final day in charge will mercifully be June 30, says he has not decided on any future plans beyond “a good, healthy break.”
I wish him well — but just go away already Larry.
The money you pocketed for doing less than all other Power 5 conference Commissioners should set you up pretty well Larry. You could have demanded more of your bosses to up their football program support but why lift a finger to upset the cash cow you enjoyed. Don’t expect your legacy here to compliment your earning it. But I’m sure you will attempt to sugar-coat it at every opportunity.
On 2nd thought, let’s include the presidents for sheer stupidity in providing Larry with such a cash cow, questionable demands in earning it and very little return for it.