Andy Enfield did it. He got USC back to the NCAA Tournament in 2023. It could be his best coaching job yet at USC. Maybe the 2021 Elite Eight run was better — we wouldn’t argue with that — but 2023 represents a particularly strong coaching performance from a man who continues to improve and evolve.
Why was this season such a good example of Andy Enfield’s evolution as a coach? We have to start with the fact that he had a five-star big man, Vince Iwuchukwu, who was going to be the next in a line of elite big men who would be a defensive wrecking ball for the Trojans. Onyeka Okongwu got the party started in 2020. Then came Evan Mobley. Then Isaiah Mobley stepped up and had a marvelous 2022 season. Vince the Prince was next up, but then he had an episode of cardiac arrest at a workout in July. He didn’t play for the first two months of the season. When he was medically cleared to play, he was on a minutes restriction. Then he suffered from back soreness late in the season. He hasn’t played 30 or more minutes in any game this season.
USC didn’t get any elite player in the transfer portal this offseason, a possible result of Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson both choosing to stay and play one more year. Boogie and Peterson were good players in 2022 for USC, but they weren’t great players. Isaiah Mobley was the leader of that team. Peterson did have a career game against UCLA last year, but Mobley was the consistent two-way player who held that team together at both ends of the floor. Ellis hit a game-winning shot against Washington State and stepped up in a few other crucial moments, but in the NCAA Tournament, he was injured and ineffective. Mobley did not have his best game, and USC lost as a result.
In addition to Iwuchukwu being out for two months and then limited for the next month and a half, USC also had a thin bench this season. Reese Dixon-Waters was a generally reliable reserve, but he didn’t have a dominant, overwhelmingly remarkable year. He was good, but not special. Enfield didn’t have a whole lot of bench options. He and his staff relied on Boogie and Peterson to play 35 or more minutes per night and improve their games relative to 2022. Would we see development and progress from USC’s starting lineup? Would the coaches help these players get better? Could USC possibly hold down the fort in what looked like a rebuilding year, especially after the awful home-opening loss to Florida Gulf Coast in November?
USC had nothing close to its best situation and its ideal roster for a majority of this season. There was all sorts of turbulence to deal with over the past four months. Yet, like an expert pilot, Andy Enfield landed this plane safely. In what felt like a rebuilding year due to Vince Iwuchukwu’s health problems, Enfield reached the NCAA Tournament. This felt like a season which was going to slip through the cracks. When USC lost to both Wisconsin and Tennessee in the Battle 4 Atlantis, USC’s ability to put quality wins on its resume was remote. The Trojans basically had to thread the needle. They absolutely had to beat Auburn, and they had to beat UCLA. Without those two wins, the Trojans would not be here.
They beat those two teams.
Arizona is a horrible matchup for USC, so the Trojans really did need to beat the Bruins, who won the Pac-12 by four games this season. They did, becoming one of only two Pac-12 teams to beat UCLA this year, the other being Arizona. Enfield did that with less than a complete roster. He finished third in the Pac-12 with less than a full deck of cards.
Remember when Andy Enfield couldn’t coach a team in February? USC’s February record used to be so awful. Once again, February was a strong month for USC under Enfield. USC lost both games under the Oregon road trip, but it held serve in all four February home games and then scored the crucial Mountain road sweep of Colorado and Utah which gave this team a huge push toward March Madness. The 6-2 month of February put USC in a position where one more win against Arizona State on Saturday, March 4 would get the job done. That’s when Kijani Wright played 24 huge minutes and gave Enfield something special when needed. Enfield kept coaching Wright hard this season, and his work paid off in a big spot. Boogie Ellis played like a superstar in that game with 28 points, carrying Drew Peterson on a night when the senior was suffering from back spasms but playing through pain like a Trojan warrior.
The players stepped up. Teammates had each other’s backs. The collective group displayed toughness and composure. Those are all indicators of good coaching — developmentally, mentally, holistically.
Andy Enfield and his staff had to deal with so many elements of adversity, limitation, and complexity this season. Through it all, they got back to the NCAA Tournament in a season which looked doomed in November.
Now USC gets the elite point guard it has needed for a long time. Isaiah Collier is coming next season. With Iwuchukwu almost certain to come back — this time (hopefully) without a minutes restriction, his health improved and his body able to mature — and role players returning with more of an awareness of how to play, USC is going to have more depth, more size, more length, and more resources. The Trojans could legitimately make a run at the Pac-12 title and a high NCAA Tournament seed. Next year was always going to be a year in which USC could do something special.
This year looked like an NIT season in November and early December. Andy Enfield wouldn’t let that happen. We give Enfield very high marks for this season of USC hoops. Nothing which happens against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament will change that.
Congratulations to Enfield, Eric Mobley, Chris Capko, and the rest of the USC staff. They really earned their money this season. They all landed the plane safely after dealing with a ton of turbulence.
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