The USC basketball European summer tour taught the Trojans a lot of lessons. One of the biggest ones is how to stay out of foul trouble and generally manage one’s body and game over the course of 40 minutes.
You will recall that when Vince Iwuchukwu suffered an episode of cardiac arrest last July, he didn’t play a game for USC until January 12 of 2023. If we assume that Bronny James will require at least the same amount of time to get into basketball playing shape (and receive medical clearance from doctors and experts), he won’t play for USC in 2023. He wouldn’t be available until January of 2024 at the earliest.
If we assume Bronny James can’t play until January — it’s not a fact, merely an educated guess based on the Vince Iwuchukwu recovery timeline from last season — that means USC’s starting backcourt of Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis will have to carry the team in November and December.
We saw on the European tour that when Isaiah Collier got tired, he committed some carless reach-in fouls. We also saw Collier commit a few offensive fouls on drives to the basket. Collier is fast and strong, but his aggression and power can easily discard defenders and, right or wrong, create the appearance of a foul. Not all of his offensive fouls looked like actual fouls, but refs saw defenders flying due to Collier’s elite strength, and they punished Collier for it.
Collier has to stay out of foul trouble in the first month of the season before Bronny James joins the lineup. With Bronny, USC can put two elite guards on the floor at any time in a game. Without Bronny, it’s essential for Collier to stay on the floor. He will probably need to play 33-35 minutes per game, and the Trojans will need to make sure they don’t get dominated in the 5-7 minutes in which Collier takes a breather on the bench.
Collier will need to be discipined in avoiding offensive fouls and fatigue fouls in November and December. That’s a huge key to emerge from the USC European tour.
The Trojans open their season on November 6 with a showcase game in Las Vegas versus Kansas State, an Elite Eight team from last season.
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696092335]