We talked to college basketball expert Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated about USC in advance of this much-anticipated season.
Just how much pressure is there on Andy Enfield to win? Certainly some, but maybe the significance of this season is being oversold.
“I don’t think it’s like a cataclysmic-type season,” Sweeney told us. “I don’t think this thing goes off the rails for Enfield if they don’t win or don’t reach that expectation. I think an expectation will, to me, probably be the second weekend (of the NCAA Tournament). It’s something they’ve accomplished once (under Enfield) — it was the mark of their best season under him. I think with the talent that they have, it’s a reasonable expectation that they should be in that mix again.
“I do think it’s been overlooked a little bit the consistency this program has had under Enfield. I don’t think he’s been perfect by any means, but they make the NCAA Tournament relatively consistently now. They’ve went three straight years, four if you count the COVID year where they were projected to get in, that’s six in eight years as well. That’s a pretty good jumping off point for a program.
“So there are certain things that could hurt them if they struggle this year, right? If Collier’s NBA stock drops significantly, he doesn’t have the year he wants, will that hurt them? Recruiting elite level talent? Yeah, potentially. I think that’s something that could certainly have a big-time, long-term impact in how they recruit four and five stars. But I think this thing was a much clearer turning point heading into that Evan Mobley year where yes, they were coming off a potential NCAA Tournament bid, but it still felt like they had been underachieving under Enfield and they finally broke through (to the Elite Eight).
“I think each of the last two years since then, they’ve been as good as you would’ve expected them to be. And as long as they don’t significantly underwhelm, right, if they miss the NCAA Tournament with this team, that would be a disaster. That would hurt, I think long-term. But if this team winds up as a seven seed instead of really taking the jump that people hope they do, I don’t think that would be disastrous by any means long-term. I think it would settle back into what this program has been, which is we get to the NCAA Tournament and from there, what’s the upside? We’re not really sure.”
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