We talked to college basketball expert Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated about USC basketball. Sweeney spent a little time looking at the Gonzaga team USC will face on December 2 in Las Vegas.
“Gonzaga is still going to be something of a power in recruiting. Graham Ike from Wyoming was Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, then got injured last year. He’s got a chance to be really good for them up front. They get Anton Watson back, but it seems they’re not super deep. They’ve only got 10 scholarship players as of now. They’ve had some weird circumstances that included a medical retirement. They had a late decommitment, they had draft decisions that were down to the wire,” Sweeney told us.
“So, it’s not necessarily the most talented Gonzaga team that we’ve seen in recent years, but I still think this is a group that will probably wind up in the preseason ranked 15 to 20. That (group) will certainly be well coached by one of the best to ever do it in college basketball (Mark Few). I certainly think they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the WCC. They will roll through and win 28 to 30 games as they have done each of the past several years. So this won’t be an easy one.
“I think USC is probably just a more talented team on paper than Gonzaga is, but the experience they (Zags) have in the backcourt with Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman, who’s back as a junior as a combo guard, will help Gonzaga early on in the season.”
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