USC point guard Isaiah Collier is earning awards and recognition. More important than that is the reality that he is learning how to be a more complete point guard.
First, the awards: Collier was named Pac-12 Men’s Freshman of the Week. It was Collier’s second consecutive selection of the early 2023-24 season.
Collier helped the Trojans split a pair of games during the week by averaging 23.5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. He made 42.9 percent of this 3-point attempts (3-for-7) and 76.2 percent of his free throws (16-for-21) for the week.
Collier is tied for the team lead with a 21-point-per-game scoring average, while also averaging 3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. He is tied for the Division I lead in scoring average among freshmen and is also first in free throws made (25) among freshmen players.
USC will face Seton Hall on Nov. 23 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time in the first round of the Rady Children’s Invitational, a two-day event. The Trojans will then take on Iowa or Oklahoma the next day, depending on results.
Collier played UC Irvine last week with Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson both out of the lineup due to injuries. Collier predictably tried to to too much, since he wasn’t getting enough help from his teammates. Collier, when receiving a lot of attention from opposing defenses, has to find ways of attacking those defenses which get his teammates involved and create difficult questions for opposing players. Collier looked more controlled this past Sunday against Brown, when Boogie and Kobe both returned to the USC lineup.
A big key for Collier is to find ways of getting big men Josh Morgan, Vince Iwuchukwu, and Kijani Wright some easy baskets so that they all become more productive offensive players. USC needs its frontcourt to help the backcourt if the Trojans are going to realize their potential.
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