The Andy Enfield era at USC has been successful — maybe not wildly or extraordinarily successful, but certainly a prosperous, above-average period for the program. USC is annually in the hunt for NCAA Tournament bids and makes the tournament most years. It used to be that the Trojans would make the NCAAs once every three or four years. The bar has clearly been raised. USC is definitely in a better place compared to when Enfield arrived 10 years ago.
In 2015, few thought he was going to still be around in 2023.
In 2019, few thought he would remain on the job four years later.
Yet, here he is. Enfield is a survivor in the profession. He has legitimately gotten better. He deserves a lot of credit for the overall job he has done. We can comfortably say that, and we enjoy saying that. People should be appreciated and recognized for what they achieve.
However, Enfield does have two very specific flaws. If he wants to lift USC to the next level — being a Sweet 16 program (Final Four is another step up the ladder; let’s not get too greedy just yet) — he needs to address these two flaws.
We’ll tackle one of them here: building bench depth.
Even in 2021, when the Trojans made the Elite Eight, they didn’t have depth beyond seven to eight players. The Mobley brothers — Isaiah and Evan — joined Drew Peterson, Isaiah White, and Tahj Eaddy in the starting five for the Sweet 16 win over Oregon. Ethan Anderson, Max Agbonkpolo, and Chevez Goodwin rounded out the eight-player rotation in that game.
The 2021 Trojans had two players average over 32 minutes, four average 28 or more, six average 21 or more. It fell to those six players to carry the vast majority of the workload. That’s not a winning formula unless the core six players are all studs, kinda like the Fab Five for Michigan in 1992 and 1993. USC is unlikely to get that kind of talent throughout its starting five, so in order to become a Sweet 16 program with a chance to take the next step up the ladder, USC needs to be able to play 10 guys with the top players not playing more than 30 minutes and the ninth and 10th players logging close to 20 minutes. Having 10 players who can be used interchangeably and share minutes creates so much more flexibility with lineup combinations and doesn’t put the burden on a few select individuals. USC doesn’t have that right now.
The 2023 Trojans rely so much on Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson that when the two of them aren’t shooting well, this team is in big trouble. We saw this in the loss to Oregon State. Previous USC teams depended so much on Isaiah Mobley in 2022, Evan Mobley and Tahj Eaddy in 2021, Onyeka Okongwu in 2020, or Jordan McLaughlin in previous years.
A good example of the way USC needs to rise and improve as a program is Alabama. Nate Oats has built depth within the program, such that while stars such as Brandon Miller stand out, there is plenty of support so that the workload is shared and no one player has to carry too much of the burden. Alabama comes at opponents in waves. When players are on the court, they play with maximum energy because they know they’re not going to play too many minutes. Ten players playing balanced, equally shared minutes and going at it full-speed is where USC needs to go.
Having the dead weight on this team’s bench — three points in 26 minutes against Oregon State, six points in 56 minutes against Oregon — is really holding this team back. Without Joshua Morgan or Reese Dixon-Waters, there is essentially no bench on this team.
Players on the roster have to be able to make contributions. So many guys not being able to make meaningful contributions in mid-February speaks to a lack of player development and a lack of an abililty to recruit players who are ready to play. This is one of Andy Enfield’s two central flaws at USC. If he can address it, the program will take a huge forward step in its evolution.
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