The USC men’s basketball team is falling far short of its hopes and expectations. The Trojans already have three losses after being handled rather easily by Gonzaga on Saturday night in Las Vegas. We can all see what’s wrong: The Trojans aren’t stacking up free throw attempts. They are still taking and missing too many 3-pointers. It’s still hard for this team to score, and the defense is nowhere close to being good enough to compensate.
A talented backcourt is getting little help from the frontcourt. Opponents can focus on defending the USC guards because they don’t respect the bigs. The guards are trying to carry the team instead of improve the team. There’s a difference. The guards aren’t making the bigs better. USC’s offense isn’t functioning in ways which magnify and elevate everyone on the floor.
The pieces are not fitting for Andy Enfield, which brings us to the big mistake he made in the offseason.
Enfield knew, at the end of last season, that Vince Iwuchukwu was going to have a medical procedure on his back that would prevent him from having a full offseason of practice and conditioning work. We didn’t know this, but Enfield did. We didn’t learn about Iwuchukwu’s medical procedure until late September, but behind the scenes it was known that the big man had to recuperate from his back problems before getting back onto the court.
Because of this knowledge, Enfield should have put two and two together. He should have made it an absolute priority to get a ready-to-play portal big man who could be solid at both ends of the floor. USC did not get a serviceable two-way big who could blend in with the roster. The best Enfield could do was bring in D.J. Rodman as a 3-and-D player as an undersized four.
Josh Morgan and Kijani Wright simply haven’t been good enough with Iwuchukwu trying to play catch-up and gain full strength. USC needed a much better piece in its frontcourt. Enfield, who — ironically — has been good at recruiting big men to USC, has been caught shorthanded in what has normally been an area of strength for him.
The Trojans are paying the price for this lack of portal reinforcement in the offseason.
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