We talked to college basketball expert Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated about USC’s roster and the Trojans’ upcoming season. One part of our extended conversation focused on USC backup big man Kijani Wright.
“He will be a glue guy of sorts, right? I think it has to be an Energizer bunny off the bench in terms of what he’s bringing to the table as a rebounder, as a defender with his willingness to talk on defense, things like that,” Sweeney began in discussing Wright. “We’ve talked about it. There’s not a lot of scoring opportunities to go around here. I think if he comes in and it’s all, what can I do for me, me, me, I don’t see how it’s going to work, right? They’ll find someone else who can do the little things. But I think he does provide big-time athleticism, a big-time frame, and the ability to go out and rebound the basketball. If he does that at a higher level, he’s going to find his way onto the floor, especially given some of the concerns health-wise with Vince (Iwuchukwu).
“Obviously you don’t want to earn your minutes that way, but there’s a chance that at some point in the season they’re going to need someone else to step up in the frontcourt, and he’s got a real opportunity to do that. I think at the end of the day, it’s probably good for USC (that Wright got extended playing time on the European summer tour). You would’ve wanted Vince to be out there in Europe just because he needs the reps, but anytime you can get someone like this who was a big-time recruit out of high school who didn’t flop as a freshman, it’s good. I think (Wright) probably didn’t quite meet expectations, but he was still playing real minutes on a team that went to the NCAA Tournament. Getting him a few extra reps in game action against pros (in Europe) is a positive thing for this USC team, and I don’t think it’s worth giving up on him just yet.”
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