At the start of the college basketball season, Trojans Wire and Ducks Wire shared our picks for Pac-12 Player of the Year.
Here they are:
Matt Zemek: Isaiah Collier, USC
Zachary Neel: Isaiah Collier, USC
Matt Wadleigh: Isaiah Collier, USC
Don Smalley: N’Faly Dante, Oregon
A lot of analysts and pundits felt Isaiah Collier would be the best basketball player in the Pac-12 this season. Against Kansas State, he was that kind of player. He dominated a good team. Since then, we haven’t seen that same kind of player, particularly not against Oklahoma this past Friday in a tough two-point loss for the Trojans.
USC’s revival this season depends on a lot of things, including the team getting healthier and accumulating more practice time together. Vince Iwuchukwu needs to get his sea legs under him and round into form as a high-impact big man at both ends of the floor. Bronny James needs to get healthy and give USC wing shooting and backcourt depth.
However, while other players get healthy, Isaiah Collier needs to be able to dominate games. If he can’t USC’s season will fall well short of where the team hoped it would be.
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