The USC Trojans are waking up Sunday morning to discover that they are all alone in third place in the Pac-12 Conference. They are one of only three teams with fewer than three losses in the conference. Only UCLA (7-0) and Arizona State (6-1) are ahead of the 5-2 Trojans in the conference standings. Arizona State is the big surprise in the conference, with Arizona falling to 4-3 and getting very little consistent production from its backcourt. Utah started 5-0 in the Pac-12 but has lost three straight games. Colorado can’t get off the ground; the Buffaloes were swept in Los Angeles this weekend and blew a nine-point lead against UCLA by allowing a 24-3 run. Oregon did beat Arizona, but the Ducks are barely above .500 for the season at 10-8. They have to start stacking wins to have any shot at playing in March.
USC being in line to get a first-round bye at the Pac-12 Tournament is obviously important for the simple reason that if the Trojans haven’t secured an at-large bid, they will need to win the Pac-12 tourney. Winning only three games instead of four — provided they get the first-round bye — matters a great deal.
It’s true that USC is not currently in NCAA Tournament position. It’s also true that making the NCAA Tournament should be the annual standard for a program if that program wants to be viewed as a top-tier program. However, we can make an exception for this specific season at USC, if only because the Trojans have been shorthanded the whole way, playing without the five-star big man who was going to make this a complete team.
Vince Iwuchukwu was supposed to take the baton from Isaiah Mobley and continue USC’s run of elite big men. Imagine if Iwuchukwu did not have health problems and could have practiced full-speed in October and played from the start of the season. The Trojans might not have lost to Florida Gulf Coast. They might have had the extra defense and rebounding which could have pushed them over the top in close games versus Tennessee and Wisconsin and UCLA. Winning just one of those games would have meant a lot for USC. Winning two of those games would have the Trojans in the NCAA Tournament. Of course, that’s not the reality USC was given. Andy Enfield had to live with a clearly limited roster.
Now that Iwuchukwu is beginning to get minutes — albeit only a few, under a necessary restriction so that he isn’t overextended — USC has a chance to eventually become the team Enfield hoped it would be. USC is in a race against the clock to improve as quickly as it can while not asking Iwuchukwu to do too much, too soon. Can the Trojans improve to the extent that even a small contribution from Iwuchukwu can propel them to important wins over the next several weeks? The fact that we’re asking that question shows that USC has done a good job of staying in the hunt and giving itself a chance to play its way into the NCAA Tournament.
Without Iwuchukwu over the first two months of the season, it easily could have been a lot worse than this.
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