The USC men’s basketball team is in a whole heap of trouble. The Trojans were handled rather easily by Gonzaga on Saturday night in Las Vegas. They fell behind 15-2 in the first several minutes. They lost by that same 13-point margin, 89-76. They did pull within four points of Gonzaga (28-24) later in the first half after their messy start, but fighting uphill for 40 minutes was simply not sustainable. USC never had control of this game, and the Zags were a step ahead of them.
Losing is one thing; losing decisively is another. This talented USC roster doesn’t yet have Bronny James, and that point can be acknowledged as a limitation on this team. Even so, with Isaiah Collier, Boogie Ellis, and Kobe Johnson all on the same roster, the Trojans were supposed to be better than this. A lot better.
A promising season — in which USC finally got the Cadillac point guard it had been missing since Jordan McLaughlin — is going nowhere. While Bronny James could give the Trojans the full roster they still haven’t had in one game this season, the Trojans have fallen far short without Bronny. They have three highly talented guards; very few opponents should be able to match what the Trojans do on the perimeter.
Yet, as the Gonzaga game showed, the USC backcourt is not dominating games. A key reason is that the USC frontcourt isn’t threatening at all. Defenses can lock in on the backcourt knowing the frontcourt won’t punish them. The Trojans have an imbalanced team in which their most talented players aren’t helping their less talented players to improve.
Boogie Ellis scored 28 points against Gonzaga. He’s a scorer who is doing what he is supposed to do. Yet, that output isn’t helping his teammates. Collier, as the point guard with a lottery-pick ceiling, was supposed to be the game-changer. Yet, he isn’t breaking down defenses in ways which create opportunities for the bigs. It is not significantly easier for USC to score, which is precisely what Collier was supposed to do for the Trojans.
The pieces aren’t fitting. The vision isn’t creating improvement.
This team is stuck.
The harsh truth is that USC isn’t ready to beat Auburn on December 17. The Trojans’ most realistic outlook is to get Bronny on the court for the start of Pac-12 play against Oregon on December 28, and to make a run at the Pac-12 title with the full roster they still haven’t had on the floor in 2023.
It’s not what we had in mind, but it’s the harsh reality for a team going nowhere in a season falling short of its potential.
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