Vince Iwuchukwu and the rest of the USC Trojans are getting an in-depth look at the dangers of foul trouble. They know that if they are able to make the NCAA Tournament — which is still several wins away and is no sure thing — their dreams of making a run could end due to foul trouble. This has jumped up and bitten the Trojans in consecutive games.
Iwuchukwu fell into early foul trouble against Washington on Saturday. He picked up early fouls on Thursday against Oregon, with teammates Kobe Johnson and Tre White also falling into foul problems. Given that USC was already without two regular rotation players, Joshua Morgan and Reese Dixon-Waters, the Trojans were not equipped to handle foul trouble on this, of all nights. It was the worst possible time for this to happen in terms of being able to handle such a scenario. If USC can get Dixon-Waters and Morgan back in the lineup, it will have the depth which can better withstand such a turn of events, but not in this game on Thursday in Eugene.
Did USC get a bad whistle? Yes. Did fouls get called with relatively little contact? Yes. Nevertheless, there are always things a defender can do to prevent against a quick and bad whistle. Andy Enfield needs to be able to tell this team to remain aggressive while also being fundamentally sound on defense. The Trojans need to stay out of foul trouble but still find solutions on Saturday against an Oregon State team which scored just 47 points against UCLA.
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