UCLA Basketball vs. USC: Previewing the game with Reign of Troy’s Michael Castillo
Normally — or whenever we can — Go Joe Bruin (GJB) previews the upcoming Men’s Basketball game with some thoughts and insight, because we’re geniuses and you love us.
This time, though, we decided we’re going to collaborate with fellow FanSided blog Reign of Troy, via FanSided’s NCAA Director, Michael Castillo. What follows is an analysis of what we need to watch out for from uSc, and considering how bad they are, this thing’ll probably end up being real short. Here it is:
GJB: UCLA has had a ton of issues keeping leads late in games, and they’re definitely prone to giving up double-digit leads any time, any place. Is there any indication that SC can rack up some serious momentum late to steal one?
ROT: USC is scoring less than a freshman engineering student. With just six scholarship players, it’s hard for the Trojans to find points. They did put together a nice four minute stretch against Stanford, scoring 15 points during the run, but it followed a five minute scoreless spell and prefaced a stretch where they scored six points in eight minutes, so there’s really no offensive punch.
GJB: UCLA is playing a little too close to USC for our liking (at the LA Sports Arena). Are the students at SC as ticked as we are about having our Bruins down south?
ROT: If USC was more relevant in basketball this year, I think it might be talked about more from a USC perspective. Right now, I think it’s gone really unnoticed, and until last week when I went by the Sports Arena to see the crowd, I haven’t paid much attention to it myself. I’m actually impressed with how nice the Sports Arena looks on TV, however. I think UCLA put more time and money in fixing up the Sports Arena over the last three months than USC did in the previous three decades. Having said that, the place really needs to be leveled, ASAP.
GJB: I don’t watch too many SC games (Ed. Note: We normally throw paper at waste baskets for three hours instead), but it looks to me that, on paper, you guys don’t have too many efficient scorers. (Aaron Fuller looks like the most efficient one, shooting at just above a 50 percent clip.) Who’s the most consistent player on that squad?
Maurice Jones is the Trojans’ best player. He’s the only guy in the starting lineup that would be getting regular minutes, had USC avoided angering the basketball gods. That said, he’s just a shell of what he can be, as he’s at his best when he’s driving off the pick and roll and slashing to the hoop. SC just doesn’t have anyone else to draw defenders, and Mo Jones is getting doubled teamed because of it, which is why guys like Garrett Jackson, Byron Wesley and Greg Jones have been leading the team in points of late.
USC has had a pretty dismal season. Any fingers you want to point?
As much as I want to say that USC just was unlucky (they’ve lost four starters for the season and are down to playing a 6’6″ small forward at power forward and center, with just six scholarship players) Kevin O’Neill’s system isn’t working. They’re literally at the bottom of Division-I when it comes to shooting, scoring and rebounding. Even though they’re playing with guys who wouldn’t normally sniff more than 10 minutes per game, you would think that O’Neill’s coaching would at least put the players in the right position to be better than 343rd in rebounding, regardless of who the players are. The only schools scoring less than SC this season are Grambling State and Towson. I mean, come on, SC should score more than them just with good coaching, right? So therefore, O’Neill deserves some blame.
I propose we donate all of the Pac-12’s possible tournament berths to charity. What charity do you want to send our tournament berths to?
March of Dimes. It would be the perfect assist.