Nothing New for USC Basketball

Feb 4, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; USC Trojans head coach Kevin O

Unfortunately for coach Kevin O’Neill, there is nothing new to report about the USC Trojans mens basketball team. Or maybe fortunately there are no new injuries to report. But the team has now fallen to 1-11 in conference play. After what was a strong first half from the Trojans, they only trailed Cal by six at the break. But Cal doubled USC’s offensive output in the second half, scoring 40 to USC’s 20 points. The final score was Cal 75 and USC 49.

USC really needs no explanation for why their team is as terribly ineffective as it is—their whole team is out injured. The players remaining though have made almost no headway as a unit. No one has any interest in scoring the ball. Maurice Jones is an effective scorer, but when the opponent’s defense can focus primarily on him, it takes a Herculean effort on his behalf to get any buckets. USC was able to get some points in transition in the first half. But in the second half especially, USC would run their motion offense on the perimeter with no plan for how they wanted to attack the basket, and what types of shots they wanted to take. They passed up a lot of shots early in the clock, but that’s probably a good considering they don’t exactly shoot a high percentage. On the season freshman Alexis Moore is shooting 29%, freshman Byron Wesley is shooting 39%, even Maurice Jones only shoots 35% (but he has attempted almost twice as many field goals as anyone else on the roster).

In the second Cal’s Harper Kamp made three consecutive jumpers to stretch the lead. The rest of the game, Cal set each other up for layup after layup as the inexperienced front line of the Trojans was exposed. Allen Crabbe came off curls and fed Kamp for more layups. Even when the reserves came in in the last 5 minutes the Bears continued to execute. The Trojans lacked a commitment on the defensive end.

So I know the team is out injured, but the most discouraging fact for Trojan basketball fans (if there are any remaining) is that the Trojans have no purpose on either end of the floor. I think that falls on Coach O’Neill. The players remaining are not top recruits, or may have not have been recruited at all. Listening to Coach O’Neill’s press conferences would lead you to believe that the players available to him couldn’t make a high school freshman team. This group (without the injured starters) has now been together for at minimum a half dozen games, and they really do have very little to show for it. Intensity and desire is on the players, and that can be very hard to muster with little chance of winning. But no purpose or strategy at either end of the floor falls on O’Neill. If the players haven’t given up on this season, Coach O’Neill probably has.

There is nothing new to report for the USC Trojans. They can’t score, they can’t play defense, their whole team is out injured, they haven’t had any new injuries since the most recent one, and they have only one win in conference play. This hardly seems like a no news is good news situation.

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