Featuring Chris & Mark's in-depth analysis of the Trojans' recent 10-day trip to Greece and Croatia, where the guard trio of Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson led USC to three exhibition wins.
The Dunk City Podcast is the podcast of record for the USC basketball community. You can find all episodes at DunkCityPod.com, USCBasketball.com or on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon. Contact us at USCBasketball.com@gmail.com.
Featuring Chris & Mark's in-depth analysis of the Trojans' recent 10-day trip to Greece and Croatia, where the guard trio of Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson led USC to three exhibition wins.
The Dunk City Podcast is the podcast of record for the USC basketball community. You can find all episodes at DunkCityPod.com, USCBasketball.com or on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon. Contact us at USCBasketball.com@gmail.com.
Welcome to the Dunk City podcast. Change direction by Matthew. Here's the final round of life. Elton Hansen For the LA and then the show it is on the Trojan Tundra.
Speaker 2:USC is on to the sweet 16 for the first time since 2-3.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Dunk City podcast. I'm Chris Houston here with Mark Baxterham. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and that you guys have all gotten a little bit of vacation in and that you're staying cool wherever you may be. We are pretty excited to get back with another podcast. We had actually had a podcast scheduled for before the team went on their Euro trip. We were going to talk with Kurt Karris, who has now been elevated to a full-time assistant coach, but as it turns out, the same day our interview was scheduled was when we got the news about Brani, so that was postponed until after the Euro trip. So hopefully we can catch up with Kurt soon.
Speaker 1:But in the meantime we are going to talk a little bit about what we saw on that Euro trip the three games where USC played, two games against Mega Mies in Mekanos and then one game against KKSC Derby in Dubrovnik. Both all the games were won by USC, so and there was no injuries. So overall a pretty successful outing. And with that let's throw it over to our master of quantitative analysis, Mark Baxter.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. Don't know how much quantitative analysis I'm going to have in me, considering the box scores are a little foreign, I guess, in origin. Not a lot of time to crunch him, but do have a lot of thoughts on what I saw. Well, great.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to go through, I think, player by player, I think is the best route, which is good because I mean I think we should go by Jersey number, starting from zero, which is appropriate, because I think Kobe Johnson probably had the strongest overall outing of any of the players, which says a lot, because Boogie Alice and Azia Collier were both really impressive.
Speaker 1:Kobe, I think, had 19 points, 11 rebounds in game two and four steals in the game one. He had a ton of steals. I think he had 15 points or 11 points, I can't remember exactly what it was and then he came back in the last game in Dubrovnik, coming back with 13 points and again, once again, all over the court defensively. So I think, from my perspective, kobe Johnson's emergence into a potentially elite conference player where he's already elite on the defensive side in the conference, it looks like he's going to be one of those players to make that jump from just under 10 points a game. I can see him averaging in the 12 to 13 point range coming up this year and, of course, being even better on defense, would say you Mark.
Speaker 2:I agree it looked like basically just a continuation of the career arc that we saw over last season too. The one thing that kind of stuck out to me, aside from maybe just the obvious, was that he seemed to be at his best when the team was most serious, especially on the defensive end. I don't know if you kind of got that impression too. He really seemed to be really kind of the starter of the. When we had really nice runs of the defense leading to offense. He seemed to be just absolutely at his best in three games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think in the first game in particular, there was a really good, effective perimeter defense by USC. And look, I think everyone has to understand that these games are not the type of games where USC is trying to put everything in the tank to win the way they would normally do with a game. So these were situational opportunities for USC to try different lineups, for players to maybe try something in their repertoire which they've been working on. We saw that with Kobe, where he did quite a bit more on the offensive side, going to the basket, a couple turnarounds and just kind of being super active. And I think the one thing that Kobe does, which he meshes really well with Boogie and Collier, is just that intensity on defense. And we saw the team. There was a lot of intensity, a lot of energy, guys getting on the floor and I think this really augurs well for where they are at this point in the season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I have just a special affinity for guys that do the dirty work, and when your team leader is one of those guys and not just a showman I guess for lack of a better term it is such a great influence on your culture. Just to use a totally somewhat apt analogy Tim Duncan on the Spurs, Tim Duncan, let that team be coached hard by pop, by setting that tone, and you have, you know, your team leader. You know he's easy, he's the older statesman, he's been in the program, I guess as long as boogie, but he was a captain and he's, you know, when he just digs it on the defensive end, I think it just really sets a tone for the whole team that I love.
Speaker 1:And this goes back to, I think, uh coaches desires to recreate the ideal player within their program and for USC's coaching staff, uh, deanthony Melton is that player. Deanthony Melton is their ideal player that they want, somebody who uh is uh good on both sides of the ball, who plays hard, great teammate, does all the little things and is just athletic and instinctive. And so they only got DeAnthony Melton for one tantalizing year and I think they've been trying to recreate another Melton ever since. And I think they saw that in Kobe Johnson and it was kind of a similar recruiting situation where not a whole lot of people recruited Kobe Johnson and not a whole lot of major people recruited DeAnthony Melton. So USC found these guys and I think Kobe is is turning into, uh, the, the playing the kind of role that DeAnthony Melton uh would have developed into, which is playing incredible defense and then developing as a scorer as he matures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Great so going on to Isaiah Collier, who, uh, you know this is kind of bearing the lead, which is that being able to see the greatest, the highest ranked recruit in USC history, uh, playing for the first time in a USC uniform, it's kind of a special opportunity. And Isaiah Collier, it's it kind of really wasn't fair. Uh, you got the sense that he could have scored as much as he wanted to, uh, and that he could have, uh, pretty much control the game as much as he wanted to. But, uh, again, these were situational, uh, almost situational scrimmages in a sense, and especially the third game where, where the team that USC was playing KK SC Derby, they were like a bunch of guys at the LA fitness at noontime basketball and and you had the way they flew their bodies around cause they're just good enough to compete but they're not good enough to like, they're not good enough to beat you, but they're good enough to beat you, but they're good enough, they're like athletic enough to get you hurt because they, because they're rough, you know they think they can play.
Speaker 1:So you end up, you know these are the guys that are leaping for balls at your knees and end up, you know, leaping into your knees. I mean, all these guys on that team were just those type of players and I was holding my breath for most of the game, given how hot it was in the slippery gym. So the fact that we got out of there with, without any injuries, uh, is really just a great thing, although I can tell that, you know, especially in the last game, playing that hot gym was was really took its toll. Yeah, definitely. But but Collier, uh, what did you think about Collier's performance All?
Speaker 2:right, I'm going to have a couple of um, really positive impressions and a couple of things that I don't know if people saw that I I see as areas that he, you know, I'm hoping he, he works on. So the first thing that's just just amazing to me, it's just so impressive is clearly, don't turn your head or your back on this guy or you're done. Um, don't let any part of his body get to any, even to any part of your body or else you're going to give up a basket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of that simple, unless you've got an awesome rim protector. On that second point, um, the other thing, as to your point where it seemed like almost at will he could, he could get good looks, I thought about this. Um, you know Tim Floyd's teams, his best teams. They ran such good offense that they had a lot fewer uh slumps or like runs against them than other teams, because they always got such good shots. It seemed like and we have a guard like this, I can get you good looks. Just, you know, again and again, and again, I think that's going to be a big help to us in terms of just avoiding just being on the wrong side of of you know what Jason Capone will call the spurt of death that Arizona could throw at you, right, um, so I'm very excited about that. That's just going to. It's going to be such a stabilizing force.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hundred percent, he's, he's, um, he is one of those guys who, if the team is in a slump, he's just going to go score or he'll do something. He'll do a run out after a, after a shot, uh, he, you know, uh fast break, get down the court, and which he is. There's nobody better. I haven't seen anybody as good as as as he is at getting to full head of steam, uh, in a couple of steps and really just when he gets to the center of the court on a break, uh, his, his conversion percentage is really good. You know he's he's just and we're going to get in those situations a lot because you've got some.
Speaker 1:He's. He's a very active uh on ball defender and he's very active in the passing lanes, so he's going to get a lot of steals. Kobe Johnson is going to get a lot of steals. Uh, Boogie gets, gets his share of steals. So these, this is a very steel heavy team we're going to see, I think, this year, uh, and so he's just, he's really just an outstanding player.
Speaker 1:Now, his shot he's got a little uh quick, he's got a quick release, which he kind of long arms a bit, um, and his his three point game is going to be developing and I think a lot of it's going to depend on on uh, you know how the rest of the team is doing and what kind of looks he gets, but I think you have to to take, to take a little bit of a break To, to take the the bad with the good with him, because his, his overall control of the game and his physicality is such a boom to your team, if you have them on your team, that you can't it's almost like you can't do all the things he's doing physically and have and be a great three point shooter you know it's just, it's just or or even, sadly be a great free throw shooter because he's so physical, right he's, he's pounding in there and you look at guys who, who are famous pounders.
Speaker 1:They're usually not very good free throw shooters because you take, you know you hit your wrist and your wrist is bruised and your fingers are scuffed and and you he runs a hundred percent all the time. So he's running up and down the court all day. You never, never dogged in it, and so, yeah, I think he gets on the free throw line and and and he loses his concentration or he might rush his three point shot. So that's going to be something. There's going to be games where he doesn't have to be as active, and so he's going. You know, some other players will carry the load a bit scoring wise, so he's going to get some better looks and I think that's where those are the types of games where he's going to feast on the other team from three point range.
Speaker 2:Agree, agree, and to your point about him being so active, this is what really stood out to me too. It seemed like and you know this is also subject to we're using kind of you know, maybe some novel lineups from time to time, I guess would be a way to describe it. But it seemed like the longer that it took the offense to get you know, to get going, the less effective he became. It seems like he's at his absolute best when he's almost kind of between the break and the secondary break, like just when the defense just gets back, but they're not set and they're just kind of like assessing, okay, where's the ball? And that's when he he almost like like counter punches them right when they exhale and say, okay, I'm in position, and it's just, it's too late.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in the half court there's work to be done. Now again, you know there were so many lineups and there's this chemistry to develop and it's you know clearly this the staff is proven at developing. So I'm not saying that it, you know, this is this fatal flaw. I'm just saying that that's going to come in time, I think, more than anything else. Oh for sure.
Speaker 1:I do think that there is some nice movement in the half court offense though, because we have Collier, who, who really moves the ball well and is great at at whipping the ball around, and and you know, boogie is not a facilitator, but he is a decent passer, and Kobe's decent passer, and DJ Rodman is knows what he's doing out there, you know so and and Kejani writes an excellent passer. So there was just a lot of good movement. I thought of the ball to get good shots. Then there was last year, and I think this is all the fruits of having a legitimate elite point guard like Isaiah Collier. I agree.
Speaker 2:The one other thing that I want to. I'll put it nicely the vision is unreal and I think the one thing that stood out to me about that is the interior passes were awesome. He just I've gotten in my notes here the feed to this guy, feed the guy that you're kidding me the passes to to shooters on the perimeter. He's a great passer. He needs to really get those more in. You know, in the position where the shooter can just go up with it. A lot of those were really off mark where guys had to like really reach and kind of reset themselves.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you noticed that too. I did notice. I did not notice that actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you take a look, you know, especially earlier in the games, he's not really just putting it in, just the. You know, just rise up and shoot. The guys have to reset themselves a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, I mean that's I guess you know that's a. It's a tough pass to, it's tough to to hit the hit the ball right, right and someone's you know, at someone's shoulders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't. So that's a fourth year senior, kind of yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to look for blemishes on the Mona Lisa, but yeah, but you know, it's one.
Speaker 1:One last thing on Isaiah Collier, which leads, will lead me to a little rant here, which is something that we saw in the, the, the streaming of the game, and that is it's the one of, it's probably the biggest pet peeve I have in televised sports, which is the producers of these games have it in their head that after a team makes a basket, or after a player makes a shot, the best thing to do is to cut to the camera of that player, a close up of that player as he's running down the court Yep, Right.
Speaker 1:And during that time, after the shot is made, when the, the camera goes over to that player who was running back down the court, a variety of things can and often do happen Because the defensive team is pressing, we miss the steal on the in bounds, or we miss a block or any kind of thing that happened because we're looking at the guy who made the previous shot as he's running down the court, and usually you see the guy like redirecting, and because he's seeing something off camera but we don't know what that is. Isaiah Collier. Because of his, his ability just to to you know, burst out into the open court and get the ball down the court and the pace at which he sets. This is going to be a constant problem in watching USC games. We're going to miss so many plays behind the ball, behind that that player, because of Collier and his and and the speed at which he plays the game. And I just have to prepare myself and everybody else mentally for what's going to happen, which is a lot of bad sports television.
Speaker 2:I'm actually used to this and I'm a little familiar with this, more than maybe the average bear. They actually call that the hero shot, right, and I think a lot of directors are just in a habit of saying, okay, bucket, good, hero shot, without having any kind of feel for the game. Yeah, yeah, that that grinds my gears too. I don't want to make this a whole criticism of the broadcast, but you know, I know it's. We're both shocked that in a broadcast in which, in the third game, the scorekeeper couldn't really understand which team was USC and which was SC, that was pretty funny. I think anything's up for grabs at that point.
Speaker 1:There's a few one point baskets, uh, and let's not even get in, get into the the refereeing. I mean, these games were absolute. There's, there's some, just some bizarre calls, uh, you know, usc was the kind of team that I think had some pride and didn't want to lose these games. But, yeah, they, they were not that interested in proving that. You know, winning by 30. I think they could have won each of these games by 30, probably more like by 20 with the first team, but definitely by 30 or 40. With the second team, they just didn't, they just didn't care.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:And uh.
Speaker 2:I think that makes a difference too, cause I was wondering did they like, maybe get a, like a speech before the trip to say, look, you're going to have ridiculous calls, just laugh at it because you?
Speaker 1:actually saw a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Literally saw Kobe laughing at a lot of calls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was, just it was, and a lot of it was some Homer calls to keep keep the game interesting for the local fans. But it's all good. Anyway. Kobe Johnson incredible. Isaiah Collier incredible.
Speaker 1:Uh, I, osiah Sellers, I think, is one guy who who probably, uh, you know, didn't really show much in the games.
Speaker 1:I don't want to make you know excuses for for his performances, necessarily.
Speaker 1:But um, those, those rims on that first, on the first gym in particular, I saw one shot hit the rim and like the entire you can see like the entire, like apparatus shaking for seconds afterwards, those, those were like some of the tightest rims I've seen and there were so many balls that that would normally go in, that were just kind of bouncing out.
Speaker 1:And I hate to make the excuse, but I just don't think it's something with Osiah where he he doesn't demand the ball and so he doesn't get the ball and so he never really gets that ideal situation and it seems to be carrying over so far, but it's obviously very early. I still think he's he's has to develop into a contributor. I think if he can come in and average four or five points a game, at least during the year, it would be a big help and he's going to have the opportunity to do that depending on what happens with Brani. But I don't think he really showed much of anything in this in these three games, beyond the fact that maybe he looked a little stronger and quicker.
Speaker 2:Agree, and I think he not that he dogged it at all last year, but I think he was a little more into it defensively to yeah, along the lines though you know quiet, and yeah, maybe the rims didn't help and it just seemed like the first game. That whole thing just was just confusing to watch. Everything seemed off, kilter, everything, literally everything. The calls were hard to understand and you know it's just if you're not in the right mindset or things just aren't going right, things just might not continue to go right, but he's going to be our first guard off the bench, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah so he will be yeah she should be.
Speaker 1:I mean, and the thing is, is that I don't the shooting issue in these types of games not really the problem I have but if you look at his stat line, he played 14 minutes in the second game and he had one assist, he had one rebound and he went one for five.
Speaker 1:So I don't mind so much going one for five in these types of games, but I'd like to see him bring some other things to the table, whether it's getting some steals or, you know, getting some rebounds, or are just just showing generally, you know, standing out on defense, like these are things that I'd like to see more out of him. I think he's it again. Going back to the last game, he had one rebound and two points and 17, 17 minutes. So he only had nearly tried to shot. So so one good thing is that he's not forcing it, he's playing within himself and I think this is shows a good level of maturity and that he just has to be patient to try to find his spots but to keep playing hard. But I would like to see more non-offensive production out of him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the great.
Speaker 1:Okay, boogie Ellis, who really just had. If the best player wasn't Kobe Johnson in on this trip, it was probably Boogie Ellis. He had 21 points 25 points in the first game, 21 points in the second game and 21 points in the third game. So he averaged 20 almost 23 points a game in this tournament. He shot a ridiculously high percentage. In the last game he was eight of 10, five of five from three point land for steals, for assist, and in the second game he had 21 points, six of 13, five of 10 had a couple of assists and a steal, and then, of course, the massive game in game one.
Speaker 1:So this guy looks to me like he's just a pure scorer at this point, and that's I think that's fantastic. Knowing that, with Collier beside him, it's going to be really hard for for teams to to guard both these guys, and so he's going to get his shots and right now, with so much of the pressure taken off him about facilitating and handling the ball, he can be this spot up shooter and he's obviously, you know, turning into a really good three point shooter and very clutch and has incredible range, and I think when you look at Ellis and Kobe Johnson and Isaiah Collier, name me a better guard trio on the country they're going to. They're going to average close to 50 points a game between the three of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not just that it's not going to be with the with the ceiling of 55. I mean, we've seen Boogie just go nuts several times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what was what was just? The thing that's crazy to me is I kind of had no notes on this because he was so good last season that it's like, ok, we, you know, we've kind of said this all about him already this, just it's just so promising that you're just to see so quick through the manifestation of what we had hoped for, which would be like, ok, we get a true point guard and Boogie can just, you know, play off ball and just be a nightmare. And he was a nightmare. That was fantastic. The other thing that really took out to me was it seemed like in the, in the 40 minutes of basketball that was played, I think that maybe we spend about three minutes, you know, just showing what we can do when those three guys are, just, you know, fully utilized at the same time, just to say, all right, try to stop this with with Boogie.
Speaker 2:Kobe, you know and call your each. You know it's not only used, it's insane.
Speaker 1:And then imagine when they're, imagine when they're really going hard. You know, and yeah, what we're really about to experience is Boogie Ellis, who's in his 50 year, who brings the ball, brings the things to the table that you want from a fifth year player, which is experience, just wisdom, consistency, dependability, all the things, and then plus the talent and skill level he brings. It's just you're looking at a guy who's who's being really efficient in his movements and in what he does, and it's just. I feel like. I feel like he's a guy who's finally been given his wings because with with Isaiah Collier there, just kind of running the show, I feel like he's just been freed up and he can. He can shoot, and it's going to be, you know, he can shoot and then he has a guy next to him who can get to the hole whenever he wants. So that's and and and. A lot of those times he's going to be passing the ball back out for him to get an open shot.
Speaker 1:So this guy looks like he's mentally prepared for the season and to me he looks like the kind he looks like he's probably going to average about 20 points a game. I can see him averaging 20. I can see Collier averaging 17 or 18 and I can see Kobe probably averaging 12 or 13. So you're looking at to me around 50 points a game and, like you said, there's going to be games where where they approach 60 and there's going to be games. You know, I don't think there's going to be very many games where, where they're held, where they're held under 40.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now there's just too much there and just a variety of skills. That just makes you know it's just a nice hedge to have it's it's. It's fascinating that he's going to be a better player because his user grade is going to go down. It's, it's not so intuitive, but you know, especially like a guy experienced as him will really understand and appreciate that that's kind of a hard sell, I think, to a younger player, if you will, just to say you're going to get better spots but you know, maybe a few, you know a bit fewer of them this season for this last season, yeah, no, he's he's.
Speaker 1:He's primed for a huge year. He could. He really has a chance to be an all have an all American level year, both him and Isaiah Collier. It's kind of funny USC has three legitimate all American candidates. I think guys who are, whether they're named, all American or not, they're guys who by the end of the year might be spoken of at that level. It could be. You know, you look at some recent backcourts that were at this level, maybe some of those. There are some good Michigan backcourts about 10 years ago that keyed a run to the final NCAA final game. So having these two guys, I don't know. I just don't think there's a better backcourt in the country and I don't think it's homework is to say it, I think it's just. It's just reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, dj Rodman. What did you think of DJ Rodman in these games? You?
Speaker 2:know he. I don't know if, like, he disappeared or if he was just on the bench for periods of time, but it seemed like there were some stretches where just you didn't hear from him. But his production was fine. I probably would have liked to see a little more rebounding from him, to be honest, especially since that was one of our Achilles heels last season. I also wonder I just kind of thought back to at Washington State. He seemed to be most dangerous offensively working out of the half court, not in transition. Would you kind of agree with that assessment? Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:And and he was very effective in that game in Dubrovnik where he actually hit a really key three off of a design play, where he hit a corner three and it really I think, again been through the battles, been through the wars, and it's funny, you're right, he has a quiet.
Speaker 1:He had a quiet four rebounds against in the game against in Dubrovnik, but he that was he did it in 16 minutes, right. And in the other game he had four rebounds and he did that in 21 minutes. So he's he's at a pretty much an eight or nine rebound per 40 average in those in those games and I think he's a huge boon to the team and and there'll be games where we need him to step up and I think he'll step up. It's interesting, though, playing him at the four. Maybe we just call it a four guard offense in a way, or two wings and two wings and two guards. Him playing, I don't think. I think he's probably closer to six, five.
Speaker 2:I think he's going to have trouble going up against those bigger guys, obviously, but but he is a pretty tough dude, yeah, and I'll come back to that in that question about the four guard offense when we get to some players later here he just kind of spurts some interesting thoughts to questions in my own mind here. Brandon Gardner.
Speaker 1:So he didn't do much. But this is a great, a great kind of example of the old scouts adage which is it's not what you do but how you do it. And so Brandon Gardner was kind of bouncing around there on Pogo sticks because he's probably got as good a hops as any USC player I've seen in quite a while. Probably going back to Lorenzo or like we talked about in the previous episode. He didn't get much action but he did some really nice things as far as I think, showing lateral quickness. More from an athletic standpoint. I was looking at him because he didn't really get a chance to do much in the flow of the offense. He had a couple. He had a block shot and had a couple, I think, an assist kind of rebound, here and there More.
Speaker 1:I'm just impressed with his ability to move laterally, his ability to guard players out in the perimeter and just his ability to be, you know, really active and getting in with rebounds and tipping things. So I don't know if he's going to be able to get into the game. So I don't know if he's going to contribute much this year. It depends entirely upon how well he learns the offense and defense. But by the end of the season. He might be one of those guys who when you're playing a tournament team and he hasn't played a whole lot during the season, so they don't have a lot of film on him and he comes into the game and he sort of flowers a little bit and jumps out of the gym and the next time you see him is a highlight in Sports Center.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, the athleticism just jumps off the screen with him. I can't discern from what I saw about what he's going to be able to do on the offensive end, but he's a true freshman so I don't really care. And it's not like this team is liking for scoring. So you know, if they can kind of get his mind in the right place to accept a role in the first season definitely can contribute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I agree, Zack Brooker. It was great to see that he got in the game. He got in the game very briefly in the second game, but in the third game he had a little bit of time. I think he had 15 minutes. I'm sorry, no, he had one minute, my mistake, but it was good to see him get out there. He had a block shot and, just from a pure team chemistry standpoint, great to see one of the non-scholarship players get a chance to say that he played on the court in a Euro city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. Don't really have anything more to add to that. But man for being non-scholarship. What a trip to make man. My gosh huh.
Speaker 1:What a deal. Okay, arrington Page so another interesting guy who I thought what I gleaned from these performances was more from an athletic standpoint than from anything specific. Obviously, he's probably bigger than listed. I know he's listed at 6'11", but he had been listed, I think, around 6'9" Coming out of high school, so he might have grown an inch. He's probably not really 6'11". He's probably 6'10" Because, again, the standard USC sports information 1.5-inch deviation usually applies.
Speaker 1:But this, who knows? There's a new kind of sheriff in town, so I don't know. I don't know what the current policy is in that regard. Anyway, so Arrington Page looks taller than listed. He's got a really good body. He's a muscle, looks like, though, that he probably hasn't lifted a whole lot of weights, so once he does, it looks like he's going to have a really nice frame to fill out.
Speaker 1:But look, he's got really nice skills. He can dribble the ball in the open court, as he showed. He hit a corner 3 and showed some great spring when he caught a lob from his high school teammate, isaiah Collier, for a great dunk. And one thing I think the most important thing in his development that I was looking for was and this was a knock on him when he was in high school and when I saw him his effort on defense. He showed effort on defense. I saw him get on the floor a couple of times going for loose balls.
Speaker 1:And that is the key to Arrington Page's success is that if he tries and by try I mean if he doesn't have moments in the game where he's sort of like on the Great Space Coaster somewhere If he's like totally into the game and focused and dialed in and dials in for like the entire game, then he's going to be an NBA player, you know, because he has the NBA body but he just has to dial in and stay dialed in and, you know, not go off, you know on the Great Space Coaster. So tell me your thoughts about Arrington Page.
Speaker 2:You know, honestly, I felt like I went through a full freshman season of the ups and downs with him in three games. At times he looked like I mean, this guy can play right now. I was thinking like do we actually maybe start him in some games, depending on what? And then sometimes he's just doing crazy freshman stuff and it's like wow, really really out of control sometimes and doesn't really understand when to not do stuff versus do stuff. But the package is all there. He just, you know, yeah, he needs to work on some muscle, but I think we kind of want to rethink the comp.
Speaker 2:To Mettu I don't really, you know, he seems Mettu was like an athletic big guy, if this makes sense, like Vince, like Evan Mobley, yeah, and this guy looks like he. This is. Maybe this is just making a distinction without a difference, but it's a big difference to me. He's a big athletic guy. He's just an athletic guy that's bigger. Yeah, I think it just to go to. You know, across across town he looks so much to me like Trevor Arisa, even like the way he jumps and runs. I don't know if you noticed that.
Speaker 1:I just thought man, just a taller. A taller Trevor Arisa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean everything about him like is is the body, like is the body type is exactly the same. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's. He's, you know, well proportioned. You know he's got all the the, he's got some fast twitch in him. He can get, he can get off the floor. He's a fairly quick jumper. He's not a, he's not a slow winder, he's got long arms. He can block shots when he wants to. So, yeah, he's very intriguing and I think that I think the comparison to met two was probably more having to do with met two's ball skills and offensive repertoire, which page didn't get a chance to show much of it. And he's obviously, you know, still rattled.
Speaker 1:And, honestly, the first game, the first two games USC played against in meek and those the team they played against had a lot of really big guys. Right, uh, former Tennessee guy who's who's really good defender and this, it was not a walk in the park that that was actually a pretty good team. Uh, with they were long. I mean they had guys who were athletic guys, who were gonna play in the in the couple guys might play in the league, so, uh, it wasn't like he was going up against, you know, one of those LA fitness guys, uh, so all the, you know so, and even the other team had some, you know, there was good size there's, uh, if one thing you can knock about about the euros is that they have size. They get people with with long arms and and height, so it wasn't like he was going up against, uh, you know, uh, mary, at a high down the street from Wheeler with, uh, with the six, four uh power forward, uh, so, um, so, yeah. So I think he's going to be a guy who takes time to acclimate, but I think he will play more and more sort of like Kejani. Right last year I would, I would put his like minute minute growth, uh, very similar to Kejani.
Speaker 1:Yep, agree, joshel morgan, he had a bunch of uh, uh, highlight real dunks. Uh, I think he did this. He had this great um play in the first game where he he got the ball up near the top of the key and beat his guy off the dribble going to his right and came up and dunked the guy dunked the ball in the guy's face. Uh, quite an impressive um, um, uh display by mr morgan and uh, I think we know what we got with josh morgan and to me he does look stronger and I think that again we are.
Speaker 1:It's really stinks that we don't have our full, full roster yet and we can't really put guys in the in the right rotation where where they might end up being just yet, because I don't think josh is when, when vince is healthy again, I don't think you know josh isn't going to play 27 minutes like he did in game two and he's not going to play uh, well, he might play 22 minutes I can game in this last game, but but basically him and vince are are going to probably split minutes, uh at the at the five right, so the reach is going to get 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:So so that's where I think morgan can really focus on is where, hey, I've just got to play 20 minutes at a really high energy and uh be a solid defender and take my opportunities when I get him in block shots. And I think, I think he just showed that's the kind of player he is in these games. But he didn't really do anything, uh, you know, out of the ordinary or show any. I don't think he showed any kind of major uh you know, improvement, although it's funny, in the last game he led the team in plus minus. So uh, which I guess, take that for what?
Speaker 2:for what you think plus minus is worth yeah, um, one thing you said in there that I think is the key. You said we, you know, we know what we have with josh morgan, and I think that it it looks like josh morgan knows what we have with josh morgan. He didn't try to do anything really crazy. There were a couple shots that looked a little yiffy, but, you know, not having a shot clock, it seemed like they might have just been to to beat the shot clock. Um, you know otherwise, you know he played well with him himself, without being passive. Um, it's it, that's, you know. To go back to an earlier point, that's what we really need ozaya to do is just, really, you know, look at josh morgan and say you know, if you're you're not going to dominate the game, but you've got the skills to to really, just, you know, carry for two or three minutes at a time on on one end or the other.
Speaker 1:Um, and that's, you know, just manifest that yeah, well, I hope guys like morgan and page and right and hornery, I think they and and vince yuchukwu I hope they really look at the back court and kobe and in, isaac allier and boogie ellis you look at those three guys, they're gonna, they are going to make the team go right. Vince is potentially, uh, an offensive threat down low, but the offense is going to work outside in right. But these guys, these bigs, have a great chance to basically clean up every missed shot. You know, all they have to do is is get position on on all these plays where where koalier is driving the ball, and get position for the for the dump off are for the putback. And that's all you got to work on right because because do we need?
Speaker 1:I mean people? I've seen people on the board say, yeah, but we don't really have an inside scoring option. Well, we have three guys who are going to score 50 a game, yeah, right, and so we don't really we don't really need. We have three guys who can score in double figures. So you don't really need someone to be like akim olajo on download. You just need someone who can, who can convert, close in and who you know, who can just be a threat just to you know, someone you have to account for.
Speaker 1:Right, because if they get position they'll dunk on you or they'll get a rebound down, and if they can just focus on doing that and I know Vince has a much higher ceiling Vince can actually be potentially, if he can stay healthy, he could be a superstar down low. If Vince Iwachuku comes back with these three guys, if Vince Iwachuku comes back and is the player that we saw against Oregon State or against Arizona State in the games early on, where, where he hadn't really been scouted much so, so we kind of was fresh and new for the league, if he can be that kind of player or be close to that kind of player. Average 12 points, seven rebounds, two black shots. We could win the national championship in a heartbeat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to your point, you've got three guys in the backcourt that you can run an offense through. You don't need. I mean, you know, I look at the other way and, to your point, the big men need to understand that you know it's going to start in the backcourt. The thing is it's not like you've got three guys that are each going to say I got to get my 22 shots up a game. Yeah, I mean you have two of the top three assist leaders from last season and then supplemented by basically an amazing passer in terms of, you know, vision and interior passing. I mean literally the interior passing that I saw from Collier. If I'm the big man, I'm just drooling and just he gives up. Such nice, you know, looks to the bigs, it's great.
Speaker 1:Absolutely these guys are. If these guys just play their cards right, they're going to score a lot of points. And that brings us to Harrison Hornery. And I just want to make a point about those, the big three of ours, which I really think we need to come with a nickname for Ellis Boogie, boogie, kobe and Collier. I don't know what the nickname is, but three amigos, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But Boogie attempted 10 shots in the game to are in game three, collier 13 and Kobe 11. So USC shot 62 field goal attempts in the third game, right, and so 34 of those shots were from the big three. So there's they, over half the shots. So 34 out of 62 in game three. And then you go to the second game and Boogie shot 13 times, kobe shot 14 times, collier 11. So that's 38 times between out of 64. So again you're, you're almost approaching 64, 65 percent right there.
Speaker 1:So it's pretty clear, just looking at how the temps are, that those three guys are going to get. It's going to be, you know, boogie is going to get the most shots and then it's going to be Collier and then it's going to be Kobe. There's a clear hierarchy for how the offense is going to be run and it's almost like there's a, there's a really keen understanding where it's sort of like. It's sort of like that scene and almost famous, where the guitarist and the singer are like arguing about their roles and the singer is like, yeah, you're, you're supposed to be the heroic guitarist and I'm the and I'm the mysterious lead singer or something like that, and that's what these guys have decided on their roles. Right, I didn't quote that perfect, it's, it's something like that. You know, you know you're supposed to be the singer with attitude, I don't know what it was, anyway, but these guys have settled on their role.
Speaker 1:Boogie is is the is the score. Collier is the guy who does what he does what he wants when he wants to do it, he's the bully. And Kobe is the defender who will pick up the slack on offense if either of them are having problems, and you just can't sleep on him offensively anymore. So they're going to dominate the shots. And then you have DJ Rodman and Josh Morgan and Ehrington. So you have to ask where are these guys going to get the rest of the shots and who's going to get them? Who's going to be the fourth most shots? Probably going to be DJ Rodman. But there are some guys who have a chance to be the fourth most and someone like Vince by all rights he should be the fourth most because he has a developed offensive game down low. So that just goes to show you that if and when we do get Vince back fully healthy, this team's potential, I think, just goes through the roof.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Going on to Harrison Hornery. Actually, we never, never finished Harrison Hornery Struggle the first two games shooting and came back to the last game. It was six of seven from three point range, really kind of carry the team again when they needed him. And I think this goes to show you that, given the right, given enough sample size, a good shooter is going to show, show that he's a good shooter. You have what? Hornery was six of seven, and then before the game before that, he was 04. And I think I can't remember what he was in the first game. I don't think he scored a three pointer either, so but he ended up shooting like 40 or 50 or 50 percent from three, so on all three. So, as it turns out, so a large enough sample size and he got his shots. And so if this is a sign of of of his a shooting ability in this last year, it'd be great if he can be one of these role players who comes in and shoots 45 percent from three point land. That would be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you think so. 45 percent for a reserve my gosh, who wouldn't kill for that? Yeah, just like in the Pacific game in this freshman year, right, just sure, here we go, you know, and if he doesn't have it one night, great. You know he's big enough in last season, like I said in the in earlier episode, you know he's. He's kind of build up his body a little bit where, you know, the first, his first freshman season, it was just like man. Let's just hope he doesn't get abused on on defense too much. He's not a plus defender but at least he can hold his own. You know he's. Just he's got more strength now.
Speaker 1:He's had some good defensive games, particularly against UCLA at Pauley. He played very well defensively, especially in in the, you know, in the in the team element of defense. So yeah, I think, if he can be this consistent level three point shooter actually this wasn't consistent, but I would be I would be very happy if every third game Harrison Hornery made three, six, three pointers. I think if he, if he did that every three games, you'd have 10 games where he scored. He scored 18 points. So I'm all for that. Okay, Kid Johnny Wright, who is just one more thing on that.
Speaker 2:I just one more question, you know, to my earlier point about Rodman and just you know where you said that almost makes us a four guard offense. At times I this this lineup where you had Hornery and Paige and Kid Johnny all at the same time. That really stuck out to me. That's really just a complete 180 from the four guard offense it's. It's a lot of size.
Speaker 1:I'm not a huge fan of that, of that, you know, of that lineup, but you know if you think there's anything there, do you think we'll use it, or is this like a?
Speaker 2:okay, let's just see what happens? Situation.
Speaker 1:If Collier and Boogie are are on the court, excuse me, excuse me. If Collier and Boogie are on the court, then I think it's fine, but only for a very short stretch. Like if you're, if you're coming in to get Hornery his three in a situation where we need a three or something and he's in the game, but you also want rebounders in there or something I can maybe see, but you got to have Collier and Boogie in that game too, because you need to draw the deep, you need to draw the perimeter defense away from Hornery to get a shot, and and and he'll be able to, with his size, be able to shoot over the closing defender. So I can see a situation where, in situational half court offense or an inbound type play, I can see where that would happen.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, interesting, yeah, maybe some kind of weird late game thing where you need something specific, I don't know, yeah, okay, kejani Wright, what did you think?
Speaker 2:You know my guy love him I. The one thing I wish I would have seen more from him was just better finishing. He seemed to still not be a strong finishing, as I want, but solid. Aside from that, one thing that I thought was really interesting too was I believe it was in the first game when we were on crunch time and and and and people is doing some offense defense substitutions. It was interesting that on the defensive side he's bringing in Kejani. I don't know if you, if you, noticed that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did. Kejani is a good defender. Kejani's defense defensive improvement at the end of last season, I think, has carried over to this year. Yeah, he's not long. He's not like particularly long, but he's strong and he's learning how to get position. But he's also incredibly tenacious. I think he's a guy who doesn't dog it. He tries, yeah, he tries, and and it's it's going to come because he tries, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, when you say like that was taken to positional it's, it's almost like he's got the you know there's a joke about the YMCA old man game it's almost like he brings it on defense where he he just knows how to get to where he needs to get and how to use that. He's not the longest guy, he's not the most onus athletic big, but he's just like he's going to put himself in the best position probably of any of the of the bigs on defense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, in that second game against Megamise he didn't do much offensively but he did have five rebounds in in just 13 minutes. So he he did get his boards, he was playing pretty good defense and that was a pretty good version of that team because they got their star point guard back in that game. But I thought he played pretty well in the first game. I don't have his numbers for that game, but I think he actually had decent. I think he had like six points, five boards or something along those lines. So he actually had his best game in the first game.
Speaker 1:And again, that was a pretty good Euro team with a lot of long guys and he's because he's not a long dude. He doesn't elevate particularly well. It's going to be hard for me to get a shot off, so but I think he's going to figure it out. I think he's the guy because he's smart and he works hard and it's not like he doesn't have like incredible athletic deficiencies. He's fairly athletic, he's got a great body and he's learning how to use it. He's pretty athletic, but it's going to take time for him to learn the sort of the blue, like the crafty part of the game, because he's going to need to be crafty, because I don't think he's sort of an in-betweener in that position, right and so. So I think it's just going to take a continued amount of time with him, but if he sticks with it, we're going to see some I think, some huge dividends by his junior year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, that rounds out the roster. Two guys, of course, who we didn't talk about Vincent Iwachuku we did mention him, but we didn't talk about him. From what I've heard, he's still going through rehab with his back, but they expect him to be back for fall camp. It's better than getting him in January, so so I'd rather you know again. Another guy with who brings the intensity I think this is probably the theme of the team is have a bunch of really intense guys Kobe, isaiah Collier, vincent plays hard, boogie plays hard, rodman plays hard All these guys are running around with their hair on fire half the time, so, which is great.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, you know, seeing this team, I was thinking about this. I wanted to ask you this, mark looking at the team now, I think it's more obvious than ever where someone with Ronnie James' skill set would fit in to this team. Like it's tantalizingly close when you think about it. When you think about it like if he was on that trip, the things he knowing, like the extra little things he does, and again, sort of being like another Kobe and another DJ Rodman, in the scrappiness sense and in the defensive sense and doing the little things sense. So and then knowing that having another guy who could spot up, shoot and then play some defense and play great perimeter defense that gets steals and do some little things it's really tantalizing to think how good this team can be if we can get both Vince and Ronnie back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, obviously the consideration is you know the timing and obviously you want them to be great. But you know how long to assimilate and you know if it's during a tough stretch during the conference season. Things can get tricky there. Sure, the good news is, you know we have such talent in the backcourt that I think we can create a lot more opportunities to make that an easier process. It's not like on a lot of teams where, okay, you know, if player A goes down then you're going to have, you know, be a little deficient. It's going to be awkward trying to work in the new guy. I think it'll be a lot more seamless just because there's just a lot more options.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a great point. Yeah, hopefully. Whatever the case, whether he plays basketball or not, let's just hope he's doing okay and that he recovers fully. Obviously he's getting great medical attention, so let's hope that that is all resolved and he can get back to what he wants to do. Yeah, all right. Well, I think that's going to do it. We went through all the players. I guess we can finish with just kind of our overall impression Of the trip. Mark, what is your overall takeaway, from a broader sense, about the Euro trip?
Speaker 2:As much as I'm excited about the talent, I like the I guess I would say the mindset and kind of the culture of this team. You've got guys that seem to understand what they're going to do, to fit in and just really do what's best for the team. I don't see. You know, we've seen another team sometimes that looked like they might be concerned about who's going to get the most shots or this or that, and I just I'm not seeing that here. I see you know plugged in guys who just you know, are doing the right thing for the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:I going back again four years to the last Euro trip which I went on. Huge difference, obviously, in talent level but also in, I think, the seriousness of these guys' approach. Boogie, I think, who I would imagine is going to be a captain. He is obviously. Whether he's a captain or not, he's a leader on the team, having that really old guy being your leader and then, you know, bringing in an obvious talent who doesn't appear to have a major ego in Collier, and then Kobe, who doesn't have an ego. It's all about this. The ego of this team is, I think, really in check and it seems to me that they have a real clear-eyed vision of what they're able to do, and I think they're figuring that out earlier than other teams have at the same point. So, when you combine all those things with the talent and also the guys who might come back, I think, just as it is, the team is going to be really outstanding. They could be elitist of the elite if they get those other guys back, or at least one of those guys back. So, yeah, remains to be seen.
Speaker 1:I think we'll call that a podcast and it looks like we will probably be back next time with Kurt Karris. We're going to talk a little bit about what he does director of scouting and he's also now an assistant coach. We'll talk about his promotion, get an update from him, and then we'll talk about his promotion. And then we'll talk about his promotion. We'll talk about his promotion, get an update from him on the trip to Greece and yeah, and we will finish out the summer and get ready for football season. Awesome, fight on, fight on everybody.