With the 2023-2024 USC basketball season ready to tip off in Vegas against Kansas State, Chris and Mark recap the offseason, review the roster and preview the matchups with the Wildcats. How do Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson matchup? Listen to find out. Also, Chris takes a look at the class of 2024 commits with breakdowns of their strengths and weaknesses, and briefly discusses physical phenom AJ Dybantsa, the top prep prospect in the class of 2025, who recently took an official visit to USC.
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.
With the 2023-2024 USC basketball season ready to tip off in Vegas against Kansas State, Chris and Mark recap the offseason, review the roster and preview the matchups with the Wildcats. How do Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson matchup? Listen to find out. Also, Chris takes a look at the class of 2024 commits with breakdowns of their strengths and weaknesses, and briefly discusses physical phenom AJ Dybantsa, the top prep prospect in the class of 2025, who recently took an official visit to USC.
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. Welcome to Episode 6 of the Dunk City Podcast, brought to you by USCBasketballcom. My name is Chris Houston. I'm the owner and publisher of USCBasketballcom, the only website on the internet that is dedicated solely to USC Basketball. As you might have heard if you've been following things, the 2023-2024 season is about to tip off in Las Vegas against Kansas State, and if you're as excited about this season as we are, I think you're going to enjoy this show as well as all the shows we have coming up. So we'd really appreciate it if you liked us, followed us. Give us a good comment out there on the various streaming platforms.
Speaker 1:We were supposed to kick off the show with Kobe Johnson as our featured guest. Unfortunately, a few things came up for the young man. After all, there is a season to get ready for. We're going to try to get him on the next episode just before the home opener, but in the meantime, there's a ton to talk about. After all, this is our season preview episode, so let's bring on our co-host, mark Baxter, who handles the analytics for the site under the name Buckmetrics. If you go to USCBasketballcom, just look for the tab Buckmetrics, mark. The season is nigh. What say you?
Speaker 2:It is great to be here. You said one thing just to dig right in. You said this is the season preview episode. I think we need to say this is the season period no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the season we're here. It's great to be back and talking USCBasketball. Of course, we had a few podcasts over the summer where we talked to Mike Sweatts, the director of basketball operations. We also talked to Kurt Keras, who's now an assistant coach. So those were good, informative podcasts. So we're excited. Pretty soon we're going to be able to start talking about actual basketball, which is nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the off season is a good opportunity to rest and focus on other things, but after a while you get itching and it's time, it's time.
Speaker 1:It definitely is. Since USC is now a basketball school, it's time to start talking basketball. Just to catch up on a few things that have happened over the summer Since we've last talked, of course there was the three games in Greece and Croatia. Usc won all three of those games. There is the Brony James situation where you had his heart issue, but it does look like he will be back at some point. He's been involved with some of the preseason promotional stuff with USCBasketball. Some of the bigs have been out at various points. Marenton Page had mono, but he is back. Vincent Iwachukwu has been rehabbing much of the summer, but he is now back. Both of them are a little bit behind the curve, so it could be that we won't see them in full strength until we get closer to packed whole season. Indeed, it's been reported that Andy Enfield revealed that Vince will not be available on Monday night against Kansas State, and then everyone else seems to be pretty healthy and ready to go. Any thoughts from you, mark, on just the general outlook of the team?
Speaker 2:Like everybody, I think, I'm just looking forward to seeing how the new faces fit in. As much as anything else, the good news is, the new faces seem to be much more of a known quantity this season than seasons prior. Is that a fair assessment, you think?
Speaker 1:Definitely we have the number one player out of high school in the country in Isaiah Collier. It's definitely a very known quantity. It's like you kind of know what you're going to get with him. And also we've seen him not only play at some really high level games in the summer the McDonald's All-American game, where he played really well, and also, of course, over in Europe, where he played well, so we know what he is.
Speaker 1:What's interesting to me, looking at the team, there are 914 field goal attempts to be reallocated. That's nearly half of USC's total field goal attempts. That's Drew Peterson, reese Waters, dixon Trey White and if you look at the last four or five seasons at USC, usc is averaged somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 shots per season. So who's going to get those 914 field goal attempts? You have, of course, isaiah Collier. Both Boogie and Kobe Johnson could increase their load. Dj Rodman coming in, vincent Iwachuku, I would imagine, because he's going to play more games, is going to take more of that load and then some of these young guys are also going to start be able to take some of those shots as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my first thought when you mentioned that is and I've talked about this, I believe was in the premier episode, osaya I ran some metrics where I have the opportunities per 40 minutes and it's kind of a usage metric. Osaya's usage was only 11.8 per 40 minutes and, just for reference, boogie was at 24.8. The departed Drew Peterson was at 22.2. Now, we wouldn't expect a true freshman to have a really high usage rate, unless you're, for example, and Isaiah Collier. But as Harolded as his shooting has been, I really want to see his usage rate go up over anybody else that you didn't mention.
Speaker 1:I guess I'd say yeah, it's a good point. It's probably going to be something by necessity, because the backcourt, while it is definitely arguably the best backcourt in the country, it's not the deepest backcourt in the country, at least until Brony James comes back in the court and then, along with him and Oziah, you're going to have a little bit more depth back there. But it's interesting because if I was looking at how the points would be sort of allocated this year, boogie averaged almost 18 last season. I think he's probably going to average 18 or 19 this year and I can see Isaiah Collier averaging around 15. I can see Kobe Johnson kind of going from 9 up to 12, around 12 or so, and then, right there, that's 45, 46 points from that big three. So I think some games will have less, some games will have more. You're probably going to see, like we talked about in previous episodes, some games where those three guys have 60. But they probably won't between the three of them. They will probably rarely get below 40.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nice to have three legitimate scoring options, although I wouldn't really say that Kobe really creates his own so much if that's fair nearly as much as the other two. But he's definitely I would say almost ideal in terms of that third guy where you don't want to leave him open and he doesn't. You know he's until you see him day in and day out. He doesn't really strike you as a knockdown shooter and then the end of the season you look and he shot over 40% from three in conference play. It's just that he doesn't. I guess he doesn't never has that crazy, like you know, eight out of 10 from three game where he just grabs the headline.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the thing with him is is that you know, a lot of tension is going to be a paid to boogie and call it a lot of defensive attention, right? So Johnson's going to have a lot of opportunities. There's not too many teams with three guys who can, who could defend three legitimate scoring threats, right? And so Kobe has shown, I think, over the summer, that he can. He's starting to create his own shot more. He's starting to get better at going to the basket and his outside shot has definitely improved. It's shown up in the exhibition games and in the in the, the scrimmages that they've had in the preseason. He's also had some strong games as well. So, you know, he's definitely a guy who looks like he could potentially have a better season than even. I think, if things go right, because he's he's going to have the opportunity to hit a lot of open shots because guys like Collier are going to look for him and he's going to, you know, be able to spot up and shoot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, and again, it's, it's, it's. It's one of those things where if you've kind of watched this whole career, you don't really he didn't really strike you as first, but he, he really can give us that spacing where you know if, if you're going to have just a great geometry offensively for lack of a better term where you're going to have Isaiah creating and you have Boogie and and Kobe on the perimeter and who knows what that will open up inside for for the big guys, which is, I mean, you know, when you draw up what you want from your, your team offensively, that's, that's literally what you want. Just, you know that kind of, I guess, what do I want to say? Balance between all five spots, if that makes sense, and that's what I said you know, this is the season.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is the season as far as it's kind of an all in season, like I I've mentioned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's easier to develop bigs if you have great guards than it is to develop guards if you have great bigs. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:That's a great point yeah.
Speaker 1:And so you know, I think the big wildcard of course is sort of the two headed monster at center that we have, which is the Vincey Wichukwu and and Joshua Morgan. Joshua Morgan's a known quantity but he has. I thought he showed some nice signs of of really being more physical and forceful over the summer, looked more athletic, has been, has been finishing better at the rim. Vince is a guy who people are sleeping on because he's just always been hurt, but if he can maintain a long string of health, you're going to see. I think his development really accelerated because this is a guy who works really hard. He has a lot of energy and he goes really, just really hard all the time. He's not going to dogged and I have him down like. So the way I have my point allocation here for the season.
Speaker 1:Dj Rodman, I think you know he averaged almost 10 points a game at Washington State. I don't think he's going to reach that point for USC. I think he averaged 10 at Washington State, kind of because they needed him to. I don't think they need. We need him to score 10 points a game. I think he might end up somewhere around seven, but there'll be games where he's he does some a lot of, a lot of timely shots and and and scores when we need it. But I think if USC can get between the two of them, between Vince Iwichuku and Joshua Morgan, if they can get 13, 14 points between the two of them, I think that would be a very successful season for the for the five spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And and one thing you know to your point about, about Vince's injury in the in the preseason column that I did or that I guess it was the premier column I guess we would say before Vince was out with the back pain, you can just see a drop in his, in his per minutes production across all kinds of stats after that Oregon State game. So it was just unfortunate. So you know, I, I there's a tendency of fans just to look at like the very best effort of any team and say that's, that's what we should do every game and it's not realistic.
Speaker 2:but this is a stretch we're talking about and I think it's realistic to say, well, geez, this guy came in late. He came in a conference play. It's not like he got to warm up against Bakersfield and you know, lmu tough spot, and it took him a couple of games and all of a sudden he was, you know, I want to say capital T, capital D, the difference. Maybe that's a little aggressive, but he made a huge difference when he was. You know, once he got up to speed, he was healthy, he was a difference maker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, just and it's just. You know not only his size and athleticism but the energy he brings to the game, his ability. Of course we're talking I'm just talking about scoring now, but of course he brings potential excellent rim protection and defense to to the equation as well, which which Morgan also does. So we can have two really good shot blockers and and rim protectors down low potentially, which is, you know, you combine that with a great backhort and that's a deadly combination for a team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you think? Do you think that we'll see them at all? Or occasionally play both at the same time? Morgan and Iwachiku.
Speaker 1:I think probably unlikely, because I think that they're going to want to manage both of them and it's great because you have. You have two guys who who have some limitations. Morgan's limitations are that maybe his offensive skill set is a little bit limited. Vince's limitation is that he just hasn't, doesn't have the experience that Morgan does. But if you can play both of them for 20 minutes a game and rotate those two and and they're fresh and they're coming in and they're, they're sort of like seeing which one's hot, which one is feeling it, and and I think it's, and then you they don't have to really worry that much about fouling if they're, if they're rotating.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think that potentially just that position, if Vince can, can keep progressing and this and this year he is going to have a chance to play against some of the, you know, the Bakersfields and Long Beach States, although the preseason is more difficult than last year, but but yeah, so he's, you know, these guys are going to get a chance to really show their stuff because there's not going to be as much pressure on Morgan to be the only guy you know and I think, and Vince isn't going to have to worry about, you know, doing well while he's out there, because if he doesn't do well, the team's, you know, going to go down and they can always bring in Morgan or potentially Arrington Page as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've kind of gone to a worst case scenario thing I'm just thinking about last year, when you have Arizona's two big guys just both going nuts, do you think that it still wouldn't make sense to play them, or is that where you'd rely more on a hoping that Page is up to speed at that point?
Speaker 1:Well, I think you have a good developing player that we've talked about in, kejani Wright, who can, who is right now developing defensively, improving his offense. I think you lose a lot of when you play those two guys. You know there's not going to be many teams that have two 6 foot, 11, 7 footers, you know. So you have to look at, you know who are they going to, who are they going to guard and what are they going to do on offense. How do you, how do you play those guys in offense? Vince is basically playing the four at that point. So maybe the situation comes up, but I'm just saying I would doubt that would happen. I think you're going to see a lot more of Kejani Wright or Dennis or DJ Rodman at the at the four, potentially Arrington Page, harrison, hornery, because I think Andy Infield likes to have the type of four who can either, you know, just go in there and bang and be a rebound, or someone who could stretch the court and and, and you know, provide some outside shots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fair point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you have, you know.
Speaker 1:So, like we talked about Kejani Wright, I think, as a guy who you know he didn't score much last year, I think he's going to, just by virtue of playing with Isaiah Collier, have some more clean looks at the basket should average around five or six points a game it was I sellers wildcard, like you mentioned he could average anywhere between two and 10,.
Speaker 1:You know, from what I can, from what I can see, arrington Page, another guy, depending on how quickly he gets up to speed, but just from pure athleticism, he's going to contribute some. And then, you know, hornery is one of those guys who will probably come in on occasion and hit a few threes, but then, you know, not contribute much for a few games. And then Brandon Gardner is probably going to be a guy who might get most of his playing time in the preseason as as he gets chance to play against some some of these less strong teams. But I think as we get into conference play, unless he really makes a jump in his understanding of the offense, he's probably not going to play as much, or unless there's an injury. And then, of course, you know, the big wildcard is is is Bronny James. If he can come and and be playing again by conference play, then I think he's going to be a real factor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of it just is a function of you know when does he start to get back into the whole reintegration. I know that every case is different, but boy it was, it was. It's crazy. It went from in my mind at least you know hopeless in terms of Vince coming back to suddenly flip to like painfully long, but at least there was hope. So just yeah, it's just a matter of you know how quickly he reintegrates, and it's so tough when you're a freshman too.
Speaker 2:It just it is, you know it just. There's just just making that jump as it is, even you know, no matter how good you are, unless you are just an elite guy. That's, you know, was ready two years ago for this level. We've seen really good recruits. I mean, you know, takes some time and just boy, it's really unfortunate just before you're, you know, in the summer of your freshman season, Boy it's rough.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's easier for for a freshman guard to integrate and to come back from something like this than it is a big and I think that he's obviously a guy with high basketball intelligence and I think he also understands that he's not the star of the team and he's not going to be asked to come in and do a whole lot, you know.
Speaker 1:So he's going to just like last year, usc really needed Vince Vince's presence, so there was a little bit of pressure in that regard. But with Brani it's going to be like whatever they can get out of them, they're going to, they're going to appreciate and if he can do more than is expected, especially like on the defensive end and the transition and just doing little things, which he's good at, being a good teammate and doing all that stuff he can really have a fact. He could be a factor and especially just general depth in the backcourt. If there's, if there's games where where you know someone's in foul trouble and he needs to come in and just get USC out of a game, I think he can do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, literally that's where I was going. Next it's just with with a guy like Gardner and and and Brani James you just maybe hope there's quote you know a Brani James game where it's like, wow, you know, without him we would, we were sunk in that game. Or the same thing with a, you know, with a page or any of these other new guys. I think when it comes to conference play especially, that's you know again, except in the case of a guy like Collier, which is just a different set of circumstances for the freshman, just hope for those one or two games you know, with the upside I'm trying to think of. Um Kobe had like four steals in the first half of his freshman year. That would be like first example it comes to my mind Was that against.
Speaker 2:Oregon State.
Speaker 1:I don't remember, but I do know. Yeah, I think there was a game where he he just showed out right defensively and just kind of announced himself as a factor and I, yeah, I think, and the great thing about the Brani James um element is that you know when it's revealed that he's going to play, you know the whole basketball world's eyes are going to be in that game, so that's going to be pretty cool. Yeah, um, okay, so now we're looking at um. I was talking about kind of the scoring output of the team and the last few years, usc's kind of averaged in the low to mid seventies. I think this is a team that could average between 80 and 85 points a game. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I think so. You know, based on your comments, you seem to be a little closer to this kind of thing. It seems like we're going to be playing at a more up tempo this season versus the prior season, and that's going to make a big difference. Is that fair, or is that, I guess? Is that a formed opinion, or is that more speculation on your end?
Speaker 1:No, I think it's just a matter of if you look at the amount of shots that are going to be allocated and you look at who's coming in to replace those shots. I think in a sense Isaiah Collier replaces what Drew Peterson does, and in a sense DJ Rodman replaces what Reed, sticks and Waters did, and then it's a matter of who's going to replace what Trey White did, and then that'll be kind of a committee situation. But I think you're likely to see probably higher efficiency out of Boog-Yellis and probably a little bit more points.
Speaker 1:And I think Isaiah Collier is probably going to score a bit more than Drew did and potentially, I think you're going to see Kobe Johnson improve his scoring average by as much as 40%.
Speaker 2:Very, yeah, I think that's a fair prediction. Just as a reminder, drew is actually our third most efficient creator, I would say, based on my BPO 100. Boogie was the most efficient and Kobe was the second most efficient. Now, going by usage, kobe's usage is only 16.7 opportunities per 40 minutes, which was, I understand, drew was handling the ball and he's just going to have more opportunities. But I think if you're going to have the pieces that fit better and God bless, nobody dogged it last year, it was an odd fitting team last season and we knew it going in and the pieces fit so much better. I think maybe that's kind of what you're getting at and I'm just slow to put the concept together.
Speaker 2:The team. That makes a lot more sense. Going back to the whole geometry, that makes a lot more sense this season. I think that's going to be more efficient overall and better use of your assets, if you will. Where I think the most efficient guys will get the higher usage. I think the other part of that is Boogie's usage might go down a little bit, but he'll be more efficient in those fewer opportunities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I do think he's going to get his shots, without a doubt. But I think what you bring up about the way the team is structured there's different types of teams, like the team last year. Like you said, it didn't really have a true point, so it was a matter of finding their way until they figured out who they were and then, once they did, they were pretty good, and certain teams have to do that. Even the Elite 8 team a few years back took a little while before they figured out what they had.
Speaker 1:But if you look at this team on paper, you've got an elite point guard. You've got an elite shooting guard. You've got an elite defender with a rapidly improving offensive game. If healthy, you've got a potential first round pick center. In Vincent Yachukua you have a if Vincent is the main starter at some point. Then you've got a heck of a backup center in Joshua Morgan. And then you've got guys who are glue guys, like DJ Rodman, who has a lot of experience. If you want glue guys, you have a young glue guy in Brony James, if he comes back.
Speaker 1:You've got high level young guys, bigs, who are really talented in Arrington Page and Brandon Gardner, guys who can fill some depth. You've got a guy who's just like a hard working blue collar guy, johnny Wright. Not a lot of ego, good passer, he's going to play hard. You've got a guy who's a shooting, two shooting specialist in Harrison Hornery and Osia Sellers. Neither of you know Osia Sellers hasn't shown it yet in games. Hornery has shown flashes of it. But I'm saying that's why I'm saying it's all on paper, right, but you know if you're looking at and then you know Brandon Gardner is can jump out of the gym if you're looking for, you know, preternatural athleticism.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Arrington Page is also a great athlete. So if you're looking for basketball intelligence, ball handling, rim protection, you know glue guys who sacrifice themselves and do the little things all those things are there. Maybe the only thing that's really not there as far as proven is a real legitimate like proven rebounder. Right, I think there's going to be like volume rebounding, but there's guys who have the potential to be good rebounders. So in the ideal world, if you're drawing up the fantasy of what this team could be, it has all the elements to really be like a really hard team to play Because there's just so many potential weapons at all levels of the court.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two things. First of all, I had to Google preternatural while you were going on there. Impressive use of that word.
Speaker 1:Did I use it right?
Speaker 2:Yes, you did, Congratulations Way ahead of me. The other thing is, you know, the thing that stands out is in the projected roles, the exercise that we go through. Literally all 300-plus teams can go through the same thing. And the thing that makes the most is most comforting to me, I guess I would say, is there's no really odd asks or asking anybody to do what they're not really capable of in terms of, you know, not to pick on anybody, but boy, if Jeff McMillan had great hands and could just score 20 points a game, we would have been a great team. There's no ask of that. It's just going back to what coach Lettuce, as he's called Keras, mentioned to us. You know, embrace what makes you a good player.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that there's no asking somebody to do something that they're not capable or doesn't make them a good player. That's what's so encouraging about this specific team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know so. Really it just boils down to mainly health, right. Mainly health is, from what I see, if these guys stay healthy, then I think this guy's the limit for this team. If there's some injury problems, then it might be a bit problematic and we've already seen some issues with that. But there's still plenty of time for guys to come back and for the season to take shape the way we hope.
Speaker 2:And maybe we've just got our injury bug out of the way already.
Speaker 1:That's a really good way to look at it. We're done. No more injuries. So, yeah, this is a.
Speaker 1:You know I was a little surprised that USC wasn't ranked higher in the preseason. Looking at the preseason rankings it's kind of funny. Looking at it's like the usual suspects, like Kansas, duke, purdue, michigan State, right, usc is 21st in the AP, 22nd in the Coaches poll. But if you look at a lot of the guys who really cover college basketball over at CBS or John Rothstein, they have USC, you know, top 12, right. There's a lot of people who are in love with Arizona. I think Arizona is a bit of a mirage because they have a.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of faith being put in Tommy Lloyd's offense, a lot of faith being put in Omar Baloo, who I think was he was more successful because of Tobalus next to him last year. I don't think he's the same guy by himself. And then you know they bring in these guys Caleb Love from North Carolina, who you know, who shot 38% from the field and 29% from three point range last year, and they're calling this, they're calling this guy the top transfer into the, into the pack 12. So I don't know, it's a little weird that USC isn't getting as much attention. And then there's, of course, like there's, residual teams that are ranked because of what they did in the tournament, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the preseason rankings just seem to always have inertia tied to brand names as much as anything. So it's frustrating, but that is what we are. But we're not alone.
Speaker 1:True.
Speaker 2:You know there's a lot of programs in the same shape as we are, although I take our upcoming season probably, you know, against any of those other teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's funny. Like Purdue lost in the opening round to was it Farley Dickinson? And here they are number three in the country. No, no, no penalty right. And then you know, uconn won the national title on their sixth right, so which I think is fine, which I think is fine, but why aren't they rated higher than Purdue right? I mean I don't know. And then you know, kansas is number one because because they added Hunter Dickinson. And it's like man, those college basketball media, you know, they just, they just love the big stiffs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if I don't know if Purdue plays Kansas, but the whole college basketball media might implode if, if Zach ED has to play Hunter. Dickinson.
Speaker 1:Stiff, stiff on stiff. Yeah, you know, I mean good luck, don't get me wrong. Good, good, productive, productive players, right, but I'll eat my hat if Hunter Dickinson is the difference for for for Kansas this year, right, like like he had a bunch of irrelevant points and rebounds for Michigan and he's just a big stiff. Who's just? You know he scores because he's big, right, yep, but yeah, I just never been a big fan of his. I don't think he's, I don't think he's a winner, but anyway, that's kind of he's going to a tough spot there.
Speaker 2:I mean that it's the big men are not as big in the Big 12, but they are a lot more athletic in.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know I understand why I'm to go to Kansas. It's an awesome program but at the same time, you know there's there's a pretty good downside of getting some pretty big holes in his game exposed.
Speaker 1:Precisely. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I mean, I think I look at teams like Michigan State. That's a good team. I think that's a team that's going to be a contender this year. A lot of people are really high on Duke. I just don't see it with Duke either, but it's going to be interesting and we'll see what happens. That's why they play the games. Yep, ok, should we talk about Kansas State?
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:So for those of you who don't know, usc opens against Kansas State on Monday, november 6th in Las Vegas. I think. The game is at 7 pm local time. And really good match up for USC. It's pretty rare for USC to open up with a team that has a good reputation, like like Kansas State. Looking over at Ken Palm, kansas State is ranked 25th. Usc is also 21st in Ken Palm. By the way, Purdue is number one in Ken Palm but in Kansas is number two. But which is fine. Like these are, these are good regular season teams, right. But so you're looking at a twenty one, twenty five match up USC in Kansas State. They haven't made any projections yet on On who's going to win that game between the two teams.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about Kansas State, shall we Sure? They were in the elite eight last year. They had two really fantastic players, marquis Noel and Keontae Johnson averaged 17.6 and 17.4. Noel averaged over eight assists per game. Keontae Johnson shot 52 percent from the field and 41 percent almost 41 percent from three point land. So so Kansas State has lost Marquis Noel, keontae Johnson, their third leading scorer. Neyquan Tomlin just got arrested last week and he is suspended. So yes, so he will not play in this game.
Speaker 1:They also lost Desi cells. So they lost their, their top four scores, right, their top four scores, totaling 71 percent of their scoring output last year. Now, they did bring in some guys. They did bring in Tyler Perry from North Texas, they brought in Arthur Columa from Creighton, who was a pretty good player for Creighton, and on the rest of their roster they've got a few other transfers, some of them who had redshirted last year. So but I think, just again, you don't know how teams are going to, how quickly they're going to develop in the early season, but on paper this is a team that has a lot to replace.
Speaker 2:Really do. Um, the one thing, too, that stood out to me when I was doing this preparation was Jerome Tang. Obviously he did a good job. The big 12 is an excellent conference, and going 11 and seven in there is no small feat, but, man, he did inherit just a fantastic roster, with Noel Johnson, you know, and then to a lesser extent, sills, you know, and Tomlin too, um, it's, I want to see, you know, first of all, what does he do with lesser pieces now? Now, tyler Perry like I said when you're talking to the assistant coach Keras, I'm already having nightmares against about him because of how he just, absolutely, you know, took a flamethrower to conference USA but it was conference USA and he's not really much of a creator.
Speaker 1:He's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, looking at the, I watched a game of theirs against uh when they played a team in Israel pretty good team actually and from what I can tell uh, it looks to me like he's trying to be more of a distributor. I don't think he's necessarily very good at it. He's certainly no, no marquees, no L Um. But I think that Kansas State understands and also he understands because he's hopefully, you know, he's a guy who thinks he's wants to play in the NBA. So he's, he's five foot, 11 generously listed Um, and so he's going to try to.
Speaker 1:You know, he's going to try to be more of a distributor and be more of a true point guard, um, sort of like how Boogie came over to USC and was sort of trying to show he could distribute more. Now, whether he can is the question. We know he can shoot and shadow or 40% from three Um, he, he's a, he is a very smooth outside shooter, but uh, he's really not um, he's not. He's really not, like you said, just not a distributor and and he's going to be a guy who, who, um, he's more of like a defender, he's like a three and D guy. This is how I see him.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm, and, and to your point, it's, it's, it's not as if they're replacing just a good point guard who left, um, the assists for 40 minutes for Noel was just off the charts. Yeah, um, you know, basically I've compared it to you're replacing, you know, peak Jordan McLaughlin, um, at the same time, you're also, you know, who would be a good analog to Keonsey Johnson and his game. Um, maybe Elijah not exactly a perfect analog, but you know that season after we lost um, you know Jordan and Elijah, it's, it's rough.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was. That was a rough season too, yeah, Well, it's like it's.
Speaker 1:maybe it's more like losing. You know, I know it wasn't the same season, but losing McLaughlin and um, uh and the, the all pack 12 guard the year before, right, you know, the, the, the big yeah, oh, julian Jacobs.
Speaker 1:Julian Jacobs, right. Imagine losing those two, right? Um, so definitely there'd be some drop off, uh, but Perry's a good player, uh, looking at the rest of their lineup, like who do? I think they're going to start against USC. I think they're going to start Perry. They're probably going to start a Cam Carter, uh, who is actually the leading returning score from last year now, uh, who will be playing in the game. He averaged 6.5 points per game last year. Only shot 33% from 3.2 38% overall. He's a pretty good defender, um, and this is really, I think, what Tang is going to focus on in the early season because, like they always say, you know you, you can always play defense, right, so I think they're going to focus on on just playing really hard defense and hoping to create stuff and trying to trying to work their lineup and and find the right combinations, and, uh, cam Carter is a pretty decent defender. I think you're going to have uh third player, taj Manning uh, who is, uh, probably, um, I don't think he's going to be a major contributor. He's, uh, he's a red shirt freshman, he, which is, which is something you don't you don't really see uh much in college football these days, right, um, he was not a really highly um acclaimed guy. He was signed by the previous coaching staff and then he red shirted last year. So now he's back uh, based on what I saw in the exhibition games, it looks like he's probably going to be a starter, but from what I've seen of him, I'm not really impressed by him.
Speaker 1:But you know, you got Arthur Columa, who is coming in from Creighton. He averaged something like 11.6 points per game, seven boards pretty tough player. He might be prime for a huge year. He's not a high, he doesn't have a high percentage score. He doesn't, you know, have high uh field goal percentage or three point percentage. He's kind of a volume guy. But he's pretty athletic Um, he's very experienced. He's played in a good program, I think between Perry and Columa. Those are the two guys uh that are going to uh give us the most trouble on Monday. Columa, however, is six, six and you're looking at him playing, probably playing the four, which is going to help us a bit because you know, then we can play DJ Robin at the four and and it's kind of like a tit for tat Uh, and it looks like David Gessin uh is going to be the center because Tomlin, who is a pretty athletic guy, um, and was, uh, you know, showed lots of, lots of uh flashes last year and look good in the in the in the summer.
Speaker 1:Uh, he's out, he's out. And uh. So David Gessin, who played with the Dutch national team over the summer, um, looks like he's going to be the starter. He's kind of like Vince. He's very high energy, really good athlete who could run very explosive. Good rim protector. Uh, shows real flashes very much like Vince from um from what I've seen. So they're kind of a question mark. He's. He's kind of like, just like Vince is a question mark. Can he make the jump? Um, to the next level? He has the talent. Can he do it? Um, but they don't. So overall, kansas state doesn't have a lot of sides. And then they have another big name, jarell Colbert, who's an LSU transfer. He barely played as a freshman at LSU and again he read church last year. Looks kind of rusty to me. They have a true freshman guard coming in, coming in, named dye dye aims, who, uh, for my eyes, is a very good defender, very quick, high potential guy and a guy that we need to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting Um, just some responses, first of all, to what you went through, their cam Carter. Um, I don't really remember seeing him play. Just, you know, from a metric standpoint he looks to be a little bit less than what Reese gave us last season. Um, I, I'm not, really I wouldn't be excited about starting to. Uh, someone's going to be that productive, um, in terms of you know, in my, in my back court, um, kaluma, um, I, he doesn't strike me as I, how do I say this? His, his BP, a 100 is low and I think that he's just going to be a function of other people creating for him as well as guessing. Um, you know, guessing stats are, are they tell such a great story? He shot 73% from two last season.
Speaker 2:Um but he only took 10, three pointers. And tell me if this sounds familiar. He shot 47% from the free throw line. So those metrics is paint a picture of a very specific kind of um player who I don't think is going to be a back to the basket. Bill Russell, no lights yet for 30 on on Skyhooks. Um, and I bring that up because, again, going back to the loss of of Noelle, I think that's going to be a huge loss. It almost there seems to be some kind of like switch in in roles between these two teams. They strike me as kind of like what we had last season, where there's some pieces but they might not fit altogether great and they're going to have a. You know, like you said, you know somebody playing point guard who's not a natural point guard. The other baby, the other pieces suffer from that, and then we get almost a younger analog to um, to Noelle, and I say a.
Speaker 1:Collier, right, right, no, it's a great, great point. Um, I think you look at at Kansas state, they've got some good pieces there. Uh, they don't have a lot of size, um, but they're, but they're good they're. They teach defense and in the half court they do a lot of trapping and double teaming and they're very aggressive defensively, um, and so I think that's what they're going to play off of in the early going, until they find their right combinations, until they get guys, until they figure out who's going to be their guys.
Speaker 1:Uh, they do have Caluma and Perry as veterans to to really lean on, and Caluma can. Caluma is not like you said, he's not like a very efficient guy, but he's pretty athletic and he plays hard and he plays good defense and and, uh, you know, he's somebody who must be accounted for, right, and so both him and Perry have to be accounted for, or else, or else they could kill you. So, but luckily for USC, they have guys to account to account for these guys. They have guys who can, uh, if you're looking at like, let's just like, look at the defensive matchups here, right, Like who, uh, usc can put, um, I think, can put, uh, can put books on, put boogie on Perry. You know, um and and uh, the other two guards are not really great scoring threats, so, uh, kobe doesn't really have to to really, like you know, wear himself out. They can actually maybe rotate on Perry a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that might be the best bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just to really take advantage of the, the comparative depth there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, so, and then their bigs aren't really great Scoring threats they're, they're good finishers and their athletes, uh and, and these are guys who are going to, you know, run the court, guessing especially going to run the court, get re, you know, put backs and you know, you know, yeah, get down low and and in transition and stuff like that. But we have guys who, who, who are rip protectors, who can, who can, match up with these guys, and their biggest guy is 610, right and After that it's. It's a bunch of guys who are not so big. So we can go big against them or we can go match them small and and try to find different Matchups to exploit.
Speaker 1:And I don't think they have. They might have that potential to do the same against us, but it's not proven yet. I don't think it's just a matter of Us knowing USC better than we know Kansas State. Like I said, the true freshman guard coming in, die, die, aims, pretty impressed by him. I think he's gonna be a really good player, high potential, but this is his first game and maybe he comes in and shows up, but I wouldn't count on it if I'm, if I'm, kansas State.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's. I Was gonna say, you know, maybe they need this to be their die-die game, right off the bat, right, although you know who did that and there's. But he wasn't a true freshman. The Jerry Dupree game His debut at USC was awesome.
Speaker 1:Everyone the the Staples Center was chanting Jerry's name during the Pac-12 tournament. Or a pack. Yeah back in the day.
Speaker 2:Those are good times forgot about that guy. Yeah, just two of two, two kind of matchup things that you that came to mind, that you brought up you know number one you bring.
Speaker 2:You mentioned that the trapping and pressuring. I think that would have been a huge issue last season. Like we saw. It's a time, you know, things got really nervy Against Washington in particular. I just remembered it. We had a hard time, you know, handling the ball against them. You know the Collier makes that much less of an issue now, which I think that that's a favorable matchup to to USC the fact that they seem to be thin and lack size in the front court. I'm gonna be really interested to see. Kind of we were going back to just talking about you know what one of our strengths is at USC.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be really interested to see second team versus second team, big versus big. I think that might be just an absolute mismatch that hopefully we can Really really exploit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally agree. Potentially we have a lot of depth in in the, in the front court, and you have some guys who who really might maybe they didn't show a lot last year for USC, who have potential to, you know, like someone like Johnny Wright to To make a little bit of a mark in this first game. But what's interesting? We talk about who USC is gonna put on them. Who is who? Is Kansas State gonna put on Isaiah Collier? Right, you can't put Tyler Perry on them. I think you're probably gonna see Cam Carter being put on On Isaiah Collier. Cam Carter is 63, he's about the same size as as Collier, but but man, collier is just so strong, so physical, and and then I think Perry's probably gonna be on on boogie, and Perry's a very good defender, I think he's got, he's high energy and then and then I think you're gonna see, you know, I think it's really gonna come down to Three through five, for USC is probably gonna be Like I think the backcourt for USC is is the first two guys are are Obviously outstanding.
Speaker 1:But if, if Kansas State is going to expend all their energy to prevent boogie and Isaiah from From dominating the game or taking over the game, if they're gonna, if their goal is to, just Whatever we have to do is stop them at all costs. Then you're gonna see Kobe and DJ, rodman, vince and Morgan. Those guys really have good games.
Speaker 2:And in that point it's really nice to have a guy like Kobe, who's not foreign to handling the ball and initiate an offense. We've like we saw him do you know times last year too. It's a really really nice luxury to have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he can. He can distribute a bit, he can. He can also get you out of the game as a point guard. If it's two minutes left in the game and Colliers Fouled out and and boogie Is fouled out for whatever reason or something you know, he can get you out of the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to that point. I just remember about maybe in like late june or january or so last season. I said I I remember I was thinking in the last minute of a close game. You know the and this is before boogie just lost his mind. It just went to another level. I said the first guy I want to make sure that's that's on the court is Kobe. After that, yep, probably boogie. But Kobe was just just, he's just that reliable and just makes so many smart plays, and just you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, we're so like, we're so blessed to have him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know, what's really interesting about this team is I think that's different from previous teams even the team with Evan Mobley is how obvious, how obviously high the potential ceiling is for this team. Right, like if everything Goes right and it's. It obviously doesn't always go right in college basketball. There's a ton of things that can go wrong, and the team that wins the title or goes the final four is the team that everything went Right. Right, everything worked out for them.
Speaker 1:It's very rare you see a run at the final four, unless you're just like one of the great teams, right, you know one of these great Kentucky teams that can afford losing one of their players. Most of these teams, you know they, they have, they've everything went right. They didn't have a lot of injuries. All the good they play, you know they played well as a team. Everyone, everyone improved, everyone showed up and and then they're able to go to the final four or win a title. And If, if, usc, if this happens for USC, then then I think the sky's the limit for this team and that's what's really exciting about it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely agree. Yeah, I mean you've, you've, you also kind of need that one fortunate moment where you kind of got over at 1.2 and having Having a point guard like call your just kind of, I guess Encourages that providence. I guess I'd say, if that's a fair characterization, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know it's like what if he has? You know, obviously he's been on a nice trajectory going through the end of his high school career into the summer. What? What if? I mean what if he just has a monster season? Right, if he just has a monster season, it like the best case scenario with with him and boogie and Kobe is that those guys have monster seasons. And when you have three guys who are, say, let's just say, two guys who are top 15 in the country, another guy who's has the potential to be, like you know, top 30, and then, if another guy, you know a couple guys who could be like Top 100 type players or top 50 type players, like Vince, if he stays healthy and develops, he could be one of the, he could be the, he has a potential to be the best big in the conference.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm the potential right, it's all potential if he's healthy because he's got the physical ability, he's got a lot of skill. So, like, if you're looking at, like, if everything goes right for USC, it's, it's pretty wild how good this team could be If they, if they figure those things out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know Even outside of the national. Just you know in a good conference like the Pac-12 if you have your one, two and three that that are all on the all Pac-12 too deep. If you just look at that objectively with at any team in the conference you're gonna say, oh my gosh, that's gonna be just a nightmare to play in March you don't want to face that team.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I you have to. I mean Isaiah college, just a rare type of player at point guard. It kind of we talked about this earlier but kind of different types of players. But but from an impact standpoint, going back to Baron Davis, just the, the, the physical point guard, right, the big strong guy coming in and just Barreling over, you know I, you look at that all McDonald's all-american game and DJ Wagner who's going to Kentucky, just a fantastic player, one of the best freshmen in the country, and there's a few plays where you know Collier just sort of like overpowered him right and and just he bounced off Collier right and he's just a big strong guy. He's just a big linebacker playing, playing point guard, and so that's just a real unique facet to have on this team and it's the kind of Facet that is potentially separating or helps separate the team from other team, because there's lots of boogie.
Speaker 1:There's lots of boogie Ellis's out there, physically Right. There's not a lot of Isaiah Collier's out there. No guys out there who were just big and strong. I Can really get to the rim whenever he wants, can get a shot off and a great passer plays defense, gets a lot of steals. It's gonna be exciting because we're gonna see a lot of tempo, a lot of a lot of Scores and transition off of steals and black shots, a lot of running. You know, collier just just moves down that court, head of steam. Lot of teams gonna be getting out of the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's Not to repeat myself, but you know I'm hoping we become that team. That's not fun to play.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny, it's like I Think we haven't been, I think we've been that team, for I don't think USC's been fun to play for a while. But you know, when you're, when you're, you're looking at it from our own perspective it's it's hard to see it, but but I think you're right, I think I. Well, I think the last team that was people teams really did not like to play Was that Evan Mobley team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I just Good luck game planning against him at that in that situation. I mean exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:So anyway. So Monday is the big game. We're excited about the season, a really cool schedule coming up. After K state, the home home openers at Cal State, bakersfield three days later, on Thursday night, 7-8. Yeah, thursday On the Pac-12 network. And then there's UC Irvine the 14th, brown on the 19th, and then USC goes down to San Diego and plays in the Raidies. Children's International Opens up with Seton Hall and, depending on who wins that game, usc will play play either Oklahoma or Iowa, who, of course they will Eventually be playing in the big 10, in the big 10 with regularity. And then, december 2nd, you've got Gonzaga in Vegas again, and then later on in December your USC does a return trip to Auburn and then they play HBC, you Alabama State, and Then it's on to the last season of the Pac-12 conference. So really cool schedule.
Speaker 2:It is, um, you know you didn't mention this, but just and this is one of my I don't know silly little things Don't overlook that game at Alabama State. I'm not saying that I know anything about them, but I just I'm really concerned about that second part of a road game after such a first, a big first part of that trip at Auburn. I Would just be a little leery of that hangover. And that's the last game before a break to. Yeah, if there's like the, the unforeseen trap game, I think that's it and it's on the road. It's just Just a lot of weird. I don't know. Hopefully I'm, I'm just being paranoid. We wouldn't buy 30, but you're.
Speaker 1:Probably being paranoid but, I, but I think yeah, I think your point is well taken what maybe depends on what happens against Auburn. Right, usc beats Auburn, then then maybe maybe they're not, maybe they're feeling better about things, whereas they lose to Auburn. I don't know, it's hard, it's hard to decide which way that goes. If you lose to Auburn, maybe you come back hard against Alabama State, but if you beat Auburn, maybe you just have this veneer of at that point it probably depends on what happens against Gonzaga and and and the other tournaments.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, very fair point obviously Gonzaga will probably be the, the premier game of the preseason and, and hopefully the Trojans can get that revenge for that Elite eight loss a few, but a few years back. Yeah, yeah, okay, shall we talk about recruiting, please? Okay, I want to talk about USC's class of 24. Recruiting right now has three commitments. It looks like there's probably gonna be five, potentially six Uh scholarships open and you never know who could, who could go pro, right, obviously, you know you're gonna lose Isaiah Collier, you're gonna lose boogie Alice, you're losing DJ Rodman. Right, you're losing Josh Morgan. That's for that's fork scholarships. Usc already has an open scholarship, so there's five slots available and then you know, you know, if Kobe Johnson has a big year, he could go. You might lose guys to the transfer portal. You might lose brawny James, depending on what happens with him. So so, yeah, so it could be as many as six or seven available slots. Just, you know which is the the reality of college basketball these days. So, but right now USC has is doing really well in recruiting. I think, and it looks like to me that they're, they're, they've kind of looking ahead to the Big 10. I think that that Enfield has decided to take a little bit of a different recruiting tech and Because there's so much roster turnover now right with with the transfer portal and so many things going on, and so it's like you just never know who you're gonna keep. So USC has three commitments Liam Campbell, who was a six five wing from Idaho. They have Brody Koslowski, who's a six seven forward from Utah and there's Trent Perry, who's a six four combo guard, could maybe play point guard. He's from Harvard Westlake really good team out here in Los Angeles. These are three really good pickups. But what's interesting is so far USC hasn't gotten this super elite recruits. But these are guys who are ranked anywhere from between 50 to 120 in the recruiting rankings. Now, I'm not a huge believer in the rankings but if you're looking at Sort of like, what kind of hype comes with with the player, a lot of times the rankings determine the hype. And these are three guys who are Not one and done's. These are guys who are Going to be three or four year players. If they work out well at the program, right. If they don't work out, maybe they transfer. But if things work out they're gonna play at least three, probably four, years at USC. Because they're not they're very good basketball players but they're not physical phenoms.
Speaker 1:So it looks to me like Andy Henfield is trying to sort of build a roster in the Big Ten which is More focused on creating stability in the roster, like an experience. Because because there's lots of ways To do things. I don't think Enfield likes to recruit out of the transfer portal that much. He'll do it when they need, when they really want someone. But they prefer to bring in high school guys. And so Liam Campbell, just a really good player. They call him baby bird. If you look at him he looks. He looks a lot like a young Larry Birdie has that same haircut, the rosy cheeks, just a. You know, I've seen full games of him and he's one of these guys. He's just a Jim rat. Couple of these guys are guys that would have been Really fit at home with the recently departed Bobby Knight's teams in Indiana back in Back in the 80s and 90s, which is again we're going to the Big Ten. So you're looking at style of play. You know this recruiting class for style of play, for stability on the roster and Development and guys with high basketball IQs.
Speaker 1:Liam Campbell can really shoot it. He's a great stroke, he can facilitate, he can score all three levels. I mean the guys. Just I think he's a really good player. I'm Brody Koslaw ski, I think of the three he's probably the guy I like the least, but I still like him. He is a Another real good shooter. He is a dead-on, like stretch for Even more kind of a wing but, but potentially could play the four. But he's a. He's just, again, scores on all three levels, can really shoot it. If he's, if he spots up and he's open, he's gonna make the shot. Pretty much like from from all the highlights and all the footage I've seen of him playing, if he gets open it's like he's just he's just nails right, just a really good shooter, kind of like some of these. You know some of these big Utah guys we've seen and he's from Utah. So again, another guy. He's gonna be a really nice piece. I don't think necessarily a star, but a nice piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1:And then Trent Perry, who is Been one of the best players in California for the last couple seasons and I saw him play Against. Arguably I'm just one of the best High school teams I've ever seen. Right, he played against Prolific prep and this team has has like Four guys this year who were five stars for this team and they've the night the top 2025 guy in the top 2026. I just incredibly talented and he and you go look at that game. He does really well in that game. Like he Scored down low, he just he hit his open shots. He's just a he's kind of. He's kind of a little bit, like you know, in in the mold of DeAnthony Melton, kobe Johnson, going even back further, ryan Francis Just just a real hard-nosed, efficient, no wasted movement, always in the right place, really good player. It remains to be seen whether he can be a full-time point guard. I think he has the potential to be. I don't think necessarily we want him to have to play full-time guard, full-time guard as a true freshman next year, but by a sophomore year I think he could play play full-time point guard. So USC has three Pretty good Commitments for 2024 and they've got some, like I mentioned, they've got a few more open spots. There's a player named Brooks Barr who's going to announce in the next few days who had visited USC with Kuzlowski Back on October 6th and 7th.
Speaker 1:Zoom D'Alo, who is from Tacoma, washington. He's a five-star. He's actually on that prolific prep team. He's almost like that. That team is so talented. He's like an afterthought. He's a five star. He's a five-star point guard. He's choosing between USC and Arizona Gonzaga. His recruitment is kind of all over the map. He officially visited USC. My sources say that they feel good about him, but you?
Speaker 1:know, I think every team is saying they feel good about him. So it rains to be seen what's gonna happen. Victoria Miller, who is looks like he's gonna choose between USC and LSU. There's some rumblings that it's gonna be LSU because he has family there.
Speaker 2:I Don't know.
Speaker 1:I kind of think he's gonna go to USC, but but you know stranger things that happen. He might go to LSU and then. So after these three guys, there's not much left if they don't get D'Alo or Miller. Not much left out there as far as who they've, you know, offered so far from what I can tell. So it could be that they're gonna wait a little bit later till more guys to you know Emerge in the class and it also, might, you know, mean that they have to go into the transfer portal to get a point guard. I think that's probably gonna be what they need to do.
Speaker 1:The other really interesting Recruiting news is that AJ debonza, who was on that prolific prep team and who is the number one player in the class of 25? He officially visited USC for that Utah game weekend in football. And, wow, this guy is, you know, you Cooper flag, recently Committed to Duke and he's just fantastic. But I think debonza is even better and he's, you know, a year younger. I don't know if it, you know if there's, if we have like a real connection with getting him, but it is a good sign that he that he came to officially visit, he's got, he's already doing workouts with LeBron and other other high-level guys. And you know, lebron son goes to USC and and it could be that clutch sports Might already be in on him and if that's the case, then he might end up going to USC because he wants to go to college for a year apparently.
Speaker 1:So if USC were to get him in 2025 I mean, you look at, there's gonna be a bit of a drop-off, I would say for USC next year going into the Big 10, not because it's the Big 10, but just because we lose so many good players. So there, I can see next year being a little bit of a reconfiguring Kind of a rebuild, but potentially, if you get AJ debonza with some of the pieces that that were adding and put them around him, wow, this guy's. This guy's gonna be like a 10-year NBA All-Star. That's. That's like Jesus, like he's. He's like, like he's, like he's. He's the number one player in the class, but he's.
Speaker 1:It's like Ozzie Eichhauer is number one player in the class, but it was considered a weak class, but AJ debonza is the number one player in what's a really good class in 2025 and 20, you know, 2026 is also really good class, which is actually bodes really well for USC because a lot of in 25 and 26. There's a huge amount of California players that we're gonna be in on and, luckily for us, ucla has decided they want to go the European route. So we'll see what happens with, you know, with that plan this year. But I think, from from Enfield standpoint, I think his plan is to fill, you know, build a little Foundation for the roster of guys who are going to develop over time and then, with the 25 and 26 classes, with all these elite talents that are gonna be available, then just sprinkle these elite guys on top of this foundation and this, this, watch them, you know, watch them go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I ask you a couple of follow-up questions on that?
Speaker 1:sure thing.
Speaker 2:All right, it sounds like the one thing that you think that this recruiting class needs most Is is a point guard to kind of fill it out.
Speaker 1:Is that a yeah, okay, yeah we're pretty good on bigs, you know, yeah, for a while, or at least for, you know, for a couple year or two. So, and, and you know, might be we have a point guard by committee situation or. But I think, yeah, I think it's gonna be really important to to bring in a veteran point guard from the portal.
Speaker 2:So does that mean taking my next question are you unsure as to whether Perry would be able to start as a freshman, or are you thinking that, since he's kind of a combo guard, that we just need some protection there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think he could potentially play point guard as a freshman. The question is do you want him to be like he's not Isaiah Collier, right? Do you want him to have to be that? Do you want to really put all that pressure on him as a freshman? Probably not. It might be better if he plays off ball his first year. I think he probably will start as a freshman, but I don't know if you want him running the team as a freshman.
Speaker 1:Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he is looking at the situation and he's going to work on being a point guard, is going to develop that, but I would be surprised if he ends up being the starting point guard. But maybe USC thinks that's our guy, because if you're going to take your lumps anyway next year because you've lost all these great players, if you're thinking, ok, we may not actually win 20 games next year because we're going to play some young guys, or we may win 20 games but maybe we're not going to be so as good as we were the previous year, they might just be like let's play Trent Perry as a freshman point guard, let him take his lumps so that by the next year he's really ready to go. So you have that downside, you accept the short term downside and you take all the pain early instead of spreading it out over time.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it'll probably be a function of what other pieces we have on the team. Then it sounds like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's also not easy to get. It might depend on if Kobe Johnson comes back or not too, and it's a matter of again who's available in the portal. We may have to play Trent Perry at point guard, but he's not a physical phenom, he's not a guy who's going to blow by, he's a gym rat. He's like we have three gym rats committed and they're all just like. They have a lot of guile in them, all of them and it's going to be a very guileful team with these guys and they play hard and they're very big 10. They're big 10 like players, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, makes sense. Hey, I just noticed. I think that Kosolowski went to the same high school as Jackson Dart. Didn't he go to Corner Canyon? Or am I imagining things?
Speaker 1:I don't remember, I don't remember he did. It's really possible.
Speaker 2:So one thing that sticks out to me. Are you concerned? He's six, seven. Does that seem a little small for a big, or is he more of a perimeter guy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a stretch guy, he's going to be, he's kind of like. He's like a shorter. It's not a good analog, but he's like a shorter than he boat right as far as his style of play.
Speaker 2:You're not going to get.
Speaker 1:I watched a game. I didn't really see much evidence of his defense or rebounding. But man, he can shoot and he could score like face up and he's going to find a way to score. He can score it, he can shoot it and that's.
Speaker 2:He's going to be like a spot up shooter in the kind of offense that we're going to write, maybe for us older guys, maybe a bit of a kind of a Bluthenthal type.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bluthenthal. You know Bluthenthal was a really good rebounder, right, you could really play that, and he was a postman. Kuzlowski can play with his back to the basket, but he's not the biggest guy, so, but he's one of these guys that is just a skilled score from outside in right. If he doesn't shoot it, he can use his body and drive by you and create a shot and get a shot off, ok, but he's not going to. You know he's not going to go up and dunk on you. He's not going to go and, like you know, pound down low and get a rebound and put it back up. You know, I didn't see any evidence of that. Maybe, you know, maybe he turns into that player I mean, these are obviously unfinished products, so far right. So he still has his senior year of high school to play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fair point. And then about Campbell, I can't remember, and I'm sure there have been, just I can't remember any like Pac-12 players from Idaho, just. Is there any concern about the level of play or competition?
Speaker 1:Well, one interesting little tidbit he actually played at Harvard West like as a freshman. He was a teammate with Trent Perry. He and his family moved to Idaho I'm not really worried, he's played on. These guys play on the AU circuit. They play against all kinds of you know high level teams he's I think Liam Campbell is one of those guys.
Speaker 1:He's like a, I mean, I think about like Craig Hilo type, you know, just rangey. You know he's not as quick as Hilo and not the defender that he was, but just just a real, like you know, plays team defense. He's very simple. I mean, like you, look at his game. There's a lot of things that bird does. He's not like you know, the next level passer and all that kind of stuff, but just from like a. His offensive game, his, he's like a knockdown three point shooter. He can, he can, he can get a shot off down low against taller people and he can, he can figure out how to, how to, how to do things and and how to create a shot. And he's just and he's also just really confident the way bird was in what he was able to do. And you know he might have an adjustment year but I think he's, he's, I think him and Perry especially, I'm really excited about.
Speaker 2:Cool, it sounds like we've got a couple of maybe boy, I hate playing against that guy, kind of guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's going to be like. It's going to be like that guy right, you know like the, you know who are some of those got those teams we played in recent years, like up in Colorado.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, t would just just own us and then yeah, Samaki Walker just never missed a shot and, yeah, you really unleashed the beast here.
Speaker 1:McKinley Wright and those guys you know, oh yeah don't forget to.
Speaker 2:Is it Jim Jamiah Horn?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Jeremiah Horn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who completely made a career against us so early. My gosh that guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, perry's going to be. You know Perry's, he's kind of like you know he's. He's like a Tiger Campbell a little bit.
Speaker 1:You know, if you see a as far as just, you know, tiger wasn't the most athletic kind of guy and he was small, but man, he's just like, just has a great feel for the game, constantly like in the right place and making big shots. He's a big shot maker is Trent Perry and he can play tall among the trees. Doesn't give up on things right, like if you know he follows his shot and does all that, does all the little things, because sometimes when you don't have like the most physical ability, you, you, you have workarounds and he's he has a lot of workarounds and but it doesn't mean he's not like he's athletic enough, right, and that's important. Like, you don't need to be the greatest athlete, you need to be athletic enough.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:So those are my thoughts on the, on the, on those three players, I'd really like to get zoomed. Yalloh, that obviously be nice. Victoria Smiller, who's a nice six five wing. Victoria Smiller has a I think he has a connection to Little Romeo. Who are? Who played it? Who's the guy I played at USC with? It was the best friends with the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the DeRosan, yeah, yeah, so I think that's his uncle, or maybe our masterpieces uncle, one of those things. He has a connection to USC and he's he's one of these guys. He seems to be very, very close to the program. A lot of the players follows him on Instagram and Twitter and so on and so forth and he's actually going to be playing. He actually he had been playing in Arizona and he he's transferred over to school in Orange County and I thought that was to be close to USC. It may not mean a thing. Maybe he goes to LSU, but it's not. Maybe he goes to LSU, but but yeah, so he's.
Speaker 1:He would be a nice extra element to have in the class. If we get zoom, then then you've got your point guard. Or you know zoom. You wouldn't necessarily want zoom to like handle the ball 100 percent of the time, but if you had zoom and Trent Perry Playing together in that back court, that could really work. Or or you know, our Perry is the first guard off the bench, or zooms the first guard off the bench right and you could really like have a set or have a volume of ball handlers out there that kind of sounds and feels like maybe like the Milton and Matthews class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly so. So, yeah, so recruiting is going well, I think, and it looks like that the strategy has changed a bit, at least for this season, to prepare for the big 10. And yeah, hopefully I'm interested to see what the, what the whole schedule is going to look like with the conference next year. So that's the recruiting class. Got the big game on Monday. Anything else you want to add, mark?
Speaker 2:No, just excited. We're almost there, I. It sounds like we're getting quite a few listeners too, so I thank everybody for listening in and hope they are getting used to my voice, because I'm not going anywhere, kids.
Speaker 1:Well, he's got it. I think he's got a great, great radio voice, I think. Mark back, thank you, please, please, please, everyone, please, like and follow us. You can, you know, catch us on all the streaming platforms. And, of course, we started up this podcast in the summer, but we're going to have episodes, of course, on a regular basis during the season, both to talk about the games we played and the games that we will be playing. So it's going to be an ongoing conversation this season and we hope to, we hope that you'll join us every week, all right, so I guess that'll do it for us and we will see you on the other side of the Kansas State game.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you everyone. Fight on, fight on.
Speaker 1:Just a reminder that the Dunk City podcast is available on all streaming platforms Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play. It's also available on our website through uscbasketballcom or at DunkCityPodcom. A reminder that uscbasketballcom is the only website on the Internet dedicated solely to USC basketball. We are a friend of the program, so we hope you join us and contribute on our message boards and enjoy the Dunk City blog as well. Our next podcast will be on Wednesday, November 8th, ahead of the home opener against Cal State Bakersfield. We're also going to recap the Kansas State game, so hope you join us. Then Fight on.