Chris and Mark discuss USC's disappointing sweep at the hands of the Bay Area squads that included a heartbreaking OT loss to cal and 31-point crushing at the hands of Stanford, but why it's still crazy to fire Andy Enfield after one bad season. They also muse at why announcers are so deferential to Bronny, what it's like to go to Maples Pavilion, and the team's prospects for the remainder of the season.
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.
Chris and Mark discuss USC's disappointing sweep at the hands of the Bay Area squads that included a heartbreaking OT loss to cal and 31-point crushing at the hands of Stanford, but why it's still crazy to fire Andy Enfield after one bad season. They also muse at why announcers are so deferential to Bronny, what it's like to go to Maples Pavilion, and the team's prospects for the remainder of the season.
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 backstripping. This is the final round of life, El Camino For the LA and then this show. It is on the Trench and Tundra. Usc is on to the sweet 16. Okay, everybody, Welcome back to the Dunk City podcast brought to you by USCBasketballcom. I'm Chris Houston, along with Mark Baxter.
Speaker 1:Usc is now coming off a brutal road trip up in the Bay Area in an overtime loss to Cal, followed by a swamping at the hands of Stanford in a game where Stanford tied the Pac-12 record with 19 three-pointers made. Usc now drops to nine and 15 overall and I believe three and nine in conference. There are now eight games left on the season. Usc will play a traditional Thursday Saturday matchup coming this week. Utah is the first game on Thursday, that's at 8 pm at Galen on Fox Sports One, and then Saturday versus Colorado ESPN 2, our favorite channel at 7 pm from Galen.
Speaker 1:So USC once again nine and 15, drops, two up in the Bay and now has eight games left in the season. And hopefully. We've been talking about hopefully trying to see some kind of positive trends, but it seems to be fits and starts and if there is any positivity it's like within the context of a game and quickly goes away. So, Mark, what are your thoughts on this past weekend's road trip up at the Bay? Arguably our last, potentially our last road trip for a while up there?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll just say I've had better times watching basketball than I did last week. For starters, both ends of just tough ones to take. Just that one to Cal was just a kick to the stomach, man. And then after that, at least the Stanford game. It was just a quick euthanization. Almost that was over before it started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't even have time to get to get my druthers. If I had my druthers maybe I would have been more interested, but I didn't even have my druthers. So it was definitely one of those games where you were like knocked senseless before you can get into it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:The Cal game. Both those games actually really all games seemingly seem to follow along the pattern of your famous spurt of death category, where, again, I think one day we'll look back on it as the season comes to an end and we'll do the numbers. But I'm pretty sure that almost every game in which USC loses, or even even probably some of the games in which they win, featured about 75% of pretty good play in the first half and then the final quarter of that half. Within that final quarter of the first half, to maybe the final 10% of that first half, the other team goes on a spurt of death and Cal had kind of a mini little spurt, but Stanford had the mother of all spirts, so to speak, and the 25-0 run to close out that half. And it's interesting just how it seems to happen. And I question if it's one of those things where it's lurking in the back of their minds and then it hits them and then they just can't stop it. I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the Cal was more of a spurt of moderate illness, I think, than a death. It wasn't like oh my god, what's going on here? It's like OK.
Speaker 1:Spurt of mild consumption.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that sometimes the narrative just writes itself, and particularly in specific contexts. I think that we did have that horrible stretch against UCLA. But I think that all of not just your weaknesses but kind of your concerns and what's lurking in the back of your mind is going to be exposed a lot more likely on the road. Not that this is the toughest venue either those are the toughest venue to play in but away from home, just those kind of things, just get, they'll come to the fore.
Speaker 1:What's really strange about the Cal game was how some of the things that had appeared to be going into a trend just sort of stopped in their tracks. Example Ozai is Cellars. He had averaged, I think, 12 points the previous five games. It was shooting incredibly and we talked about this, or at least I've been harping on this the fact that he needed to really get more aggressive and start taking shots. He took one shot against Cal, played 10 minutes and I think it's because he only took one shot. He was passing up shots. And.
Speaker 1:I just don't get it. I just don't get it. He passed up shots and I think it was something that the coaches noticed, because the next game he didn't start and he also played 10 minutes shot three times, missed all three shots. So on that barrier trip, the guy who's been our hottest player, our most confident player, suddenly goes over four in 20 combined total minutes, and I'm not sure why, right, why the confidence suddenly just fled. And then, similarly, you're seeing something with Boogie Ellis which is a bit frustrating. He's passing up shots at a rate which is kind of remarkable. Now he ended up shooting 11 shots against Stanford, which was a team high, but I think I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1:Let me be honest, I turned that game off at halftime and sort of monitored it in bed on my phone the rest of the way and thinking that maybe this would change up the cosmic. Look a little bit. But Boogie was just passing up shots left and right in the first half and this is a guy. This is a guy never met a shot he didn't like, right? This guy was a cold stone gunner right.
Speaker 1:Up until halfway through the season. Right, if you gave him an inch he would take it and he would shoot it, but he just kept and he has not been the same since he was averaging 18.8 points a game before he got hurt. Since his return, I think, he's averaging nine points a game and he's just passing. He's not feeling it. So now you've got your best player, your best score. Let's say not feeling it, you've got your. You know the guy who we had talked about being the engine of the team, kobe Johnson, not feeling it.
Speaker 1:You've got Isaiah Collier who in the first half of the Cal game, you know, was sort of working his way back and then he really came back with a vengeance. He's been a very aggressive player in the last two games, which is at least. I think at least somebody is going out there and trying to make something happen. You know I average 19 points a game in the two games, but everyone, it's like opposite day, right. Everybody who used to be a certain way is now a different way after this weekend, and if it's a perplexing to me, I can imagine how perplexing it must be to the coaches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exactly where I was going to go with this, because I'm sure the more we go along, I'm probably just painted as an apologist for the coaches. But just it's, there's two parts to this. Number one at the end of the day, it's absolutely the coach's job, and I'd say the entire coaching staff's job, to develop players where you're going to get more consistency. Now, as a numbers guy, I see that that just isn't the case that everybody's going to have. You know it depends on how much, but you're going to have peaks and valleys, you know, along the way that are outside just your normal band of performance. So when you just have these bands that are just so variable and you just have no idea where you're going to get it's, you know it's not like you just have a proven formula you can go to and say, okay, we're going to do this, and then that doesn't work. It's next on the list.
Speaker 2:I mean you've seen just all kinds of crazy lineups just thrown together, just seen who can do what together and he doesn't. I don't think he knows and I think a lot of that is just, you know, vince and Bronny not being at the start of the season and just in the time that those guys come back. You had other injuries. You had Kobe miss a few games. You just, I know I hate that excuse, but you know.
Speaker 1:No, it's, it's, it's, I think it's about. There's a lot going on, right, there's. There's a lot of factors that you can go from. I've been mulling this and it's not. It's not from this.
Speaker 1:This, you know I'm trying not to go in it with a, with a biased reasoning. You know motivated reasoning, right, I'm not trying to just go out here and you know what is the excuse for the coach Not trying to do that. But I think we have to go back and remember in summer, this was a team that everybody was high on right. This was a team that people thought this was going to be a really good team and even the first few games in the season, they, they, they, you know, played well enough to at least merit some consideration as, hey, this is potentially this is going to be like. No one.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody said this is an attorney team until maybe whatever 10 games into the year, right For sure, or that they would struggle. But I think that any coach worth his salt can, can enter into a season with the understanding and confidence that their veteran players don't need to be developed if they've already, like, they've already been developed. Like, how, how do you develop Boogie Ellis, you know, in his fifth season, right, he's been, he's developed, he is fully formed. Right.
Speaker 2:Well, he actually started off this season way better than he was, even at his best last season, right From a metric standpoint. Right. Right so yeah, so he gets hurt and he comes back, and not the same, yep.
Speaker 1:So he but anyway, but he was fully formed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Kobe Johnson, pretty much. You know he had, he was fully formed as a defender, or at least that was the thought, and he was, you know, a decent enough offensive player and the thought was that that he was going to get better offensively or at least have more opportunities to get better. So, developmental wise, like I don't know what a coach is going to do to Kobe Johnson to make him better offensively, that that he shouldn't be doing himself. Dj Rodman fully formed, right, these, these are fully formed. Isaiah Collier not fully formed, but a lot of talent there. You know a lot of a lot of physical ability. You know what he's bringing to the table. Joshua Morgan fully formed, you know you, like these are known, like Harrison Hornery, known quantities, like there are known quantities coming into the year. And then there are some guys who you hoped could, you could bring along to add to that, and so I think these were reasonable assumptions that these guys who were veteran players, team captains, proven players at the highest levels of college basketball, had played in the NCAA tournament, right, had played in big games. We're going to be the kind of guys you could rely on.
Speaker 1:Now a few things obviously Boogie Ellis got hurt. Isaiah Collier got hurt, barney James had a heart attack, vince Iwachukwu was coming back from a back injury, dj Robin to miss games, kobe Johnson miss games and then Joshua Morgan got sick. So that's seven. Seven of the players on the team miss significant, you know, multiple games on the year. So I think that when you combine the, the injuries with the I don't know if it's like this on we with the veteran players were, or maybe they figured that that they were they were pretty good and they kind of relaxed a bit.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know if it's like, hey, you know, in this era of NIL, with the guys coming back and feeling pretty comfortable, and that they there's not this sort of sense of urgency to try to, to try to show themselves big for the league. Maybe that's a factor. There's all kinds of little factors. The injuries are a factor, but this idea that that infield and his staff suddenly, after many years of proving that they could cobble together tournament qualifying teams with different lineups you know he did it with a different lineup with the JMAQ era, different lineup with the, the Mowgli era, different lineup last year so this idea that suddenly, like they, you know they just slacked off, I just think that this was probably a really, for some reason, a perplexing reason, a really hard roster to manage, and you know, and the injuries just made it even harder. Yeah, a lot to think about there.
Speaker 2:You know, as we said, boogie improved after, at the beginning of the season, until he got hurt, he improved off the stellar season last season. I don't know how you can. You know if you're going to say, well, enfield, you know for what Kobe Johnson is doing, you have to give him credit then for developing him from, you know, kind of a non factor year one to what he was in year two, and I don't know how you can say well, it's, it's. Enfield's fault that he regressed.
Speaker 2:It's not like he's out there yelling at guys in like like McKrone and just in people's face and tell them that they suck. I mean, that's not his style, I don't I. There's something else that's wrong here. Even a guy like Sellers, I mean, you know, last season, okay, you, you heard he could shoot. Good. Then he blossomed until he basically unblossomed up. You know, you're home. For whatever reason he had turned the corner, it seemed like he had turned the corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, and specific to that. That's what's really interesting to me.
Speaker 2:It seems like and this is one of those things that you have to, I think you have to just work through. On the court, it seems like and I'm not even saying it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not the court it seems like and I'm not even saying it's a conscious thing, it might even be a subconscious thing, it might be where he does. He feels like he has to defer to Collier. When Collier is on the floor, I, I'm going to go back and look at, like you know, the Sellers production in games where Collier played and he didn't. And I just, you know, I don't know how many times can you remember, like just you know, collier really setting him up for a wide open look that he knocked down. And this isn't to say it's anybody's fault, it's just one of those things where you know some people you get along with awesome right away and some people will take some times. Then you'd love them and it, you know. Same.
Speaker 1:On the court, yeah, it seems like these guys get along well. It doesn't seem like there's any animus between them. From what I hear, even with this weekend, spirits are pretty decent. You know, there's not a lot of backbiting, so it it could just be that the, the mix of talents, the mix of experience, the injuries, all that, all that just sort of combined to make this and then, and then you and then you look at, you know, the schedule was tougher then. Usc typically is used to playing in the, in the preseason or in the non-conference. I should say. So it could just be that this was a team that looked really good on paper, but it just was a completely different product on the court. And I'm I'm not sure if it's, if there's going to be addition by subtraction coming up, or I mean it could be, because you know, like we saw, in some ways the team played better when some of these guys were out right, because you had more focus. Well it depends too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never know. That's what the frustrating thing is.
Speaker 1:It's, it's it's like it's completely random and then and then, like you know, and then you have just sort of the luck factor you know you've had, there are games where USC, usc is playing teams that don't shoot very well from the free throw line and then they shoot 88% against USC, right. Or you're going up against backup centers who are going for career highs, right, three for three, from three point range, and that kind of thing, and and people can talk all they want about three point percentage defense. There's only so much you can do, I mean, like you can, aside from denying someone the ball like you, I don't care how how good your three point percentage defense is, how, how, how well you run out on them. Stanford shot made 19 three pointers they're. They scored as many points off of three pointers, almost as many points off of just three pointers, as USC did in the game.
Speaker 2:I was hoping you're going to say on the entire road trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, almost on the entire road trip. Yeah, so it's like they, they scored 57 points on three pointers. Yeah. Right. And.
Speaker 1:USC scored 68 on the game, so it's not not far off, but but it's just you can't account for. You can't account for, like you can't attribute 19 of 38 three pointers just due to defense. Like I told someone on the board. They're like oh, this is what happens when you don't play good three point damage. I'm like no, this is at this time during the, during the game thread, stanford was shooting like 71% from three point land. I'm like. I'm like dude teams don't shoot 71% in warmups, shooting three point. You know, like you don't shoot if a guy's shooting three pointers, they don't make 71% of their shots with nobody there.
Speaker 2:That's exactly where I wanted to go with this. So I'm going to give you and these are good shooters for the most part Jaylen. Cohn. Jaylen Tyson, maxine Renaud because he knows he, he knows his limitations Spencer Jones, who's been there forever, andre Stiyakovic and and little Ben Aguilar. If you just had them in a gym and you gave them 340 shots at, at, at, at three pointers, how many do you think they would make? Just an empty gym out of 340?.
Speaker 1:Probably like 170, at best maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so on that same rate, that group would hit 240 against us. Yeah, that's why I can't just say oh my God, this is horrible. It's just, it's aberrationally bad, as I said in the column. Literally, you know, and if I see that in horse racing, I just I throw that, that race out, you know just yeah yeah, you flush this whole season.
Speaker 1:Just, I mean, I think you're going to have to flush this whole season when it's all said and done.
Speaker 1:And and this is why, like when people say that, oh, usc is going to be even worse next year well, consider that, no matter what happens this year, next year is, is or was going to be every building year it's going to be a restructuring of the roster. If you got new guys coming in, there's going to be a lot of guys coming in and I in through the transfer portal. I'm sure there'll be guys leaving the transfer portal, so we don't know who's going to be on the team next year. But certainly, if, if you are saying that I think you're putting too much on the coach, if you think that because the team was bad with all these quote unquote very good players on the roster, that therefore the team will also be bad with completely different players, I don't think you're really paying attention, because it seems to me that that the issue is not the players individually, but this collection of players as as they are assembled for whatever reason, does not work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so therefore, a new, therefore a new collection of players, even players that have maybe a little less experience or a little less talent. I think that USC stands like. I'm not saying that USC is going to be a tournament team next year because I think that it's going to be a struggle because of just the overall turnover on the roster and the new guys. We just don't know because we don't know what the roster is going to look like. But the point is, I think next year's team is going to be better, regardless of who's on the roster, because this was a uniquely poor team in the sense of roster construction, for whatever reason I would say roster chemistry. I just I wouldn't look at this and say I mean, I think we thought the, you know the bigs might be a little limited offensively but it's not like I would say oh my God, you know, x position is just a disadvantage.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's a good point. And you're still seeing pretty good flashes like Vince Iwachuku in the first section of the Stanford game.
Speaker 1:All right. I mean, the guy was at three dunks in the first minute or whatever. He's coming in and just dunking everything and that's the Vince Iwachuku that we were hoping to see Right. And Kejani Wright continues to make these decisions. He's going to make these decisions Right and Kejani Wright continues to make these incremental improvements and doing some good things. Arranton Page is, you know, up and down, but you still see some nice things out of him. So I think, depending on where the, where the focus of the roster goes next year, these guys are going to have a chance to, you know, to keep being key contributors. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So Agreed yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so really overall not a whole lot to say about those individual games. Well, can I?
Speaker 2:just say something about the Cal game.
Speaker 2:Sure, you know I had felt pretty comfortable and then I asked you about this last week and you said to be determined about the whole parallel to the horse named. Obviously, I think you know it's fair to say that they I was, even though that was a tough one to take, I was very encouraged by they just killed that narrative because you know, yes, yes, they really held Cal and the first of all in the first half, just schematically, we just we were lucky we weren't behind more. Cal just consistently did this. They got to the paint super easily and just kicked it out for so many open threes and we were lucky we weren't behind by more. I mean, it seemed like every time they got the ball in the first half it ended with the ball going inside, outside to just a wide open three and meanwhile we're starting going 4 of 11 from the line and I'm thinking this is just going to be a disaster, although you know Cal had that trickle of death and not the spirit of death or whatever we called it yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we make this comeback. You know I had been complaining and even when we, you know it seemed to be in better ship against Oregon State, where we were able to play defense without fouling. Yeah, and like I said in the column, I think we had only three fouls over 18 minutes when we held them to 21 points yeah. I mean it seemed that's the kind of thing where I can look at and say there's progress, you know, as they try, but do they say not all progress is linear?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know no exactly, and that was again going back to looking at that game. Cal hit some ridiculous shots at ridiculous times right and and and, of course, usc, had you know, can go back and look at missed free throws. I think there's a sequence where yes. Brony. Brony misses to, Kobe misses to and misses the bunny layup. You know, I don't know what you can say. I really don't know what the critics of Enfield can say about Kobe Johnson missing bunnies. Well, he's missed a few of those this year, right.
Speaker 2:There's just free throws and it's our best free throw shooter last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's just. There's just mental block. There's a mental block there and I don't think that's on the coach, I think that's, you know, maybe it's on the coach in the sense that he has to learn to get inside his head and manage him. But. But again, this is a guy who's a junior, he's a two time team captain, right, and so he arguably look. There's a lot of way you can say this cost the game or this cost the game, but, but free throws are free, free points you know, free throws and a and a zero foot shot.
Speaker 1:That's four points right. And and if he converts those, usc probably wins the game. Yeah Well, you don't go to it again.
Speaker 2:I'm encouraged that you're trying to make this comeback and you get an intentional foul and you're thinking here's the chance for a four or five point position, A dagger for a dagger and we miss both free throws and I don't even think we get a shot off and the fact that that should have been kind of the end of the comeback, but the fact that we overcame that still on the road. You know, I'm encouraged, it's, it's you know?
Speaker 2:no, I was an awesome team, but that's the most progress I think I'd seen, probably since Cal and Stanford, when Isaiah was still with us the first time around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know we talk about normal, no moral victories, but hey, this is not a good team. So in a sense, we're looking for for improvement, right, we're not. We're not. We're not under the illusion that, hey, this team is going to make the tournament. We're not under the illusion that that anything is majors going to come out of this team. We're actually looking toward next year. We're looking for development, working for, for signs that the coaches have figured things out. And certainly the Cal game was, was a game that was encouraging. That regret. I didn't feel bad. I mean, I felt bad that they lost, but I didn't feel bad about the performance necessarily, because it was gritty coming back and they played hard and I think they left it all on the court and it really showed, because against Stanford they didn't really show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I can watch that kind of basketball, not that it's fun and not that you know it's not fun to lose a game, but I can watch that where there's, you know, there's heart and there's there's a competitive nature, right to the very end. You know, just the month preceding the Oregon State game was just a brutal watch. I mean, that's, that's right. Just it's a real challenge to stay engaged and for this podcast and having to do a call on my probably would have checked out and yeah, been watching a lot more horse racing.
Speaker 1:And you know, and the other thing to consider is that this almost I've seen really good teams go through this, the 2002 actually that the 2001 USC elite team lost by 40 at home to Arizona and was one of those games where just everything Arizona shot up went, went in the when in the basket.
Speaker 2:The Gilbert renais game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the arena's game, everything went up, everything went in right. And some and no matter how good you are there are going to be some of those teams. You see a loss by 46 to Utah earlier in the year. Okay, now losing by 46 and losing by by six still counts as a loss, right? So, like, this is kind of. This is why it's like, you know, usc losing by 31 to Stanford, it sort of like is fodder for, like people who, who want to get rid of of Enfield, no matter what, and if you say a loss by three to Stanford, this the same criticism would be there, right? But like, when you lose by 31, it's like this notion that, like you know, like there's these other factors, even if USC was good, they might have potentially lost by 31 to Stanford in that game, right? Just because it was one of those. Like, like the way, like you mentioned your column, stanford scored 100 on Arizona. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they had that type of game against USC.
Speaker 2:And they were coming off a bad game against UCLA. There was aggression or defense stinks. It's just as bad on the. You know. It's so bad that it's no better at home. Yeah. I guess, is how I'd characterize it. Stanford has literally the best home defense by my splits in conference play, better than anybody else, and by a decent margin. So right, which is just all to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and which is just all, to say that when you're bad, it doesn't really matter how bad you get beaten If you know like, because sometimes, like there's, you want to see how well the team plays in a vacuum, but if the other team is just shooting like crazy, you're never going to look good, no matter how good you are. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. So, like you know, if USC was 18 and two and Stanford was coming out shooting 11 and 15 from three point land, they would get run off the court, Right, and you can argue oh well, USC would have played. If USC was good, they'd play better defense. I don't care how good a defense you play against a three point shooting team when you have a team that's shooting 45% or what they were before UCLA game in three point in from three point land in conference. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know averages are you're going to. You know, after they didn't, after Stanford didn't shoot as well against UCLA, they had enough. I knew that we were in for a world of hurt because, because you know they're just, they got a bunch of shooters and you can't stop, and no matter how many times, you know you just, unless you're just like an elite defensive team which we are not and that we under under are under no illusion that we are, then you're not going to stop those shooters, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're just not to my point. I would be a lot more upset if we were just even a good defensive team and again, you know it's, it's, it's on end field for not having that together. But, it's, it's. I wasn't like I was pounding the table saying we're not this bad on defense.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah, right, so we are a defense this season. What do you expect people? What do you expect you know what?
Speaker 2:did you expect? That's where you get like really insightful things like well, just you know, throw a junk defense at him. Okay, yeah, that's going to keep them from shooting, so from draining them outside with a guy in their face. It doesn't Right.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, yeah, I mean you can put a guy in Maxime Renaud's face, but he's seven one, he's going to shoot over you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and specific, I I mentioned that too. I said you mentioned that he had hit like a few outside against Arizona. I said that's just a hopeless feeling. I remember that if your big man is is, is is Bolo and or Vince, and I love Vince but Vince isn't going to be able to get out there, and just you know it. Just that's not it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, let's, let's move on from this Cal Stanford debacle and let's go over to our next feature, which is your game theory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this um, it kind of stuck out to me more during the Stanford game that we're at the moment trying to blend two teams into one. It really felt to me like you had. You had the team that was with Collier before he got injured and then, shortly after he got injured, you had Boogie going down to and in that absence you had Oziah really finding himself. You had Vince just kind of going up the learning curve and Kajani to a lesser but more steady pace, and then you have everybody back and you have Boogie back, not at 100% clearly, and now it seems it just seemed like, you know, there were just a lot of lineups that just looked odd to me on the floor and it seems like you know I just said it's like we're trying to blend two teams into one on the fly.
Speaker 2:Fair characterization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's that's correct. I mean, uh, back in the late fifties, because of college football, uh substitution rules, they used to have different platoons, uh for defense and offense, and one of the more famous examples of that was the LSU team of 1959 that had the Chinese bandits defense. They would have like the blue team and the purple team and then the Chinese bandits Right and uh. I'm not comparing any way the quality of this team to any of that, any of that, I'm just using that as an example. But there does seem to be, like this, a team of Collier, this uh Rodman and uh Vince, or either Vince or Morgan, and then there's like this B team, like this B group, and then occasionally there's this C group where it's like a little mix of the two. Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:Right and, and sometimes the B group plays better than the A group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, it seems like they. I don't. Yeah, I don't know if they play harder, I don't know, or maybe they play more to their capabilities. I think is is I kind of think through it here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I have to go back and look at at some of these players, but just the, the, the rank inconsistency of these players is what's kind of like the most frustrating, because you can look at DJ Rodman and look at, oh, he had a good game in this game and then you can think, okay, he's stabilized. And then the next game he's two of six, right, so he's seven and nine against California than two of six against Stanford, right, and you could look at, you could look at Boogie, and you know he's, you know, like you said, setting the world on fire through. The first, you know 12, 14 games of the year, 15 games a year, and then he gets hurt. And then he's three of 10, five to 16, two of seven, three of nine. He's actually consistently poor shooting wise less. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and then and then Kobe Johnson same thing. So, like you know, like, since, since he's less, he's having less of an impact on the game from an offensive standpoint, like he's last two games, three or five, three of six, it's like as long as it doesn't shoot more than five or six shots than than like the damage is limited a bit and he's only shooting, you know, three pointer here, three pointer there. So you're just not getting this consistency. And then you see how Zaheys sellers you think, like we talked before, like this is a guy who's getting getting on a roll and and then he just completely disappears against Cal and Stanford.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, it just I don't know it's, it's, it's. We got a lot of ingredients that are just kind of hard to figure out. What, what dish we're gonna make. Yeah we got. Yeah, what's that? What's that show on Food Network, that dumb thing where they say to make like an entree out of gummy bears and a carburetor.
Speaker 1:I don't know. It sounds delicious, but I don't watch the food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like we got stumped on that. We just didn't have a dish with her, with her exactly.
Speaker 1:Anyway. I just wanted to talk about one other thing, which is about Sort of, you know, the banter on the board. There's a lot of people who want to fire Andy infield, and we talked about this on the last pod about how I think that this idea that USC is gonna go out and get Brad Stevens or some of these elite coaches it's a bit preposterous. I'd love to be proven proven wrong on that. On that note, and if I'm proven wrong then so much the better but in reality we're probably only only going to be able to get someone who is maybe Marginally better than Andy infield. And so you go through all the All the Sturman drawing about you know, going through the firing, and then you get someone who may or may not get you to the next level, which is what people are complaining about. They're saying. They're saying that Andy infield has reached his level. But there's one thing I want people to consider out there, and that is that Getting to the final four or winning a national title is all about.
Speaker 1:A big part of it is luck and timing Right, and a lot of times it's what combination of players do you have at this right time going up against A certain slate of opponents in the tournament. We see all the time where you get you run into a hot mid major. That mid major can blow out even the best team or beat the best team. We saw Purdue lose last year. 16 seed, one seed right.
Speaker 1:So it happens all the time and there's all types of situations where you could probably look at a handful of Kentucky teams or a handful of Duke teams and say, if that player who left to go pro had stayed one more year, then that team might have won a national title. And I want you to consider that the 2021 team, that USC team that made the elite eight the year before a recruiting class that included Isaiah Mobley and on Yeko Kang Wu On Yeko Kang Wu was not considered A one and done when he was recruited. There was a lot of people on the message boards and elsewhere talking about how his rudimentary offensive game was Going to make him struggle a bit at this level, and so no one really foresaw that he would be a true one and done. Obviously, right away once you go to the preseason, you see right away the special player he is right now. Just consider for a moment the little bit of luck and bad luck that can happen if, on Yeko Kang Wu Gets a high ankle sprain Early on that season and struggles to sort of round back into form and remember this is also a COVID year. So he struggles back, he struggles to round back into form Doesn't go pro Right. So the next year, usc returns On Yeko Kang Wu, isaiah Mobley, they bring in Evan Mobley, they bring in Tajidi, they bring in the United States, and then they bring in the United States, and then they bring in the United States, and then they bring in Tajidi, they bring in Isaiah White, they bring in Drew Peterson, right and Chavez Goodwin.
Speaker 1:So that team, so the team that did not have on Yeko Kang Wu, the team that went to lead 8, finished second in the pack 12 on a technicality. They were 15 and 5. Oregon was 14 and 6 Right. That team with the Yeko Kang Wu Wins the pack 12. I think Clear, cut and dried wins the pack 12. Probably is a first or second seed in the NCAA tournament. Okay, I don't know when they would have had to face Gonzaga, but I think that a USC team With Isaiah Mobley, evan Mobley and Onyeko Kang Wu on that front line Would have had a much better chance to beat a Gonzaga Head to head and almost any other team. They played that year Right. Remember this is a team that, as it was, beat Kansas by 34 and that Kansas team the next year won the national title. They beat Oregon, they smashed Oregon. The first three games Of that tournament USC Won by a higher margin, I think, than anybody, except maybe Gonzaga. They were dominating the tournament until they ran into Gonzaga.
Speaker 1:So if Onyeko Kang Wu? So again, this happens all the time With elite teams where they can say, if only we had had this guy come back for the year, maybe we would have a national title. So my point is Is that USC, for the first time in the history of USC, I would reckon, could Credibly say that if not for Just this one thing, they would have had a credible chance at a fight, they would have had a credible chance at a final four and or a national title. So this tells me that we know that Andy Enfield can assemble and recruit the talent Needed to potentially win a national title or make a final four, and it's just a matter of getting the right Timing and combination of players. And if you are someone who Accumulates all that talent, eventually you're going to get the right combination and the right timing. And you see that with Calipari at Kentucky, all that talent that went through right now they haven't done.
Speaker 1:I don't think they've been to the final fours Since they won that title. Maybe the year after that they did. But Imagine if some of those guys, imagine if Anthony Davis had come back for one more year, right, they would have won another national title, probably, and it would have been like but the reason you can make these Hypotheticals is because the players exist on the team. The players were on the team, right? So you're in the conversation, you're able to say, you're able to make the hypothetical, but there are some teams who can never make the hypothetical, right. Maybe you could say you know, if Johnny Juzain comes back For UCLA, I think he was able to come back and they won the national title last year. Okay, so there's an example, right, but they were a final four team and there are some other teams out there.
Speaker 1:So my point is that Washington couldn't say that Oregon the last three Oregon's going to fail to make the tournament For three straight years now, you know, I don't know, maybe Arizona could say that, but there's not many teams that could say that, yeah, and my point is that if you are in this conversation that accumulate enough talent, where you can identify a situation when if one of those guys, under a different circumstance, was able to return, and you can project how good they would have been Otherwise, and that projection is, logically, they already made the lead eight.
Speaker 1:You added a comm with that, they probably couldn't have made the final four or won the title. Then you're looking at a guy who has the ability On paper to win a national title, right, and it's just the Wims of college basketball and the wins of luck that determine A lot of these things. Once you reach that level, once you accumulate enough talent and you roll it over the span of years and Enfield has shown that he's recruiting at a level, he's able to recruit at a level that I think, just like with CalParry and again, we're not recruiting at CalParry's level, don't get me wrong but we're recruiting at a good enough level when, eventually, if he keeps recruiting at that level and he's developed the recruiting prowess that has, you know, able to Draw in great players small around the country, if you recruited at that level, eventually you bring enough players One of those years. It's all going to come together Now. We thought this year might be that year Didn't turn out to be, but one of these years might be that year.
Speaker 2:Okay yeah, I agree and I, just as you're saying that I was thinking of. I remember a long time I read About just to bring in a totally different sport Pitching in baseball. You know you need to have a lot of pitching to see when in your mind league system and a lot of it's just not like okay, there might be one or two guys, but I I've heard it Like into an electron field where you can't see the individual electrons. But when there's an effectivity you know we have enough pitching.
Speaker 2:Yeah and it's not like it. When you said the whims, that's exactly it. Baseball postseason is the same thing. Sometimes it's just baseball and just happens. The same thing in basketball college basketball postseason, because it's not a seven-game series, it's one and done.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I think that to your point. You know, we did have that critical mass and we do it, just the you know, for whatever reason it didn't fit this year. The other thing too, just to be fair to those detractors In your scenario, I think that clearly it was Andy Enfield's fault for developing oh Kong Wu too soon, and if hadn't screwed that up then we might have actually been at the final for the next year.
Speaker 1:So what a dick.
Speaker 1:Well yeah, and I will say one other thing, that there was another situation, maybe in the template era, if Nick Young or Gabe Pruitt had come back for their senior year. Yeah, but again, these are guys and we're not talking about like at this. At this point these guys were third-year players. You know, it's a little different than coming in after a first year and it's a little. It's a little more realistic to think that a guy who comes in after one year, who was not considered potentially a one-and-done, and then who does go one and done, right To to come back. So it's a little bit different. But yeah, potentially you could see a situation where Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt come back. But maybe if Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt, gabe Pruitt come back in 2008, I don't think you get OJ Mayo right, so you don't get that super team of OJ Mayo, nick Young, gabe Pruitt, taj Gibson right, because because it's kind of like it would have crowded things out of it. So, yeah, but yeah. So I just think that that realistically, they got it, they've gotten it going talent-wise and that and and again, you look at the the tap, the classes of 25 and 26 in California, which are excellent classes, much stronger classes than the last few years. So there is, there is a great roster to be built in the years ahead and If you get rid of Andy infield You're gonna probably pass up on those rosters.
Speaker 1:At a time when you see a lay, at a time when you see a lay at the beast that is across town, you say basketball has basically been cowed by the infield recruiting machine. They got so cowed and their NIL is not good that they had to go recruit in Europe and basically none of those guys. I mean they're probably gonna have to double think, double. Guess that now because. Second, guess that now because because none of those guys are, none of those Europeans are really doing much, it's all, it's all the homegrown guys, it's all the so cow guys. Right, are the? Are the West Coast guys? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway, that's. That's my little thought on that. You want to go on to question time?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have two questions for you, entirely of of different nature. This first one I'm not taking shots at the kid. I actually have said let's play brawny as much as we can until Collier is back, just to work through whatever issues he will have as a freshman, just to kind of Accelerate the growth and deal with it, because we needed him out there handling the ball.
Speaker 2:So this is not to say that he's stunk. This is a question about again I know it's kind of a theme in the market or in question time Broadcasters. What, what on earth is it gonna take For a broadcaster to call out brawny and say that was really just a horrible decision? Yeah, this, this guy can do no wrong as far as the broadcasters are concerned. Is he gonna have to actually just to Bring in a bad political metaphor? Is he gonna have to murder somebody on Fifth Avenue? Get it called out for it.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean, I mean he's Bronnie's doing some good things, but he's a freshman, right, and I think I think your point is valid. I think that there is. There is a factor to it. People are tuning in to see brawny James Barney James also is a good story returning from heart attack, yeah, which you know. Incidentally, you know the cal fans booing every time brawny James touches the ball. Like how can you boo someone who, who had like cardiac arrest over the summer? You know who's lucky to be on the court, who could have died. You know you're booing him for playing, but anyway, yeah, but but it just it really boils down to he's going through.
Speaker 1:There's a lot being put on him. There's a lot because because it's not just like in an ideal world, usc would be doing really well. I see a collier would be dominating from the point guard position, boogie Ellis would be would be lighting it up from three-point land and then brawny would be coming in in the second wave of players and just Knocking it, knocking down open threes with no pressure on him, right. But he's had to play point guard. He's had to do a lot of things that to put on. He's had a lot of things put on his shoulders that most guys Know if his capabilities and of his level.
Speaker 1:Yeah don't have that put on that early. So in a sense I I do like that he's playing hard and he does some good things. But you're right, he's, he's inconsistent and does some things.
Speaker 2:I like it too, but I would even to that point. I would just like it like this. You know, yeah, bad decisions by brawny there. He's not a true point guard by trade. That's a learning, you know, not even that it's like these, these, these guys are scared to say anything that might be even somewhat negative about him.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I mean he's not a true point guard, but he's a pretty good. I mean I think he's not not bad as a facilitator, like I think he does some. He does some good things, he's, he gets, he finds the right play, he knows how to play basketball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah you know so. So I get it. I get why. Why they want to will him into, you know, into a certain level, but he's just not there yet and that's okay. I mean for me watching him. I'm satisfied with that, like I'm. I wish he would shoot better, but I understand that a lot of freshmen Don't shoot well as fresh.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, that's called being a freshman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so some guys, some guys come out and Shoot really well and some guys don't, right, but he's shooting as well as Kobe Johnson is right now from three point he and he's basically like shooting like a third year. He's shooting as well as the team captain Right and, and so I mean to me. You know I'm not. I'm not as upset about it, but I think Brani just feeling his way, like a lot of these guys.
Speaker 2:Yep, and that's what I'm looking for. Is that honesty? Hey, he's feeling his way through this. This is fresh been here. Yeah. Um, all right. Second question, totally different have you and this is this is just a setup to my question, but have you ever been to Maples Pavilion?
Speaker 1:Changing I have. So a lot of you people don't know this, but I was the SID for USC basketball in the 2004 2005 season. This was the year that Henry Bibi got fired, and perhaps Some of you would understand why I said I have such an aversion To just like throwing Andy Enfield over the you know, over the side, after a disaster season, granted, but after what has pretty much been an outlier Over the last nine years of his tenure. I was there for the firing of Henry Bibi, the hiring of Rick Majaris Right and subsequent unhiring, and Then and then the interim year of Jim Sia who, by the way, was on my my brother's college basketball team at Chapman College. So I knew Jim Sia already. So that was kind of a fun. There's one day We'll have a little story about, a little podcast of stories about that season, because there's all kinds of great stories. This was Nick Young's and Gabe Pruitt's freshman years and so sophomore year for Lott and Rod Stewart. And what was the question? Again, I forgot.
Speaker 1:I got yeah so yeah, I did go to. I did go to Maples Pavilion and that was a pretty good. I remember that was. Those were good Stanford teams back then. So as I recall it was, it was the. The Stanford crowd is is very built in. Football and basketball are a very unique bunch.
Speaker 2:And you might be going to where I'm headed with this, because this has bugged me for years and it really just didn't compute because they showed it looked like a pretty full house on Saturday and they were saying big crowd and I'm thinking not loud, but still a good sized crowd. You could see that. And yet it seems like every year for the last 10 or 12 years, no matter how many people are there, the student section seems like about somewhere between seven and nine guys and I don't know if it's because of the placement of the microphones or where they sit in relation to the announcers. It's just very weird. It's just you can hear individual voices. It's like seven guys. You could probably hear them talking about where they're going after the game.
Speaker 2:Right, they're talking about it's never like a hundred guys that you can hear they're talking about the latest app they're developing.
Speaker 1:And then there's like the, and I think in that game there was a girl who had a really high pitched squeal. That was pretty prominent as well. You know the Stanford crowd's interesting. You know I remember being at a Stanford football game back in, I think, 1998 up at Stanford Stadium and I remember the crowd. You know, like I said, they're a little bit different. They have a little bit more thought into their cheers. You know it's not just raw, raw, sys boom ba. I remember one of the crowd, one of the cheers was punish them for crimes they did not commit, punish them for crimes they did not commit. I thought that's pretty fun. I like that one.
Speaker 1:But very typical Stanford cynical inside their own head type of crowd. But yeah, maples is a pretty cool place to check out. A lot of those Pac-12 arenas are really fun places to go and it's gonna be sad that we shan't be going to them again. Yeah, so well, those are question times. I think now we're gonna move on to your mean minute, mark's mean minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of following along the same theme about the fans Going back about. You know well who would just boo purposely, just a guy who's like getting past a cardiac event seven months ago. I'll tell you who. You would remember this. It'd be the fan base that actually, as far as I know, originated doxing. Do you remember this? The whole Gabe Pruitt thing?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm gonna say I think so. Oh, yes, I do remember the catfish slash doxing I do remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:For those who don't know, somebody catfished Gabe Pruitt, you know, tended to be I don't know a young lady attending Berkeley and, you know, then sent out or distributed, handed out whatever hard copies of the chats between the two. That included poor Gabriel's phone number. So then he really got pumbled after the game. So congratulations, Cal. You guys stink. I don't like you, okay, and guess who else? I don't like Stanford just because you have less people and I can only hear seven of you. Well, about 30 years ago, when you actually had people that actually made some noise at the games, Last time that I remember you guys doing anything, what was that? Oh yeah, that was when you guys were playing Yukon in a home game and you were making racist chants at Khalid El Amin. So you're no better.
Speaker 1:You guys all stink. That's right. They should off to the ACC with you. Be gone, be gone.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you're no meteorites.
Speaker 1:Ha ha, oh yeah. Yeah, that's so true. You know it reminds me it wasn't quite doxing, but I remember back when I was at USC and Chris Mills had transferred to Arizona from Kentucky and there was a story about him getting a FedEx full of cash and it was one of the things that people liked to do was bring out the FedEx envelopes whenever Chris Mills showed up. Ah yeah, not many people.
Speaker 2:that's clever, I yeah.
Speaker 1:What I like about it was students, like they read the papers, you know, like back then they read up on the opponent.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that is. Yeah, the papers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So now it's like, do I send? I don't get a sense that like USC fans no, usc students like are like reading up on what. Like if, when Stanford comes to town, they're not reading up on what like the Stanford players are up to or they don't hear about it. Right, it's like it's just there's not that level. Like if you go to Duke and you go to Cameron Indoor, the students, like you walk into the arena and you're handed a sheet of paper, like if you're a student, like giving you the rundown of like what the cheers are, explaining why they're cheering this way, what it all means. Right, like we're cheering against number 18 because because you know his mother was arrested for, you know, for distributing child pornography three years ago or something you know, I don't know what it?
Speaker 1:is, but it's something like that, right, but they've like, they've done their research right and you just don't find that at places like USC. Unfortunately, no good, clean fun like that and I wish that. I wish there was more opportunities for that. I wish that our fan base cared a little bit more in that regard to make it a bit more fun, because there's nothing more fun than those Thursday and Saturday nights in college basketball and rousing the other team and but it doing it in you know, in a clever way in a clever way and with good hearted, good spirited manner, right Without being too mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, but yeah, anyway, that's. Yeah, we just look back to some of those old days of the Pac-12, I think we might have to have an old Pac-12 Reminiscent's pod when this is all said and once we get to Pac-12 tournament time. Yeah. So, okay, well, I think we pretty much covered everything, except for the fact that we have Utah and Colorado coming up. Utah, I think. If I'm not mistaken, Utah just came off a bad loss to Arizona state.
Speaker 2:Arizona state at home yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, arizona, it seems to be back on track. Arizona swept the mountain schools, really took it to Colorado Right now, I mean the Pac-12,. Colorado is 16 and eight. They're on the bubble. Oregon is 16 and eight. They're on the bubble. I'm not sure how many teams are gonna come out of this league. Maybe two at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't looked at that yet yeah, it's. I think that on the broadcast I said there was like a 13. Maybe Washington state.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, washington state is right now, I think, the second team, jeez okay, I don't know who the third team, because Washington state's 18 and six. They're 41 and Ken Palm, colorado's actually 35th in Ken Palm, but they are 16 and eight depends on how they finish. Obviously, they have a shot. They could be a three team league, maybe a four team league, depending on how Oregon and Colorado finish out, but this is definitely an auspicious final season for the Conference of Champions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me check the standing, because if I just go by the Bill Walton rule, because he said if you finish above 500 in the Conference of Champions you're gonna get an invite, so that's six teams.
Speaker 1:And, as we know, he's never wrong.
Speaker 2:He's never wrong. That means UCLA's getting the big Colorado and Stanford with that whenever USC, so pivotal win for the Cardinal.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:At 12 and 11.
Speaker 1:Now the good news is Ken Palm has USC projected to an 11 and 20 record. They are projecting USC to beat Arizona State at home, to lose this weekend to Utah and Colorado. What do you think? Colorado what's gonna happen? What do you think? What is your predictions for the Utah and Colorado games? Mark?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go out way, way on a limb here. You know I've gotten into just doing these home road splits. So if I basically take, we will say, a team's BPO plus offensively and subtract it, subtract from that they're defensive, because a lower defensive number is better, a higher defensive number is worse. If I basically take offensive minus defense, I'll get a power metric. I'm not gonna call it a rating because it doesn't really equate to points on the scoreboard, but just by this metric, Utah on the road their power metric is a negative 17. Colorado on the road is a negative 12. Usc at home is a positive five. I think and just to be clear, this actually had USC and Cal as a close one and this had Stanford handily handing it to us. So not that this is perfect, but I'm comfortable with these gauges. I wouldn't be surprised if we actually win both ends of this week's games and then we're back on the roller coaster about what on earth is this team?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think that's pretty valid possibility. Utah has lost four of the last five Now. One of those games was a three overtime loss to Arizona, in which they played pretty well.
Speaker 2:At home.
Speaker 1:At home and then kind of like what happened to USC coming off an overtime game, then they stunk it up against Arizona State and before that they got swept up in the Washington's and then they had a win over Colorado at home sandwiched in between. But this is a team that's kind of really right now. So maybe USC I think matchup wise USC might match up pretty well with Utah and if they can get a win against Utah maybe they feel a lot better going against Colorado, who, after all, usc played pretty well against on the road, you know, until Colorado pulled away.
Speaker 2:Until they didn't yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, until they didn't. And then, and then, of course, you've got UCLA who is, you know, one of the hottest teams in the conference right now. They won five in a row and seven of eight, but they're still 13 and 11. They're still not a great team. There's certainly a team. They're a team that is Predicted to lose. I mean, they could be coming off potentially two losses to the mountain schools in this home stance. So I, you know, hope springs eternal. But the USC bounces back against Utah. Colorado can, can sneak a win out against UCLA and you know, you're 12 and 15 With four games left to go. Not that this is anything to feel great about, but you're looking for momentum. It's all there for the taking if these guys want to take it. I'm not predicting it's gonna happen, but these are not unbeatable teams.
Speaker 1:No no right.
Speaker 2:And there's a tendency just to think that your team is is as only as good or bad as the last game that they played. Yeah, and I think, if you look at that and just consider, it was on the road and we actually USC has the worst road offense in the entire conference. Yeah, you have to consider the change in venue. We're actually, you know, we have the biggest side from Washington. We have the biggest Difference between how good our offense is at home and on the road. Yeah, so I'm expecting a 180 offensively right, especially against a Utah defense that is horrible on the road, I think. Let me just look here. I think they have the worst Road defense they do in the entire conference. Worse than us yeah considerably.
Speaker 1:Yeah and and, and I think that I'm not sure. If you look at the numbers, I'm not sure. Has USC been? How many home games has USC had where they've been at full strength this year? Oh, my god, I think just the Stanford game, just the Cal and Stanford. I think just the Stanford game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I lose back to the For the Stanford game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I. I don't think they've had a more than a couple games all year at home where they've been full strength. Yeah so, you know, maybe that's everyone's full strength now on paper. Full strength. Yeah, boogie. I'd like to see boogie. You know boogie's playing at about, for it feels like he's playing at 40% right now, like he's really like. I wouldn't even if he's not, if he can't go 100%. I just wouldn't even start him.
Speaker 2:No no, I would. I would Right on the on the Chinese bandit squad, not the blue or the red team, whatever you call them. That's right, yeah.
Speaker 1:I would start. I would start Collier, I would start Sellers, I'd start. I'd start with the Brownie Rodden right, and he would chew cool yeah against Utah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for those who'd missed it, in my column I've got some some stark breaks for Rodman as a starter versus off the bench, and it is Absolutely not volume related, it's just he needs to come off the bench. That's not even a debate. Yeah, watch the look at the column.
Speaker 1:The numbers are just, they speak for themselves. Yeah, yeah, they've lost three of four, mm-hmm. So they also got. They lost to Washington State, utah. They did beat ASU at home, but then they got, you know, they got boat race by Arizona at home. So they do have to play UCLA first. So that's gonna be interesting right there. You know they're projected to win that game, but not not overwhelmingly, so a lot of variables that could happen.
Speaker 1:It would still just be nice for USC, even with all this mess, to To go out on a nice, a Nice little streak here win six of seven, win five of five of eight, whatever you know, lose, lose four in a row, but beat Arizona. You know, one of those things, something they can hang their hat on, would be nice. They're gonna have to to win four games in the Pac-12 tournament. That to win the, to win the conference tournament. But hey, maybe you can win two Right. Go two and one in that turn. You know would would be nice to hang your head on right, some kind of positivity For the team going to next year, where when there can be some sort of reasonable Expectation of improvement or something to to launch forth from as you go into the Big 10.
Speaker 2:Agree. Yep, I mean, that's kind of what we have. That's what the season's become, but it is what it is. It is what it is yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, that should do it for us. From the Dunk City podcast we are here every week, brought to you by USC basketball comm. It's not easy to come out every week and do a podcast where the team is doing so poorly, but but we're a we're a podcasting crew that supports the program and we're going to talk about as much as we can talk about about this team Without turning our stomachs. So we will be here next week, hopefully with a couple wins against Utah and Colorado, and I'm gonna say fight on mark. What do you say?
Speaker 2:As always, everyone fight on.