Chris and Mark discuss the deluge of recruits coming to USC out of the transfer portal over this past week, including Saint Thomas, Isaiah Elohim, Chibuzo Agbo and Rashaun Agee. Later, Chris yells at a cloud in an attempt to understand what it's like to be a modern college basketball athlete.
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 the deluge of recruits coming to USC out of the transfer portal over this past week, including Saint Thomas, Isaiah Elohim, Chibuzo Agbo and Rashaun Agee. Later, Chris yells at a cloud in an attempt to understand what it's like to be a modern college basketball athlete.
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. Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by USCbasketballcom. Chris Houston here with Mark Backstrom. And what a momentous day we are recording this on, a Monday.
Speaker 1:April 22nd has been a smorgasbord of USC recruiting news. Let's just get right into it. Earlier today, Rayshawn Agee of Bowling Green committed to the Trojans. He's a 6'8", 225-pound senior out of Chicago, Averaged 13.3 points, 9.9 boards. Last year Shot 57% from the field.
Speaker 1:And then, later on in the day, Isaiah Elohim of Sierra Canyon, the first high school player to commit to Eric Musselman at USC. He having been let out of his letter of intent with Arkansas, he has committed to USC. A big ranging player. We'll talk to him about him more later. And then, to cap off the night, Chibuzo Agbo of Boise State, 6'7", 226-pound guard wing average 13.7, five boards. Shot 40% from three-point land really good three-point shooter. He made it the third commitment of the day for the Trojans. Now, this was coming off of a really good day the day before, where St Thomas of Northern Colorado also committed, so the commits have been coming fast and furious. For Eric Musselman. The Trojans now have nine scholarship players when you include returners Harrison Hornery and Brandon Garner. Hey, speaking of Brandon Garner, Mark, did you happen to see Brandon Gardner's dunk from this past year's practice?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was something. My goodness, Guy's got some length in his appendages apparently.
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, it almost looked like one of those fake videos, right, it did look like one of those like uh, fake videos, right, like somehow, like they, they, they like they cut it so that, like you know, he jumped. Then the next thing, you know, the next frame, was him landing. You know that's how fast it was. It was over josh morgan. Pretty good, pretty good shot blocker. Um, so, yeah, so he's obviously back and it's interesting that. So there's nine scholarship players and, uh, there are four slots left. Uh, there are some names out there, of course trent perry, who usc is trying to get back. Uh, andy enfield over at smu is trying to get him. He just took a trip to virginia and, um, old hoops reporting legend dick weiss claims that virginia is the leader in the clubhouse. I don't know how plugged in Hoops Weiss is anymore, but without a doubt there's a chance Virginia can get Trent Perry.
Speaker 1:But a few other things happened recently. Another bit of news Will Conroy, associate head coach over at Washington, has been hired by Eric Musselman to be an assistant coach at USC. He went to Garfield High in the LA area and he is now at USC and one of the players who USC nearly snagged in the recruiting cycle this past year was Zoom Diallo, a prolific prep up in Napa. He chose the Washington Huskies, but now it appears he is noncommittal. Apparently the main point of contact in recruiting him was none other than Will Conroy. So now he's at USC. Can Will Conroy get Zoom Diallo to become USC? Will they be able to get Trent Perry? It does seem they need to get one more primary ball handler to sort of help carry the load, and there's a couple opportunities out there, a couple potential players who could be coming and you know. But after these last couple of days it's kind of breathtaking to see how much talent has been accumulated in in this quick span of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm wondering did House of Victory just kind of like have an open house that concluded this morning or something?
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe. So Maybe it was like one of those club memberships or like a.
Speaker 2:Recruiting drive.
Speaker 1:Not like a referral, like a referral program or something I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Someone's got to write that down. It's not a bad idea, a little referral program. So yeah, it's interesting. So the USC now has nine scholarship players like we talked about. These players are a lot like.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, they're nothing like what USC fans are used to with the Andy Enfield era. Andy liked kind of athletic bigs, lean, angular, skilled basketball players, players who sort of flowed, I think, more than exploded, and there's benefits of all kinds of different players playing college basketball. This group of players tend to be more straight line, explosive, maybe not as like overall as flexible and athletic, but definitely like explosive, full of energy, and they can all score. There's just a lot of guys coming in who are coming into USC right now, who are used to putting up big numbers, and we're going to go, you know, throw it back to you for a minute and then we're going to go one by one through the players, because we didn't talk about some of the other players who've come to USC since we last had our podcast, which was only Josh Cohen at the time had committed to USC. So, mark, let's throw it over to you.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, the you know, one thing that stands out to me before we get into any specific player is, especially of that first group now of the last couple Rashawn Agee I just got his stats and I haven't dug in too much, and then you're going to have to help me with the kid from Boise. Oh, chibuzo Agbo yes, agbo, that was literally broke news to me just this evening on that. So I haven't had a chance to dig into that. But if we look at some of these other guys, um, matt noling from yale, um bryce pope, um what? And even just going going back to josh cohen, that that first group of of guys that that musselman got, they all come from really um, efficient offenses last year.
Speaker 2:Uh, umass team bp 100 was over 50, 50.6, which I think probably would have been about, I think, maybe second or third at worst in the Pac-12. Yeah, yale 52.7, bpo 100. I think that's right there with Arizona, although I don't think anybody will mistake the styles of the two teams. But very efficient. Ucsd, bryce Pope 52.5. Penn 51.2. Northern California pardon me, northern Colorado 52.6, where St Thomas comes from. So I don't know if this is by design or this is just the kind of player that catches Musselman's eye. But these, these guys all come from very efficient offenses, which I think is it's.
Speaker 1:It's interesting there's no good stats on a bad team guy yeah, exactly, and these are and these are also guys who are very much in an nba style. Right, they are aggressive to the rim. They're going to either uh hit you deep or or bring you down low, for the most part like the wing. There's lots of wing, it's a very wing, heavy class. Uh, ag is a is a post player, but saint thomas is a wing. Uh uh, you know guard slash. Guard noling is an undersized forward, but he can play on the perimeter. Some Pope is obviously a guard, slacker is a guard, agbo is a wing and so is Elohim, so a lot of guys who are in that?
Speaker 1:6-3 to 6-7, 6-8 range who are just going to attack the basket or shoot threes? And there are a few guys with some pretty good mid-range games, but it's definitely explode, cut, try to score through the harm and try to get to the foul line, and so to me that's the consistent thread with all these guys the thing when I'm, you know, bigger picture um, you know, when I took from the, the videos that were posted on the website about muslim, and I'm kind of working from a framework of.
Speaker 2:He said in one of the videos you know, our goal is 200 passes a game and I'm just kind of using that as a framework to see, okay, using that as a, as a starting point in in pace and space. You know, built upon that, who seems to to to fit in there the best um from a? You know from, from, from what I can discern from a metric scouting standpoint, if you will. So I I thought what might be interesting is, you know, I've I've seen some highlights of cohen. I've seen about five or ten seconds of pope, but you know, if I can just walk through the metrics of each of these players and then just give you what I, based on some metric scouting, what I think their game is, and you can kind of tell me right, wrong or indifferent in terms of my interpretations, let's do it, okay. So we'll start with Rashaun Agee, the gentleman out of Bowling Green. Not an awesome bpo 100. I think that his bpo 100 is is more in line with what you're we're used to seeing with um.
Speaker 2:You're less than elite big men at 49.9, um little elevated turnover ratio which you know, elevated for all players, but pretty much in line with your, you know, with a typical big. What really stands out to me is his rebounds per 40. As a junior or, sorry, as a, there's a missing year here. He must have had a redshirt year His first year at Bowling Green. He had one season where he played one game at New Mexico State, the COVID, the free season. So his first season at Bowling Green rebounds per 40 of 12.5. And then last season 14.4. I'm not seeing a lot of great rebounding stats from another you know anybody else on on this team so far.
Speaker 1:So there's some other. There's one other guy with really good numbers.
Speaker 2:Okay, you might be breaking news to me here.
Speaker 1:No, these are all new guys, so it's just, you know, we're getting to know them.
Speaker 2:Sure. So you know, I think that this is going to be a gentleman that you know I don't see a lot of offense running through him. You know he seems like a fine scorer, but you know, again, again, I don't see him as a first option, but definitely somebody that can, can probably finish inside. If you're getting 14 rebounds a game, I think you know how to use your lower body, um, and you've got some, some strength up top and um, probably a finisher, maybe a, maybe a shorter or shorter, but more um, complete kajani, if that's maybe a decent comp.
Speaker 1:Maybe not the passer, though yeah, I actually think this is. This is actually, uh, I think you're pretty spot on with your, with what you're looking at here. Like he, he, he sort of feasted offensively. He sort of feasted on on the weaker part of the schedule, or at least early on in the year. He sort of tailed off, uh, toward the end of the year. But there there are.
Speaker 1:There's a few things that you can't take away from him, which is that he's got really good hands. He's got a great feel around the rim, uh, he gets a lot of um, he scores a lot off of putbacks and, uh, just getting good position offensive rebounds, so on and so forth. He's, he's a legitimate, he's legitimately a very good rebounder, as you, as you've noted. You're right. I really don't think the offense needs to go through him. I don't think it will be.
Speaker 1:He is, he's a pretty decent ball handler. He is, um, he's a pretty decent ball handler. He, he, he's not going to be a guy who's going to be flying hard in transition, um, but I, I think he is. He's going to get a lot of his work done in the half court set, um, and I think he's potentially a starter for this year. And you know one of the things about all these guys they're all seniors for the most part, except for Elohim coming in. These guys have been around the block. These guys are physically strong, mentally capable, so he's definitely an early favorite to start at potentially the five, depending on who else we have coming in. He could be an undersized five, but he's kind of a strong kid so he's definitely a good get, as they say on the internets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, one of the things that we need to adjust to is I would have an idea about how this feels like it would play in the Pac-12 now in the Big Ten, don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's in the sense that if you think the Big Ten is kind of a grinding conference, I think he works pretty well for his style. He is a grinder, he's got decent quickness, he's got pretty good. His footwork is a little sloppy, like. I haven't seen full games of him yet, but I can imagine he got called for a few travels. He's a little loose with his footwork but he, you know, he finishes down low, he's. He's a hard worker and if he can commit to just being a rebounder and defender, then he's going to be a big plus for this basketball team yeah, a second, sorry, one more thing about him.
Speaker 2:Second, on the team in buscar and with you know um, all these transfers coming from um, from conferences. One of the things I definitely want to see is an identity for each of these guys that really separates them as a team leader in one specific attribute, like for him it's obviously the rebound he just dominated that and second on the team in Biscar, which is a volume stat.
Speaker 2:So that's promising Again. If we're not volume stat, so, um, that that's promising again. If we're not relying on that and it's just, if that's just found money that we get when we get points from him, all the better yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So we like rashaan uh ag. I think that, um, he's uh definitely uh going to be a big help for the squad. Who's's your next player?
Speaker 2:Matt Noling at Yale. Okay, you know to my prior point about standing out, I'm a little unsure of what I'm looking at here with Mr Noling, really efficient player, 59.4 BPO last season, which is nuts, and this is crazy. His first three years all at Yale BPO 100s of 58.6, 59.2, and 59.4. That's impressive. Now here's where my mind gets a little bent. Not a great free throw shooter Only 63% for his career um but really good field percentage from two in his career almost 61 from two. Uh, not a good outside shooter. So I I'm having a hard time figuring out his game and he does not. Um does not strike me as much of a rebounder. Last season in the ivy league, less than seven rebounds per 40 um. So I I've got, I've got um countervailing wins, I've got a very high two-point percentage and I've got a low rebounding percentage. So I this is this is the mystery man to me in terms of what we're getting in terms of style of play. So can you help me out with this one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it works out nicely because what you are describing is what's typically called a glue guy. Matt Knolling is going to be this team's glue guy. I don't think he'll start. I think he's the guy that comes in, gives you some good hard cuts at the basket, gives you some decent production in ISO and who is just going to scrap for buckets whenever he can, and he's going to hit a lot of buckets. He's an undersized player. He's 6'6", 200.
Speaker 1:Kobe Johnson, without the outside game, like a good Kobe, like when Kobe was good Kobe, but without the outside game, cutting to the basket, occasionally posting up, sort of they're similar sizes. He has more of a developed post-up game than Kobe, obviously, because Kobe didn't really get a chance to develop it. But those times that he the little turnarounds and and runners are, and just you know, cutting on the baseline back cuts, that that kobe was good at, uh, noeling is also good at so and he's gonna be yeah, so he's gonna play that role. I think of just sort of. You need five points tonight? Okay, great, you need 15. Okay, maybe I'll try to get that, for you know he's not coming out there looking to, uh, looking to dominate, dominate the ball almost three assists per game too, um yeah he doesn't turn the ball over at all
Speaker 1:yeah, very plays within himself. Obviously you know he's a Yale guy, so he's smart. We can assume he's smart. We can assume he's not dumb. Let's just say that.
Speaker 1:And last year he didn't have as good a year as the year before, when he was a unanimous all-Ivy League selection. He averaged almost 14 points a game, shot 63% and actually had a pretty good year from three-point land, 33 last year was a huge drop off for him from three point when they he only shot 14, but the previous two years he did shoot um 33 and then 50 as a freshman. So, uh, maybe the idea is that, hey, this was an anomaly, or maybe, like the, the comparisons to kobe uh, kobe john, kobe Johnson are, you know, a little too eerie there with the three-point percentage. But yeah, so he's the glue guy.
Speaker 1:Matt Noling, you need these guys on the team. Not everybody's going to be the starter, not everyone's going to be the guy coming in averaging 20. So, unfortunately, when you watch highlights I haven't watched these full games of these guys yet, so I don't know you don't really see many defensive highlights for a lot of these players. So, uh, right now I don't know what their defensive capabilities are. So, but offensively, glue guy okay all right, thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Next, um, bry Pope out of UCSD. Okay, like I said, really efficient offensive system that he's coming out of. Bpo 100 of 51.4 last season for Bryce Again, I've got almost a complete picture of him. And then there's one thing that just doesn't make sense to me. So good BPO 100, great free throw shooter, almost 82% last season, over 80% for his career. Okay, three-point shooter at 33% where he'll have it sounds like that kind of guy will have a game or two where they are awesome know they, they are awesome. And then a couple where you're like, oh boy, um but yeah well, he shot 38.
Speaker 1:He shot 38 at home, 27 on the road. So there you go.
Speaker 2:That's illuminating um it's, that's nice and can be a concern both um right 48 on twos, which that that's that's where I'm seeing some of the gap in the narrative here Really takes care of the ball Turnover percentage the last three years 7.7%, 6.7%, 6.3%. That is very low for a guard, but with the low shooting percentage I'm thinking this guy's kind of a. I'm kind of feeling maybe like a Bryce Love of the big West question mark.
Speaker 1:I, you know, I don't think he's, he's. I think you're on the right track. I don't think he's that extreme. Um, he cause he, first of all, he's. He's even that, shooting 42%, he's still a better shooter than Bryce Love. Uh, not Bryce Love, caleb Love, pardon me. Yes, yeah, yes, yeah, bryce Love was the running back for Stanford, right? Yeah, heisman runner-up, okay, yeah. So, uh, caleb Love was, I think he shot 38 percent and I think he finished the season uh, like 3 of 17 or some crazy number. Um, 3 of 29 or some crazy crazy number. Just really tanked it toward the end.
Speaker 1:But I do see some elements of, uh, this guy's more of a scorer than a shooter, the funny thing about this game. So if you ever played basketball growing up in the 80s, let's say there was always this. There was always this older dude from like the 70s with like a headband and like high knee socks and he would launch these three pointers or not three pointers. He would launch these jump shots, these jump shots that were sort of like forward when he would jump. You know, like, basically right now, when you shoot a jump shot, people they jump up Right and they shoot, but these guys would like jump forward when they shot their jump shots.
Speaker 1:If you catch me and if you go look at highlights of Bryce Pope, he's sort of like when he shoots his threes he sort of launches himself. He's sort of like careens forward with his body slight jackknife. He doesn't really, um, uh, elevate straight up. He sort of elevates uh forward at an angle so it kind of creates this sort of wild element, or at least wild looking element to his shot and maybe that's you know why he's not a consistent outside shooter. Just there's too much going on. You get a sense a lot of energy, a lot of energy, a lot of drive, a lot of just relentless energy from the guy. I think that's probably what Musselman's looking for is just a guy with a lot of energy, a guy who can just play hard, and he plays hard on offense. He's not necessarily the most efficient player, but he's going to score.
Speaker 2:Do you see him as a starter? Possibly, it sounds like maybe.
Speaker 1:I mean I could see him starting some games. It's still too early. We don't know really who's on the team yet. There's still some guys who could be coming. But I would say, yeah, right now he might be a starter.
Speaker 2:I would say, yeah, right now he might be a starter. Okay, and just to again, you know, does this player stand out on his prior team? And really that UCSD team? Again, very efficient offense, two players, one inside player His last name is Tate Jones, the first one, his first name gets the better of me, but it's definitely an inside out. You know, two men, two men team here. Both had boost scars of 93. Um, uh, the big man was a little more efficient, but um, yeah, I think that if you, you know, I can get a feel, for Bryce Pope is definitely somebody that if you're game planning for you, you know he's topic one, if you know, if not 1A, depending on who the opponent is.
Speaker 1:And you know I want to say that even though he looks like he's playing out of control, he's obviously in control most of the time. He only averaged one personal foul per game in 33 starts. He played 36 minutes per game. So you play 36 minutes and you're averaging one foul per game, then he's. You know he's playing without fouling, so that's good. I mean, I again I haven't seen him play full games. I don't know if he plays any defense at all. Maybe that's why he only gets one foul, um but uh. But you're, you're not looking at a lot of player control fouls. You know he's not charging into people very much, so he's not throwing the ball away. Exactly that's the thing which makes me think it's a smart player.
Speaker 2:It's you know you take care of the ball like that. You're smart, yeah, yeah. I'm kind of guessing he might be the kind of guy who really shoots well in practice. I guess not to your point. Now she's well at home when you have that kind of free throw percentage. I bet he just crushes it in practice every day and so they're fine with him taking as many three pointers as he wants.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the other thing too is, uh, even though he is only a 27% three point shooter on the road, he is a nearly 87% free throw shooter on the road. So, uh, he is tough as nails in those situations. Uh, okay. So bryce pope, uh, again, uh, positive, a positive addition to the team. He's. He's a scorer. I mean, the guy's average is very consistent score. He averaged 18.3 this past year, 18.4 the year before. All his field goal three point free throw percentages were all roughly around the same, or at least in the same ballpark. Uh, so he's been very consistent.
Speaker 2:You kind of know what you're going to get with him yeah, and just one last thing on him nice, nice, uh career trajectory here in terms of his boost scar first year 19, second year 49, third year 71 and last year 93. So real nice growth too. Um takes it to the next level and really could do something yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, who's next on? Uh on the roster here?
Speaker 2:all right, the the gentleman from from penn clark, is it slazier, slackert, slackert okay I guess it's not pronounced with a with a question mark, like I pronounced it either Correct, it's more of an exclamation point.
Speaker 2:Okay, slackert, that's right. You know team leader in Buscar by a wide margin for Penn last season. A good or efficient offensively. Penn team BP 100 to 54.8 last season, which is really good, made a big jump from last year. Last year he was only at a 49.2. Really good shooter, shooting almost 86% from the line.
Speaker 2:For his career, let's put it this way Last year was his worst year from the line at a mere 82%. Yeah, shot 42% from three last season 53, almost 54% from from two. So just just a good shooter. Turnover percentage a little higher than the others, but about in line with your, with what you're seeing, want to see from a guard at 11%, not a ton of assists. So strikes me as he was probably the off guard to somebody else running the show. Um, I boy, I, you know I don't know if I have a usc comp for this he seems like maybe the. When I saw these stats my first thought was going back to um, maybe to our new coach, a new, new assistant coach, will Conroy. He seems maybe what Washington was hoping to get when they, when they signed here. Here's a deepish cut Ryan Appleby.
Speaker 1:Ryan Appleby, that's, that's one of those. It's, that's one of those names that's been thrown them to the onto the. You know just the pile of names that have come across over the years. I don't remember, I do not remember. I remember the name.
Speaker 2:I don't remember anything about him, just awesome shooter, you could not leave him alone, and that's kind of his epitaph in his entire resume.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a pretty good resume. That's a great thing on your gravestone. Awesome shooter Couldn't leave him alone. Awesome, awesome. That's a great thing on your gravestone, you know awesome shooter, couldn't leave him alone.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, does this sound like Mr Slacker, just a more actualized version of, like you know, you get this, this great shooter, coming in, you're hoping he can, just you know, really, really carry you, and he carried the team last season to the extent that they had offense. It seems to be his show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a big fan of Slacker, had offense, it seems to be his show. Yeah, I'm a big fan of slackert. Um, there is there's, like you know, again going back to like how a lot of usc basketball fans, or a lot of fans of usc don't really like follow college basketball and they think that like, uh, okay, so usc got cohen and they got slackert and they got bryce pope and it was like, oh, you know, worried about getting too many white guys, it. It was like the big worry, right, was what people were saying on the Internet, which is silly, because there's just a lot of, there's a lot of good players of, you know, black players, white players out there. I mean there's. There's not a whole lot of, like you know, I just don't. It's a silly thing, right, so, but the point being is that clark, clark slacker, it's a really good player and I think he's going to be uh, pretty good for usc.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's almost a, he's almost a 50. He's a 50, 40, 80 guy, almost, you right, yeah, uh, and I, he's played. He's playing at some. He's playing at some really good level of competition. Uh, he scored 17 on Kentucky, for example. He didn't necessarily go crazy from three, but he had 17 against Kentucky. He got hurt against Houston and played only six minutes Against Villanova. He scored 11, had five rebounds, four assists. He's acquitted himself pretty well against pretty good competition and I that he's gonna be a pretty good player for usc. And again, a guy who, who knows how to score uh, scoring point guard right now. I think the season starts. I think he's the starting point guard really. Yeah, right now, wow, the season starts. He's a starting point guard, for sure, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Okay, Now again, we might get someone else in but yeah, he's a starting point guard right now and I think he's a good starting point guard. You know, again like I see people on the internet saying, well, you know, slackard and Pope and Cohen, these guys are not, you know, are Big Ten level players, and it's like I mean, I don't know if people it's like, have they actually watched the Big Ten?
Speaker 2:And I think to a degree. You know, specifically, we US fans, USC fans this is not to throw shade at anybody, but this is the case for me. You know, if to the extent I watched Big Ten games, it was the top teams. I was not watching a lot of Maryland and Rutgers games, yeah, so there's a lot of context that's missing for that assessment. Is the Big Ten a point guard league? Like who are these great?
Speaker 1:point guards in the Big Ten. Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot of context that's missing for that assessment. Is the Big Ten a point guard league? Like? Who are these great point guards in the Big Ten? Slotkert's probably as good as like half the point guards in the Big Ten, and sure he's from the Ivy, right? He's one of the best players in that league, right? And so it's like you can't average 18 points in that league without being a pretty good basketball player.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and to my point about, you know, is this a player that stands out in one particular attribute, I mean an amazing scorer, you know, will he be an amazing scorer in the Big Ten, to be determined? But you know, I can't imagine that somebody that's at that level of being a standout in that particular skill is just won't get it, you know, will not be a factor in the Big Ten. And again, it's not like he has only one skill. I mean, this is just a more well-rounded, you know player. I'm guessing, just statistically, than, like the, the two that you mentioned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that he is. Um, yeah, he's not going to be. He's not going to score 18 points a game in the big 10. I don't think, even though his trajectory is, you know, still still continuing upward, I don't think he's going to score 18 points per game in the big 10. I don't think he's going to need to score 18 points for this team. Yeah, he might occasionally need to, he might occasionally do so, but I think you know, playing for Penn, maybe he needed to score more. So maybe he wasn't as much of an assist guy, maybe he's now freed up to be more of an assist guy, but the thing that he's always going to give you is great shooting, like he's a sharp shooter. He's going to give you great outside shooting and a good free throw shooting, and he's going to handle the ball, yeah, good. So I think I think he's. He's. I think he's a pretty good point guard. I'm a I'm a fan of this kid.
Speaker 2:Now I don't know, I'm boy, I'm kind of curious, but I don't know how many players in the big 10 averaged 18 points a game, I guess maybe. I'm sure Edie did maybe one or two more. So it's, it's not like that's a table stakes for for being a good conference team, um, but if there is one that I say might be capable, and this could be a stretch, but but notwithstanding the late commits that we got today, the one gentleman that I was most interested to see, based on just the metrics, is St Thomas from Northern Colorado. My goodness, my mouth is watering just looking at these numbers here. Bpo 100 to 53.3. Um again for a good offensive program as a team 52.6. So you know a really good player and a really good system. Some of these numbers are just ridiculous 57 from 2, 33 from 3, which is not awesome, but good enough considering that he sees clearly a shooter. Almost 87 from the line last season, um, yeah, his turnover.
Speaker 1:Oh go ahead. No, I was just, I was just going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just seconding, here, you're, you're turnover percentage went down from 20 last last season to 12.5% this most recent season. Rebounds per 40 of 11.3. I mean, I'm I'm looking at this cup. This guy sounds like he was the Dominique Wilkins of the conference, like this is the guy I was.
Speaker 1:This is the guy I was talking about earlier. You're talking about a rebounders coming in. Yeah, I well, I kind of don't want to great you, he can rebound.
Speaker 2:I just, I almost want to put him as a do not. You know, I want to lock him up like a like, a like, a feel, and just make sure he doesn't get damaged here. I mean, the guy just offers, so much I don't I mean god bless him.
Speaker 1:I love rebounders, I love the guys to do the dirty work and whatever we get from him Great.
Speaker 2:But man, this seems he just seems. When I see that combination of shooting, scoring and rebounding and taking care of the ball, the first thing I think is just very skilled athlete. Athletic but very skilled at basketball too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a. He had a huge jump from his second year, averaged 3.2 points per game. He only played 14 games, so I think he was hurt, but then jumped to almost 20 points per game. 19.7, like you said Also, 1.7 steals also is a pretty good steal number. Yeah, this guy, I've watched him. He's kind of an offensive machine, has a large repertoire of ways to score. He can obviously shoot it, he can drive it, he can put his back to the basket. Um, he's got a little bit of everything and he's, you know, he, he rebounds, uh. But definitely saint thomas, I think, is slated to be a starter on this team right now. Yeah, how tall is he? Was he six six?
Speaker 2:he's listed at six seven okay, um, not not to be the the diction police here, but I will take take issue with a little bit of everything. I see a lot of some uh, more than just a little bit and a lot of things here. I'm, I'm, I'm metrically in love, if that's an actual phrase. I can't wait to see this guy, my gosh. I mean guys that play defense that can score like this. They're just yeah, I'm swooning.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, chibuzu Agbo was second on the Broncos last year in scoring 13.7 points per game, five rebounds, shot 45%. He is a 40. Actually he shot 41% from three-point land last year. He's a career 39% three-point shooter. He's a 6'7 wing, pretty athletic. He started out first two years at Texas Tech. You're going to like this guy. He's very much a muscleman type Slasher, shooter, scorer, explosive, get to the rim, get fouled. Strong player, you know, plays through contact, similar Bryce Pope's the same way. St Thomas is the same way. Ag's the same way. Thomas is the same way. Ag's the same way. Guys who play through contact, uh, guys who are a little bit stronger than their counterparts, um, uh, maybe not as skilled as we're used to seeing uh from. You know he's not uh, drew Peterson, right, but he is. He is stronger than Drew Peterson and more straight-line explosiveness. And you see that up and down this new roster, so very much Agbo is a great example of sort of the muscleman way of doing things at USC.
Speaker 2:One other thing, sorry, just going back to to, I have to say this about um, about saint thomas. So just for some reference, boogie, last season his uh buscar was 92.6 and he was injured for some of the season, um, you know, but still extremely productive. Just for context, st Thomas Buscar last season was 120. So just, I mean it just just lighting up the big sky. I kind of want to I don't know if there's one one guy's highlights, I want to watch it, it's. It's, it's his. Going back to Agbo, then I want to just kind of mention, when I did the the column going over my impression of three coaches my, my take on his coach at Boise State was Leon Rice was that their offenses were were good, but but very rarely great, or you know, or seriously above average and, I'm wondering, surrounded by all this talent, that could seriously elevate his game too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, might have been a little I don't know if I'd say constrained, but maybe just a little far from realizing the best version of himself there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, he's one of these guys. He can run, he can shoot, he's going to have a lot of freedom to do stuff and he's going to have as good a chance as any to be a focal point of this team. So a really deep team full of guys who are like 6'7", 6'8" and I've always found those types of teams that are filled with ball handlers who are, who are big and who can shoot and who can slash at the rim to the rim, are teams that are just really hard to deal with. With. Come, uh, come march, you know which, and, of course, muscleman's, you know great at coming up with those types of teams. But you're looking back to like, um, that, uh, the Tim Floyd, uh, first tournament team for Tim Floyd with, with Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young and and a lot Stewart and, um, uh, taj Gibson, you know, not the biggest team, but but athletic slashers, long, uh, you know know, explosive to the rim type guys, good, you know good shooters. So, yeah, I mean I could just see that the team kind of shape, shaping up that way. Um, it's just a good collection. Now we have a couple. We've gone over all the players, right, I think. Uh, yeah, we covered cohen before. Yeah, we had a couple of questions on the board. Somebody asked Trojan 2011 asked.
Speaker 1:One thing I'm very curious about is who the starting point guard will be and what the depth will be at that position. Well, right now, there's three spots left. Usc is still trying to get Trent Perry. They're still trying to get zoom diallo. Uh, if there's another point guard out there I'm not aware of who usc is is uh angling for? Uh, I do know that.
Speaker 1:Um, if there's no real point guards left I mean, ian martinez was one usc was looking at, but he had decided to return to utah state um, it seems like a great chance for Trent Perry to come in. And they've got Slacker, who's not a true point, but he would be an excellent John to Trent Perry's punch. To go back to the TV show Chips, just kind of like a veteran cop, kind of sheltering the rookie, like a veteran, a veteran cop, you know, kind of sheltering the rookie. And I think that if Trent Perry did come to USC, this is a good situation because he's got all these veterans around him and he would be able to play sort of a limited point guard role, I think in this kind of situation.
Speaker 1:So backup seems to be a function of Diallo slash Perry. Yeah, and that's the question is how. You know Diallo's a true point guard and he's the quote-unquote bigger recruit. He's probably a guy who wants to be one and done. I can imagine he'd be the kind of guy who would test out the portal waters before too long if he didn't go pro. I like Perry better as a player, as an overall player, just the intangibles that he brings.
Speaker 1:Diallo was on a star-studded high school team that you know. He sort of got lost in the shuffle there, but he's obviously really talented. Both those guys would be great, but they're probably not going to get both One. It is noteworthy that Ian Martinez decided to go back to Utah State. It's possible that he has wind of either perry or diallo going to usc, um, but we'll just have to wait and see the next few days and see what happens, uh, with that spot but. But I think with three spots left, usc could definitely use another point guard and I'd say another, another big, like a real big someone with some size to be able to defend other really big bigs, because there are some big Hanyaks in the Big Ten, as Steve Lavin likes to call them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be nice if Martinez not coming was a sign of that. Martinez just lit us up one year, I think, when Kristoviak was still there, maybe his last season. Yeah, if Martinez not coming was a sign of that, martinez just lit us up one year, oh my, I think when Kristowiak was still there, maybe his last season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah man Jeez, that guy when he was on watch out. So okay, that's sort of the wrap-up of all the news that has come out. It's funny me and Mark were texting recently and I said I think we had five players on the roster at the time. I said as soon as we get to over 50%, meaning to seven, we can do a pod. And now we're at 10, like a day and a half later or a day later, so we're up to 10 scholarships, just like that it's going to be.
Speaker 1:I want to just like kind of close with sort of like a reflection on this crazy new sports world where it is kind of fun to see you know who who's going to be on the team during this time period. But it's going to be interesting to to watch these guys play because we're going to really we're going to get to know them like on the fly, because we're going to get to know them on the fly and it's sort of a little bittersweet in a sense because it's really hard to. I wonder how quickly a connection can be made to this team with the fans, because I think every team had its own personality, every team had its own connection with the fans, because I think every team had its own personality, every team had its own connection with the fans. I know, like my wife's been watching USC basketball for a few years now since she's known me, and you know she knows all the players, like she follows them, she knows the team's personality, she knows when the player is sulking Right and I guess she'll she'll pick that up, just like we all will. But it is interesting, just like I know it's like an antiquated idea.
Speaker 1:But this whole idea of having, like you know, loyalty to a school or being interested in being at a school because it's a good place to be, and I'm kind of I still can't get over the idea that what is it? It's almost May, we're like a week from May and kids are still like deciding where they're going to be going to school in the next fall. College, like you know, like I remember, you know, when I was a senior in high school, like you know, if you didn't have your applications in, you know, like I remember, you know, when I was a senior in high school, like you know, if you didn't have your, your applications in, you know, if you didn't know by like middle of the senior year, you know you weren't going to get your place. You know how do you, how do you prepare for that?
Speaker 1:Just will never get used to the idea that that people are going to these schools to play basketball and they have to still go to class and you know it is in most of their best interest to like to go get a degree and there's just it's like it's almost completely like it's almost completely out of like. The it's not. It's almost completely like it's almost completely out of the like. The it's not in the equation anymore for most of these guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, well, yeah, but in fairness, not to slight you, but I think these gentlemen bring in more revenue to the school than you or I did, without a doubt, I guess.
Speaker 1:I guess what I'm saying is if, if you know, I get the elite guys right, but if I'm, you know, if I'm Ozai Sellers, I get like you want to take your shot at it, right? Or if you're Kajani, right, yep, but it's just, your chances of making big money are pretty slim in basketball. You're just, it's just probably not going to happen. You might make some money, but you're not going to make big money. Right, like cause, honestly, if, if you're going to, if Ozai Sellers or Kajani Wright was going to make big money, they probably already would be like have developed by now. Right Like, the people who make it are the one like you.
Speaker 1:Very few guys sort of muddle through their first two years and then suddenly explode as a junior st thomas with being an exception, of course, but, um, very few of these guys actually, you know, make this big jump their junior and senior years to the point where they're going to be, uh, nba players or european players. And I'm just like you know, I'm not trying to sound like a fuddy-duddy, because I know there's all these guys who are trying to get back to this old way of doing things, and I don't care about the way of doing things. I'm just saying, like, from a practical standpoint, if you're going to enter a university, I mean you should still, like you know, take advantage of it when you're going to enter a university, I mean you should still take advantage of it when you're there.
Speaker 2:Is that crazy? No, on that point, does USC still under that thing where athletes can come back to school at any time?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think so. I mean my gosh. How perfect is that for this? I think over at least three of the kids. If I now include Agbo that we've talked about today, this is their third school. What a selling point that is. I'm sure they've got to be, that's got to be in some of their minds just like yeah, I play here and I can you know, I can take two or three years to finish my degree.
Speaker 1:Take as long as backstrom did to get his um, the ages of between 18 and 22 are pretty fun times in your life and these guys playing basketball it's fun, but like I, just it seems weird to me. I I get the guys who spend three years somewhere and then, like they go with their fourth or fifth year to, you know, to go get a few extra bucks or to like experience something different. Right, I get that. That actually makes perfect sense. Or to go get a grad degree. What I don't get is those guys I don't get like Trey White. You know, like Trey White, usc and then louisville and then illinois. Like what do you like? What are you doing? You know, like what? How do you think this reflects on you as far as like, like, didn't he?
Speaker 2:also not to pick on him, but didn't he also never play for the same high school um for consecutive years?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's possible, I think I'm I'm pretty sure. But it's similar in high school. This whole thing where these guys are transferring. I'm like what about? I'm just thinking from a quality of life standpoint. Don't you get tired of moving every year? Why would you? College can be fun and it can be really fun for a Division I student athlete who's adored on campus and obviously it's going to really fun for for a division one student athlete who's adored on campus and obviously it's going to happen wherever you go. But like, yeah, and and it just seems, it just seems a shame just because it's like college is college is fun I mean, why would you want to go ahead?
Speaker 2:that's like part two to the animal house knowledge is is good and college is fun. Knowledge is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I'm not trying to, you know, it's like again, I'm not trying to be a fuddy-duddy or get off my lawn type of person, it's just like I just don't get. I just can't imagine like knowing, like being an 18-year-old kid and having it be almost May and not, and you could go to, like you know, 10 schools or 20 schools if you want to, and still not knowing, like where you're going to go, like don't you have to? I mean, don't you have to? Like you know, don't you have to like pack and get your stuff, you know, decide, like don't you have to get? Like housing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like I guess everything's done for you now, but it just, it just seems, uh, I don't know, it's strange, it's, it's this brave new world yeah, aside from that, the the points that you make, though I think, if you are looking at academics I don't know if usc is at like one extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to academic support for student athletes yeah, um, but I think that they do make it a lot easier than if you or I were to make the trek from school.
Speaker 1:A to B or C, yeah, and you notice how nobody's ever ineligible anymore. Have you noticed that?
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, it's a free-for-all.
Speaker 1:And there was another question from the board, from Bulletproof Tiger. He says do you think we can be competitive in the Big Ten with a roster that looks like it will be a group of five all-star team of sorts? I think so because you know like the best guys in these group of five leagues are just as good as most of the good guys in the Power Five conferences. If you took a Power Five All-Star team and played a Group of Five All-Star team or let's not even say that, let's say if you took a really good Group of Five team, let's say you took Connecticut, that's the best team, and they played against an All-Star team from the Group of five like the best players, the best five. I'm pretty sure that team would probably win 50% of the time against Connecticut right Now. It would be because it's an all-star team, right, and it's like if they took the time to, you know, because you're looking at the very best of that group, whereas Connecticut is, each one of their guys is not the very best of that group, All right, Well, I think that'll just about do it on this episode of the Dunk City Podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. And we got all kinds of news breaking on uscbasketballcom. Mark, I'm going to say fight on. Do you have anything else to add?
Speaker 2:uh, as always, we appreciate you listening and fight on everyone.