The Dunk City Podcast
USCBasketball.com's Chris Huston and Mark Backstrom co-host the Dunk City Podcast, the only podcast that's devoted solely to USC basketball. Weekly during the season, intermittent during the offseason, the DCP is the "podcast of record" for Trojan hoops, featuring inside information, special guests and expert analysis.
The Dunk City Podcast
Onward and Upward
USC jumps out to a 2-0 record after wins over UT-Chattanooga and Idaho State as the team starts to gel, but new challenges come this week with UT-Arlington and Cal visiting Galen. Chris, Mark and Sky break down the squad's performance so far from all angles and look ahead to this week's games. Chris breaks down Cal's roster and reveals some of the weaknesses the Trojans might be able to exploit, while Mark updates his latest Buckmetrics rankings.
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 wherever you stream podcasts. Look for clips on YouTube and TikTok as well. Please like, follow, listen and review. Contact us at USCBasketball.com@gmail.com.
Welcome to the Dunk City.
Speaker 1:Podcast. Okay, we're back again with another episode of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. I am Chris Houston here with Mark Backstrom. Later on in the show we will have our correspondent Sky Liam, our man from the Galen Center. He will be joining the show later on in a segment with me, but for now we are looking at USC, which is 2-0, coming off a victory over Idaho State last Thursday, a 75-69 victory. Before that, usc defeated Chattanooga in the season opener, 77-51. And if you want to go even further back, just for context sake, the Trojans beat Gonzaga in an exhibition game in Palm Desert, 96-93. This coming Wednesday actually tomorrow, as we're recording this, probably today, as you're hearing this, or maybe it was yesterday we've got UT Arlington into the Galen Center 8 pm. So that's going to be on the Big Ten Network, not Big Plus, but the Big Ten Network, which should be a relief to some of you. California will be on Sunday at 6.30 pm and Galen also on the Big Ten Network and ESPN LA 710.
Speaker 1:And one little bit of business before we get on to the brass tacks of the show. If you are interested in our swag shop the Dunk City swag shop we have a bunch of great products there, including the very hot, sizzling Must Bus shirts, which were endorsed recently by none other than USC head coach Eric Musselman the Must Bus shirts, which are a kind of art deco style. We have them in gold and cardinal. You can go to uscbasketballcom and click on the store or click on the ad and get to there. You'll also find another cool shirt that features USC basketball players, or the sewer rats as Eric Muscleman called them, and it's a pretty cool illustration that we put up on a T-shirt Great for working out or just hanging out, that we put up on a t-shirt great for working out or just hanging out, and then we've got a iPhone cover which has the MustBus logo on it as well, as there's a sweatshirt as well with MustBus on it, and then, finally, there's a sticker with the sewer rats.
Speaker 1:Incidentally, our last episode was called here Come the Sewer Rats. The sewer rats came and they are now 2-0. Last episode was called here come the sewer rats. The sewer rats came and they are now 2-0. And now let's turn it over to mark. Who has some thoughts on where usd stands after two games in the season?
Speaker 3:hi, hey, chris. Um yeah, good times, a couple of good games. Gotta say the. If we go back to the, can we go back to the debut season opener debut yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Let's go to chattanooga you know what?
Speaker 3:there's nothing I like better than anything that makes me look smart.
Speaker 3:Um, and that game really made me look smart confirmation bias is lovely yeah, yeah, you know, in the in the off season and I did kind of like scouting reports on the individual players, some things that stuck, stuck out to me that I really saw come to fruition. You know, matt noling, just I highlighted he was so efficient because he was so smart with the ball. He had what was, for a moment, for a moment, the first ever perfect bpo 100 game that I've ever seen. Literally wow, 100 of one. Well, I'm gonna throw out the brandon garner, like you know.
Speaker 1:One dunk in in 30 seconds, you know for volume incidently, folks, the, the, the, the, the analytics, the metrics that we're talking about with Mark, which are going to be up shortly on the on the website. He sent them to me. I haven't put them up yet, but you can see last year's metrics, the final metrics for the players, for the team last year and BP 100 and Buscar are two metrics that he has created specifically for USC basketball actually for all college basketball, but he applies it to USC basketball and the team's USC basketball plays. So be sure to go to the Buck metrics tab on the website and you'll see all the latest metrics from Mark. Sorry for that aside, mark, I just wanted to make sure everybody knew, since this is the first time this season that we're talking about it.
Speaker 3:Carry on, sorry for that aside, mark, I just wanted to make sure everybody knew, since this is the first time this season that we're talking about it. Carry on, no worries. So the first perfect game. That's what happens when you do not miss a shot and you don't turn the ball over and you put up 13 points.
Speaker 3:Biscar 6.5 led the team in the game against Chattanooga. Hey, I said he was our glue guy. Glue guy makes it. Makes it sound like, okay, you can come in and just not screw up. This is glue plus, plus, plus guy I love. Yeah, well, he's super glue I'm not talking elmer's here.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking pace, the stuff you eat when you're a kid. I'm talking about the stuff you want to really avoid getting your fingers on, because they're going to be there for a while I might have.
Speaker 3:I might have different childhoods in, it sounds like, but anyways, only to be outdone by Now. If that was the perfect game. I didn't think this is mathematically possible until. Do you know where I'm going with this? You're kind of smiling like you might know where I'm going.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just. I'm smiling because I'm just enjoying this.
Speaker 3:Okay, I don't know what you call this. A perfect plus game, rashaan Agee with a BPO 100 of 109.1. How does that happen?
Speaker 1:You don't turn the ball over and you make a three-pointer. How about that?
Speaker 3:That'll do it. I wanted to skip ahead a little bit to his season metrics. Let me see here. Where are you, Mr Mr AG has a BPO of ninety four point one, which is just ridiculous. A turnover percentage of zero. And why does that also make me feel smart? Doesn't make me feel smart as much as like our offseason was validated, because you might remember I think it was Coach Roy I asked him, like what is one of the most surprising things you've seen in the offseason? And he said AG's passing and that you've got a big man that you know if he can pass.
Speaker 3:He's smart with the ball you know, when big men can pass, it's because they have a high basketball IQ. It's not like they know how to properly bounce a bounce pass as much as anything, right? Yeah, um, I love that. That was just beautiful, and you might remember that I said look, it feels like AG was in a bad spot in Bowling Green where he was just used way too much.
Speaker 3:I said, it feels like if he's not the first or second option he was the second option, it looked like at Bowling Green and if he's more of just like OK, later, you know not as much a priority, he can be extremely efficient. Later, you know, not as much a priority, he can be extremely efficient. And so far you know a 94 point. Let me see here 94.1 BPO in two games is just insane. And it's not like this is in just two minutes of playing time.
Speaker 1:He's getting a lot of minutes on the phone. Yeah, and just for reference sake for the listeners, USC's best player last year was Boogie Ellis, and what was his BPO last year?
Speaker 3:I want to say about 55 or so 55.
Speaker 1:So you're looking at just you know I don't want to say almost double, but, like you know, 90% more Small sample size.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really small sample size. Yeah, good start.
Speaker 1:Good start against, you know, not elite competition but in some cases very solid competition. Later on in the show we talk to Sky and we specifically talk about that Idaho State, which, you probably have noticed, played pretty well against Arizona State, which played very well, against Gonzaga, which played very well against us in a loss but loss. So you have these three common opponents and it kind of is interesting how, how, uh, idaho state held Arizona state down and kind of held us down relatively, uh, and then you know, you can kind of see what both USC and Arizona state did against Gonzaga. So, um, yeah, anyway, carry on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, if you want to go to Idaho state now, um, you know, that was what kind of stuck out to me about the opener as much as anything else, idaho State. What's really interesting to me is that game didn't seem from a metric standpoint. It didn't seem as bad as it felt during the game Projected. We should have won by about closer to 10 points or more just because of how weird things fell. It wasn't that bad fell. It wasn't that bad. Let me just ask you I came away from that game with two big concerns and I'm curious if you felt the same way and what those were.
Speaker 1:Oh, what were the concerns?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes. I'm curious if we're thinking the same way here.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see. So the yes, okay, sorry, I thought you were going to present them. Yeah, the two concerns that I? I don't know if I only have two concerns. I think there's ongoing concerns. Um, I think that there there are.
Speaker 1:I think you have to look at the concerns in the sense that, hey, these are just known flaws in the, in the roster makeup, right, right like there's not a lot of big, there's not a lot of size, right, so it's not an, it's, it's sort of like just, it is what it is like. There's no, you can't fix size, right, so so we have two bigs or three bigs, arguably with, if you consider hornary, of five. You got three bigs right, and they're not the biggest bigs, they're decent sized bigs. So that's just the state of things, and it's going to be an ongoing factor in some situations to solving these problems, which is, we have to make it up in other ways, right, and we have to exploit someone else's weaknesses because they're going to exploit ours here. So we make up for it by exploiting their weaknesses somewhere else, right, and you try to find a way to balance it out and, if you can, it's like two candidates who are running for an election and if they can draw to a tie on a key issue, right, then either one can win. But if one of them is winning on an issue by 20 points, you know, and it's an important issue, then it's going to, you know, help them win the election.
Speaker 1:The extent of the exploitation of their lack of size right, and then maximize the exploitation they have of the other team in other areas Maybe. For example, how can you exploit the size advantage USC has with its guards over most teams, right? Or how can it exploit your length on perimeter defense to make up for the fact that you maybe don't have as quick of guards? You know what I mean. So I think that's just the way they're approaching it and I think that that's really the only way you can approach it. So, anyway, there's a long way of saying that.
Speaker 1:The things that I would notice would be just like playing against quick guards is a problem, right, exactly, we have great size at guard, but we don't have objective quickness. We have guys who are quick for their size. We don't have guys who are quicker than small quick guards. So those guys, that's just going to happen, they're just going to beat us and, like you know. No one should be surprised, no one should be frustrated by it. That's just, you know it's like. It's like you're just not tall, you're, you're not tall enough to reach the water fountain, and that's, you know, you're, you know, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1:Uh is one issue, um, and then I would say that, with the injuries that have besought the team, uh, getting consistent outside shooting to uh to break uh, like the um Chattanooga played a zone at times and uh Abbo was was great breaking that.
Speaker 1:Uh, he wasn't shooting as well against Idaho state and Terrence Williams was out, so there was a little bit less shooting going on from the outside, uh, and then you have um Thomas St Thomas with the face mask, which is clearly affected him, and then you have a few other minor injuries, knowing possibly having some kind of a head injury, like a concussion, maybe, or maybe just they're holding him out for precautions. And then you have, I think Shelly rolled his ankle, and then I think someone else got hurt, who I can't remember right now, but I think Patton is still hurt. So I think those two areas, so I think those two areas, I think the consistent outside shooting and the quickness on point guard, are probably two areas of concern right now. I mean, the rebounding was obviously a problem against Idaho State, for sure, but I think that they're probably going to address that very hard. I think that they're probably going to address that very hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll be interested to see about the rebounding, because the theory made sense in terms of basically using the advantage of the size of the guards. It really just did not work out against Idaho State.
Speaker 1:Balls hit the ground right A few times, I think, and also against Chattanooga a few times. So you just don't want that to happen. You need your guards to uh, to get those long boards.
Speaker 3:So yeah, were those the two areas that you were worried about, well you kind of made it almost three, which is really where I was going with all of this, really, you know. So the bigs, we'll just have little sensitive to that, because that's been an ongoing issue basically, since you know Evan Mobley left maybe.
Speaker 1:Well, that all said, while it's true that we don't have, I mean, the two bigs we have are better than the bigs we've had. You know, that's the thing. But I think both Cohen and AG are better than the bigs we've had the last couple of years. Yep, right.
Speaker 1:Especially from an offensive standpoint Right, especially from an offensive standpoint right and especially from a rebounding standpoint. I would say yeah, because our bigs have not been good rebounders. They've not been good offensive, reliable offensive scorers. They've shown some defensive ability, like Morgan with his shot blocking. And Morgan he wasn't completely. Uh, he had some ability as a score, but he he wasn't. You know, he should have been the fifth option and at times wasn't Uh. So um, I I think that we've improved offensively down low. We probably improved with our defensive intensity and consistency down low, but the depth, you probably need just one more quality big, and you would really like this team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I like this team. Anyways, I don't know. Yeah, I do like this team.
Speaker 1:Me too. I mean, I really like this team yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, on the quick guards point, this is crazy stood out to me. Clearly we were having problems stopping Darling and I'd frame it a little different way where, just you know, I said this after the Gonzaga game where I'm concerned about the lack of one shutdown defender, where you can say, okay, just go stop this guy, but yet this team is so well coached defensively. And what's crazy is this is just nuts. So for the Idaho state game, darling's turnover percentage was only 7.7%, which is nuts considering how much he held the ball. Yeah, you know, I just he just had a high usage rate, so only 7.7%. The rest of the team had a turnover percentage of 23.8%.
Speaker 3:So, it was just like we couldn't summon the one thing just to kind of just slow him down. But everybody else on that team was just an absolute non-factor. I mean, 23% is just kind of like the nightmare game from your big when he just doesn't have it and is just bouncing it off his foot, and just that game. We collectively made everybody else on that team just kind of look like that. It didn't feel like it at the time because Dylan was just creating so much, but I found that to be a concern in terms of like that one lockdown guy that we're missing. But the whole concept is just so much more of just. It's just there holistically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely I don't think we have. We obviously, like you said, don't have that lockdown guy, but we do have a lot of guys who have very like there's not. There's not a dog defender in the bunch that I can see. Yeah, right, I'm. We're going to talk about Cal a little later and I'm going to talk about Andre Stojakovic. Guy can't defend, right, the guy just can't defend. So, but there's no, there's no, there's nobody. You look at on our team this year and say, oh, that guy can't defend, that guy's not putting effort, that guy's not getting his hands up. So far, yeah, Right.
Speaker 1:So maybe we don't have a shutdown defender, but we have like. So maybe you don't have like a nine defender out of 10, but we have lots of sevens.
Speaker 3:Exactly, lots of sevens. Exactly, there's no weak link. Just you know you get that, that bad matchup, and so who knows what that means. When we get deeper to the season two, you know there could be just the random kind of like to go way back um into the darker period we face, like I'm race jones jr um, who's just you know five foot six, but just quicker on the on on a good day and all of a sudden he might just light us up somehow.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. And and look, there's we're. When we look at situations, we're like, okay, this is a quick guard, and there he's, that guard is going to exploit us for sure. They also have to deal with the fact that we've got like an army of wings who are going to exploit their wings Right and who are going to do, uh, you know we're, for example, we play Cal and, uh, they have more size down low, but but our guys are quicker, our wings. They're going to have trouble guarding our wings when we go small. Uh, so, uh.
Speaker 1:So I think that, uh, there's all kinds of ways to to weigh the pluses and minuses of a team, and sometimes you have this huge advantage, but sometimes you just need to slow them down a little bit.
Speaker 1:And you can't stop someone like that when you don't have a quick defender.
Speaker 1:But you can slow them down, you can harass them, you can bump them around a bit, get them off their game and make them uncomfortable in their spots. And I think that this coaching staff is great at figuring those things, those things out. And that's how you see a lot of these um situations where they've got these quick guys who are blown by you, but then they basically handpicked these guys to the best of their ability to try to forge this new team. You know it's not like they're. I mean, they're coming here with completely clear eyes, right, they're not looking, they're not hoping for freshmen to develop as much. There's a couple of guys who are playing very good early and who are developing fast, but they're not counting on those guys to develop. So you're coming in with a bunch of guys that they know what you're going to get, or if you can approximate ahead of time what you think you're going to get, then you can plan ahead as to trying to minimize the liabilities, maximize the advantages, and I think that's what you have here with this team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I want to come back to that in a second. But just to go back to your other concern about the consistent outside shooting I say this completely at the risk of absolutely jinxing things I think we might have just seen kind of a market low, if you will, in terms of, to your point, williams being out, you know, abo having a a night off, if you will. Slacker just hasn't gotten on track yet. I got to think, and he will, I have no doubt about that, you know. And then Yates. Well, when I talk about later and in another discussion, here.
Speaker 1:He's kind of a Nick and Enigma right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll just say you know he's a freshman, so this, this won't be his worst game, but I say our guy does, um, I say our guy does does not have a problem with shyness. Let's just say that, right.
Speaker 1:No, he's, he's uh we talked about this later with sky but he's, he's very much the one guy who even more so than St Thomas, I think who can create his own shot, create distance, use his physical abilities to, uh, to do stuff. It doesn't it doesn't always look um, I don't want to say it doesn't look pretty, because a lot of times it does look pretty, but I'm not saying it doesn't always look like the desired outcome for the offense. But I think that he does have a pretty good leash, because he must be doing this in practice and doing well too, because, because, uh, musselman is not the one who will suffer this kind of stuff unless he has a confidence in it. So I think the fact that he's going out there and still staying on the court after doing some of the moves he's done, I think shows the level of confidence they have in him.
Speaker 3:That is actually the next point. I literally was going to use the long leash discussion. You know, when you watch your own team, you watch it in a very different context than when you're just watching a typical game. A good example to go across sports is I don't know about you, but I never knew that, like basically holding is legal in the big 10 in football.
Speaker 1:I only realized it once we played a big 10 game. That's what they mean by them being physical.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I didn't really realize. You know, Musselman seems to have, you know, kind of a longer leash than I expected. There were a lot of times when I was just looking I don't know if I'm conditioned to watching my team in a different context but I was just thinking we should have probably taken. I would have expected like two timeouts by now and about three substitutions, yeah, but we're just and I don't know if he's really just purposely just saying I'm not worried yet about this because I'm confident about late game and I just want I want to see people work through this. I don't know, but does does that strike you that like he really seems to want to let things flow? Yeah, unless it's a disaster, which we haven't had yet yeah, he doesn't over coach, right, he doesn't.
Speaker 1:Uh, he's not one of these guys who's like, wants to see himself on television with a, with a whiteboard, doing x's and o's, think his work is done. Most of their work is done before the game, I think Right. So if he's busy coaching in-game, I think he's probably mad at himself because he didn't coach well during the week. So I think that let the game play out, especially if you're confident in your team, right, because you can tell when your team, if your team, was struggling for a, you can tell when your team, if your team, like, was struggling for a little brief time, like it was against, um, like it was against, uh, idaho state, uh, where Idaho state briefly took the lead, you know muscle and wasn't panicking.
Speaker 1:A lot of times you know you call it, you call timeouts like that, and maybe that's the message you send to your team that hey, oh boy, you know we're taking a timeout. They just took the lead, we're taking time out. We must. Maybe we got to press a little bit, maybe. Maybe coach thinks we're doing something wrong or it's. Don't worry, guys, just keep doing what you're doing, you'll be fine.
Speaker 3:That kind of confidence. Yeah, yeah, Um, he's. I. I'll put it this way. I think he's more comfortable than I am in some.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why. That's why he gets paid the big bucks, exactly To be comfortable in those situations, I shouldn't ask for a raise.
Speaker 3:Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 1:from here. Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to double. Double what I pay you.
Speaker 3:Okay, Great, I don't have to go directly to the C offices and go over your head.
Speaker 1:Well as, as Billy Preston once said, nothing from nothing is nothing.
Speaker 3:So there you go Anyway.
Speaker 1:So Wednesday, wednesday, are you? Are you? Are you done on those points or did you want to move on to coming in Just one other thing about, about the freshmen that you said not counting on the freshmen.
Speaker 3:One thing that really stands out to me is you know I this didn't really stick out to me and Musk just said it in the postgame press release said Elohim had really good minutes. So in the two games so far he's got a BPO of 65.3, which is crazy high for a freshman. I mean, we've just seen, you know, last year, you know the new guys even just returning, like a guy, like Sellers, for example, you know, and he didn't have much of a freshman season but as a sophomore really just not hit the ground running like he has.
Speaker 3:It's not like he's just jumped off the screen in terms of points or anything, but just almost like, maybe just like a bulkier Matt Noley in terms of just taking care of the ball and being quietly efficient. I mean 65.3 after two games. Now, this isn't the stiffest of competition, but you know what, Aside from Kansas, we had a lot of gimme's too last year and we didn't have freshmen playing like this either.
Speaker 3:To your point. These guys are just so well-prepared before the game that it just really shows. I mean, I'm stunned by this number. It's stunning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think we've got 10 turnovers in two games, right, six and four, I think, the last, the first two games of the season, exactly, and that's a big part of it. Right? You look your? Your metrics rely a lot upon things like not making mistakes, not doing turnovers, so you would limit your turnovers. You're going to have great looking uh, great looking numbers To great looking numbers.
Speaker 3:To that point. I mean Yates is looking more like a regular freshman. You know, just at times really flashy BPO 100 to 43.9, which seems about right for a freshman, especially the first two games of the season Turning the ball over a lot. He's got 40% of our turnovers. As a team we're turning the ball over only at a 7.6% clip and I think last year for reference.
Speaker 3:We were turning it over about a 12 or 13%, and if you just exclude Yates's performance, his minutes and his turnover, that's down to 5%. Again, that's just, that's a. That's a mature which. Okay, great, you got the, you got the upperclassmen in there, but a really smart and well-coached team too. This is just something I I didn't imagine you would have. This over two games, something that's that low. I mean just, we've seen just problems with the ball you know at our program for for years and years. This is just like. I mean just a change in the paradigm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, it seems like we've we've reached this point. Uh, you can already see this kind of like confidence level in the team that they're probably not going to have too many kind of letdown games of this nature. These are guys who are here for. Most of these guys are here for a year. They're having a great time. It looks like they're going to make the most of it.
Speaker 1:There's none of those psychological factors at play that you see with freshmen and people who are kind of still developing. There's probably not as much of a class or I, or I should say you know, schoolwork, uh, pressure on them. A lot of these guys are, like you know, in their final years, or they already graduated, or either grad school, you know, um, you know, are they're getting their second degrees or they're just doing, uh, you know, one, one, couple of classes here and there, so there's not a lot of pressure there. These are guys that are that are able to dedicate more time to their craft and so, yeah, it's really cool to see, from a, from a fan standpoint and from a just a basketball standpoint, how quickly they've been able to play well together and and you know, not everybody's firing in all cylinders right now, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:I think I don't see there's, I don't see anybody really coming out and being a major liability, who's getting significant minutes, uh, yet, um, and I wouldn't say, I wouldn't look at anybody and you know I wasn't shaking my head or or, or you know, wondering. It was up the same way that you would have with Kobe Johnson last year, right, where you would just he would just make plays that were just you know when you would just he would just make plays that were just. You know, you just wonder, like what, what? The whole point of him being out there was Uh and uh, luckily that that kind of thing is gone, it's over in Westwood now and, uh, we've got um, got a pretty deep team, and I think it's a deep team that has a chance to be 4-0 after the two games this week. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I agree. I'm much more confident in the first of the two than the second of the two. I'll put it that way, although the first of the two is interesting. Do you have much on UTA, or do you want me to just kind of?
Speaker 1:I don't have much. Why don't you, why don't you, um, talk about you, uta and, um, what to expect? I do know that they're they're relatively highly regarded, uh, going into the year, uh, for their conference, picked second, I believe, in their league. Uh, so, but I do want to talk about Cal, uh, before we go, so that we could. Uh, I do, I did do a deep dive on them, did do a lot of scouting on them and if anybody's listening, who knows Cal, I want to talk about Cal before we go, so that we could. I did do a deep dive on them, did do a lot of scouting on them and if anybody's listening, who knows Cal, I want to see. If you guys agree, go ahead, okay.
Speaker 3:So not surprised that UTA that would be Arlington is highly regarded. After two games they played a lower-level team, I think, university of Texas at Dallas, and they also played Louisiana Tech of Conference USA, I believe in hoops but after those two games they have four guys with a BPO 100 of 53 or better. So they've got talent spread across four of their starters and the Buscar is pretty evenly distributed around those guys too and the buscar is pretty evenly distributed around those guys too. Um, so you know, be careful in that. You know you can't just say, okay, this is the one, and maybe this plays into our hands too. You know, maybe it's not just the one guy that can just torch us, as mr darling did from time to time, yeah, um, but there's, there's, there's breadth on this team. I don't know about necessarily the depth after their after their first score.
Speaker 3:it gets it gets pretty grim, but I'm interested to see if the metrics really, or if what's on the court, bears out what I see in terms of four guys that legitimately can do some damage here. The other thing that sticks out to me is this is a team that does not protect the defensive boards. They're letting opponents grab 41% of offensive rebound possibilities, which is really grim.
Speaker 3:You think that we've had some frustrations. This is like 1.2 times our frustrations. So those are two things that stick out to me. Defensively, they're nowhere near as good as us, and maybe that's really where we can make a difference. We've been a really stout defensive team here, especially on the turnover battle. I think that's probably going to be the one place where we will really be superior to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I also think that we have the capability to play very intense stretches of defense, that sort of clamp the game down and, and you know, get. If we're ever in a situation where we're not doing great offensively, I think we have the ability to to turn it up a notch on defense, uh, manufacture points and get back into the, to the rhythm of the offense again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, you know, and like we can say for almost every game, until until, uh, Accresher, you know we're, we're at home, um, we're in California, and that that helps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that game is at 8 PM and Galen tomorrow night. Uh, if, uh, as I'm recording, it might be tonight if you're listening, or it could have been yesterday or a couple of days ago, but anyway it was Wednesday night. Uh, you'll know if you're listening to this. Uh, if USC won, we think USC is probably going to win, but we're not, of course, overlooking UTA, because obviously college basketball, especially the early season, especially with new teams, there's all kinds of things that can happen. So I want to talk a little bit now about Cal, which is the game on Sunday at 6.30 PM in Galen. So again, also on the Big Ten Network. I looked at Cal's first two games, watched both of them. I want to describe what I saw on the roster Mark and then I want to see if it lines up with your metrics. Okay, please.
Speaker 1:So their best player is a guy named Javon Blackshire who's a transfer from Grand Canyon. He didn't do much for Grand Canyon last year. I assume he was hurt. He had a decent career before that. He is in his first two games for Cal, off to his best start. He's having his best year. It looks like he's a real shooter. He's a scorer If you're guarding him on the perimeter. You've got to go over those screens to guard him because if you give him space he's going to knock it down. He's very quick, he can create a shot, he can go left. He is, I think, by far their most consistent offensive threat. But not far behind him is number two Stojakovic.
Speaker 1:Son of the NBA, great former five-star, went to Stanford. He's kind of a really nice all-around player, good shooter, rebounder, long arms, glider. I say good all-around in a skill set sense and in an athletic sense. He's not like a plus athlete but he's just a good sort of all-around athlete. Horrible defender. Horrible defender at this point in his career. Um, he, he is someone who could get beaten off the dribble. He's not particularly strong. So right now he's he's all offense, all shooting. He's got some uh, really long arms. He can re. He can really snag the boards uh with with those long arms. But right now he is not a plus defender.
Speaker 1:Their big starter big is Matty Sissoko, who we saw at Michigan State when USC played a couple years ago in the tournament. Typical Big Ten, big, good finisher and rebounder, big, tough guy. Down low, not really an offensive threat, cannot guard on the perimeter If he comes out on the perimeter, uh, he's going to have a hard time. Uh, our guys will go right by him and so, uh, it's going to be a problem for them If he is matched up with, if we go small and he matches up with, um, uh, with our, our, our bigs, who are actually much smaller and quicker. Uh, cal could also go to a zone. I did see them playing some zone, uh, in their game against Cal Poly. Cal could also go to a zone. I did see them playing some zone in their game against Cal Poly. Also starting is DJ Campbell, who was from Western Carolina. I don't really see the first two games. He didn't really show much to me as far as being any kind of standout player.
Speaker 1:Number one, last name, ola Joseph. He's from Minnesota. He's a long and rangy, decent offensive player, not a great stand Minnesota. He's a long and rangy, decent offensive player, not a great standout. They have a pretty decent bench. There's a guy, pederitis, from Air Force. He's a pretty decent wing blonde kid, good rebounder and shooter, pretty tough guy. Has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1:A guy I really like is number zero Wilkinson. He's a freshman Back. Wilkinson is a freshman backup point right now. Good score. It looks like a future good player might start this year eventually alongside Blacksher, I would guess right now they're starting Ola Joseph or Campbell. I think he might replace one of those guys in the starting lineup at some point.
Speaker 1:Number 20, amat is from North Dakota. Not a traditionally good shooter in his career but he's off to a great start this year. I think he's shooting over 40% from three. I would suspect he's going to revert back, but he is off to a hot start. And then the other guy I see as being a factor is number 34, dort, who is from Vanderbilt, who is a good rebounder. He's averaging 8.5 boards per game.
Speaker 1:Big, strong guy Again, but not a great offensive threat, not a really offensive threat down low. They are very much a NBA style. They're very much like a clear it out one-on-one. Let your athletes make the play, let your shooters shoot. They're not scheming to get guys open too much. They're just having guys beat guys off the dribble, find the open man and shoot Very basic stuff. They're not particularly intense on defense.
Speaker 1:Overall. I think that, um, overall they're they're. You know, usc went and got mid-major guys who were like the best players on their teams. Some of these guys weren't the best players on their teams or they weren't particularly setting the world on fire where they were coming from. So I think there's still a ways to go for Cal to learn how to play together. I think, coming to Galen and with the intensity that USC is going to bring on defense, I think that it might be a little bit of a shock to Cal's system. They are going to be able to score for sure because they do have scorers and this could be like a high-scoring affair. But I think, ultimately, if Cal has any bit of struggle shooting, they have to really keep shooting well the entire game, I think, to keep up with us.
Speaker 3:Interesting. So before we get to the metrics kind of one of those last things that you said I want to talk to first I just remember watching Cal last year. I was really impressed. I liked how they ran offense and got really good shots for guys, and it sounds like I remember you felt the same way too and you know they were a good shooting team that got good shots, and now it seems like they've kind of just they're going to something different it sounds like.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know if they're doing something different, but I just don't think sounds like well, I don't know if they're doing something different, but I just don't think. I think, now that I've seen, uh, this style that musselman does up close, it makes the what cal does, the difference with what cal does, a little more, a little more stark and and I think a lot of it can just really be attributed not to like scheme or coaching style necessarily, but in the makeup of the rosters cal is significantly younger, I think, than than usc and significantly less experienced, right. So yakovich is very talented, but he's, he's still only a sophomore. Wilkinson's pretty talented, he's a true freshman and he's playing significant minutes.
Speaker 1:Some of these other guys, like I said, they're they're experienced, but they're not necessarily like the bet. They're not um saint thomas coming in averaging 19 and they're not um, uh, st Thomas coming in averaging 19 and nine. They're not Clark Slacker averaging 18 and three or whatever. They're not um guys coming in who were, who were just kind of really doing well for their teams, uh so as much as as USC's guys were. So it seems like USC has has the overall depth, maturity and physicality that's going to really give them some trouble.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, interesting. So yeah, just in terms of some of your, your Polaris, specific observations. You know, blackshire I do have as their their, their alpha dog. He has, you know, the highest usage rate. He is of the ones that that you know see significant action or have significant opportunities, by far they're most efficient at 54.0.
Speaker 1:So that's the one guy that I'm concerned about stopping, and he's quick. We don't match up well with him either. Oh yeah, he's a small guy, right, we're not going to match up. We have to disrupt his spots.
Speaker 3:Okay For sure. Yeah, so Jakovic, I didn't want to look up his role in the Maples Massacre last year where they beat us by about 50. We know he's a talented shooter. He's not been really that efficient this season BPO 100 at just 47.6, which kind of scares me, makes me think that he might be due for like a serious regression game, and you know he's three for 12 from three.
Speaker 1:Uh, on the young season but he's a much better shooter than that he could have a five for six game.
Speaker 3:Um, as you know, up close and personally I would say yeah, um, you know I'll put these two together. Dorton sissoko, you say they're not much of offensive threats, and that's. I see a lot of them and kind of in a way they probably have very different games. But in terms of how I characterized, when AG is not first or second option but more you know, fourth or fifth option, he's a lot more efficient. I mean, they're yeah, they're efficient.
Speaker 1:I mean, don't get me wrong, if they're down low, they're going to dunk it. If they're within five feet they could score right, but they have to be set up to score Exactly. Okay, they're probably not going to be doing any back to the basket, post moves or face up shots. They're going to be scoring in transition or scoring on dish offs and put backs and all that kind of stuff yep, and so very efficient at that, at finishing once they're, they're, they're set up.
Speaker 3:I can just, you know the metrics just tell that story. Both of them have just remarkably similar yeah, metrics, um. Dj campbell um, as you said, hasn't shown much. Is he a freshman or no?
Speaker 1:no, he's a transfer, he's from western carolina. Okay, yeah, um, he kind of has freshman numbers.
Speaker 3:I'll put it that way um, is he a freshman or no? No, he's a transfer. He's from Western Carolina. Okay, yeah, he kind of has freshman numbers.
Speaker 1:I'll put it that way, petritis, I believe it's Petritis Petritis, you know, I don't know what his numbers are, but I kind of like him. I kind of like him. I think he's their glue guy.
Speaker 3:He's come off the bench in both games. Beeple of just under 61, um takes a really good pair of the ball. It seems like you know they're knowing basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, he's good, he's a guy you have to account for.
Speaker 3:And Wilkinson um very much looks like a, like a talented freshman point guard. I know BPO of 48 has not turned the ball over, which is really impressive, but you know. Just, you know, with his, you know struggling in terms of shot selection, it looks like, you know, that's a freshman kind of thing. So probably more longer turn him upside than anything I'm concerned about in this game.
Speaker 1:Yeah his minutes are going to increase as the year goes on. I'm sure he's getting about 11 minutes a game right now and he's not shooting a bunch, but from what I've seen, he has the ability to create a shot. He has the ability to take defenders off the dribble, go one-on-one, get to the hole, all that stuff. So I think that he is probably going to get a lot better as the year goes on.
Speaker 3:Well, that can be Wake Forest or Miami's problem, not ours Exactly.
Speaker 1:All right, that's all I had in terms of your observations there.
Speaker 1:Great, all right. Well, I think that's a pretty good rundown of where USC's been after two games, where we think USC will be after two more games. Hopefully the Trojans can keep improving. It looks likec gave out two free tickets to those who attended, I think, either of the first two games or maybe just the first game. They're trying to get butts in the seats.
Speaker 1:We've been talking a little bit on the message board about um ways to increase that. One of the things I have an idea is I want to create a dedicated section for USC fans who want to go crazy in Galen Center dress the same way, stand up the whole time. So if you are interested in that, go to uscbasketballcom and respond to the message I posted asking just that. If you're interested in sort of being like the thundering herd section that was in the Coliseum for so many years. I'm trying to put that together for basketball and I've been told by the coaching staff that if we get enough commitments to do it, they are going to do their part to support it. Make sure it gets done, make sure we get highlighted and hey, you only live once and we can all be heroes.
Speaker 3:What do we call that then? Would that be the Rat Pack, or is that just too obvious? The Rat?
Speaker 1:Pack. Well, I mean, we have Sinatra, we have Sammy Dino coming. Well, I'm thinking in terms of sewer rats. Oh, the sewer rats, I don't know. Maybe the Galen rats, I don't know, we'll figure it out Maybe the well, we have time to bandy that about. Maybe it's just the must bus. That section is the must bus and we everyone's wearing the must bus shirts. So one way or the other. So all right. Well, at the other, at the other end of this break, at the other side of this break, we're going to talk to Sky a little bit more about a lot of the same stuff we covered, but in a different sort of angle, because sky goes to practices and he gets some special insights. So, mark, it was great talking to you and we will see you on the other side of these next two games, looking forward to it as always, fight on.
Speaker 1:Fight on. So if you've listened this far, you obviously care about USC basketball. So we'd appreciate your continued support of the podcast, which costs you nothing, just like subscribe. Give us a review, a thumbs up, whatever it takes. It helps get our podcast up in the podcast rankings, increases our listenership, makes us feel good, warm and fuzzy inside and gets us motivated to give more and better content more often. Thanks so much. Side and gets us motivated to give more and better content more often. Thanks so much. All right, we're back at the Dunk City podcast and we have with us live not live, but taped from Los Angeles, california our man from Galen on the scene, sky Liam. How's it going, sky?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's going great. How are you, Chris?
Speaker 1:Very good, the Trojans are 2-0. Very good, the Trojans are 2-0. You more than anybody probably who listens to this podcast outside from the coaches and the players and the trainers and maybe the strength guys and the equipment guys know more about what's going on with USC basketball as far as from a practice standpoint and from a game standpoint than you. So I want to know what your opinion is so far of USC basketball after two games, based on what you saw in practice with your trained eye and what you've seen in games.
Speaker 2:Well, I wrote about this a little bit on the blog, but I think probably a lot of fans, after seeing seeing that Gonzaga win, thought, okay, this team is fully formed and it was a great game, a great win. But clearly there are still some moving pieces on this team, particularly offensively and also defensively, as saw um against idaho state. I'm not sure like how in the weeds the coaches get with scheduling these games in terms of specific personnel that they want to play against. But I will say this you know, uh, with an exhibition schedule that featured a really physical team in utsa and then also a physical team but a well-rounded, like championship physical team in UTSA and then also a physical team but a well-rounded, championship caliber team in Gonzaga. Then you come in and you have Chattanooga that shoots a lot of threes and you have Idaho State that has that really quick point guard from a power conference in Dylan Darling. You know those are all different looks for the Trojans.
Speaker 2:That, whether it was coincidence or not, I think it was helping the coaches shore up some weak points. And the great thing that I can say is having been at practice. We used to always feel like why doesn't the coach practice more free throws. Why doesn't the coach practice inbounds passes? You know I can't speak to whether they were practicing those or not, if it was successful or not, but whatever we see on the court and if, as fans, we see something that we think is not working, the coaches are drilling that in practice. So you know they're going to be drilling more rebounding now after the Idaho State game, and I think we're going to be seeing a lot more scheming in terms of how to address those really small quick guards, because we saw a little bit of that with Nemhard and we saw even more of that with Dylan Darnley against Idaho State. So that's something to look forward to is to how USC evolves in handling that type of game defensively.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was certainly maybe one of those people who who was heartened by the uh Gonzaga result, and now we have more of a data set, so I think I can probably chalk up a large chunk of how well we looked against Gonzaga to style of play. Uh, as far as you know, as it turns out, when you have a bunch of guys who are 6'5 to 6'8, who can really run and who are rangy, maybe they are best suited to the type of game that Gonzaga offers, which is more up-tempo. We have a lot of scorers right, so a lot of our scorers got to eat and then, whereas in some games, maybe, where it's slowed down, they don't get to eat and maybe maybe they uh suffer a little bit, uh from that for whatever reason. And, uh, gonzaga, while their defense isn't horrific, they maybe are not, uh, the greatest defensive, uh scheme team. They they're going to try to run you out of the gym, uh, and and get you to, uh, you know, fall, you know just collapse a bit, but, you know, not known for they're not considered like Baylor or, you know, the Tony Bennett Virginia squads. They're not like that level of defense. So, yeah, so you're going to be able to run up and down the court with them. And when you have a lot of players, like USC has in this roster, guys who are used to scoring, perhaps that's the kind of game that's best suited for us.
Speaker 1:But whereas, like you said, you go into games against nominally, you know lesser opponents from a skill level and talent wise but who still have some level of skill and they're running different styles at you, right, I think in the first game against Chattanooga, I think they were doing some matchup zone a bit against Chattanooga. I think they were doing some matchup zone a bit. And then, of course, the latest game, idaho State, and Idaho State is definitely a slog it out type of team. They took Arizona State to the limit. I think Arizona State won by six or eight points, but it was like 54 to 48 was the final of that game the week before we played them, and so they're a team capable of playing good defense and Arizona State gave Gonzaga for a great game. So if you want to go transitive upon transitive there, so you're looking at a bunch of common opponents and USC, and both USC and Arizona State were able to score points on Gonzaga, whereas they both had struggled against Idaho State, but it's a relative level of struggle right For USC.
Speaker 1:Maybe USC scored what 77 in this game. Was that the final score? I can't remember 75?.
Speaker 1:Something like that 75. 75 points. So USC struggling against a team that held Arizona State to 54 constituted USC scoring 75 points. So if USC is struggling on offense and still scoring 75 points, that kind of augurs well for maybe the offensive firepower of this team. Even though the team didn't look smooth offensively, they find a way to manufacture points.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think watching that game at the time at least in my mind I wasn't as cognizant of how big of a role injuries actually played, and there's a lot of minor injuries on the team right now. Hopefully those are the kind of things that get cleared up soon. I mean Terrence Williams, high scorer against Gonzaga. He's been out. I think he's expected that soon, and hopefully he'll be even better once his back is good to go. Um, matt noling left the game and he didn't look like you know that injured, so I think they were probably checking him for a concussion or something. Precautionary. He's okay. Yeah, of course, saint still, uh, struggling with the mask. Um, you know. What was the best part about that game, though, was the ending.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was pretty anxious during a lot of that game, especially late in the second half. Iowa State had a lead and then just a couple iconic moments of St Thomas. If this season goes, as a lot of us fans hope it goes.
Speaker 1:It was iconic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that moment is going to be. That would be like if there was like a usc, one shining moment that, taken off the mask, you know yeah, and even wesley yates's steel. I don't know. I hope you know if muslim in here is this podcast.
Speaker 1:I I uh adhere to your philosophy because he wasn't happy with that steel but in the moment it was very exciting to get that, yeah, you know, I I have, I had this vision and it's it's probably, you know, not completely PC in a sense, but I have this vision of a future graphic on on a t-shirt and and look, we'll talk about t-shirt graphics later, but I had this vision, and I just had it right now, of of someone who, who, of like a, like a shirtless Eric Musselman with a gash in his side and St Thomas reaching his hand to touch the gash, kind of like the story from the Bible where St Thomas touches Jesus' gash, you know, and hence the term doubting Thomas. Is that offensive, Is that sacrilegious?
Speaker 2:You might want to clear it with saint you know see how he feels about it, I think there's a lot of marketing potential with his name. Yeah, by the way, I forgot to mention, you know, bryce Pope was out with an injury. I'm not sure what that was.
Speaker 1:Speaking of religion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly I know, that's what made me think of it. Jalen Shelley went out and Kevin Patton I'm blanking on his last name, kevin Patton. Kevin Patton is still out, although potentially coming back this week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he looked like I guess he was at the scorer's table at one point. He was I mean, he was about to check in.
Speaker 2:And then I think they anticipated a timeout or something. The timeout didn't come and he walked back and I thought, oh, maybe he's just going to, you know he's sitting down until the media timeout comes. But then he never went back in and I think maybe that was they wanted to just try something kind of thrown spaghetti at the wall. But his timeline, I guess, is another week.
Speaker 1:Well, look, I mean, like you said, lots of guys with nicks and bruises and I think, with the physical style that that coach Musselman emphasizes, I think you're going to see a lot of that throughout the season. On a good note, what we're seeing now is the development of Isaiah Elohim, who looked really good, I think, in this game.
Speaker 2:He looked good in both games.
Speaker 1:In both games he did. He's so consistent and measured and methodical, even while having really, I think he might be probably the best athlete on the team. I would say.
Speaker 2:You know that's a hard choice to make. I think Shelly's up there.
Speaker 1:Shelly is up there, yeah, in terms of strength.
Speaker 2:If you're incorporating that, yeah, I think Elohim is going to be the best.
Speaker 1:I think he's the best jumper on the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean he's up there, and he just has so much more strength than some of the other jumpers, so to speak. So, he has so much potential. And one thing that Muscleman really stresses in practice and he's gotten on Elohim in the practices I've been to. He doesn't take it easy on him but he stresses to everybody play your minutes, don't try to go outside the box, don't try to do this and that and show off. Just play your minutes.
Speaker 2:Play within yourself and that's why he's always complimenting Matt and Nolan so much because that's exactly what Nolan does. But that's exactly what Elohim did in both of those games. He just played his minutes, he took what was there and he did a really good job.
Speaker 1:And you know, it seems, speaking of that, speaking of playing within oneself, it seems like there's a player who is also a freshman, who has maybe been granted a longer leash than normal to maybe just be himself and not play within himself on occasion Wesley Yates III. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I think, with all the players out.
Speaker 2:um, I mean on, uh, against Chattanooga, he, he, just he was kind of on a roll and Musselman likes to play the hot hand I think he probably got more time against Idaho state because of all the injuries and and, to give him full credit, his defense was really intense too. He's one of those guys people used to always say about Russell Westbrook he's so athletic. If he harnesses that and puts it into his defense, he could be a lockdown defender, and Westbrook never really developed that reputation. But Wesley Yates is extremely athletic. He really uses it, you know, at least from what I've seen so far.
Speaker 2:So I think that probably contributes to him getting a little more leeway on some of those you know freewheeling plays, but also he's one of the main guys on this team that can really create his own shot with different types of moves.
Speaker 1:You know on all three levels too.
Speaker 2:I think the three point consistency might not I'm not sure if it's there yet insofar as that he's made some, some big threes, but then he kind of he's one of those players I think that kind of keeps settling for the three. You know, thinking he's going to. Well, I'm going to make two and three and four in a row, and that hasn't borne fruit yet. But he looks really good from the mid range and you know he's, he's very explosive yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what you said there about him creating his own shot. I think, just from a pure creative aspect, he appears to be the most creative offensive player on the team. Not that other players don't have creativity, not that like, for example, st Thomas, can shoot from any point on the floor in a variety of different ways, but I think that Yates uses a different set of tools to create separation and create a shot than than the other guys do. And he's such a interesting power player as well, given you know he's like you said, he's such an interesting power player as well, given you know he's, like you said, he's athletic. But he's also really strong and can play through contact and all that. Ok, so 2-0 after two games and the homestand continues this week. Tomorrow, which is Wednesday, there is UT San Antonio, or is it UT Arlington, ut.
Speaker 2:Arlington, I'm sorry, sorry about that Going all the way through Texas, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:There's UT Arlington coming to town on Wednesday. I think that's at 7 pm or it's 8 pm.
Speaker 2:It's 8 pm, 8 pm at Galen.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately it's on Big Ten Network. Unfortunately I'm going to have to watch that at 11 o'clock at night because I'm on the East Coast. And then November 17th the renewal of our intersectional rival now intersectional rival California, of the ACC will come to town on November 17th. That's a Sunday, and what time do you have for that one Sky?
Speaker 2:I want to say it's six. I'd have to check the schedule. That's right, it's a little earlier, six o'clock.
Speaker 1:Check your local listings. So UT Arlington in California, wednesday and Sunday, which means we'll be back early next week to recap those games and preview the following two games. But this actually looks to me like we're going to step up in a little bit of quality of play here. And of course earlier in the podcast we talked to Mark about this. But UT Arlington, I think, was picked second in the whack or something like that, and of course Cal seems to be have a little bit more energy and a little bit more formidableness. I can't speak. Cal seems to be a little bit more formidable. Let's try it that way In recent years, in these last couple of years with Mark Madsen. So it looks like that will be a good bit of a gauge to see where USC is at this point in the season.
Speaker 2:And I'll just say I mean, if you're scheduling mid-majors, Chattanooga, at least on paper, is no pushover either, because they had the preseason player of the year in their conference. They returned also their other leading scorer from last year as well, and last year they beat a power conference team in their season opener. Now, in all fairness, that was Louisville, but it was in Louisville, and so I think you know, as we've seen, of course, some prognosticators were predicting USC would have a down year and Chattanooga came in thinking they were probably going to do the exact same thing that they did last year in Louisville.
Speaker 2:And they didn't you know that was a great game for SC. I don't know where Idaho State will end up, but they didn't look half bad. There are some games that, the way I look at it, it's a great practice for the conference season, because the Big Ten is new for everybody the whole team, all the fans and I think it's going to be a grind.
Speaker 1:Things could be worse. You could be across town and, having already got a loss, to New Mexico.
Speaker 2:That is very true, and I watched that game too, so that's fun.
Speaker 1:Not that USC is not going to lose some games and not that UCLA won't lose some games. But yeah, there was a lot of excitement about the Bruins from various quarters and you know, and it could still happen, bruins could still end up being very good.
Speaker 2:But what I'll say about that game, which is no knock on the Bruins necessarily, but they seemed flustered in that game. The good thing about USC wherever UCLA ends up, wherever USC ends up, they haven't looked flustered. They didn't look flustered against Gonzaga. And even against Idaho State. When they were down they didn't look flustered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's a very good point. It's a very mature team, right? I think that's really one of the hallmarks of this team is the maturity level. Okay, so, sky, just a couple more questions. You know everyone who saw you in the opener. If anybody noticed, our man Sky was doing free throws in one of these timeout promotions that USC does and, most importantly, was wearing the must-b bus shirt from uscbasketballcom the gold version. We now have a Cardinal version as well and, uh, you know, um, everyone needs to go to the website and buy it. But I just want to ask you real quick, sky, what that experience was like, being out there on the Galen center floor, on the hardwood floor of Galen Center, where so many great players for USC basketball have played.
Speaker 2:It was really fun. I mean, it was just a media timeout, so we didn't have that much time to do the whole promotion and I love watching basketball. It's my favorite sport to watch. As you know, Chris, basketball was not my sport that I played. So I probably shoot a basketball once a year.
Speaker 1:For those of you who don't know, Sky is an incredible taekwondo fighter.
Speaker 2:I did compete on the USC taekwondo team and I had a perfect record against UCLA.
Speaker 1:Look at that. Look at that. A perfect record against the Bruins and Taekwondo.
Speaker 2:So what the people who are watching don't know is that there were two of us shooting free throws. We were facing off against each other, the other guy, I was shooting against was Jalen Shelley's brother. Oh man, so I would have to imagine he played too, and he was a super nice guy. His name's Killian. It'd be funny if the whole Shelley family was out there watching him and he was a super nice guy.
Speaker 1:His name was Killian.
Speaker 2:It would be funny if so, the whole Shelly family was out there watching him.
Speaker 1:It would be funny if Jalen Shelly was like, not a good free throw shooter and like his, brother was also not that good.
Speaker 3:I think he was 3.5, right he?
Speaker 1:was 60% free throw shooter. So, if Jalen struggles, we know why it's because big brother wasn't helping out.
Speaker 2:That goes back to the old adage though, as angry as us fans might get, you know, the worst free throw shooter is still probably better than most of us.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's 100%. I mean, this is the thing. Obviously, players are used to being out there, but they're not used to being out on every floor, and when you're out on a road floor in the unfamiliar confines that you're not used to, uh, I mean, it's the same how you felt, you feel out, you go out there and you feel very exposed. Uh, years ago, usc, in the sports arena, had the, the halftime free tuition shootout, and you have to shoot a layup, a free throw, a three-pointer and a half shot, I think within 30 seconds, 35 seconds, and I was picked the last game of the season. In the year that Harold minor uh set set the you know world on fire for USC. I think it was the Washington state game. I think he scored 30 points in the first half and um only finished with 37, though, but uh, yeah, I got picked. Um and uh. Here's the thing you know if, if you uh were, you know we're no longer in school or we're graduating you get the cash equivalent. That was the other thing too. You know you get a semester worth of money.
Speaker 1:So I go there and um, I shot the layup. Well, first of all, you know I was wearing like a sweatshirt, and you know how that can constrict your, your shooting ability a little bit. And of course, you're going in there cold, you know, I think I had a beer in me and a hot dog, not feeling the greatest. You go out there and, uh, I think I have my glasses on, you know, and the glasses good, you know, you start to. They get a little foggy a little bit because it's hot in there. But yeah, you go out there. I, I made the, the layup and the free throw and then, as soon as I got to the free throw three point line, I shot an air ball and then crowd chat started chanting air ball, air ball. And it was one of those shots where you shot the air ball and they don't get it for you. So you've got. I've got to like, go run, oh wow.
Speaker 1:I've got to run like an idiot you know to go get the basketball before it goes into the crowd. I think someone you know threw it to me and then I think I shot one from the uh, from the corner, and that.
Speaker 2:That ricocheted off. So anyway, yeah, no, but it is cool when you know it is it's. You know you got to take that opportunity when I made the free throw.
Speaker 1:There is one thing you could definitely feel, and it's kind of cool, um, so I made a layup right away. I think I did a quick short rim of the first free throw, but I got it quick and I made the second one. And what's cool is that as soon as you make the second one, you can. You, I could discern a slight buzz in the crowd Like like okay, okay, this guy's a shot. You know what I mean? This could be happening. Let's, everybody has visited. So that was really funny, cause it's, it is. But it just goes to show you again, translating that back to the players on the court how you can hear things. You know, you can actually hear people. You can actually hear people start to talk, and it must be really weird to be out there and to hear voices saying stuff.
Speaker 2:And that's why it's so great to have like an experienced team this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well all right, sky, Thanks for coming on the show. We're going to try. You know, last week we had you and me and Mark on the same time. Schedules didn't permit it this time, but we will try to get everybody together on the next episode. And, yep, enjoy the week and we'll see you next time. Sounds great. I don't want anymore. I'm so too ignorant for you.
