Speaker 1: 0:27

Welcome back to the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. Well, I can say that it was a bad omen when I read the press release before USC headed into the desert that said USC heads south to the desert and, setting aside just the geographic mistake mistakes happen, people do it. It was a bad omen because usc the trojans did go south in the desert, losing to saint mary's by 105 points sorry, actually, that was only 35 points, seemed like 105 points. Sorry, actually, that was only 35 points, seemed like 105 points. And also to New Mexico 83-73 in a game that was really not as close as the score indicated. Very tough outing, thanksgiving time, disappointing, but maybe very eye-opening. What say?

Speaker 2: 1:21

you fellas. Yeah, it was rough. You know it felt like this team at the beginning of the season started really strong, even in the first what I guess one regular season game. Um, they looked really good. And then it's it kind of feels like they've almost regressed um so so I guess that the next couple of weeks will tell us a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:49

By the way, that was Sky. Liam, I forgot to mention our cohost. Sky is here with Mark Backstrom. Okay, mark, what is your thoughts on? Just immediate thoughts, in the aftermath of the debacle in the desert?

Speaker 3: 2:01

Um, apparently my trip to fan wore off, uh, before the basketball teams did on Thursday. I'll just say that that was a rough watch, yeah, and it didn't get much better, to your point, against New Mexico, although it was more competitive. But boy, the offense. Just. I don't even know. We need a poet for this one. I don't have a word to describe just what exactly that offense was on on thursday I you know, um, I can't remember a worse back-to-back performance in uh for usc basketball.

Speaker 1: 2:33

it's been quite some time and I think it it kind of shows the level to which we had become used to at least level of competitiveness under Andy Enfield and how we were maybe not prepared for some of the struggles that this team looks now to be headed towards. You know, for me the thing that really screwed me up was that Gonzaga game. You know, I think if that Gonzaga game hadn't happened I would probably be kind of like looking at the team and not be as surprised that they've taken this deep of a dive. But I think after that Gonzaga game I had some hopes for this team. I knew what they are capable of and obviously the Gonzaga game looks like somewhat of an anomaly at this point. But it looks to me that this is a team with a ton of weaknesses and whose real only chance to win on a given night against a decent opponent is if they really shoot well thoughts.

Speaker 2: 3:30

Yeah, um, looking back again at the Gonzaga game, as we have done so often, I think Gonzaga was definitely trying to win that game, but I have a feeling they didn't really scout USC that hard, probably, whereas USC scouted Gonzaga really hard, which is great, and the main difference in that game versus subsequent games has been the outside shooting threat was established early and carried on throughout the game, which gave guys like Claude and Saint room to penetrate, and I mean Claude kind of won that game down the stretch with a lot of clutch baskets at the rim. And you know, now the jury is or the report is out on USC. Just like, if you don't give them that much room to shoot outside, they're going to miss and then they have no choice but to go inside and then just clog the middle and basically there's nothing they can do.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Yeah, just whether does USC make their shots or does USC not make its shots kind of determines the sort of efficacy of the team. It's almost as if they're not making the shots. Everything else just breaks down. Mark, what are your numbers showing now? The team is five and three through eight games. What do you see?

Speaker 3: 5:02

You know, just from a quantification standpoint of the offense, that game against St Mary's, the BPO for the team was a 28, which is, yeah, I I haven't seen, I've never been so good on defense as to hold a team to 28. I, you know, honestly, it didn't seem like we were. You know how do I say this. I've seen plenty of games with being forced into worse shots than what we had. But there were, you know, a lot of times when we did have you know late clock stuff where we didn't get the ideal shot and nobody was just hitting. So it was literally that that I think. If there's one thing I would caution, it would be that was so bad it might make light bend, as my old boss would like to say, when it comes to forming our opinions. Um, so just take it as one data point. You know, the Mexico loss, more of kind of like your garden variety, just bad loss if you will. And they're a pretty good team too.

Speaker 3: 6:12

You know our BPL in that game was a 47.6. Functional, you know, it's not like we didn't belong in the gym, even though it seemed like it on the court. And again, you know, it got narrowed kind of in some it got deceptively narrowed at some times. So there is that too. It got deceptively narrowed at some times. So there, there is that too. Um, but what concerns me, you know, most is is, you know, st Mary's 50.8 BPO in that game against us and New Mexico 52.7. I mean, to your point, you know we're not going to out defend anybody to win games, um, so I guess if there's good news is the Kevin O'Neill O is really really officially, officially behind us with this two game stretch. We're not going to out defend anybody. But you know, to your point, if the shots are not falling it can get a little gruesome at times.

Speaker 1: 6:58

And those are some pretty good teams. I don't know if it was just because we were bad, but the defensive intensity that both those teams brought was impressive, really gave our shooters a lot of difficulty and I think you're right that there were a lot of open shots that we missed. But they also contested a lot and made things hard for our guys to get to their spots. And then one of the things that we had seen so far this year which was surprising to me was the lack of really bad turnovers that had been. There's a little growl on Mark's dog, I'm lying, that's pretty funny, sorry. We hadn't seen a lot of crazy turnovers, a lot of bad, careless turnovers.

Speaker 1: 7:41

In the first several games and the last couple of games the wheels just kind of came off with the point guard position Desmond Claude and St Thomas and you know we started seeing situations whether it was fatigue or frustration or lack of concentration because of the pressure that that some of these, just some bad turnovers that turned into points. And you know it's funny back when back in one of the two I can't remember, maybe it was the Gonzaga game where St Thomas kept stepping out of bounds or a couple of our guys kept stepping out of bounds on the end line and I remember thinking, well, that's just, you know, not going to happen. And it happened some more in this game. So you know, know, maybe it's accrature arena, or maybe it was just. Maybe that wasn't a fluke after all, mark yeah to your point about the turnovers.

Speaker 3: 8:33

Um, you know we've been pretty good keeping the turnovers low.

Speaker 3: 8:37

As you said, the last two games saint mary's our turnover rate was 13.9, which is, I think we're about 10 or so coming into this game and then even higher 16.3 against New Mexico and I hate to single one guy out, but you know Desmond Claude 30.8% turnover rate against St Mary's and he narrowed it down, he reduced it to a 20.0, although St Thomas pitched in to do his part against New Mexico with 29.4. So when you're just having that many trips, you're not even getting a shot up. It's. You know. I think we were kind of lucky to be that close at times. I do want to say something positive though. You know, in both games, josh Cohen, you know BPO of 55 against St Mary's and over 66 against New Mexico. So the good news is the bad news here is that he's reliable. On the offense he's the most consistent thing, closest thing we have to a consistent score. Here's where it gets tricky. I don't know if I'd call him a liability on defense, but he's definitely not a rim protector by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 1: 9:50

Yeah, he's, you know, look he there's. You cannot single him out for defense when the defense has been so bad overall. Certainly he's not a special liability, like he's no more of a liability than just some of the guys, some of the guys playing the perimeter positions, so it's not just his defense, it's oftentimes the lack of rebounding.

Speaker 2: 10:13

When must came into this season, he said we know that we might not get as many rebounds at the center position and in the front court, but you know, our guards are going to make up for that. It was basically almost like a math equation that he was plugging in previous statistics and like, well, this could add up to such and such, and it's not really adding up. I mean, we've had some good rebounding games from various guards, but in some cases there's a little flaw.

Speaker 1: 10:44

There's a little flaw in the logic, which is that some, when, when a big guy is is crushing your big guy in rebounds, like it, it often like just it's a compounding problem, you know, during the course of a game, right, because a lot of times someone gets a rebound, offensive rebound, down low, it turns, it turns into points, right. So, and if and if you're, you know, if you're out rebounding their guard because you got a long rebound, you know it's not necessarily going to be easily converted into point. So so I think that it's. You know, the quality of the rebound perhaps probably is is not as good from the guard position that it is from the big position.

Speaker 2: 11:27

And also adding to that the fact that you have players playing in completely different positions than they're used to, so they might not be crashing, they might not be on the floor in the same spaces that they're used to.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see, when the season is over, kind of what the postmortem is on the strategy going in, how they were able to sort of like strategize with what they got and how they figured they were going to do it. Obviously, there's a long way to go. There's still some improvements that can be made. I'm sure will be made. While someone's a good coach, it's going to be some growing pains. One of the things that happened last week, just before we went to publish the podcast, was USC got a commitment from a 2025 player, jerry Easter. He plays at Link Academy, which is actually in Branson, missouri, but he himself is not from Branson. I think he's from Ohio, from Toledo, ohio. Six-foot-three, 183-pound combo guard he's listed at. I think he's going to play point for USC. Really explosive player. Looks like one of those scoring point guards, a guy who could really get to the hole. Really good shooter, super high twitch guy. Those are my impressions of looking at him. Did you guys get a tense look at him and, if so, what were your thoughts?

Speaker 3: 13:07

Pretty much the same. I think we probably saw the same videos. Pretty much the same. I think we probably saw the same videos. Um, you know, skillset, that that I will generously say uh, would be beneficial to this program at any point in time?

Speaker 1: 13:19

Yeah, so so you know he's six three guard coming in good size very quick. But again, he will be a true freshman next year. He will have, even though he's a top 40 rated player and he's definitely a big talent, there will be growing pains with him, so USC can't necessarily give him the reign. So I think, sky, don't you think that getting a full-time point guard in the portal in the offseason has got to be priority number one for this team?

Speaker 2: 13:46

Well, this season, I think, was kind of an experiment and part of that was out of necessity. You know, we don't know what players were willing to commit to a team with no one else on the roster. We don't necessarily know what the NIL situation was and we've talked before about how, like, every coach has their prototypical guy that they're always trying to recreate. Like with Enfield it was Melton. You know, Kobe Johnson was the next Melton and then Silas Demery was the next Melton and clearly for Muscleman it's Caleb Martin. So St Thomas was supposed to be the next Caleb Martin and he's had some flashes of that, but not really consistently and maybe part of that is still the injury. But you know you can't have a team of composed of nobody. But Caleb.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Martin's necessarily, and and then everybody was saying well, it's like another six, seven wing, and that was kind of the experiment. Can we teach these guys to play point guard, slash, power forward, yeah, so we're going to probably be seeing more traditional guards next season.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Yeah, and it could be that we you know, coach Musk gets the last laugh at the end of the season, when things finally sink in for everything they're doing, but right now it looks problematic.

Speaker 2: 15:03

Listen. Musk's reputation for what it's worth is that the teams get way better in the second half of the season. Yeah, that remains to be seen how that plays out this year, but that has always been his reputation, from what I understand.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Yeah. So USC is now five and three. On Wednesday it hosts Oregon in Galen at 7 30 PM. They are asking USC people to wear black to Galen. Good luck with that. And then the Trojans head to Washington on Saturday, december 7th, for a 3 pm Pacific time game up in Seattle. So the first two Big Ten games of the year will be taking place against two nontraditional Big Ten foes, oregon and Washington. I tell you Oregon's going to be tough because they have just the kind of lineup that looks like it was made in a lab to befuddle this type of USC basketball team. What do you guys think, just knowing what you know about Oregon, what the prospects for this game looks like?

Speaker 2: 16:15

Yeah, if I was to guess about those two games, I would say Oregon is the loss and maybe Washington's the win. Oregon is just going to be tough and I don't know if things could get ugly. Yeah, I think.

Speaker 1: 16:28

Yeah, I agree, cause Shelstead I mean like who's going to guard Shelstead is what I want to know.

Speaker 3: 16:34

Well, if you want good news on that, Shelstead is far from their most efficient and productive player. Actually, Keyshawn Barthelmy, was he at Colorado last season? Was it two seasons ago?

Speaker 1: 16:50

Maybe two seasons ago, but yeah, he was at Oregon last year.

Speaker 3: 16:53

Okay, bpo of 64 and a higher Buscar than Shelsted. Now who knows how much? Shelsted just got a lot of bench minutes. Also, let me see here Nate Biddle a higher BPO than Shelstead and higher Buscar as well. So this does not, from a metric standpoint, look like an easy team to defend.

Speaker 1: 17:19

No, it's not. And the thing is is that Shelstead, whatever struggles he had, this will be probably a glorious salve for his troubles. Probably a glorious salve for his troubles because, you know, I suspect that I haven't looked at their schedule in great detail, but I suspect that that Shulstead has not had to go up against too many 6'6 to 6'8 point guards guarding him. You know, probably most of the guys he's played against are at least guys who are decent enough facsimiles of his size. He's obviously quicker than most guards, but he was too quick for Boogie Ellis, you know what I mean. So he's going to be too quick for Isaiah Collier last year. So it's going to be really difficult for Desmond Claude.

Speaker 1: 18:11

I think we're going to have to go. We're going to have to unveil some kind of zone, some kind of match, some kind of matchup zone, some kind of funky formation, something to get them off their game early, and then hope that we can get out there and shoot well, maybe forge a little lead early on, just to kind of knock him in the head. I don't know if it's full court press or something that would probably just be. Shelstead would eat pretty easily On that. But I'm just saying They've got to come up with something To knock Oregon off kilter early. Do you have any idea, sky, what the options are?

Speaker 2: 18:49

You know, over the course of the season, young as it is, there have been some games where mus has said okay, uh, at halftime we decided to. You know, we had to take this guard out of the equation because he was torching us and we kind of did in the second half.

Speaker 2: 19:05

You know, the guy might have had like 15 or 18 points in the first half. Maybe he had like four or six in the second half. That's true. There's a possibility that Musk can scheme to that effect, but then the issue is you're giving something up Right, and that is what I think could be a problem. There's a possibility, at least in the second half, that they could really wear Shelstad down and take him out of the game. But then what are you giving?

Speaker 1: 19:33

up. Yeah, exactly, there's certainly. I think there's a little bit of like cross your fingers, knock on wood and throw the salt over your shoulder and hope something kind of works in that game. Hope one of our guys goes off Maybe it's a home game, so maybe the rims are a little more forgiving for our guys goes off. Maybe it's a home game, so maybe the rims are a little more forgiving for our guys and maybe, like Wesley Yates, gets back in the swing of things in the friendly confines of Galen Center.

Speaker 1: 20:04

I want to just really quickly go through and then looking up to Washington again, another team that is going to present some matchup problems, starting with great Ozebor, who was at Utah State Last year. Big burly, 6'8", 250 pound guy. I don't know how he's going to be stopped down low, and we're going to play Zoom Diallo, who is a freshman Five star guard that we really wanted to come to USC, and then a few other names that are a name we recognized when he played at Oregon Frank Kepnong, who's a big 6'11", 250-pound guy. The Huskies have a big front line. They got some quickness in the wings as well. So another challenge you guys have any thoughts on the Washington matchup?

Speaker 2: 20:53

You know, basically Washington had the same issue Well, not the exact same issue, but they had a new coach. They did retain some players, but they went out and tried to get like a more traditional roster. You know, with balance, the different positions. I think it's really hard to get good transfer point guards. I think they have a very high value because Washington went out and the guys they got, um, they can't shoot, so it's not like they got, like you know, a top 25 caliber point guard or something.

Speaker 1: 21:31

Not even as good as. Not even as good as the guy they got last year. No, Wheeler was pretty solid.

Speaker 2: 21:37

Well, he couldn't shoot either, but he was averaging like six assists a game or something crazy. Yeah, no they have some kind of like, you know, mid-major, smaller guys who take shots that they can't make. So I think that matchup bodes better for USC and maybe Yates goes off. He has a little motivation, you know, facing his old team.

Speaker 1: 21:59

Well, we know how hard it is to get the quality point guard out of the transfer portal. It's very tough during the infield era to also get those point guard transfers. Mark thoughts on Washington from the analytics standpoint.

Speaker 3: 22:13

Yeah, what sticks out to me is this team plays some pretty and I don't know about the quality of opponent, but a defensive BPO of 40.7. So the good news is the bad news is the good news possibly, where I think that from a style of play this could be, washington could actually be tougher. I can see a scenario where we're just trading punches with Oregon and basically it's like a 94 to 90 game. I could see basically us getting in a rock fight that we don't. You know, it's been kind of clear, you know from the last week that rock fights are not really, um, what suits us best. So I think in the styles makes fights kind of context I think there's, there's probably more upside to the Oregon game, even though that they're a more talented team.

Speaker 1: 23:05

What's really weird, too, about this is, you know, really weird too about this is you know, osabor, he's, he's a, he's a, he's a big you said he's a big, he's 6, 8 250 and he's great he.

Speaker 3: 23:16

He leads them by far in assists in steals. I don't even know how that happens um is. Is he basically like a? Like a thicker magic johnson? What's going on with this guy? He's great man, he's great okay, there you go, you're welcome.

Speaker 2: 23:31

What a setup what can I say it speaks more to their guards. Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that's yeah because he's not actually.

Speaker 1: 23:40

He doesn't have a high percentage assist percent. He doesn't really dish out a lot of assists, right?

Speaker 3: 23:46

no, he leads the team. He has 27 and the next highest on the team is 17, but that's not a lot, is what I'm trying to say. Like what is that? Like three assists per game.

Speaker 1: 23:51

No, he leads the team. He has 27, and the next highest on the team is 17. But that's not a lot, is what I'm trying to say. What is that like? Three assists per game?

Speaker 3: 23:56

Are you getting compared to our team? Probably lead. Usc St Thomas is averaging.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Well, I don't know, actually, Maybe these last two games. Let me see 39.

Speaker 3: 24:07

Yeah, 39. So he would be second. He would be one ahead of Desmond Claude.

Speaker 2: 24:14

I don't think they've played Some very good teams.

Speaker 3: 24:17

I kind of get that from that Defensive BPO, that's Kind of it's beyond belief. I'll say that if you're playing A normal schedule.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Oregon's number 12 in the country. So it would obviously be a quality win if USC could, could bounce back. I think that from the perspective of the fan base it'd be really nice to win that game, just because I think that it would keep some of that despair from from that is so well known to USC basketball from sinking in too soon. You could already kind of feel on our message board the kind of Paul that has kind of descended upon things, as people just are not looking for reasons to talk USC basketball and you know you can. Usually there are certain posters when we're not playing well, they kind of start circling like buzzards around the carcass and so you know that things are not going well when you see these guys. What's up, Sky?

Speaker 2: 25:16

You know, something actually that I wanted to say about that is I was just listening to the Colin Cowherd podcast this morning and I can't remember off the top of my head he had a guest football columnist who he talks to like every week and they were talking about Lincoln Riley, because colin cowher is a pretty big usc fan. Actually musselman was on his podcast or his show, uh, in the offseason, but they were talking about lincoln riley and this football columnist actually brought up how riley is going to have to compete for attention at USC with Eric Musselman, because Musselman is a great coach that rubs donors the right way. And I'm like has this guy not watched any of the games this season?

Speaker 2: 26:04

And he probably hasn't which is actually probably playing in USC's favor. Because still nationally the perception may be like probably playing in USC's favor because still, like you know, nationally the perception may be like well, usc has muscle men, so don't count them out well.

Speaker 1: 26:17

Also, I think he could end up being right too, because obviously you know he's going to be here more than one year, so maybe it does take. You know, maybe he will be more more popular or more famous than than Lincoln Raleigh. When it's all said and done, we certainly hope that he is a really big name, because that means USC basketball is doing well. So let's go really quick, look through the uh big 10 schedule, or let's just say the rest of the schedule, and I want to see um go through and just see what you guys whether you guys call a winner loss, okay, yep, okay, okay, okay. Oregon Loss, yeah, l Okay, so that's five. And I call it a loss that's five If two out of three get it. That's the direction we go. Okay, so that's five, and four At Washington Win.

Speaker 1: 27:11

I'll go with a win there yeah. I'll go with a loss. Okay, so you guys call a win A win on the road in the Big Ten Coveted Big Ten road game Six and four versus Montana state. I say a win.

Speaker 2: 27:25

I say win. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1: 27:27

Okay, that's seven and four versus CSUN. I'll say a win.

Speaker 2: 27:31

Win Yep.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Win. That's eight and four versus Southern. I'll say a win.

Speaker 2: 27:38

Win Yep.

Speaker 1: 27:39

Win. Okay, that's the end of December, we're at nine-4, heading into January, and then we host Michigan on January 4th. What happens in that Michigan game, guys?

Speaker 2: 27:51

Yeah, I think January is going to be brutal.

Speaker 3: 27:56

I think Michigan's a loss. Okay, they got the FAU coach right. Yes, yeah, they got the.

Speaker 1: 28:02

FAU coach right, yes, dusty May used to work at USC. I knew him when he was the video guy at USC with Henry Bibby.

Speaker 3: 28:13

Okay, so we can blame you. I guess, yeah, I agree, I think this is a loss, unfortunately.

Speaker 1: 28:26

I'm going to say that's a win at home versus Michigan, but we'll count that as a loss, because you both said loss, so 9-5. Let's just say, at Indiana, at Illinois, I'm going to say loss-loss. Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2: 28:40

Yeah, I will point out that my Big Ten buddies At Indiana, at Illinois, I'm going to say loss-loss.

Speaker 3: 28:43

Yeah, me too. Yeah. I will point out that my Big Ten buddies, they said just prepare yourself for playing to Indiana.

Speaker 1: 28:52

There's nothing that you've ever gone through.

Speaker 3: 28:55

That's like it Gone through okay, so I'm looking forward to that Right.

Speaker 1: 29:01

So that's nine and seven. Then versus Iowa, versus Wisconsin, I will say a split there. What say you guys?

Speaker 2: 29:10

I don't know a ton about Iowa. I know Wisconsin is super disciplined and they are like the best free throw shooting team in the nation. I think it's two losses.

Speaker 1: 29:22

You know, I'll say Iowa is a win because Traditionally they're not known for their defense and if it's a shootout type of game and they are kind of a shootout type of team, I think we can win a shootout at home when they're coming All this way. Mark, what did you say about Iowa?

Speaker 3: 29:40

I Agree. Yeah, I think that. I think we're looking at a split there. Yeah, mcafree's teams to your point they. They do tend to be on the higher scoring uh end of things and then wisconsin uh, yeah, I'll, I'll count that as a loss okay.

Speaker 1: 29:56

So now we're at 10 and 8 at nebraska on january 22,. I'll say a loss.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Somehow, I think, win, I think St Thomas gets super fired up. I mean, he's already talked about it.

Speaker 3: 30:09

Oh okay, mark Hoiberg's there right, mm-hmm, I think it's been a slow build. Yeah, I'll just say road game loss in.

Speaker 1: 30:26

I say loss. What is that? 10 and 8 right there. Is that where we're at? 10 and 9 sounds right. That sounds too optimistic. And then UCLA and Galen on a Monday. I'm going to say a win, because there's going to be A couple bright spots in this season to hang our hats on, and this will be one of them.

Speaker 2: 30:50

I would love that, but I'm going to say a loss.

Speaker 3: 30:55

I'll go with the win. I think Kind of along your lines. I think basically that will be kind of a kitchen sink game From us.

Speaker 1: 31:05

So 11-9. Then there's Michigan State coming into town. I'll call that a loss.

Speaker 3: 31:13

Loss. The kitchen sink runs empty on that one. That's a loss 11-10.

Speaker 1: 31:18

At Northwestern at Purdue, I'm going to call that two losses, yeah, yeah, yeah. 11-12 versus Penn State versus Minnesota Call that a split, yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:32

I think they'll pull one of those out. I feel like Penn State they might be able to steal that one.

Speaker 1: 31:40

Yeah, so that's a 12 and Mark. What do you say?

Speaker 3: 31:44

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1: 31:47

So that's 12 and 13 at Maryland, at Rutgers, that's two losses. Yeah, 12 and 15. Is Maryland ranked?

Speaker 2: 31:55

yet they're playing pretty good.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Uh, I don't think. I don't know if they're ranked yet, but Rutgers 23 in the net or something Got it.

Speaker 2: 32:00

I don't think. I don't know if they're ranked yet they're like 23 in the net or something.

Speaker 1: 32:02

Got it, got it. Well, of course Rutgers has those two outstanding freshmen. Yeah, Mark, what do you say that Maryland at Rutgers?

Speaker 3: 32:10

Yeah, that's a couple of losses.

Speaker 1: 32:13

So that's 12 and 15. And then we got versus Ohio State in Galen let's call that, we know what to call it. Did you find their coach In Galen? Let's call that. What's that? Let's call it that, did they?

Speaker 3: 32:27

fire their coach. What's that? Didn't they just fire their coach? Am I just imagining things? Might have been last year, I think they have a new coach? I can't remember who it is Holtman. They just fired Holtman, didn't they?

Speaker 2: 32:37

Aren't they ranked right now though?

Speaker 1: 32:40

Maybe they have a pretty good freshman, John Mobley. I'll call that a loss. What do you guys?

Speaker 3: 32:48

say you say it Sky, I don't want to A loss.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Yes, so now we're at 12-16 at Oregon. I think we can all agree that's a loss.

Speaker 2: 32:58

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:59

So that's 12-17 versus Washington. I'll call that a win.

Speaker 2: 33:04

Yeah, yeah, I'll say they sweep Washington this year.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Yeah, and then, mark, what do you say about that game?

Speaker 3: 33:12

Yeah, I'll take the win there.

Speaker 1: 33:16

So that's 13-17. And then at UCLA Lost Yep.

Speaker 2: 33:21

I don't think we're winning.

Speaker 3: 33:23

Lost Yep, I don't think we're winning that one.

Speaker 1: 33:26

Yeah, so that is a record of 13 and 18 going into the Big Ten tournament you guys feel comfortable with that Is that goodness in the Big.

Speaker 2: 33:35

Ten tournament. Oh, that's a good question, isn't it like the top 16, or something?

Speaker 3: 33:40

Yeah, I think it's like the top 15 seats, something weird like that.

Speaker 1: 33:44

And so we are predicting a record of 5 and 15 in the Big Ten.

Speaker 3: 33:48

It is the top 15. A nice round number here that actually qualify for the tournament.

Speaker 1: 33:55

Yeah, okay, so not you know. It was a bad season last year, but at least you know, at least this year maybe our expectations weren't as great as they were last year going in, but it will be rough for those of you listening out there. Hang in there. The unfortunate part about this is is that we do have a roster of guys who are going to be gone. A lot of them are going to be gone next year, but hopefully USC can start getting these young guys more playing time, at least the guys that they want to keep around next year. How do you, how do you keep this team focused, kind of if you're the coaching staff, you're looking ahead at the schedule and kind of knowing what's what's in store realistically. How do you?

Speaker 2: 34:47

what are you looking for? Like improvement, think cutting down on turnovers, um, and really just, it feels like a few of the players are not themselves, you know. I mean desmond claude, great finisher, didn't shoot well in the desert. Saint Thomas hasn't really felt like himself since he broke his nose. He's the real X factor, you know, because it feels like he's playing a different style. Obviously he's kind of out of position, but if he can get back to playing the way that he's capable of, it could alter the course of this season, I think.

Speaker 3: 35:20

Yeah, mark, yeah, I don't know if we're at the radical juncture of desperate times and desperate measures and all that, but maybe something just completely radical, just saying, look, you're going to not just playing time but starters playing time is going to depend on who can play defense, because, boy, I mean, you don't really have to run some complicated stuff to get easy. Looks against us. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:52

I do think that playing Yates and Elohim and Shelly and Claude is probably very important to keep those guys. The only hope you have of a real improvement is for those guys to develop right. And I'd like to see, you know, even with all the mistakes that will come, I'd like to see Wesley Yates play more point At least, or at least play, you know, be the lead ball handler more often, even if he doesn't facilitate the offense at all times, because he definitely has the quickness at the position. And you know, I think that I don't think he's as tall as listed, so I don't think he has some of the the the length issues. As far as like being able to to wind up when he's running and move laterally, I think he's, he's one of the guys who can move pretty well laterally and stay with some some quick guys.

Speaker 1: 36:56

So, um, and then you know every sort of bit of experience you get with him at point guard this year. It can hopefully help towards next year as an insurance policy. Um, and then, of course and I still think that, as problematic as desmond claude has been at point guard, I still think he has probably there's probably more upside to playing him at point and moving St Thomas to a more, you know, to his normal position, versus extending St At that position and sort of not getting the best of kind of getting like the worst, not the worst of all worlds, but sort of like you know he's kind of doing okay at everything versus being really good at one thing which was being able to score. So that's how I would approach.

Speaker 2: 37:44

I personally feel like corner he should see more time. He doesn't have the post game that Cohen has, but I think he may be better at defensive, better on the boards, and if your team is falling behind there's always that possibility he could start raining threes. It's not something you want to count on, but I mean he's brought the team back before with his shot.

Speaker 1: 38:09

No, yeah, I agree, I agree, I think he definitely deserves a look inside for his size, because he doesn't, you know, he is a true, I think, a true 6'10, six, 10 and a half, and I think Cohen is, I know he's listed at six, 10. He feels like he's plays a little smaller and age he's definitely he plays like he's six foot five. So, uh, uh, even though he's which is again points to to uh, his, you know, he, he has a good skill set of being kind of like a modern big where he can shoot outside and go down and rebound, but he, but he's really doesn't have any other element to his game down low. It appears to uh sort of warrant him sort of occupying real estate down there in the post. So well, this is a sorry folks, a little bit of a somber uh podcast.

Speaker 1: 39:02

Uh, not the most hopeful podcast, but we're trying to keep it real here. Uh, we, we definitely think that, uh, overall, the program has a bright future here, at least, I think that and I think that Coach Musselman will get this turned around. We don't really fully know the circumstances that has led to the construction of this roster, but I would certainly say that, coach Musselman, even though these are a lot of his ideal types of players, I would say that it's definitely not what he would consider an ideal roster construction. So got to give him time to get his guys. Uh, great news, getting jerry easter one piece of the puzzle there. Now let's go get some bigs. Uh, maybe another a couple more ball handlers in the portal.

Speaker 2: 39:50

So anything else to add uh from you guys as we head uh into um, I'll just say to december here that's something we were talking about a little bit offline was Enfield's first two seasons were not pretty at all and he ended up taking the Trojans to an Elite Eight. So even if this season does not, end pretty. I think there's still a lot of hope for the Muscleman era.

Speaker 3: 40:18

Agree, yeah, I don't think this is um as tough to watch yet as as as the uh as the pishon howard here, not to pick on anybody well, I will say this though um, we have to be careful as a program.

Speaker 1: 40:37

Uh, you do get this. You do get kind of the mulligan year because of being the first year and because of the circumstances, with the roster and the portal, for sure, but kind of one of the, I think, stated benefits of how everything went down, meaning Enfield moving on to another program without being fired, right. He got hired away, which is kind of what you want, right? So he was the most successful coach in USC history. Arguably. He got hired away somewhere else. We brought in a coach who, by all accounts, is considered a step up in quality as far as, like, just from a pure X's and O's standpoint, reputation, track record, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1: 41:20

You kind of don't want. We're talking about, like you know, the first two years of the Andy infielder. We kind of don't want to like, we kind of are hoping that our program is at a place where we're not really falling back to that level for very long. If it, you know, if, like, it can't be more than one year, you know, because if, if it's more than, if it's more than one year, then what was? What were the? What were the infield years? For Cause they were.

Speaker 1: 41:47

It was kind of like they were supposed to like establish us as a sort of like us having a kind of minimum level of of program presence. You know he had kind of brought us into the kind of modern era of, you know, kind of professionalize the program, made it competent, did very good with high school recruiting, especially local area. Obviously, the game's completely changed right In that and during that course of time. So you know it's a completely different game, almost like a completely different game of basketball that we're that we're dealing with now because of NIL and transfer portal and all that. So but yeah, you really hope that Coach Musk can build upon what Andy built and not have to get back down to the foundational aspects of it all.

Speaker 3: 42:31

Yeah, to that point. I don't recall talented underclassmen on that first team as we have on this team. So by that regard I think we're way ahead of it. You might remember that second year. I think there's more parallels to this team in that second year of Enfield where you had more talent. It's like, okay, now we're going to take a big step forward. I think we won one more conference game. I think we're at that step right now. To that point, as you said, I'd force feed the underclassmen as much as possible and if you're looking at a rough season, anyways, just accelerate the process. Look if we can figure that out. A guy as smart as Musk definitely knows that.

Speaker 1: 43:15

And hey, maybe Jerry Easter's the next Jordan McLaughlin, maybe he's that recruit around which much the program is built, especially if he can end up playing point guard and playing at a high level, but hopefully not too high of a level, so that he sticks around for a while. Yep, okay, all right, boys, we will finish off the podcast. Thanks again everybody for listening. Be sure to go to usevasketballcom for more basketball discussion. We appreciate your patronage and giving us a like and review and all the things you do with your podcasts. So we will see you next week and fight on, fight on.

Speaker 3: 43:56

As always, fight on.