Speaker 1: 0:15

Welcome to the Sweet 16 for the first time. All right, welcome back to another edition of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. I'm here with Sky. Liam, mark Backstrom couldn't make it tonight.

Speaker 1: 0:38

The Trojans have had a decent week this past week behind us, with a loss at home to Oregon not decent but a resounding win up at Washington, interestingly enough, very much in line with the previous episode where we did our Big Ten predictions and the consensus was an Oregon loss and a Washington victory, which are a win at Vic, at Washington, because you and Mark predicted the win at Washington and me and I think we all predicted the loss versus Oregon. So yeah, I think there was some green shoots sort of showing themselves for the Trojans as far as like playing better overall. Certainly, winning a game by that margin that they did against Washington, 85-61 is pretty impressive. It was not as close as the score indicated. And then the Oregon game was very competitive, the number 12 Oregon Ducks. Certainly a winnable game. But what did you think, sky, of these duo of games and what it portends for the future, because it's such a hard team to figure out, like they're completely different than the previous week.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Listen, musk told us this. He said before the season I don't know what the team is, I don't know what our lineups are, and that's carried forth. He also said very clearly anybody can play at any time. So of course you have in the Washington game, yates starting partially due to injury, but then AG getting tons of minutes. This team is evolving and trying new things, and not only trying new things, but learning new things for every single player on the roster, and I think it's really encouraging that they went up to Washington and played what I think was the best game of the season and you can really rationalize a few things if you really kind of step away from the chaos.

Speaker 1: 2:48

That was the Accrisher Classic, where it was just the two worst back-to-back games I've seen USC play in a long time. But if you look at the kind of the micro aspects of those two games, the second half of the New Mexico game wasn't a horrible performance by the Trojans, and then the first you know three quarters of the Oregon game was pretty good and then just complete dominance against Washington. So you're really looking at just like a complete meltdown against St Mary's, which St Mary's is a good team, but certainly having that type of meltdown is rare in college basketball.

Speaker 2: 3:33

But I've seen it happen, even the first 10 minutes of that St Mary's game. I mean, we're really splitting hairs now, but it was like neck and neck. Yeah, you're right, the Trojans just completely imploded just completely.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Yeah, it was 2020 at one point, you know. You know, if you're looking at the total of uh, of 107 points scored in that game, the first 40 of them were even right so so, yeah, so it's definitely like a um, uh, not as bad. You know, with the perspective of another week or two, things don't look as bad. As they looked at the end of that New Mexico game when everyone was saying I don't think we're going to be able to win a road game on the Big Ten. I think I was certainly one of those and we've already been proven wrong.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Yeah, I think if you look at those two games, first of all against Oregon, the most encouraging aspect was just that the defense was really solid. The entire game I mean Must had that clear game plan, which was not don't let Shelstad drive and get Biddle into foul trouble, and they pulled that off 100 percent. Really, what turned the game at the very end was the Trojan offense got a little stagnant. St Thomas hadn't broken out of his funk yet, which he did in grand fashion, but also as a fan to watch it, the refs did this thing, which I've seen because I mostly watch USC games. I've seen, which I've seen because I mostly watch USC games. I've seen USC fall victim to this, which is little guy drives in the paint and just automatically gets a foul called every single possession. I mean there was several possessions there where Shelstad he was barely touched, I mean he was maybe brushed as the Trojan was backing up.

Speaker 2: 5:21

And he's a great foul shooter and that really won the game for them. It was really annoying to watch. But you can't 100% lay it at the feet of the officials because on the other end the Trojan offense just kind of got stagnant. Claude was having a lot of success, but you know you can do that for probably half of a half. You can't do that for the entire half.

Speaker 1: 5:41

We just didn't have enough tank gas gas in the tank, uh, on the offensive side, and then that eventually led to deep. It's a breakdown. Certainly in the first 30 minutes or so of the game I was thinking where is the jackson shelstead that I knew before, because this guy's just not very good. He was really struggling in the game. Uh, there were some other guys struggling for oregon us. He was just playing a USC was playing a really good game overall, so it was very encouraging, frankly surprising, although Matt B for USC did tell us on the board that the upset was brewing. He was almost right, but I do think that that game was important. I'm not calling it a moral victory, but it might have given the team a little bit more of a gauge of where it was.

Speaker 2: 6:30

Right, I think, just knowing that you can hang there, knowing that you had a legitimate chance to beat who was, I think, at that time, the only undefeated team in the nation. Unfortunately, they went on to subsequently lose at home to.

Speaker 1: 6:43

UCLA. Yeah, this is a mercurial team. The question has always been is this the team that beat Gonzaga or is this the team that lost to St Mary's? And the answer is yes, Right, Right. I think the big takeaway from the week has to be the reemergence of St Thomas. Had a big 19 points in the win over Washington. He is starting to show some signs of life, which I think is potentially a huge factor for the team going forward. What do you say, Sky?

Speaker 2: 7:26

Oh, big time. You know, I would really encourage everybody, if they haven't yet, to go read that piece St Thomas wrote. It was kind of like a Players' Tribune type of piece and I couldn't find a publication date for that. Like I don't know if that just came out recently or if he wrote that at the beginning of the season.

Speaker 1: 7:44

I think it was a couple days ago, I think, or no, december 4th, I think, oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 7:49

So it takes a lot of courage to be frank about things like that, and actually another, Trojan DeMar DeRozan, has really led the way on those types of mental health issues in the NBA as well, and it's very real, it affects people and maybe it was kind of cathartic to see that spread. I don't know. I don't want to make suppositions about his intent, but either way the shots that we kept saying we know he can make those.

Speaker 1: 8:17

He made them. He made them against Washington and he looked confident and he played great.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Well, you know we've been trying to have St Thomas on the podcast for a few weeks now. A couple weeks ago I was told that he was confirmed, but then USC had a bit of a turnover with their basketball SID position and sometimes I was told that I would be contacted. But sometimes these things get lost in the shuffle. If anyone's listening, I'd really love to get Sain on, especially now. Well, not just because he's broken out because we would have loved to talk to him regardless of whether he had broken out or not against Washington but also just you know what Sky was referring to. You know his bravery and just ability to communicate such a poignant message. So we would have wanted to talk to him about that if he was willing to do so. So, yeah, give us a call, sky. Another great performance against Washington for USC, which was nice to see after a couple games of struggle, was Wesley Yates reemerging 19 big points, 7 of 11 shooting, 3 of 6 from three-point land. Just a really explosive game. It looked really easy for him out there.

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah, he knows what he can do. I mean, he's probably the most confident player on the team and that was a homecoming game for him, of course, because he was on Washington last year and he didn't get to ever play for Washington. He was on Washington last year and he didn't get to ever play for Washington, so I think he wanted to show all of those fans what he was capable of and he did it. I mean, he looked fantastic. Still has a few turnover issues, but I think he's on his way to kind of cleaning those up, because he knows.

Speaker 1: 10:06

He knows about that and the coaches make sure he knows about that. Yeah, and you know, I think one of the reasons for the team looking better the last two games is, I do think that, um, we talked about this on one of the podcasts where I said I would really like to see desmond claude just be the lead guard instead of saint thomas, uh, doing a lot of point guard duties, because it was clearly affecting his play. And in the last two games Desmond Claude has taken more of those duties and I think it has improved the quality of the play of the offense overall and I also think it's taken some of the pressure of the offense overall and so, and I also think it's taken some of the pressure off of Saint. So, yeah, I think having Desmond Claude at the point is just one of those things we have to kind of see through. You know, not that, you know not in deep posts, but you know in and around the, you know the middle of the key where he seems to be the most effective.

Speaker 2: 11:25

I agree. The thing with Claude is that he, when he gets downhill, he is a really good finisher. So with the ball in his hands, you know, it feels more comfortable because every time that he's driving he has the very high possibility of finishing or dishing it off. He's always going to have that and saint, it seems, is like clearly, uh, more confident as kind of a more of a spot up three guy or maybe, like you know, a shooting off the dribble from three or in the post with his fade away, um, and he looked great doing that and I think, having yates in there, I wouldn't say he's a lead guard. Yeah, um, I mean frankly, I wouldn't even call him a combo guard at this point, but he's a creator. He can absolutely create which just takes pressure off of the other guys.

Speaker 1: 12:23

No, I totally agree, and I guess I was just thinking in the sense of there being some kind of ability to get the ball down the court quickly in certain situations. To get the ball down the court quickly, uh, in certain situations, um, but you know, it's really interesting because it seems like there is somebody leading the team and scoring every other week. Uh, there was a period where Josh Cohen was leading and now he's fallen off the last few weeks, I think he was sick. Oh he, what was he sick Interesting.

Speaker 2: 12:54

I think he was sick, uh, during the Oregon game and I don't know if that influence or he'd been. Was he sick Interesting?

Speaker 1: 12:56

I think he was sick during the Oregon game and I don't know if that influence or he'd been sick earlier in the week, so he's kind of recovering, I guess, yeah, and then, and Terrence Williams, I think a couple of games ago was was leading the team and of course now he's broken his wrist. He's out indefinitely, so he's not going to play for a while. As soon as we get some more information on that, we'll uh let you guys know. Uh could be a blow, but it you know, it's one of those things where the the issue could be that there's just maybe too many players at some point. You know uh that and that may be. Some of these guys need to have some more minutes to to improve and unfortunately, because Terrence Williams was averaging 32 minutes a game, unfortunately that hurts Terrence Williams, but fortunately someone like Matt Nowing or Wesley Yates or Kevin Patton or Rashawn Agee, someone in there, is going to get more time and hopefully improve as a result.

Speaker 2: 13:58

AG was a revelation. It was really funny to me. I think it was maybe the last podcast. And listen, everybody who talks about sports, every reporter, every pundit, always does this. They watch a game or two and say, well, this guy just can't do this, this guy's limited, this team is constructed poorly, or whatever the case guilty.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Yeah, extrapolated off a small sample size.

Speaker 2: 14:22

So then, yep, agey goes in there. Suddenly he's making like turnaround hooks. He's uh, you know, got great touch around the basket, um, and he looked like a completely different player and maybe, as you saying, he just needed a little bit more of that continuity in minutes, because he played a fantastic game. It was a good matchup for him too, size-wise I think.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Yeah, and it was interesting because they showed a stat about great Ozebor going into the game. I think Washington was 6-2 going into the game and the wins in the six wins Ozebor was averaging like 16 points a game. Like 10 rebounds, four blocks he was doing really well. He wasn't shooting that well but he was. He was very productive and in the two losses he was shooting like 22% and wasn't scoring much. And that's luckily.

Speaker 1: 15:10

We kind of got one of those games. We had a great, we had a fantastic kind of a defensive scheme, I thought, against him where we had. We sort of had our double team kind of stay in the no man's land between the you know, between the pass off guy and the big, and the bet wasn't whether he can make the pass. The bet was whether he would make the right decision at exactly the right time and I thought that was a great way to gamble. If you're going to gamble on that, don't gamble in a way that makes you have to overcome your physical deficiencies. Do it in a way that challenges someone who may or may not have been in that position on enough occasions to be reliable to do the right thing all the time. And that actually worked a lot and he wasn't comfortable and and missed a lot of bunnies too.

Speaker 2: 16:03

USC fans have complained for many years that the coach was just not an X's and O's guy. Eric Musselman is an X's and O's guy, and he also trusts his staff too and all of their insights, because everybody's going to see a different aspect of the game.

Speaker 2: 16:19

yeah, so um you know, they, they I think I said this last week they, they can scheme guys out of games. It helped usc that washington does not have good shooters and their guards are not good shooters and some some fans on the board were saying, you know, I wish we had just gotten some point guards on this team, even if they're not good shooters, just to bring the ball up the court, and we kind of saw that on washington's side.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Yeah it didn't work for them well, I mean, look, I I do think that it's it's. It's been a little bit of a roller coaster with this team, and so therefore, there might be a little bit of not regret Everyone's happy that Musselman is here but I do think there's a little bit of. Some of the people who were so down on Enfield are maybe like, well, you know, this is such a roller coaster. Maybe our criticisms of some of the things are just things that happen in college basketball, whether you're Eric Musselman or whether you, but I think that at least is leading to some more appreciation for Andy.

Speaker 2: 17:43

That's very true. And you know, like you said, every team is searching for a point guard, every team is searching for three-point shooting, and especially now it's a year-to-year reset, pretty much Right right right.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Did you see, by the way, that the number one player for the next class, AJ DeBansa, signed with BYU?

Speaker 2: 18:11

I remember you telling me about that and I was like, are you sure?

Speaker 1: 18:14

Oh yeah, he made it official. This guy's a fantastic player. I don't, uh, for those of you, uh, who might have been reading the message boards, or at least the recruiting section of uscbasketballcom a couple years ago, when I was scouting guys and I saw him, I I put his position as anywhere he wants. And so because he played for prolific prep, which also had zoom Diallo, and it has the Tyron Stokes who's the number one player, the next class, and it had Darian Reed who went to Alabama, and it had Aiden Shirell, and so just like eight or nine guys in the top 50. It's a ridiculous number of elite players. But he's going to get paid like $4 million to go to BYU, to just spend a year, make $4 million at BYU, and I don't know, I mean, I guess I mean it's like they're not going to, they're not going to buy him drinks If he hometown hero, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:24

I mean it's kind of interesting, like we've seen there was really that period. I mean like the Ohio State football players who they traded jerseys for tattoos, something so low level and they really got kind of hammered for that, terrell Pryor. Yeah, exactly. And now the pendulum has way overcorrected, which always happens. Don't be too mad at it, because this is just how life is always going to function in all facets.

Speaker 2: 19:51

And you know the pendulum will swing back at some point. But right now it's kind of like the price is not even what value are you bringing. The price it's just what the market will bear, and so so good for him. You know, I hope he has a great time there and it's a credit to Enfield for having him on campus even.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Yeah Right, pretty wild, I I wonder. I wonder how much usc would have spent for him. Not that much, all right. Um, so usc now takes a break from its uh big 10 schedule. There is a yeah, there is a trio of games uh coming up. Uh, sunday montana state at 5 pm. December 18th, csun 7 pm December 22nd. Southern at 1 pm. These are, of course, all at Galen Center. I would expect these to be very tiny crowds, especially the Southern game, because CSUN, at least, is a local team. They might get some fans coming over, but Montana state might be pretty bad too. That's the the must bus Christmas promotion.

Speaker 2: 21:02

Oh yeah, they do that every year they do a little package with an ugly Christmas sweater this year they're not calling it an ugly sweater. It's just Christmas sweater.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Yeah, yeah, cause it has the must bus on it. So well, ok, I think. Is there anything else we want to add to this pod? It's kind of a kind of a quiet pod. We got the holidays coming up, not too much going on. We did sign Jerry Easter, the point guard. We mentioned that in the last episode. But Sky, is there anything that I'm forgetting, or we should be talking about? Mary Easter, the point guard, we mentioned that in the last episode, but uh, uh, sky, is there anything that I'm forgetting, or we should be talking?

Speaker 2: 21:39

about. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm too, uh, too hasty here. Maybe there's something else we're missing. You know, I I think just the most important thing this season is enjoy the ride, enjoy, take, take whatever joy out of the games you can. You know, it's a very different kind of season with a new coach, new recruiting landscape, new focus for the program, you know, new playing style. I mean, we were at this interesting place in USC basketball where we had such continuity in coaching and in players, you know, with the COVID rules that allowed players to stay. This team in this year has felt like a real shock to the system. But it kind of reminded me a little bit of last year. After all, the hope had faded. But then USC beat Arizona and I was like, well, that was a fun game, Bron is making like step-back beat Arizona and I was like well, that was a fun game.

Speaker 2: 22:37

They can like step back threes. Right, Just enjoy that, I mean. Yeah, even though the season didn't turn out, it was fun to watch and I think right now the way this team's going, just have fun. Watching Washington game was really fun.

Speaker 1: 22:46

And actually the Oregon game was fun too.

Speaker 2: 22:48

It was aside from the very end when, I just got annoyed that Shellstown. Yeah, you know, oregon game was fun too. It was Aside from the very end when I just got annoyed that Shellstack got some calls yeah, you know, I think that's a great point.

Speaker 1: 22:55

you make Sky. Ultimately, this is entertainment and we're watching a process, right, and you could zoom in close on a process and get frustrated, but you start zooming out and you see that this, this leg of the process, is part of this larger, greater process. And and you know the exciting thing is, as USC fans, we have a coach who has a great track record, and a great track record does not guarantee that he's going to be successful here at USC, but we're talking about probabilities and usually if someone has done things at a place before or at certain locations in certain circumstances, then you could generally make an educated guess that it might be also successful at a place like USC. So I think there is plenty of reason for optimism and, like you said, enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2: 23:49

I think that's great advice yeah, I, I think we've really seen the tale of two, two cities. You know, in the last two weeks we saw kind of what felt like an all-time low for usc basketball and then, honestly, a really good week, uh, right after that. And so we don't, we don't know what this season is going to bring. We don't know what this season is going to bring. We don't know what this process is going to bring, and it's it's a process.

Speaker 1: 24:17

It's not overnight, it wasn't overnight for Enfield wasn't overnight for Pete Carroll even yeah, yeah, I got a feeling it's going to be. There's going to be some amazing highs and some and some crazy lows in this season, but I think some of the highs are going to be pretty wild and think some of the highs are going to be pretty wild and even some of the lows are going to be crazy, cause it's going to take place in some some crazy arenas and just you know, we're going to be meat for some of the grinders and some of those, uh, in some of those stadiums. But that's still going to be a bit fun, cause I remember when I was the basketball SID and um and I was the year where Henry Bibby got fired into like the fourth or fifth game and he actually got fired after a win, which you know is fascinating, but Jim Sia was the interim coach, and so this, that interim coach season, it was just, you know, there is like all kinds of you know games Like we went to the Dean Dome right in North Carolina and it was just like you know, it felt like we just got smushed, you know, by like 35 points, but it was just like the experience of being in the Dean Dome was still kind of cool, and so not everyone's going to get to experience that in person, but the players will, which will be fun and you sort of you know, you get a little bit of knowledge of, over time, of the institutions. And this is important USC being part of the Big Ten for the fans to get familiar with, like watching the TV and seeing USC at you know whatever, what do they call it, what's like Indiana's I forget what their, what their field house is called, you know, or what Purdue or you know playing on these in these stadiums.

Speaker 1: 26:03

Right, it's a different, it's a different dynamic for for USC fans, and it's something that, as we get used to, we'll, we'll draw us in and we're going to, we're going to find that that we actually played pretty well against some teams, for some reason, that we wouldn't think so, and it's going to be interesting to watch. And there'll be some games where you know it's just a disaster but it's going to be crazy. We're going to be like man, I wish our crowd was like that, and so it's just going to be, like you said, part of the fun first year in the big 10. And there's something about, uh, big 10, uh, basketball arenas. Uh, I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Speaker 2: 26:41

Live from Piscataway, new Jersey. It's Trojan basketball.

Speaker 1: 26:43

I love it All right. Well, on that note, sky, I think I'm going to call it uh, like he said, everybody, enjoy the ride. I think that's going to be the name of this episode enjoy the ride. So, everyone, be sure to go to uscbasketballcom buy the MustBust shirt, because the bust is still revving up. Sky, thanks for coming on the show again and we will see everybody. The next show probably next week, but with the holidays coming up, we might just wait until this trio of games is in the books. So we'll see. We'll see what happens, alright, everybody. Bye, oh.