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
Home Stretch
Without Desmond Claude, USC gets swept on the road against Northwestern and Purdue, but his return leads to a rout over Penn State at home. Chris, Mark and Sky break down the last three games and look ahead to the key seven games coming up that could determine whether the Trojans go dancing or not. Some questions asked: Is Wesley Yates USC's best player? Can SC beat the Bruins in Pauley? What is the most likely scenario to close out the season?
The Dunk City Podcast is the podcast of record for the USC basketball community. You can find all episodes at DunkCityPod.com, USCBasketball.com or on Apple Music, Spotify and 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 back to another edition of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. Chris Houston here with Mark Backstrom and Sky Lee, and what's up, gentlemen?
Speaker 1:How's it going All good in Newport Beach? Glad to hear it.
Speaker 2:Is it ever not good in Newport Beach? Glad to hear it. Well, that's great. I mean, is it ever not good in Newport Beach?
Speaker 3:Well, we've got a half an inch of rain here, so some people are in a panic, but I'm a veteran, so sad.
Speaker 2:New Porsche Beach is doing just fine. I'm sure the Trojans are doing kind of fine. They moved to 14-10, 6-7 in conference following a 92-67 victory against Penn State on Tuesday. This follows up a heartbreaking 77-75 road loss to Northwestern the previous Tuesday day and then sort of a nothing quite going right uh loss to purdue number seven purdue in west lafayette, 90 to 72 in a game which trojans kind of hung around for a while, um, but without desmond claude who also missed the northwestern game. Sort of a tough uh road haul there.
Speaker 2:But the Trojans got clawed back for Penn State and there was some order that was restored, so to speak. The Trojans will be playing the Minnesota Gophers on Filipino Heritage Night, brought to you by Monster Energy Drink on the Big Ten Network at Galen 1 pm, and yeah, with that the Trojans can sort of get back those two road losses and even things up in the Big Ten schedule. And then the Trojans will then the following week go to Maryland and Rutgers on Thursday and Sunday Interesting Thursday-Sunday combination which I don't think we've seen this year, but more traditional. And I think these next three games are going to loom particularly large Maryland, rutgers, ohio State. I would think the Trojans probably have to win two out of three. But let's start with Mark Mark. What do you think about the status of this USC team right now, what its prospects look like to close out the season strong and get to the tournament?
Speaker 3:I, you know, I'm a little more optimistic than you. You know, I think that the Big Ten is probably the second or, at worst case, third, best conference in the NCAA and I feel pretty strongly that if we finish the regular season with a winning conference record, we're in pretty good shape to make the conference. So you know, you say that we need to win two of those three between Maryland, rutgers and Ohio State, I think. I think one keeps us in the conversation, and this is assuming assuming no trip up. And the good news is we have not seen a trip up, which is almost kind of like a patented move, once or twice a year under the prior coaching staff.
Speaker 3:We haven't just seen a dumb loss, we've seen a tough loss but not a dumb loss. So I'm confident, having Claude back makes all the difference in the world. I don't know if either of you saw this or heard this amazing metric that I think it was Don McLean or JB Long gave up in the last game about with Claude and without, basically for every hundred possessions without with him on the court. They are 11 points per hundred possessions better on offense and 10 points per possessions um better on defense. That is a huge swing and he, he, should, he seen he seemed to show no ill effects. So I'm very, very, very um optimistic and mark another part of that stat.
Speaker 1:I don't have it at my fingertips, but I believe the Trojans shoot about 5% better from three.
Speaker 3:Also, Yep, yeah, somebody on the board made the point that once he dishes, if he doesn't finish it, it just is the, it's just the um, yeah, what I want to say. It just starts really good ball movement. It's not like you know, he gets in the paint and he gets stuck. We saw one instance of that in the last game where you kind of pull the rabbit out of the hat and just went under the hoop and did some crazy kind of reverse layup. But usually he's got, he's getting a really good feel for when to kick it out and, just, you know, get to get to somebody that can initiate eventually the extra pass for wide open looks. And what we saw against Penn state, as we had said in the last pod, you know almost not. We had said in the last pod, you know Albo's not taking threes that I question. He just had a game where he was hitting those open looks that were very good at manufacturing for him.
Speaker 1:It's like we talk about right, the law of averages. I mean sooner or later there's going to be a regression to the mean. I just hope that that holds steady in terms of the team's chances. If he's able to consistently every game, at least hit a few of those, that is huge. And, by the way, claude's three-point shooting I feel like it's ticked up a little bit. This is anecdotal, but he's been hitting about one a game, I think the last several outings, so that's also really big to open things up for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's up to a respectable 33% from three-point land, which is good, you know. Just mentioning Abo and his reversion to mean he sort of seems to be a feast or famine guy. It's like seven three-pointers one night, zero three-pointers another. It'd be nice if he just kind of would get three or four every night. It would be, like you said, Sky just a big boon. Or if he can save the seven three-pointers for really good teams, so that would be really awesome.
Speaker 1:I haven't. Yeah, go ahead. Just you know. Speaking candidly, I have wondered at times, because he has had some great shooting games and then he's had others where he just couldn't really buy a bucket. Does it have to do with the level of competition? And I didn't think Penn State's defense was really bad, but there were breakdowns where he had some pretty good open looks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were times against Purdue and I think even against Northwestern, where abo would uh, you know this, his, his game is pretty kind of limited right. So it's like he usually works outside in. So if that shot, if the three pointer's not there, he gets up a few steps and kind of gets to the elbow or somewhere around there and tries to get a shot. And it seemed like he passed up a lot of shots. Maybe he just wasn't feeling it, but I think he's got to shoot those even if he's not feeling it. You've got to shoot until you feel it. You know, because he's okay at that mid-range game but he's not like money enough the way like Boogie Ellis would kind of come in there and kind of be money coming in. I think he just needs to stick beyond the arc because that's really what he's getting paid for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good point.
Speaker 2:I've got a few notes real quick. Oh sorry, go ahead, mark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just real quick while we're having the discussion, I just looked up from the Iowa game forward. Claude is hitting 40% of his threes, which is something I mean. You look what he did last season, I think it was 24, 26% on threes, and this is in conference play. That's all in conference play. That's a huge step forward.
Speaker 2:We're seeing some nice maturation of the team overall, the roles. We're kind of at this part of the season where you know what you're getting and you know what you can expect and there's really I don't think we're going to see any more surprises out of these players, both in a positive or negative way. So, like this is what we have, which is kind of encouraging because if you look at it, without Claude we didn't play so great and then when Claude came back, 92 points, you know we just really kind of became an explosive team. It's like we are. The elements of the team that we recognized from the beginning are sort of maturing at the same time, and this is a team that can score a lot of points. To that end, I've come together, I've put together a few notes from my old SID days. Not a lot of notes coming out of the SID office these days, so I thought I'd do a few of my own One.
Speaker 2:The Trojans are shooting .484 as a team, which, if the season ended today, would be the best field goal percentage for a USC basketball team. Since the 1985 squad shot .487. That was the last team to win a conference title. For the Trojans that's like a pretty interesting team stat, I think, and it reflects it's kind of remarkable because it just reflects how good these guys are. I mean, they're not getting lots of rebounds and they're not really like this incredible post team and they're not an incredible three-point shooting team, but they're shooting really well just at every other facet of the game and I'm curious to see whether that will keep going up or whether we're at kind of a temporary blip because of kind of the explosion that happened against Penn State. I do notice that a lot of times this team when they shoot well, they shoot really really well. There's been a lot of games where the team has shot over 60%
Speaker 2:this year. And then a couple of interesting individual notes Wesley Yates he has splits of 48.9%, 40.7%, three 76.5% free throws. He has a chance to be the first Trojan to surpass 48%, 40% and 75% in those three areas Since Nick Young went 52.5, 44% and 78.6% in 2006, 2007. And 78.6% in 2006, 2007. Does it seem to you guys that Wesley Yates is no longer a freshman? He's sort of arguably close to being the star of this team. I mean, it's still Desmond Claude, but he's getting darn close, isn't he?
Speaker 1:I think Claude is the straw that stirs the drink, which feels like one of our favorite metaphors here. But Yates is, kind of, he has the ability to be the alpha, especially, you saw, in that Purdue game, and Purdue, you know, one of the best teams in the nation.
Speaker 2:He was completely unafraid and they couldn't stop him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true, mark. What do you think? Yeah, boy, you took me all over the place here. A little perspective we texted about this and I never got back to this. We almost saw, at Purdue from Mr Yates, a Landry Fields game. Now, did either of you figure out what that is?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:I keep thinking of.
Speaker 2:Landry Jones, but go ahead.
Speaker 3:Okay. So amazingly, 15 years and just one day prior to the Purdue game we played. This would be in the 2010 season, the first season USC was behind the Berlin Wall of college basketball known as Kevin O'Neill. We hosted Stanford. We beat Stanford 54-49, very Kevin O'Neill kind of score. In that game, landry Fields had 27 of Stanford's 49 points the only time I've ever seen in a USC game we know like Kobe went crazy in Toronto way back when. But the only time I've seen in a USC game a player have like Kobe went crazy in Toronto way back when. But the only time I've seen in a USC game a player have more than half of his team's points Almost to the day 15 years later.
Speaker 3:We were on very much on track and I think we would have been there had Yates not been in foul trouble. I almost wanted to call him Landry Yates the second for a minute there because he was well on his way. If he didn't have that foul trouble I think he would have gotten there. But just something in your back pocket I've seen like reverse Landrys where I think like at one point Boogie actually scored more than half the other teams total. But yeah, almost had another Landry Fields there. That was just. It's something you rarely see and it's quite a feat.
Speaker 2:Well, it did happen with Harold Miner in 1992 when the Trojans played Nebraska and Lincoln. They lost 94 to 83 and Harold had 43 big points in that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good point.
Speaker 1:There was a player at Arizona State, maybe four years ago and his name is escaping me Alonzo something. He scored like 50 points and Arizona state had like 65.
Speaker 2:I remember that one yeah, um, yeah, that guy, that guy, uh, he came in, he came out of nowhere, right. He just sort of he hadn't done much and all of a sudden he had a huge game and then he sort of uh, became a decent player for a while and faded away.
Speaker 1:A couple of other stats. He transferred to Nebraska actually last year.
Speaker 2:That's right he did. Yeah, another couple stats I wanted to bring up. Drew Peterson was the only player since Eric Craven. Actually Drew Peterson and Eric Craven are the only two players to lead USC in a rebounding and assist average since 1970. I stopped counting after that because there was a point they wouldn't give assist averages after a certain point. It was only just total assists back then. And so Drew Peterson and Eric Craven and St Thomas currently leads the team in rebounding and assists. So kind of interesting that that he has a chance to join those two guys as a very esteemed company, obviously there at Craven and Drew Peterson, the great Eric Craven.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing is that Trojan opponents are shooting just 3-1-0 from three-point range 31% flat, which would be the lowest since 2007, 2008,. That the OJ Mayo team allowed just 30.7. Now this is again also like a good sign of just the steady progress that the team has shown under Musselman. Early in the year this was a problem. It's kind of been nipped in the bud as the players got used to the system, playing defense, getting to know each other. So it's really, um, you know, before we, before the season started and we assessed all the players, I think our original gut about things is kind of borne out, which is that it'll take time for everybody to gel, and but these guys sort of have the ability to uh, to do kind of some good things.
Speaker 2:You know, like there's a lot of we were worrying a lot early on about like, could we guard fast guards, you know? Do we have the speed? Is there lateral quickness? Do we have the shooting, you know, is there the size for rebounding? And all those things have kind of gone away, I think. And I think we are now at the point where we're just going into a game and the question is just whether you know whether we're going to win or not, like whether we're going to go out there, shoot well enough, defend well enough, like we have the ability to beat any team, like even with those, even with those, those weaknesses, right, which, which are just there, those weaknesses, right, which, which are just there. But what we've been able to do, what Muslim has been able to do, is prevent other teams from exploiting those weaknesses.
Speaker 2:And and once you do that, and then you have these strengths, it's like can they, can they, um, stop us? Can they exploit USC's weaknesses? Can we exploit their weaknesses? And right now we're doing a better job, for the most part, of exploiting other teams' weaknesses than they are of us.
Speaker 3:Mark, you know you kind of hit on almost kind of you know kind of wove together a couple points I wanted to make here. I think that the high field goal percentage, it's not like we're an awesome shooting team. I think that we run really good defense, a really good offense, and we're really smart in shot selection. Um, and remember, before the season, one of the things that came up was must said he wanted to do his 200 passes per game. I I would think that we're probably not there, but to what I was mentioning earlier, I think that that initial drive of claude almost serves like two passes of kind of like setting up the defense for an eventual good look. And again, this is not an awesome shooting team, but they know how to, basically, you know identify what is a good shot. I don't see I got to say this is, this is the least frequent rate of God. What was he thinking there in terms of shot selection in a long, long, long time in this program?
Speaker 1:Yep, that's a great point, mark, and I think that really speaks to Muscle's coaching, not only his coaching, necessarily, but his personality and his emphasis. You know, I think I wrote about this at the time when I went to that first open scrimmage by the team before the season and he, like, stopped the scrimmage cold and started screaming at one of the players, said you got to stop taking shitty shots. If you're on the bench this season you'll know why. And that was the only time I ever saw like his real fiery personality. But I didn't. It wasn't offensive At offensive at least. You know he wasn't saying it to me. So this is coming from me, but but I think he he said it to actually help that player. You know he didn't make it personal. He didn't say you always do this, why? What's your problem? You know, and those kind of messages, those little things that I've seen other stuff in practices, in footage and in person. He sprinkles them throughout, but he really just hammers them home when he actually says them and the team is doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also there are ways to produce. It's kind of like you know, when you look at something and there's like the positive, you look at a uh, you know, glass half empty glass, uh, half full, kind of situation where, uh, you know, sometimes when usc struggles on offense, you'll see people um say things like oh, uh, you know, our offense isn't looking good or we don't have good plays, or um, you know, guys are, you know, too much hero ball. But the, what I think usc has done, or I think muslim has done, has been able to to instill in this team, is that kind of like looking at like buscar and and bp um 100, like the efficiency, like the, the focus on efficiency, because if you can, you know, if you can, like you said, there's not a lot of bad shots being taken. So if you, let's say, if you take fewer bad shots and if you don't commit a lot of turnovers and if you just make like one extra pass um and you know, if you do that like a certain percentage of the time, like over the course of a sample size, you're going to have like good production or at least production. That is not like you know, you don't want to be too mercurial as a team, right, you want to have some kind of baseline.
Speaker 2:It's created a baseline level of offense for the team and then what it does is, once you have that baseline, then it either like jumps above the baseline, depending on how good a game like player X, y or Z might have, or might dip below depending on how bad a game they might have.
Speaker 2:But you're still going to get that baseline of. You know you're not seeing like this, this break, like even team games we lose. You're generally not seeing extended periods of breakdown in that kind of discipline. And if you can maintain that discipline over the entire course of a game or most of the game, like if you can limit it to just a few times when, when you know you, you, the other team, gets a small run, then you're going to be in pretty good situations, especially if you can hold off enough until one or more of your players can get hot. And you see that a lot. It's almost like eventually Wesley Yates gets going at some point, or eventually Desmond Claude gets going at some point. So I think that is like a sneaky way that they've been able to make up for some of these flaws in the roster Mark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think a big part of that too is that you're not you know the good news is the bad news, or the bad news is a good news, is that you know we're not a heavily reliant three-point shooting team and it helps so much that you know your most productive guy is a guy whose strength is getting to the paint and as long as he can avoid the turnovers which you know, you take the good with the bad.
Speaker 3:That really helps in in in stemming a run Um, and you know these, we don't, these long offensive droughts, we just don't see them. That was one of the best things about those Tim Floyd teams is like they ran good offense and they, they knew what to do. Um, even without a bench, really for the most part. But that just makes such a big difference. Um, when basically the team just has a good concept of a good shot versus a bad shot, you're just, you're going to stem those huge runs um, setting aside purdue, which we can get, you know I don't want to relive that too much, but there's an interesting little little tail net we can get to later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, even with Purdue without Claude, you know, like Sky says, he's the straw that stirs the drink there was even things that came out of the Purdue game that were beneficial, like getting the freshmen and young guys we don't get embarrassed. I think they fulfilled that assignment, which is we didn't lose by 30. We didn't lose by over 20. We kept it to 18. For much of the game it was like hovering between 10 and 12, 14, which is certainly as long before. I think it wasn't until we got under eight minutes that maybe things got out of hand a bit. Until we got under eight minutes that maybe things got out of, you know, out of hand a bit, but without Desmond Claude and with basically just a bunch of guys in foul trouble because, you know, purdue the refs there were really, you know, making sure that Purdue was not going to be threatened. I thought that, you know, even that game had some positives coming out of there.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. You see Jalen Shelley come in against Penn State and play really well and he would not have gotten those minutes, I think, if not for that Purdue game.
Speaker 2:Great point. Great point. He really needed that boost of confidence and playing time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think basically to build around the. There's an interesting little kind of arc here in the Purdue thing that goes back to Claude being out. It was so frustrating to see Clark Slackert have an awesome game against Northwestern and still lose that At the same time. Northwestern was without their best player too, so you can only complain so much.
Speaker 3:But I kind of go to the backup quarterback theory and what we saw on that road trip is like we didn't know that. You know slacker was going to start. He has this just amazing game from out of nowhere and then what do you see? And that's like, when the backup quarterback comes in, nobody's scattered him. Oh my gosh, he throws for 300 yards. Then what you get? One week of of film. And boy you could just you could see this coming a mile away. Okay, literally, by my metrics, the best defensive team in the big 10 has has a game to scout this guy and not a slight on him. But boy, that went south real, real quick that's a good point.
Speaker 1:Um, another point that comes to my mind when you say that is I've noticed this with slacker and also even to a degree with Claude. I feel like Slackert is almost better when he's not thinking. He's throwing up some shots in late clock situations and they go in almost miraculously. I think there's probably been a lot of pressure on him coming home to Los Angeles stepping up a level in competition, playing a new position to Los Angeles, stepping up a level in competition, playing a new position and when he is actually not thinking about trying to do the right thing, when he's not wide open, his instincts are what he's practiced for all these years and with Claude I know he's put in work on his three-point shot. I mean he knows that that is the main factor for him moving forward and playing professionally and he has made so many buzzer-beating threes this season to beat the half or just to beat the shot clock. He makes more of those than he makes when he's open probably.
Speaker 2:So I think it's the same situation of handling pressure and kind of managing what you're telling yourself to do yeah, I think what you see with slackard is, uh, him being better in transition, being better in the in the flow of the game, versus being better and like sort of like really strict half court sets trying to run the offense, that kind of thing. He seems to be better, uh, off the ball or just, you know, with with everything broken down, um, but it but it is again. Uh, you have to consider even though that was a road trip, um, that was a sweep, uh, the other way, you have to consider it um, the factor that that kind of activating uh, clark slacker, you know, whatever they do like at the end of a, like in those sci-fi movies, when everyone's like sleeping so they can get to the other star system, and they got to like wake everybody, wake everybody up from the, from the slumber and the Clark Slacker it's been kind of sleeping and they kind of woke him up and he, you know he's ready to go. He had, so it's kind of nice to you know, like he's got the confidence he knows he can play at this level. The rest of the team knows he can play.
Speaker 2:I mean that three-pointer at the end against Northwestern, the four-point play was just, you know, there's very few times watching USC, just all my years as an SID, all the cheering most of the cheering has been squeezed out of me because there's no cheering as an SID, but there's very few times that I bounce out of my chair and when he made that I really bounced out of my chair, almost dropped the baby, but yeah, it was pretty amazing stuff. So Clark Slacker, jalen Shelley, isaiah Elohim, wesley Yates four guys who aren't't necessarily the, the, the veterans of the team as far as and the main guys, but are, but they, um, really came up big in that road yeah, one other thing about yates um.
Speaker 3:you know I I'm not I haven't didn't see if you've posted the updated metrics yet but if you look at our four perimeter starters claude, thomas, yates, the third, and abo um, it's the freshman who's actually the most efficient, has the highest bpo of that group and that's basically a comparison to a very experienced junior and two seniors, which is unreal. And you might remember like I I cited a lot of these rocky games he had when he had some super low bpos and I said I'm great with that because basically we're getting the bad mileage behind us and you're seeing that You're not seeing. He'll probably have some more freshman moments, which is fine, but he got through a lot of that turbulence already.
Speaker 2:Scott, I wanted to ask you do you think that we've talked a lot about his shooting motion? We talked about that earlier this season, about just kind of how unorthodox it is the paper football thing. But sometimes I wonder if as a defender that kind of thing you're expecting the ball to come from a certain spot and it's coming from a different spot. I wonder if that's maybe an advantage for Mr Yates.
Speaker 1:It could be, and it also could be that teams are not expecting him to pull that trigger because he doesn't really load up, you know, he kind of just hoists it up. I don't want to say that his shooting motion is merely hoisting but, like if you look at, for instance, claude's or Agee's shooting motions, you can tell when they're really squaring and shooting. He can just kind of uh, pull the trigger and actually don mcclain who, by the way, despite being a bruin, I think he is a fantastic announcer.
Speaker 1:I love it every time he's on the game and he was, maybe even because of being a bruin yeah, maybe, maybe he, he, he was really breaking down Yates' shot motion and to this point what he said is that Yates brings the ball out a little bit, but then he aligns his forearm and so he says actually, when he gets that forearm aligned before his release, that's the most important part and that motion actually may be totally fine for him. To your point, chris, that could mean that, depending on where he's oriented on the court and where he catches the ball, he can still align his shot without getting his feet totally set and squaring both shoulders completely to the basket.
Speaker 1:So it might make it more dangerous for facing a defender who's not anticipating that.
Speaker 2:That's a great point.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like they say that if you're a coach and he's Yates kind of, puts up kind of shots that look crazy because of that motion, where your coach is saying yes, yes, yes or no, no, no, yes, yes, yes, and the other team is saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yet or no, no, no, yes, yes, yes, and the other team is saying yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, um, but uh, it's just the his ability to get that shot off despite it.
Speaker 2:Also, you know, it's also in front of him a little bit, right, yeah, like the shot isn't above him, it's like in front of him. And you know, um, I don't know if, just if teams can't like, maybe, like in front of him, and you know, I don't know if teams can't like maybe in the heat of the moment, you can't really remember that scout which is like keep your hands low instead of high or something I don't know. It's weird. And the fact that he is kind of coming in from a different elevation point, different release point, also probably helps getting him to draw fouls and get to the line. That's true, he also has quickness.
Speaker 1:You know, he can get separation and he's a huge driving threat. I mean, he broke his nose maybe, or at least he was very bloodied last game and that did not slow him down whatsoever getting to the lane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's just a big, strong kid who seems mentally resilient and seems very confident and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can put together next year. Even though he's pretty good, he's like a sloppy ball handler at times, but he's got ability as a ball handler. I think if he can work on his handles to the point where he really can give you some good minutes at point in a pinch or run the offense in a pinch, then I think the sky's the limit for this guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I think they're kind of trying to give him some looks this year at points, and next year he's going to be more versatile at that.
Speaker 2:Certainly an insurance policy if Desmond gets hurt or if he decides to go somewhere else after this year. But USC does have some really good players coming in. We talked about Jerry Easter and Elijah Arenas coming next year and also LZ Harrington, so lots of guards for sure. There's going to be lots of good guards on next year's team, hopefully Claude and Yates, you got the three young guys who are kind of guard wings and you got Shelly and Elohim and then from that point it's just building out that front court to replace guys like Rashawn Agee and Josh Cohen, who probably had this best game in a while against Penn State. What do you guys think about Josh Cohen against Penn State?
Speaker 1:You know Cohen has the ability sometimes to just kind of be in the right place at the right time on offense, like earlier in the season he was really working in the low post and displaying some moves there which were pretty impressive. It has kind of felt like those moves are harder for him to utilize against the bigger players he's been facing in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2:But he's kind of unlocked. He hasn't been comfortable in a while.
Speaker 1:No, he hasn't, and he's most effective when he's literally just kind of anticipating what's going on. He's gotten a lot of like deflections that bounce his way and he puts it right up. Or an offensive rebound that comes to him and he puts it right up, or an offensive rebound that comes to him and he puts it right back up and you know we used to look at some of the big men in the past few years and say why are you putting on the floor every time?
Speaker 1:why are you loading up and gathering every time you're going to dunk it? He doesn't do that, he just puts it straight up, and and so his shooting style has been very effective in that capacity.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:I think Penn State's a really good matchup for him in that, unless you're just an elite defense, you're either.
Speaker 3:If you're good but not elite defense, you're either very good at like forcing bad shots and a low field goal percentage or turning the other team over a lot, and Penn State's strength was turning the other team over a lot and Penn State's strength was turning the other team over a lot. I mean they, they forced Claude into eight turnovers, which is, I mean, even for you know, guys, to learn, the position is really high. When you do that, you're taking more chances and that just that opened up. That opens up a lot, and it's not like they have an awesome rim protector on the inside for Penn State. So I think that this might have been, um, you know the pinnacle matchup now, I don't know X's and O's from Minnesota, but, um, this might have been, you know, the pinnacle matchup. Now, I don't know X's and O's for Minnesota, but this might have been probably the most favorable matchup that we would see in conference for Josh Cohen, just based on the opponent's scheme and abilities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're going to have to be a little bit more on our game against Minnesota, but I think if we get good solid games out of Claude and Yates and Thomas and Albo pretty much all the players if they just play solidly, I think we're going to take this one. What we can't have is just an overall team collapse, like was had against St Mary's, for example.
Speaker 1:Just a minor point about what you said, mark, to give USC credit in one capacity, I think Penn State actually has maybe the block's leader in the conference or, if not, second best, do they? Yeah, conan Niederhauser. But to also give credence to what you said, he was coming back from injury and he was really kind of seemed out of sorts. So you can, depending on how you want to manipulate your data, you can support either point there.
Speaker 2:Well, he sounds like a character from Animal House, so he's got to be pretty good.
Speaker 3:He was the more likable one. He wasn't in ROTC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was. I think he was from the other, the rival fraternity, you know. Yeah, yeah. Tenenbaum dead, Dieter Hauser dead.
Speaker 3:I think Penn State also has the leader in steals per game in conferences as well. Yeah, that's what they said.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:One thing I've noticed, mark your um, with your latest uh buck metrics rankings, is that some of the bad numbers that were particularly bad for a lot of these young guys have suddenly ticked up quite a bit. Uh, jalen Shelley's getting closer to 50. Isaiah Elohim is 51.2 for BPO 100. Uh, the boost scars are almost all positive, except for Harry Hornary, who really doesn't get a whole lot of chance to do it. So things are starting to look a little positive in that regard, which a lot of those guys like Shelley and Elohim and Pope were in the negative for a while. Clark Slacker was in the negative for a while and he's up at 10.3 on the Booskar.
Speaker 3:So you're seeing this overall like the numbers are reflecting what we're seeing on the court and the breadth too. You know those four perimeter guys. I'm just giving you their BPO 100s real quick 52.0, 51.3, 53.9, and 52.1. That I mean we had like one, sometimes two guys in that range last year and we have four perimeter guys that can do that. You know different styles of play too, and I think that goes back to why we don't have these long stretches of just you know offensive droughts. You've got just you know a reflection of the good shot, selection and taking care of the ball.
Speaker 3:It's just, you've got this. This breadth of competence Plus, I was guessing, is how I would characterize it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So, mark and Sky, do you think that Northwestern game, the way we lost the game, we'll come back to bite the Trojans in the end?
Speaker 1:I hope not. You know it. It kind of depends on the record. It was actually during that Northwestern game that they showed a very pertinent stat, which was no team that has won six quad one games has ever missed the NCAA tournament. The NCAA tournament. Usc has three quad one wins. That would have been a quad one game. They lost and so they have, I think, six, seven more chances.
Speaker 2:Seven more chances. Is Minnesota a quad one?
Speaker 3:I don't think so. I can't imagine home they will be. Well, you got. Maryland, Maryland's a quad one obviously Maryland and Rutgers are both quad ones Ohio State, oregon and UCS five, right, so there's five.
Speaker 1:So maybe that was counting Purdue and Northwestern Got it. It was what? Seven or something, right, yeah, anyways, okay, so they have five games now, I guess, to get three quad one wins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the one thing I would kind of. I mean it was a frustrating game, I think with Northwestern's best player out. I think at the end of the season that would not have won a. That settles more as a quad two game. I just don't think that Northwestern stays as a quad one home court team, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point, Really good point. So I want to do is because because it's really just to me, the question is how is this team going to close out? And there are seven regular season games, of which three are at home. Uh, there's a fourth in paulie pavilion and I I think, given how well this team generally plays on the road, playing at UCLA, there's no real home advantage for UCLA, considering it's in LA. So to me that's almost like a neutral court in a sense. So I don't think like I'm not looking at that game and saying, oh, usc is going to lose because it's at Poly. They might lose for other reasons, but I don't think it will.
Speaker 2:I'm not looking at that game and saying, oh, usc is going to lose because it's at Poly. They might lose for other reasons, but I don't think it will be because it's at Poly, because certainly playing at home hasn't really necessarily been a boon. But so I want to go through these remaining games and that's really kind of to readjust our preseason predictions. Originally we were 5-15 in conference. If we beat Minnesota, we're at 7-7, so doing pretty well there, although it's funny because after losing we were 5-5 and then lost to those two. So there was certainly a possibility of a collapse, but the Trojans at this point it looks like they're just going to keep getting better. So is Minnesota a win?
Speaker 3:Just note. I'm writing these down now, okay.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's not enough that we recorded it, you've got to write it down too. I think Minnesota is a win. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think know.
Speaker 3:Yes, you got to write it down too, I think.
Speaker 2:Minnesota's a win, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. Okay Now at Maryland.
Speaker 1:So I feel like sweeping that road trip is not very likely. But somehow when I look at those two matchups I say I think USC is going to beat them both. So I'm just going to throw caution to the wind. They beat Maryland, Wow.
Speaker 2:According to my previous kind of thing. I figured out that first game against the you know this is the furthest, this is our longest trip of the season and that first, you know, the first game will be played a day after the Trojans arrive in Maryland. So they're going to leave on a Wednesday night, They'll stay, and then there's a 8.30 pm game. So at least it is a late game, but they are going to be jet lagged. They're going to be jet lagged. They're going to feel the effect of that. Maryland is a tough place to play. They're a good team. I think that's a game that we're just going to probably come out pretty flat. I'd be surprised if we didn't. So I think we lose that game. To probably come out pretty flat, I'd be surprised if we didn't. So I think we lose that game. But having at that point, you know, some of Wednesday, all of Thursday, all of Friday, all of Saturday to rest, I think we come out and really handle Rutgers pretty well. What do you guys think about Rutgers?
Speaker 1:I think that's definitely a win Well we didn't get Mark's prediction.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, Sorry about that, mark.
Speaker 3:That's okay. That's okay. You know what? Let's do a snake draft here. I'll take the first one on the way back here. I have Maryland as about the best defensive team outside of Purdue in conference On the road. I don't like our chances there, so I can't see that as a win. I'm going't see that as as a win. I'm gonna put that as a loss. Okay, um, now rutgers. I have them in my big 10 rankings, um, ahead of just two teams washington and he said with great glee in his voice, oregon, um, so really inefficient on offense and not a great defensive team either. So I'm definitely counting records as as a, as a W. I know they've got some, you know, some individual talent, but they're just not putting it together as a team.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're looking at two and one over the next three. Sky thinks three and O, and that would be great. But if they do go two and one, we're now looking at 16 and 11, and what is that? 8-8? That would be yes. So going into Ohio State Galen Center.
Speaker 3:Sky did you say two wins. You said we sweep the road.
Speaker 1:I said sweep, yeah, yeah, this is why I write this down. But, the consensus was against me.
Speaker 2:Right, I will say that this is the last real road trip of the year, and it seems like this team has it at them to sweep a road trip at some point, and if they're going to do it, this is it. So, sky, that may be the premonition, but this all leads up to what will probably be the most hyped home game for the rest of the year, which is versus Ohio State. On February 26th, 7.30 pm, hoops and Heroes night, and that will be coming on the heels of that Rutgers game. On Sunday night the Trojans will play at 6 pm. They should finish at 8 pm Sunday night, which means that they should actually get home Sunday night at a pretty decent hour and be able to get a couple nights of good rest and then play the Buckeyes. That's going to be a bit of a challenge. What do you guys think of playing the Buckeyes with the second-to-last home game of the year I just have?
Speaker 1:a gut feeling. That's going to be a loss Really yeah.
Speaker 3:I've got these teams evenly matched Basically, whatever you want to add for home court, I think that we're a little bit better. Here's why I like USC. I have Ohio State is super lopsided, really good defensive team but absolutely just abhorrent on offense. You know, just think back to about 15 years ago and the prior coach that I had mentioned. Um, they, just from a metric standpoint, they feel like one of those. Um, I like our balance and I think that at home we can basically break down that offense enough. Um, so I'm gonna I'm gonna say that's a w all right um very convincing.
Speaker 2:What about Chris? Yeah, I mean for the reasons Mark pretty much says. I like this game because I think we're getting down to the crunch point. I think, if USC is healthy, which is potentially a big if, but I think if Desmond Claude is healthy, if our main guys are healthy, I think also like Ohio State's a name game and I think we might get a good crowd for that one, even though it's a Wednesday, so it might be a decent crowd. It's a 7.30pm game. So and you know, everyone knows what's at stake At this point if the Trojans are Sitting at 8 and 8, or 8 and 7, 8 and 8 and 16 and 11, or whatever it would be, every game is a must-win at that point, or at least the crowds will see it as that.
Speaker 2:So no, I think this might be. Here's the thing there's going to be a game where the crowd falls in love with this team, and maybe it was Michigan State where they kind of fell in love with them, or maybe it was Iowa, because that was a fun game. But if it hasn't happened yet, then Ohio State might be that chance, because you've got a lot of students are back, having been gone for a stretch of the season with the December games and early January, and it's kind of fun beating Ohio State, just kind of a name brand to a lot of people, even if people don't necessarily know whether it's good in basketball or not for those USC fans. So I think people will come out for that and I think there's a good chance for this program to sort of sort of like solidify its connection, uh, with the fan base. What do you think?
Speaker 1:there, I believe, is some kind of alumni promotion kind of like a homecoming, like basketball homecoming for that game. Hopefully it brings out some fans yeah, that's um, that is.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's called heroes and hoops night. Heroes and hoops night children's hospital, los angeles. Okay, so sky is the.
Speaker 3:Did you and you predicted that one mark, you did right I did, yeah, you and I have that as a win in sky, sky pooped in the punch bowl.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm being contrarian here. I think there's going to be the road sweep and then mixing it up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Taking on my role of being the contrarian. Okay, now this next game March 1st, saturday, 1 pm at Oregon. Game March 1st, saturday, 1 pm at Oregon, if I may. I think you know I think the Trojans were not nearly as good in December as they are now and they still almost handled I think you know handled Oregon for much of the game. I think this team really wants to go up there and beat Oregon. I think they are going to beat Oregon up there, I agree.
Speaker 3:I have even less hesitance in the two of you, um. In the last four games um Oregon's their defensive grade Now 100 would be you played average against an average offense. If your defensive grade is above that, you're playing worse against an average offense. Their last four games against washington wow, not even a murderers over here washington, minnesota, ucla and nebraska. Here's our defensive grade uh game grades 117, 118, 122 and 110. I don't know what happened, but this team, just they. This is like defense.
Speaker 3:This is like basic stuff that they're not executing. So I'm going to say I'm confident in a win at Eugene, which is a weird thing to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that bodes well for SC, because when they have played some of these poor defensive teams, they've been able to really take advantage. How about?
Speaker 3:this. How about this? I'm going to say somebody gets. I don't know who could be Yates, could be Claude, could be mystery, mystery, tiny guard off the bench, but somebody is going to get 30 points in this game for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it'll probably be Claude, he's going to take a. There's a little little guy, little guy. Counterpart to the to the.
Speaker 3:Shelstead, shelstead, shelstead, behind the shed Taking me out behind the shed, taking him behind the shed.
Speaker 2:Just a little bit of revenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Claude was effective in the last Oregon game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so okay. So we all agree that's a win. So that would put that would give the Trojans what One, two, three, four of the games four more wins that we predicted they would need. That would be the three more that they would need, right With the Oregon. So I think we can all agree that Washington at home is probably going to be a win. I don't think we need to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, usc has not lost to any since Cal, which was very early in the schedule and they were still figuring a ton out. Since that game they haven't won. I mean they haven't lost to any of the kind of bad to mediocre teams.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even Cal at that time was playing pretty decently. Like they they've fallen off, but they were playing and they have talent. You know what I mean. They have some good players on the team. You know what I mean. They have some good players on the team. You know um. So you know that game against washington state is also fan appreciation night so senior night yeah yeah, fan appreciation night. So our fan is I want. What is our fan going to be given?
Speaker 3:is. Are you talking like singular? Are you going like Arsenal? It's referred to as singular but it's really everybody.
Speaker 2:What is Matt B going to get?
Speaker 3:Matt B has his own message board.
Speaker 2:That's what he gets, I know we got to bring him on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Shout out, matt that's a great off season kind of, when we need to, like you know, spice things up a little bit.
Speaker 2:I have to apologize. I haven't been on the board too much lately just because of just being busy with life. But, man, thanks to Matt and some other people out there for keeping things alive Really appreciate that, okay, so the consensus here amongst the hosts at the Dunk City podcast is that the Trojans will have 16, 17, 18, 19, will be record to 11-8 going into that UCLA game and overall record would be 19-11. So will the Trojans win that game? Will they even really need to win that game at that point?
Speaker 1:Well, that would get us to the six quad one wins. Right, if it was Rutgers, ohio State and Oregon, that's six quad one wins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Trojans are already there at that point.
Speaker 1:So in theory, no, they do not. But with USC's history of being snubbed by the tournament, you don't want to leave any room for error.
Speaker 2:That's true, although there is still some games to be played in the Big Ten tournament.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but USC. I mean I'm guessing they might get a single bye. So their first game will be against one of these kind of mediocre teams, I don't know maybe like an Iowa or something which is not a guaranteed win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mark, what do you, what say you?
Speaker 3:Well, a couple of things on that. First of all, absolutely vital to get that first buy to avoid Peacock, which I know everybody loves. That is the first round, exclusive broadcaster of the first round. The other thing if we're 11 and9 at the end of the regular season, even if we lose that first round game, we would still have a winning record in Big Ten games. Not that you want that, but I think that just goes a long, long, long way.
Speaker 2:And if the Trojans beat the Bruins they will be 12. I mean, if they beat the Bruins and the other things that we predicted come to pass, then we're looking at a team that is 20 and 11 and 12 and eight in year one going into the Big Ten tournament, which is pretty darn good for year one in the Big Ten. Given the circumstances that the program found itself in, is that too much to hope for? What do you think the chances are of going? 12 and 8? Give me a number.
Speaker 3:Let's, let's hold on, are are we, are we circumventing the actual getting on the record for wins and losses for each of us here?
Speaker 1:for ucla. Yeah, let's talk ucla, okay. I'm just gonna say when? Uh, honestly, I feel like it's a total toss-up. I feel like it's a 50-50 game. But if I say that UCLA won the last game, so that would mean if it's 50-50, usc should win this game.
Speaker 2:Right In theory.
Speaker 3:Chris.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think this is just the kind of game, uh, that usc wins, uh, after you know, like I don't know if they're going to lose a game that they should have won. But I think there's a chance that maybe the trojans don't play that well against washington for whatever reason still in the game, and there's sort of this sense that they're gonna not do well against ucla. Then they'll come out and do really well because this team is is sort of like I mean, they're great on the road. They're going to not do well against UCLA, then they'll come out and do really well because this team is is sort of like I mean, they're great on the road, they're very resilient.
Speaker 2:They've got a lot of interesting pride about them in a way. You know, it's not school pride, although there's a little bit of that there. It's growing a little bit because you know everyone buys in, but there's some other pride working on with these guys. That just it gives a level of. There's a level of toughness and camaraderie there that I don't think that this Bruin team that has a lot of transfers quite has. And yeah, and also, we're going to beat Kobe Johnson before he leaves the building, so that's a win.
Speaker 3:I think UCLA's just figured it out on defense, so I don't think we score as well as we did at Galen. So I have this as a loss.
Speaker 2:All right, so we're looking at either. So actually, sky has USC. Usually you have USC at 20 and 11, regardless because of the sweep on the road right Are you have USC going? But I have USC losing to Ohio State Right, so that's 6-1 to close out.
Speaker 3:Yes, is that what you have? You guys both have USC going 6-1. Okay, and Mark, you have also 6-1, usc going six and one.
Speaker 2:Okay, and Mark and you have also six and two. Oh, five and two.
Speaker 3:UCLA and Maryland and UCLA yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Mark has 19 and 12. And is that 10 and 10? No, that would be 11 and nine. 11 and nine yeah, 11 and nine. 11 and 9, 11 and 9 yeah, 11 and 9. And me and sky have sc 2011 and um 12 and 8. So, that said, let's just look at the range of outcomes. And this is this is the last little fun game. Oh, we got it. Do we have to go to your? Uh?
Speaker 3:my roster. What if your roster? What if?
Speaker 2:let me just do this real quick and I do a Lightning round. Okay, range of there's range of Possibilities, seven games left. Usc can go Be anywhere, anywhere from 21 and 10 To 14 and 17. Okay, what are? What are your? We're going to go Around in motion. What are your odds that USC finishes 21 and 10 Sweeps the rest of the?
Speaker 1:year. Uh, no, what are these are we talking about? Like a percentage?
Speaker 2:yeah, give me a percentage.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that they go. What is?
Speaker 3:this score 20, 21 and 10 when the rest, let's say seven 70 percent wow, 70 percent that they go undefeated, that's pretty good wait, numbers are not my thing, guys I'm taking a math class in junior year high school all
Speaker 2:right, fair enough you guys go first I will say three percent I was gonna say about 10 percent and I might even say. I might even say 20%, given that I already have them going, six and one, wow, I would say between 10% and 20% chance. I'll say 20%, okay, okay, what are the chances? Usd goes six and one.
Speaker 3:All right, I'll go. Yeah, that's what I thought the last question was Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, 65%, 65%, 65%, okay Mark.
Speaker 2:I'd say 30% Okay, I'm going to say 50% Okay, and what's the chances the USC goes five and two Sky 75%.
Speaker 3:You're optimistic, your totals are over 100. I know you want the team to get. I'm an artist man that's okay, mark yeah, uh, I'd Okay I kind of live up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say like 40%. So the 80% distribution would be like 5-2, 6-1. Yeah, Right, and then the 10% would be like the 7-0. And then anything worse than five and two or three could be, I guess, like 8%, you know kind of thing. So, all right, All right, let's. That's enough on that, let's, let's go to. Let's go to bring us back Mark has a, Mark has a. A. A alternate history question. Yeah, um, a uh uh uh. Alternate history question. Yeah, I believe it's.
Speaker 3:It's a roster. What if? In two parts. So I want you to think about the team that that that was um, or the roster that this team had at the end of last season, um, and I want you to think of all the players on this roster today. Don't name whom, but if you could switch out one player, one scholarship player on this roster, and say you know what, I want to keep player X from last year's roster, aside from Harrison Hornry, number one, would you make that switch and who would you keep from last year's team? Don't say who you're switching out. The purpose is not to poop on anybody, but who would you? If you want to make this trade? You could. You could just say I want to keep player X from last year, and you know we can just, we can just drop one of our current scholarship players. Do you want to do that? And who would you want to have kept from last year?
Speaker 3:I've got one specific player that I was thinking of in this exercise.
Speaker 1:Okay, instantly my mind goes to Josh Morgan, and I know that he was kind of a feast or famine guy. He had a few great games and he was frustrating to fans at times, but he was undeniably a great rim protector and that's kind of the one thing this team doesn't have. So I'd say him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to. I said the exact same thing. I think, like exactly what Sky said, just having, you know, having that extra shop, having the shop locker there, to to just funnel that, funnel guys in that defense. And you know, josh Morgan wasn't a great rebounder he only averaged just under four rebounds per game, but St Thomas is USC's leading rebounder at six. So this is it's not like, this is he might have actually helped the team with rebounding right, Because he wasn't. He might be, you know, being as like a volume being on a volume rebounding team versus a team that has just a few guys who dominate's probably something you know morgan's better at, and so he might have, uh, become more effective at that.
Speaker 3:so I think, yeah, josh morgan would be the guy in in the same spirit, I actually went with uh vinci wachukwu, uh, not as much of a rim protector, I think with some coaching up from I think he has a higher ceiling. He's just more skilled and I think he's a better fit for this, this system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought about that too.
Speaker 3:Yes. So that's part one. Now here's where it gets interesting. Part two Now think about how that would happen. To make that happen, you would have basically have would have had one less scholarship to give, which means you would not have Wesley Yates on this team right now. Would you do that trade knowing that you could have the rim protection and somewhat rebounding, but you would have to forego what we have in Wesley Yates.
Speaker 2:Was he the last guy we brought in? He was, it wasn't Patton. Oh yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:Patton, I think. And, by the way, one of those guys is not on, someone on this roster is not on scholarship. They're over the limit. So someone just has some kind of an NIL sponsorship to get them through everything. But okay, to go through the intent of your exercise, I wouldn't make that trip.
Speaker 3:Is it that easy?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't either. Actually, because if it was Patton, or obviously Yates, I would for sure no, for sure, no. But if it was Patton, I probably still wouldn't. And here's why, Really Well, I mean, like I'm, I'm looking more at like, well, let's, let's assume that Patton is coming back to USC next year.
Speaker 2:I would rather have like three years of Patton and sort of the potential he represents than like one year of Morgan in a year when, let's face it, let's, even if this team makes the NCAA tournament, it's probably not gonna. I'd be surprised if they make a run, it's, it's not going to make a huge difference in the long-term trajectory of the program. I think if you were actually just being completely just Machiavellian about it, you, you would. You would just look at it as like, yeah, if, if morgan's on this team, how deep do we go? Probably not deep, but if Patton develops into a player, how far can we go? And it's probably pretty far. So I would be more inclined to take a flyer on Patton developing than on Morgan helping us that much this year.
Speaker 3:Interesting. I think I would probably go with Vince over Patton, since there's more time there too to kind of grow into it as well. That's a good point.
Speaker 2:Healthy Vince yeah, but if it's if it's the. Vince that that is hurt every five, every three games and you know. And then some games looks amazing and some, you know, I don't know, I just who knows? He was hurt, he's hurt this year, right, he's not playing for Baylor.
Speaker 3:Oh is he? He's been.
Speaker 1:He has some stats, but he's not playing a lot, but um to Johnny, has been out the whole season, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. He has a. He has a heart issue, right? I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1:It was Last I checked it had not been publicly available but he had some kind of medical issue.
Speaker 2:Huh, so that's funny. So Vince is on St John's For some reason I thought he was. For some reason I thought why did I think he was at Baylor?
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't know, because Johnny's at Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2:I think it was because they wanted to. They recruited him out of high school, so I think I thought it was. Oh yeah, so Vince is averaging 7.5 minutes, 2.7 points, you know. So he's not, he's not playing much, he's basically the backup big or the third big. So yeah, I don't know, I don't know if vince would have uh, it's like, vince, you know, it's like with the style of play usc plays because it doesn't have size, you either kind of have to go all in on it or not at all. Like you know what I mean. It's like if USC had had a proper big, maybe, then we then try to be more big-oriented and then we're only marginally better in that regard but not as proficient as a team that has size everywhere else, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1:It does. And another point regarding Vince from my recollection he wasn't always sharp on team defense and that is super important for this year's team the rotations Whereas Morgan was, like pretty good at drop coverage and knowing where to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Well, that's a pretty good uh counterfactual question, uh mark good on you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, amazing what comes to mind on on friday night games and all that's involved with that all right, well, um, if there's anything else.
Speaker 1:If there's not anything else to add, I guess we can call this uh, do we want to do a little preview of Minnesota, briefly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mark, what does your numbers show for the Gophers?
Speaker 3:Yeah, not a great team, Really struggled defensively too. Just about as bad as Oregon, a lot more pep on the offensive side of the ball, but definitely a team that we should beat. You know, it just strikes me as not just a must win, but basically, you know, just don't screw up and we should win. Avoid. I guess the one thing I would say is you know, we avoid playing dumb for long periods of time. Avoid the foul trouble. The foul trouble seems to be kind of the gateway to bad things for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Sky. What is your thoughts on Minnesota?
Speaker 1:So Minnesota when the conference season started they just were assumed to be the worst team in the league. The losses were piling up. But then they beat Michigan, iowa and Iowa and Oregon and they were looking a lot better than they've kind of lost the last three out of four. I think the main player of note there is Dawson Garcia, who is a big guy. He can shoot the three. He rebounds pretty well. You know he's going to be a focus of them, I think, particularly in the post, so you have to watch out for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one thing also to look out for is Caleb Williams, who is averaging 1.8 points per game just because of his name. Look out for him. I'm a little confused for a second. Is that really his name? Yeah, we've got him, caleb Williams on the team.
Speaker 2:He's played six games, averages about just under three minutes per game. I'm just looking, I'm just waiting for the you know, for the announcer to if he gets on the court. I'm just waiting for the announcer to be like Caleb Williams has scored against USC at Galen Center, or maybe Jordan Moore says that, if that ever happens. So the other thing is that I think there are some Big Ten teams that are probably more susceptible to the trip to the West Coast than other teams and I think it's like a little bit to do with like the personality of the state and like the Minnesotas and Iowas and Nebraska's always seem a bit more wide eyed when they come to LA, whereas some of the other teams don't as much. Having to come to the Galen Center after, you know going down to Venice Beach earlier that day and getting sunburns and stuff, you know taking a nap and then heading over and you know not feeling quite right If you see anybody with kind of like a sunglasses pattern burnt into their face, you'll know like, oh yeah, that's what happened.
Speaker 1:And then USC wins by 25.
Speaker 2:I still love that guy. Yeah, oh man. Yeah, I think it's just Trojans got to be sharp. You know one little note I mentioned earlier about St Thomas' stats. You know he also leads the team in steals, as it turns out. So I think Eric Craven also led the team in steals the year that he led in rebounding and assists, but I'm pretty sure Drew Peterson did not lead the team in steals. So if he were to maintain his average then he will end up as the only player other than Eric Craven to lead in those three categories, which is pretty amazing, pretty good accomplishment, even if he hasn't quite sort of lived up to things on the scoring board.
Speaker 1:So, gents, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yep, gents, thanks for coming on again and thanks to everyone out there for listening. Please check out uscbasketballcom for all the latest Trojan news and discussion. Be sure to like and subscribe and do all the things you do when you listen to a podcast, if you like. Gentlemen, I will see you later and fight on.
Speaker 3:Fight on, as always, fight on, fight on, as always, fight on.
