After the USC men’s basketball team earned its latest impressive conference road victory Wednesday night at Nebraska, coach Eric Musselman lamented what his Trojans’ playoff hopes might look like right now if they had played the same way at home.
“For some reason we’ve been very good on the road. We’re 3-1 on the road and we haven’t been very good at home, otherwise we would be in an incredible position for March if we had done what we were supposed to do it at home, but we didn’t,” Musselman said.
That’s a fair assumption, but it also has to be said that this team is probably exceeding many expectations overall in Musselman’s first season.
The Trojans were picked 14th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten preseason poll, and many might have thought that was even optimistic after seeing this team struggle to squeak in against the likes of Idaho State and UT Arlington early, followed by losses to Cal, an evisceration. at the hands of St. Mary’s (71-36 defeat), New Mexico and Oregon.
USC was 5-4 at that point in early December after what was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule.
After Wednesday’s 78-73 win at Nebraska, the Trojans are 12-7 overall and tied for 8th in the conference at 4-4 (3-1 on the road, including a win against ranked team from Illinois).
All of these new pieces coming together on the fly from across the country — with just one player returning from Andy Enfield’s roster last year in little-used reserve Harrison Hornery — are starting to make a lot more sense together.
Wednesday night was the latest example.
Point guard Desmond Claude is playing the best basketball of his career and has become the offensive alpha leader this team needed, averaging 19.5 points per game since the start of December, including a team-high 21 points and 6 assists in the victory against the Shellers.
All 6 of his assists and 13 of his points came after halftime, including some of the game’s most crucial moments: a smooth dish inside to set up a Saint Thomas dunk to break the tie at 3 :09 left, then later the go-ahead 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to give USC a 72-69 lead that Claude would help protect by hitting two free throws with 17 seconds left on the meter.
“I thought Desmond was great,” Musselman said. “I think the biggest problem with Desmond was coming in at halftime, 0 assists, it was super important for him to understand that the defense was really hurting him and he was going to have to trust his teammates, and he did it. I think he had 6 assists in the second half – really, really important… I think Des was very motivated after our loss to Wisconsin.
So did Thomas, the 6-foot-7 versatile forward from Omaha, Nebraska, who was returning home Wednesday for the game at Lincoln. As usual, he left his mark with 11 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, a block and 2 steals.
For the season, he averages 11 points, leads the team with 6.0 rebounds per game and 27 total steals and ranks second with 77 assists (just 2 behind Claude) while filling the most pressing role on any given night for the Trojans – whether he scores or is a lock down defender.
“He’s the ultimate glue guy because he’s a great passer – not a great passer. He’s super, super unselfish. I can keep him 1-5, so that allows us to switch. He’s got an IQ “He’s one of our most focused players,” Musselman said. “The other night at home, we were playing Wisconsin, and he was assigned to their leading scorer (John) Tonje, and he blanked him – the kid had 0 points. Saint was phenomenal. I think that he’s just super comfortable in this system.”
However, when this season started, this team was clearly missing something – someone – on the offensive end.
Despite all the role players the Trojans have, they didn’t have anyone besides Claude who could consistently put the team on his back offensively for stretches until redshirt freshman Wesley Yates emerged in early December when starter Terrance Williams II was lost to injury.
In his four games before being thrust into the starting lineup, Yates had totaled just 4 points after that in the rotation despite some early flashes of his potential.
He scored 19 points in his first start in Washington on December 7 and after a few rocky games finding his footing, he averaged 16.8 points over the last six games, including 17 against Nebraska with 4 steals while that he was 9. of 9 at the foul line.
Four of those free throws came calmly in the final 5 seconds to protect the lead and close out the victory.
And then veteran Rashaun Agee was huge with 14 points and 8 rebounds off the bench, while hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers – all in the second half – and a dunk with 2:17 left that gave the USC a short game. 69-64 were leading at the time.
“We found some matchups that we liked with Rashaun as a pick-and-pop 5. When you look at the stats, you don’t think he’s a 3-point shooter, but we see him every day at training,” Musselman said. . “So that’s something we can’t afford to pass up on 3-pointers because he’s a good 3-point shooter.”
These Trojans are probably beyond their talent level: they still lack size and haven’t gotten steady production from their only true center, Josh Cohen, and they rely primarily on a tight rotation with only 6 players recording double-digit minutes Wednesday. , as usual – but if they continue to do it as they have in recent weeks, it is not a mirage.
Give Musselman and his team a ton of credit for coalescing this team on the fly in year one and building an identity from a collection of disparate pieces.
USC’s next game is at home against rival UCLA. Musselman has previously lamented the lack of home-field advantage the Trojans have when the empty seats outnumber the number of fans in attendance, but that should be different for this one with the Bruins coming to the Galen Center.
And this might be the perfect time for fans to see that Musselman has built a pretty fun team in a short amount of time, which should signal that the best is yet to come for this new era of basketball. USC.