The USC men’s basketball team is surviving while Rodney Rice, Alijah Arenas and Amarion Dickerson are sidelined with injuries, but it’s starting to get scary.
On Sunday, the Trojans struggled to a 68-61 win over a 3-8 Washington State team that hasn’t scored 70 or more points since before Thanksgiving. It was USC’s second straight win and improved the Trojans’ record to 10-1, but it hardly should be a confidence-inspiring victory for the USC fan base.
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On Wednesday, the Trojans will play in another game that seems to favor them on paper, against 4-6 UTSA. But if Sunday’s win was any indication, this may be a tighter game than anyone is expecting.
Here are five things to watch as USC takes on UTSA on Wednesday evening hoping for a decisive win and to improve to 11-1:
Can the Trojans find their hunger?
Following USC’s narrow win over Washington State, head coach Eric Musselman provided a pretty scathing criticism of the Trojans’ effort vs the Cougars.
“Neither half did we play to the level that we’ve played most of the season,” Musselman said. “With our shorter rotation due to injuries, guys are cruising a little too much. You’ve got to be hungry for your minutes. Not every player has been as hungry as they need to be.”
While the Trojan guards may not need to be fighting for their minutes now, they certainly need to be fighting hard to keep their minutes, which will be hard to come by once some of USC’s guards return.
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Keep an eye on the effort and body language from players like Ryan Cornish, Jordan Marsh, Terrance Williams II and Jerry Easter II in response to Musselman’s comments. Will they be motivated to rise to the occasion or press too much knowing that Musselman isn’t satisfied with their efforts?
Can Baker-Mazara, Ausar bounce back, carry the load?
With news that Rodney Rice could be out for the season, Chad Baker-Mazara needs to continue to be USC’s primary scorer and superstar on offense.
His streak of 4 straight games with 20+ points came to an end on Sunday against Washington State. It wasn’t a great game for him offensively in general, shooting 4-13 from the field. He did manage to get to the free throw line 11 times and make all 11 attempts to give himself 19 points, but that won’t be an option every night with different refereeing and more disciplined opposing defenses.
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Similarly, Ezra Ausar, USC’s third leading scorer this season at 16.8 points per game and second leading scorer with Rice out, managed only 13 points on 2-8 shooting against Washington State, with 9 of his points also coming from the free throw line.
Jacob Cofie stepped up and carried the offensive load for the Trojans against the Cougars with 21 points on 9-12 shooting, but the Trojans need to be able to count on Baker-Mazara and Ausar most nights to consistently win. Can those two players bounce back and avoid a slump?
Can the Trojans build on defensive success?
Ahead of the Washington State game, I pointed out that USC has been having an excellent season offensively, but the Trojans’ defense was performing below the typical Eric Musselman standard. Given that Washington State is a team that has struggled offensively this season, I wondered if USC’s game against the Cougars could help them build confidence defensively.
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That’s kind of what happened. USC held the Cougars to 39.6% shooting. 61 points was the least scored by any Trojan opponent so far this regular season as well. USC’s struggles offensively kind of forced the Trojans to lock in defensively if they wanted to win.
Here’s what Coach Musselman said about the defensive performance:
“Our offensive metrics are phenomenal, and our defensive metrics – especially the last six games – have not been good,” Musselman said. “But we’ve been scoring at such a high rate that we’ve gotten by winning games with our offense. And tonight, the real positive is we had to grind the game out when we weren’t scoring and shooting very well.”
UTSA’s offense pretty clearly runs through senior guard Jamir Simpson. Simpson averages 18.9 points per game and everyone else on the Roadrunners averages under 9 points per game.
Can the Trojans take advantage of UTSA’s clear strengths, limit Simpson’s effectiveness, and have another strong day defensively? It’s something worth watching, as the Trojans will only make postseason noise if they are well-rounded.
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Can USC find its 3-point shooting stroke?
The Trojans shot 1-13 on threes against the Cougars. Baker-Mazara went 0-5 from beyond the arc. Jaden Brownell, who is typically good for a three-point spark off the bench, missed all 4 of his attempts from downtown. Jordan Marsh was the only Trojan to cash in a three ball all game long.
That’s very atypical for a Trojan team that shoots 37% on threes and averages over 7 made three-pointers per game.
With Rice out, USC is missing one of its best three-point shooters. But can the Trojans still quickly prove that the Washington State result was just a fluke from beyond the arc?
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How will UTSA’s size challenge the Trojans?
You could argue that the Roadrunners have a size advantage on the Trojans. UTSA has 5 players who are 6’8” or taller while USC has only 4. It’s at least pretty evenly matched, which is interesting given that the Trojans are playing an out of conference opponent.
USC is coming off a good rebounding performance against Washington State. The Trojans out-rebounded the Cougars 35-28 and beat them on the offensive glass 5-4.
The Trojans also outscored the Cougars in the paint 32-22.
USC has kind of leaned on an undersized identity all season long. The Trojans have featured only one player who is listed at 6’10” or taller in their starting lineup this season (Jacob Cofie).
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Can they play big for a second straight game? Confidence in the post will certainly be key in conference play.
That’s really what the Trojans are trying to do: head into the Christmas break, and then conference play, confident in all phases of basketball.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC men’s basketball faces UTSA Roadrunners at Galen Center
