[ad_1]
LOS ANGELES — They’d lost their identity somewhere in the Palm Desert, a week earlier. They re-found it, on Wednesday night, at the Galen Center. That much, for these Trojans, was at least sure.
For 35 minutes against Oregon, USC got their scrap back, as Eric Musselman put it postgame. They got their scrap, really, like nobody at the Galen Center had seen before. After two brutal losses in Palm Springs the week earlier, an improbable and magical upset bid suddenly materialized just a few days later in their Big Ten debut. Their small-ball lineup disrupted passing lanes like never before, and guard Desmond Claude shouldered the entirety of a five-man offense, and Terrance Williams II sent a second-half shockwave through a respectable home crowd with a third-quarter slam directly on Oregon’s Kwame Evans Jr.
But this upset was a simple mirage, USC unable to close against 12th-ranked Oregon, a 10-point second-half lead slipping into a 68-60 loss. The grit was there. The execution wasn’t, or the experience.
And postgame, a blunt Musselman didn’t mince words, asked his expectations for these Trojans in Year One of a rebuild.
“Yeah,” Musselman said, “I don’t know how many Big Ten games we’re gonna win.”
“What I do know is,” he continued, “if you put forth that effort, from a culture standpoint … you walk out of the building, you think the team played hard, you think the team gave great effort, and you think the team didn’t close the game. Which we didn’t.”
Indeed, USC held a 53-46 lead with seven minutes to play after a layup from Claude, who finished with 22 points and poured the tank empty in intentionally trying to attack and foul-out Oregon center Nate Bittle. He succeeded. Plenty more, too, went USC’s way through three-quarters of the night.
Boise State transfer sharpshooter Chibuzo Agbo Jr. gave the Trojans an early first-half lift with 14 points. San Diego sophomore transfer Kevin Patton Jr. was a breath of fresh air in second-half minutes, cramming home a lob and recording six rebounds and two blocks in his first real run at extended minutes. And, most notably, USC authored its best defensive performance of the season: rotating on a string to shooters, completely sealing off entry passes to the post against a bigger Oregon team, and holding the Ducks to sub-40% shooting on the night.
“I thought the fight, and the battle, and the competitive nature, was phenomenal,’ Musselman said postgame. “We lead for 30 minutes against a team that’s ranked 12th in the country.”
Indeed. Unfortunately, there were still several minutes to be played, and USC collapsed at the hands of a more-cohesive and more-dynamic Ducks team. The Trojans simply “couldn’t stop” Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad, who scored 21 second-half points on 11 free throws, as Agbo Jr. put it postgame. Sandwiched around a go-ahead Shelstad three with four minutes left, too, Patton Jr. showed his youth with back-to-back turnovers in the span of 36 seconds.
“We kinda came into the game thinking that, a young player like Kevin Patton, that there’s going to be a chance that he’s going to play in a big moment in a Big Ten game,” Musselman said. “And hopefully he learns a little bit from it.”
The flaws in USC’s roster-construction, which ultimately may be irreperable, showed up ugly down the stretch. These Trojans don’t quite have a true point-guard: they turned the ball over four times in the last five minutes. These Trojans don’t quite have a true center: two Oregon bigs bullied their way to back-to-back post buckets to give the Ducks a six-point lead with three minutes left. These Trojans are light on shooting: they went 2-of-13 from deep, and now sit at 30% from three on the year.
Asked about Musselman’s comments postgame — saying he didn’t know how many conference games this team would win — Agbo Jr. and Claude both vehemently disagreed.
“I think this team’s for sure gonna win some Big Ten games,” Agbo Jr. said.
“We’re still confident that we’re gonna go in and do some damage,” Claude said.
But USC now sits at 5-4, carrying a three-game losing streak into conference play.
“The question is, can we masquerade some of our holes,” Musselman said postgame, “and continue to evolve as a team?”
Originally Published:
[ad_2]
Source link