Yawn. Told you

@bag370 no he won’t come back. He’s a Junior. No masters needed.

To me the question ins Peterson. While USC played poor teams, Peterson earned all PAC-12 first team. Soon as he's named to the team, they play AZ once and UCLA twice. Thud X 3. So was Peterson overrated? Seems that way. Mobley? Maybe. People talked about him as a Lottery pick. Maybe 2nd round. He can be a cheap big man who knows how to play. Good pick up. Peterson? I think he played his way out of the draft. If I am him I think I return for my Senior year. He can prove that his next developmental level is showing up in big games. Playing top competition tough. And for USC, naturally they would welcome an all conference 6'9 guy who can mostly shoot back. He would need to work on his D and ball handling, but that is what college is for.

I think USC will lose their whole front line. Goodwin. Mobley, White. Peterson could probably play SF. Marco Polo a PF? Meh don't see it. Morgan will play a good Defensive Center. Boogie and Anderson return at Point. Kobe Johnson is yet another 3 Reese Dixon Waters yet another 2. I assume they are counting on a couple guys we didn't see much like Harrison Hornery to beef up the front line. Based on who I named above, they should have plenty of guys who can fil lit up next year. Consistency? Free Throw shooting? Turnovers both directions? We shall see.

Enfield's programs have also had a habit of mass transfers. Mass numbers of guys leaving and them having to re-recruit and remake the team on the fly. So while on paper they look to have a solid team returning next year, we will see what the portal brings.

Absolutely. Peterson wasn't held to 6. he passed up at least another 6 because he's lost his confidence. Assists aren't something you"hold" the other team to. Assists are actually a function of running your offense, moving the ball and sharing it. USC has increasingly become a team trying to rely on the 3 and that's really not who they are. I don't know if it's laziness. Impatience. Lack of confidence. No clue. But it's pretty obvious.

USC is a team that turns the ball over too much. Does not GET turnovers. See my previous posts. That's a major plus minus. They are also a team that puts others on the line and shoots horribly from there. So I would imagine that means teams can afford to play more aggressively inside against them.

Boogie Ellis was awesome. No clue why Mobley, a 6-10 inside behemoth, kept launching 3's. He's still oh for the game BTW. Mobley was ok in other areas. Peterson was generally awful. He's a poor ball handler and a terrible defensive player. At 6-9 he can rebound and he's a very streaky shooter who when hot and confident is lethal. When he's not he's a liability with the ball handling poor shooting and eventual passing up shots. USC needed Three guys to step up. They got Ellis and Mobley was good enough. In the absence of Peterson they needed Marco Polo to score and he didn't. They needed Godwin on the inside and he kept throwing shots into the stands and against the glass. Sadly the object of the game is to put them through the little metal ring.

USC launched 5 airballs. In addition to the fouls, the turnovers etc. UCLA played solid defense however USC has caused them problems in the past and USC has played equally poorly against UW, UO, OSU ASU and other overmatched teams. This is about USC losing whatever they had in early January. Or maybe it's just a case of the team, unlike others, never progressed beyond where they were.

People who want to make excuses for them have to answer this. Do you think that USC, ranked 5th in the country at one point, was grossly overrated then? Because they are a 7 seed now. That's about 28. So who are they? A 2 seed or a 7 seed? I would say based on what I have seen 7 is generous.

Having said that, they beat everyone they were supposed to beat this year except Stanford and won 26 cream puffy games. That's awesome. That's a building block.

@Java good post.

Yes this team is Top 30 not Top 5. Is what it is.

UCLA is Top 15 not Top 5.

CAE rarely gets his team to play well in big games. Last year was different with Evan Mobley and Taj. And we don't play anyone of note in the preseason schedule.