By Brant Daughtry
West Coast Swing
The USC Trojans are coached by Andy Enfield, who has been in LA for almost a decade now. Arguably, he’s been the most successful basketball coach in USC history, setting several school records and making the NCAA Tournament four times in the last six years. They trail only Kansas and Baylor in total wins over the last three seasons.
This year’s team is ranked 123rd in the NET rankings, a metric that scores Auburn at 50th, making this a Quad 2 matchup for the Tigers. USC has not tallied a win against Quad 1 competition, and is 1-1 in Quad 3. That Quad 3 loss came in their season opener, a 74-61 loss to Florida Gulf Coast. They do have some impressive wins though, and took Tennessee to overtime earlier this season in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
USC is a very big team. The shortest player on the squad that gets regular minutes is 6’3″. As such, they block a ton of shots and play strong defense, similarly to Auburn. They average 6.4 blocks per game, good for third in the country. Auburn is not often out-sized, but this game will be a test for Auburn’s shorter guards.
Players to Watch For:
Guard Boogie Ellis, #5- Ellis is the 6’3″ guard I mentioned earlier. He’s a senior who transferred from Memphis two years ago and is currently USC’s leader in minutes per game with 35.9, and points per game with 14.1. He’s also a solid three-point shooter at 36%.
Guard Drew Peterson, #13- The other player on USC’s roster averaging over 30 minutes per game, Peterson is a massive 6’9″ playing shooting guard. He’s a 5th year senior who does a little bit of everything. He’s second on the team in scoring with 13.9 points per game, leads the team in rebounds with 7.9, and assists with 6.1.
Auburn winning this game, and the upcoming Washington game after it, would be a serious accomplishment. This is a pretty good USC team, that’s built similarly to Auburn in that it relies more on its defense that its offense. Size will be an interesting storyline here, as Auburn will be giving up a few inches at most positions. Fact is, Auburn’s struggles on the offensive side will keep it from reaching heights that fans have become accustomed to. But, Bruce Pearl is well aware of that. He’s said as much to the media. Auburn’s got to find a go-to guy on the offensive end of the floor. Against Georgia State it was Jaylin Williams, and I certainly believe he could be that guy moving forward.
