USC’s DJ Rodman finding his shot ahead of game against Washington State

10.01.2024 06:18

DailyNews.com

LOS ANGELES — Less than an hour before DJ Rodman took the court against Stanford on Saturday at the Galen Center, he fired off warm-up jumpers in the corner directly in front of sister Trinity, pausing to turn and chat with beaming smiles.

Strange, maybe, for most college basketball players to share more than a brief hug with family before a game. But hardly strange for the Rodman siblings, growing up together amid court battles and bouncing from apartment to apartment, often finding stability in one another. And Trinity, well-known as a star in the soccer world and a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, has been sitting in just about the same courtside spot at every one of USC’s home games thus far to support her brother.

“When I talk to her, it’s more of a, just grounding myself … she helps me focus on focusing on my game,” Rodman said of pregame conversations with his sister, “instead of focusing on the outside environment.”

And Rodman has grown up in chaos, really, he and Trinity and mother Michelle moving constantly from evictions, a lack of physical support from a legendary father that Michelle feels has hurt her son’s confidence. She sees it, on the court. And this, transferring to USC after an up-and-down season at Washington State, was meant to be a prove-it year for Rodman. Maybe for himself, too.

“I didn’t think I was good enough,” Rodman said before the season, “to even be here.”

He’s starting to find that confidence, though, slowly but surely, after a shaky start when he felt less clear in his offensive role. Through 15 games, his numbers hardly jump off the page – 35% shooting overall, 6.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game – but the best version of Rodman can make USC click, a consistent floor-spacer and versatile defender who can heat up from deep.

“We rely on him, he’s experienced, and we need him to be productive,” Coach Andy Enfield said Tuesday, “because he’s a guy that has been part of a lot of winning basketball.”

That 35% field goal percentage is ugly. Rodman is at 40% from behind the arc, though, and has looked more aggressive since Pac-12 play opened, averaging 9 points per game on 44% from long range.

“I’m a math nerd, so I like to go, regression to the mean,” Rodman said after USC’s Tuesday practice, intertwining his arms against a nearby banister.

“Whatever percentage a shooter I am, I’m gonna get back to that,” he continued, “even if I miss shots.”

Rodman and USC (8-7 overall, 2-2 Pac-12) will face his former team on Wednesday night, trying to sweep a three-game homestand and re-stabilize a season that has nearly been torpedoed by ineffectual perimeter defense and bad ball control. And “everyone’s lying to you,” Rodman said Tuesday, if they’d say playing their old team is just another game; he left the program, he said back before this season because he felt he was “coasting.”

“I just fell into the wrong situations,” Rodman said in the fall. “I just made the wrong decisions there. It was just myself being a knucklehead.”

He had only love for the Cougars (10-5, 1-3) on Tuesday, though, saying he “wouldn’t trade those four years for the world.”

“It’s just gonna be fun, and I’m looking forward to just playing against ’em,” Rodman said. “And I mean, I think it was just time for me to grow out of my shell, and just be someone else, go somewhere new.”