USC continues search for crunch-time identity with season waning
They crumbled in the span of 30 seconds in Pullman, a thorough systematic failure that summated the crunch-time identity of a USC basketball team that has never quite had one.
With two minutes left in a fantastic effort against Washington State, down by one after leading against a surging program for much of the night Thursday, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson and Boogie Ellis tossed the ball around the perimeter with all the intensity of a YMCA rec-league run. There seemed to be no offensive plan, outside of center Joshua Morgan attempting to seal 6-foot-3 guard Myles Rice, quickly blown up when Rice fronted the post. And with the shot clock winding down, Ellis stared daggers into Collier’s eyes in the weak-side corner, floating a duck of a pass that was easily picked off by the Cougars’ Jaylen Wells.
It got irreparably worse. As Washington State slowed the pace in transition and USC matched up, Morgan picked up Rice, well beyond the 3-point line. Johnson came over, motioning for him to switch. Morgan appeared to not hear. And by the time USC’s center realized what was happening and rushed to contest Rice had already fired a pass to an indefensibly wide-open Wells on the wing for a nail-in-the-coffin 3-pointer.
This USC season, head coach Andy Enfield said before last weekend’s victory over UCLA, has refreshed his “hatred of losing.” It has come in particularly cruel fashion. USC is 11-17 overall and 5-12 in Pac-12 play; the Trojans are 4-10 in games decided by 10 points or less, and 0-3 in overtime. His program, Enfield has said repeatedly, is not used to losing such close games.
“We’ve lost a variety of ways this year,” Enfield said last week. “But, what it reminds us all of, is the margin of error at this level is so small. And you have to defend at the highest level to have a chance to make March Madness and advance.”
By mid-February, the sobering realization had set in for USC that their late regular-season games were really just “stepping stones” to the Pac-12 tournament, as DJ Rodman said last week.
“We’re playing for that Pac-12 tournament,” Rodman said then, “and these games moving forward are just … build-up to the Pac-12 tournament.”
The problem: USC has taken few real steps since.
The Trojans looked like a different team, a tougher team, in the rivalry win against UCLA last weekend, punctuated by a physicality and an effort on the glass that drove Bruins coach Mick Cronin into such a frustration that reporters could rarely get in questions across lengthy tangents. USC is, physically, a different team, Enfield pointing out in nearly every media session the relief it’s been to simply have a full team back practicing after a slew of decimating midseason injuries.
But they have been too often unable to execute in crunch time, with or without Collier and Ellis and Morgan. Missed free throws (the program now sits at 68% from the foul line on the year). Turnovers. Defensive breakdowns.
Despite their record, USC has been competitive with a slew of Pac-12 programs in the past several months, from UCLA to Oregon to Colorado; if the Trojans’ status as the 11th seed in the conference stands pat with three games to play, it’s entirely feasible they could avoid Washington State and Arizona until the semifinals of the conference tournament. But a somewhat favorable path to the final in Vegas won’t matter if USC’s ugliest flaws continue to rear their head in crunch time.
USC (11-17 overall, 5-12 Pac-12) AT WASHINGTON (16-13, 8-10)
When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Where: Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Wash.
TV/radio: CBS (Ch. 2)/790 AM