Trojans face Akron in Charleston Classic

After an up-and-down first two games, the USC men’s basketball team will head east for the Charleston Classic. The Trojans will enter the tournament with a 1-1 record after a strong team win against Tennessee Tech on Monday night that saw the Trojans lead from start to finish.

 

Despite a rough start to the season, the Trojans have a strong shot at making a deep run in the tournament. The Charleston Classic features a total of eight teams: Akron, Charlotte, Cornell, Drexel, Miami, Penn State, Southern Carolina and USC, all of which are unranked.

As shown through the first two games, USC will rely on their highly touted freshman class, led by point guard Jordan McLaughlin. The first-year guard has been off to quite an impressive start, averaging 17 points and 6.5 assists, albeit with nine turnovers, through the first two games. Redshirt sophomore guard Katin Reinhardt has also played spectacularly for the Trojans in his first two games since transferring from UNLV. Reinhardt, who sat out last season due to NCAA rules, currently averages 15 points, 3.5 rebounds and two assists as he and McLaughlin have created a great one-two punch for the Trojan backcourt. Reinhardt hopes that the momentum will carry over as the team heads on the road for the first time.

“Any time you open a college season with a loss it’s tough,” Reinhardt said. “We should’ve won that game. We knew what we had to do and for us, especially going [on the road next], it was big to get this.”

But if the Trojans hope to make an impression, they need second-year big man Nikola Jovanovic to step his play up. The forward had an inspiring offseason as he led the Pac-12 All-Stars in scoring, but his play has yet to translate over to USC’s offense. Jovanovic struggled for his second straight game Monday night and is averaging a mere 6.5 points and five rebounds on 25 percent shooting.

“I was the most surprised guy in the city of Los Angeles when he played like he did on Saturday,” head coach Andy Enfield said afterward of his returning leading scorer.

Another aspect the Trojans must focus on is taking care of the ball. The team is averaging 20 turnovers per game, while only contributing 11 assists. Though the team improved drastically in their second game, they must clean up the turnovers if they want to compete every night. Enfield understands the importance of protecting the ball.

“Normally you can’t win when you turn it over 17 times,” Enfield said, “But we trimmed them down in the second half and I thought our guys played with confidence down the stretch. It was nice. We needed a win here.”

The Trojans will kick off the tournament against the Akron Zips (1-0), who are coming off a 17-point win over the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country. Akron entered the year with high expectations after winning the MAC Championship and earning a NCAA bid last season. But the Zips will be without who is arguably their best player, Demetrius Treadwell, who has been suspended indefinitely by the university for violating the school’s student-athlete code of conduct. Treadwell was a preseason All-MAC selection as he led Akron with 15.2 points and 8.6 rebounds last season.

Akron returns three starters from last season’s MAC championship squad and features a multitude of upperclassmen ready to contribute. To make up for Treadwell’s absence, the Zips will look to spread the ball around, as they had 10 players score in their first game.

The Trojans will have to focus on defense, especially protecting the three-point line as the Zips attempted 30 three pointers against UMBC. But Akron lacks real size or depth at the center position, so the Trojans should make sure to attack the paint and crash the boards for easy second-chance points.

Should the Trojans defeat Akron on Thursday, they would play either Drexel or Miami the next night.