Grinding Gears: Lack of leadership has haunted USC basketball’s season
As men’s basketball head coach Andy Enfield mused upon his team’s 67-62 defeat of Oregon State Saturday at Galen Center, he started talking about the makeup of a good team.
“Great teams have great leaders on them,” he said. “If you look at championship-level teams, there’s great leadership. There’s an unselfish spirit.”
He wasn’t talking about USC.
“Certain guys,” Enfield continued, “need to be able to play with a more even temperament. Either you’re successful or you fail. Everybody fails. You need to grind it out and work hard and be a leader.”
He was now talking about USC.
Ironically, this was Senior Day, a day when the program honors its veterans, its de facto leaders. Among them were forwards Bennie Boatwright and Shaqquan Aaron, a redshirt senior. Both have shown, in spurts, the ability to take control, the talent that made them both highly touted recruits out of high school. Boatwright is an NBA prospect. Aaron was a transfer from Louisville. Neither qualified as the “great leader” Enfield sought.
“We’ve had that [leader] the last three years,” Enfield said. “This year’s been a little bit of a struggle.”
That guy was Jordan McLaughlin, the point guard at the helm the previous four seasons who could be trusted as a calming, veteran presence. He graduated last year, along with backcourt-mate Elijah Stewart. Another starter, Chimezie Metu, departed for the NBA. That left this year’s team in the hands of the remaining upperclassmen like junior forward Nick Rakocevic.
Rakocevic, despite taking a big leap from his sophomore season, is too erratic to be counted on as a leader. That was what Enfield hinted at. The question that prompted the response, after all, was regarding Rakocevic’s performance — the Trojans’ second-leading scorer had by far his worst game of the season, fouling out in 10 minutes and recording just 4 points. He set the tone for his rough night with an ill-advised flagrant foul early in the first half, his second in the first three minutes.
Rakocevic’s foul trouble forced USC to play small. It changed the rotation. It affected the flow of the game. And USC, two nights after a resounding home win over Oregon, dropped a winnable game to Oregon State.
“We need Nick,” Boatwright said. “When he’s not on the court, it changes the dynamic of our team.”
With Rakocevic effectively benched, the Trojans suffered their fourth loss in six games. They dropped to 8-7 in conference play, mired further in the pack of mediocrity that is the Pac-12. They ended their home schedule with a thud.
Moreover, the defeat brings up a question that has hung over USC’s heads all season long: Who is this program’s next leader? With Boatwright and Aaron leaving, next year’s team will have three seniors — assuming they all come back — Rakocevic, Jonah Mathews and Derryck Thornton. Mathews was a co-captain along with Boatwright this season. Thornton should return as the primary ball handler with the most college experience out of anyone on the roster.
But if this season — in which an NCAA Tournament berth seems unlikely — served primarily as a bridge to get to next year, where the Trojans will bring in the nation’s third-best recruiting class, then they will need somebody to step up with a crop of talented but raw youngsters joining the team.
The Mobley brothers, both five-star recruits, will be rolling through USC the next two years. Onyeka Okongwu, a five-star big man from Chino Hills, is committed for next year. So are Max Agbonkpolo and Kyle Sturdivant, both four-stars. And Drake London, an athletic freak, will play both football and basketball next season.
There is no question the talent is there. USC should be ranked in the preseason top 25. But we have seen this tale before with this university’s prominent sports teams: Talent does not necessarily translate to wins.
If next season is “the year” for USC, then this season has not served as a very smooth bridge. What can make it smoother is if Enfield can find a leader to step up and be a coach on the floor, especially with the influx of eager freshmen arriving soon. It might be Mathews, if he is chosen as captain again. It might be Thornton, who started 20 games for Duke his freshman season, if he can become more consistent and less turnover-prone. It might even be Rakocevic, if he can be the dominant post presence he has developed into — every single game.
On Saturday, he wasn’t that guy. He fouled out with 1:16 left in regulation when USC was trailing by 5 points. It was a bad foul, an offensive foul that wasted a possession and helped Oregon State close out the win. After the call, Rakocevic immediately walked to the bench with his head down, the frustration evident as he slipped on a warm-up shirt over his jersey. He played 10 minutes out of 40, and recorded more fouls than points. That is not the stat line of a leader.
“Sometimes,” Enfield said, “certain people have trouble handling success.”
If success is to come for USC basketball, it will need to find a leader first.
Eric He is a senior writing about current events in sports. He is also the features editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Grinding Gears,” runs Mondays.