What a good time to play a team that is 1-3.

USC men’s basketball (2-1) is coming off an upset 70-60 loss to the UC Irvine Anteaters (2-1), but will have the luxury of playing the Brown University Bears (1-3), a team that started out the season with three straight losses.

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But it’ll be a test for the Trojans if they’re still missing fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis and junior guard Kobe Johnson, who both missed USC’s game against Irvine because of injuries. If that is the case again Sunday, USC’s role players will need to step up and not shoot 27% from the field as they did against Irvine.

Two such players are freshman forward Arrinten Page and graduate forward DJ Rodman, both newcomers to the team this year, as Rodman transferred from Washington State this past offseason.

Page is particularly important because the Bears, despite losing three of their games, have still outrebounded their opponents. The freshman stands at 6 feet and 11 inches and weighs a whopping 245 pounds — the highest listed weight of any Trojan this season. Page is taller and weighs more than any Brown player and should eat up rebounds in the post.

“My first two games, I feel like I played with maximum energy,” Page said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after practice Monday. “I feel like I still have a lot more to give; we’ll see as the season goes on.

But if Page and USC’s other post players allow the Bears to gain extra possessions by securing offensive rebounds, it could spell disaster for a Trojan team that is potentially without Ellis and Johnson.

Defensive work has been at the forefront of Page’s development.

“[Page] was out most of the preseason with an injury, so he missed a lot of time,” Head Coach Andy Enfield said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “But he’s picked up a lot of things recently and I thought he played very well against Kansas State. He just has to keep improving, especially on the defensive end.”

Despite only scoring nine points across three games so far, Page could also help the Trojans on the offensive end because he has already built chemistry with freshman guard Isaiah Collier — USC’s leading scorer. The freshman duo both played high school ball at Wheeler High School, winning a high school state championship in Georgia as teammates last year.

“It just makes the game a little easier,” Page said. “It’s one less teammate you gotta get to know. It’s easy.”

Rodman is another piece that can help fill the void of Johnson and Ellis Sunday if both of USC’s captains are sidelined. The forward was 0-for-3 from 3-point range in the Trojan loss to the Anteaters but was an efficient 3-for-4 from distance in USC’s previous game against CSU Bakersfield (2-2).

“I’ve known I’ve been, I’d say, an elite shooter for a little bit now,” Rodman said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after practice Monday. “I was just happy I was able to be efficient and score that many points on those amount of shots [in the Bakersfield game]. I was just happy to show people that I can score and not just be a glue guy.”

Even though he is a transfer, Rodman brings four years of experience from Washington State over to a USC team that, without Johnson and Ellis, only has five upperclassmen — only three of which have seen more than a minute of game time this season, including Rodman.

Ellis and Johnson’s statuses for Sunday are still unknown, as The Los Angeles Times reported that Ellis is “day-to-day” and Johnson missed the Irvine game with “left knee discomfort.” What is known, though, is that USC will need one of its role players to step up, as Collier’s 23 points against the Anteaters still wasn’t enough for a Trojan win.

Another thing to add to the list of unknowns is the fact USC has never played Brown in men’s basketball.

Now, the Trojans will look to turn those unknowns and question marks into exclamation points as they take on the Brown Bears at Galen Center on Sunday at 5 p.m.