USC to face hostile crowd on the road
After two comfortable home wins against Colorado and Utah, the USC men’s basketball team have turned their eyes towards the desert. The Trojans will play No. 11 Arizona Thursday night, quickly followed by a game against Arizona State on Saturday.
Size has been an issue for USC all season and it will be no different on Thursday. Arizona has two of the best bigs in the country with 6-foot-11-inch forward Azuolas Tubelis and 7-foot center Oumar Ballo, who both weigh over 240 pounds. Tubelis averages 20.4 PPG while Ballo is more of a rebounding threat, averaging 9.1 RPG.
“Ballo is physical and athletic and runs the floor very hard,” said Head Coach Andy Enfield in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Tubelis, not only is he big and strong, but he’s also very skilled. He can step back and drive the ball and is also a very good passer.”
Enfield mentioned the team will have to rely heavily on their own centers and forwards to stop Arizona’s top two scorers from dominating the game. Redshirt junior forward Joshua Morgan will be tasked with guarding one of the two Arizona big men, but emphasized it will be a team effort.
“It’s going to be a team guard,” Morgan said. “They got two [big men], so it’s not just going to be me, it’s a team guard, regarding both of them.”
Enfield emphasized the Trojans have players capable of guarding Tubelis and Ballo, pointing out their other four forwards on the roster besides Morgan: sophomore Harrison Hornery, freshman Kijani Wright, freshman Iaroslav Niagu and freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu.
The Trojans have used the same starting lineup of Morgan and four guards in every game since they debuted the lineup against UC Berkeley on Nov. 30. Enfield did not say whether he would change his starting lineup for this game, particularly since fifth-year guard Drew Peterson is 6 feet 9 inches tall and can guard Arizona’s other post player.
However, Enfield will have to turn to more size off the bench to account for the height and weight advantage that Arizona has.
Despite the fact Arizona is ranked No. 11 in the country, they have appeared vulnerable recently, losing two of their last three games against Pac-12 opponents. Most recently, Oregon beat Arizona in blowout fashion 87-68 on Jan. 14 in Eugene.
The Trojans have tried to pay attention to their own game rather than focusing on how their opponents are playing though.
“We don’t look at what other teams do,” Enfield said. “Arizona is one of the hardest places to play in the country. We get confidence from how we play and how we practice.”
Since USC has such a young team, the Arizona environment will be a test for the Trojans, given that the McKale Memorial Center has averaged 13,713 fans per game this season. In comparison, Galen Center has only averaged 2,451 fans per game this season.
Morgan believes the five true freshmen on the team will just have to learn on the go in the hostile road environment.
“There’s not a very good way to prepare them, it’s really more of an ‘into the fire’ type of thing,” Morgan said. “I just gotta tell them the same thing I told them before they played their first home games. You’ve just got to calm down.”
Even though Arizona will be a tall task for the Trojans, they still have to prepare for their game against Arizona State, which is only two days after the Trojans tussle with the Wildcats.
“We go into every game with the same amount of preparation, same amount of intensity,” Morgan said. “So even if we win [against Arizona], we’re not going to take a game off just because they might not be ranked. They’re still pretty high up in the Pac-12, and we need this win either way. So we’re not going to overlook any teams.”
As it stands, ASU has the second-best record in Pac-12 play behind UCLA. UCLA and ASU play each other on Thursday, so USC, who currently sits at third in the Pac-12, has the chance to jump over ASU in the standings if they play well and win this weekend.
ASU boasts a balanced attack, as they have four players who have played at least ten games and average 10 PPG or more. They do not pose the same size issue as Arizona, but the Trojans will have to defend well across the board to be able to win the game.
These two upcoming games are of the utmost importance for the Trojans and may define their season. USC will meet the Arizona teams again later in the season, but they must play well this weekend to keep their March Madness hopes alive.
The Trojans will take on Arizona at McKale Center Thursday at 6 p.m. and then will head to Desert Financial Arena on Saturday to face Arizona State at 7 p.m.