USC: Ugly-Shooting Children
The kids are all right ... at defense, anyway.
USC's freshmen and sophs played a triangle-and-two defense against a bigger, quicker Memphis team Tuesday night, and that part of their game worked out well.
Turned out Memphis' freshmen and sophs are as disorganized and shoot as badly as do the Trojans. And are awful at the line. (Like, 7-for-18 awful. Ick.)
This was one of those games, actually, in which both teams were exposed. Both looked bad. Both were seen to have nothing really resembling an organized, coherent offense or a real go-to guy. USC shot 28 percent and Memphis -- the nation's No. 2-ranked team -- shot 37 percent.
Memphis' shooting percentage was that high only because it had several dunks and lobs-for-dunks over the dinky Trojans.
It was so ugly ... you wished a team boasting a semblance of organization on offense could have come out and beat one or the other collection of McDonald's All-Americans by 20. Somebody who knows a pick and roll from a jelly roll and has heard of the backdoor play.
It ended 61-58, Memphis, but USC could have won. Daniel Hackett had two free throws with five seconds left in regulation, USC down one ... but chucked the second one off the heel of the rim.
OT, tied at 54.
USC could not get an open took in the attacking end of the court. I mean, nothing. At all. And threw away a batch more passes. Just wild heaves intercepted by defenders, same stuff the Trojans did on Sunday against Kansas. Making 21 turnovers, this time.
O.J. Mayo, putative freshman sensation, was 6-for-20 from the field, and didn't make a shot the final 14 minutes of regulation. Add that to his 6-for-21 clankfest against Kansas and he's 12-for-41 in two nationally televised games about 50 hours apart. Making him a guy who SHOULD spend another year (or three) in college, working on his game, which right now is laughably inept attempts to break down a defense a la Kobe Bryant, but without the size to shoot over defenders or the speed to get to the rim or the hand-eye coordination to knock down the 22-footer.
Memphis' own "super" freshman, kid name of Derrick Rose, looked just as raw, scoring nine points on 3-of-9 shooting, with five turnovers. Most of the time up against Mayo (who at least can play some defense).
Maybe the only satisfying aspect of this, for the Trojans, was Memphis coach John Calipari conceding USC coach Tim Floyd did a better job of wringing what he could out of his roster.
"I got thoroughly outcoached this game," Calipari told the AP. "Believe me, thoroughly outcoached."
Floyd's triangle-and-two was inspired, but where he's going to find offense against other hard-defending college teams like, oh, UCLA and even Washington State ... well, good luck with that. Better lay in a big supply of bricks, because his guys are going to be hoisting them.
But Floyd alleged enthusiasm for what he's seeing. "I don't believe there's a team in the country with greater upside than us."
Too bad his guys won't stick around long enough to find it.