USC v. UCLA

Since UCLA released its basketball schedule last week, should we start a countdown on how long it is before USC releases its schedule?

37 thoughts on “USC v. UCLA

  1. I have a better idea! Let’s all watch the kabuki theatre unleashed by the Dimms! Truly a nothing burger and a waste of my tax dollars!

    • Andy, we’re in his final 6 teams and he’s not deciding until the fall but the 1st prediction that USC will land Marvin Bagley III was made a couple of days ago. You never know!

      • IMHO, we’ll never get Bagley, not in a million years. No experts have the faintest idea whether this could happen at this stage.

        But Enfield’s doing great, I’m glad we extended him and I hope he likes his job at USC and doesn’t get picked off by a real blue blood hoops program which could make a move if Enfield ever gets the Trojans to the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight.

          • Ya…and I once went to Vegas, walked straight to a roulette table and plucked down $25 straight on my favorite number and won! Boom. Only God knows how much money I lost trying to make that happen again. Hah! Even I know the roulette odds are so bad I rarely played it. But the odds are much worse USC will ever sign the nation’s #1 hoops prospect.

            We once signed a big-time guy named Tom Lewis from Mater Dei long, long ago. Problem was, he was paid under the table. He wasn’t really very good either.

          • USC also signed Bill Lambeer, the two young men that transferred to LMU, the player who played for Seattle Supesonics, Taj, Demar Rosen, just to name a feew.

          • You obviously have a much greater opinion of the USC basketball program than I do. USC is routinely out-recruited, outplayed and out-coached by other big-time powers (though we rarely schedule these programs), as well as P12 schools and our historical record shows the longstanding second-rate nature of the program.

            Most of us are pleased with Enfield as our coach and his progress from total doormat to respectable. USC has come a long way lately after many years of being lucky to simply make the tournament. We just had one of our best teams in years and still had to play our way in. For USC, that’s progress.

            But I’ll stand by my prediction that we’ll never sign #1 recruit Bagley because he has way too many better options with schools who draw huge attendance, have giant pedigree and almost always make at least the Sweet 16, something which USC does very infrequently. I doubt USC has made a Final 4 in the last 50 years, though you would know better.

            I’m glad USC basketball has strong supporters like yourself. You are sorely needed.

            Me? I’m basically a USC football fan, always have been since a young boy, and also greatly enjoy the fantastic Trojan success in numerous other sports which USC has traditionally enjoyed, most recently a #3 national finish by USC Women’s T&F, as well as national championships in women’s soccer and beach volleyball.

        • Bagley is considered the best player in the last 10 years so no doubt we’re in unfamiliar territory with him. I’m not saying we’ll get him, but for what it’s worth we weren’t even one of his favorites before he released his final 6 so we came out of nowhere and made an impression with him and it doesn’t hurt that his younger brother likes USC because we were his first major offer. Nike may play a role in his decision. He’s big on Nike, rumor is he’s already set to sign with them after college (he’s that good) and it’s most likely he’ll play for a team who is represented by Nike. Kentucky looks like they have the most predictions for him and they are an NBA factory. I’ll believe when I see it, but we are definitely the team to look out for with him and we can only hope.
          But Enfield has to be getting a lot of notice after making the tournament two years straight and beating Providence and SMU which was considered the biggest win in the first round, and nearly beating Baylor. Florida Gulf Coast made noise with Enfield and everyone took notice, now they’re gonna see how he turned USC from nothing. I hope we can hang onto him as long as possible but he may be getting a few offers on the best future.

          • USC lives by the sword in football and routinely teases wannabee powers before predictably signing the big fish after much sturm and drang. Every single year, the big boys do this. That’s why USC fans LOVE football recruiting. We’re always winning!

            USC dies by the same sword in hoops and we have no shot at beating programs like UNC, UK, KU or DUKE for the best player in the country, who, as a likely one-and-doner, will never choose to go where hoops is a sleepy second fiddle sport to big-time football.

          • Just consider this….we’ve seen in sports how a team who is building, has made some improvements, then makes some noise in the tournament, and now has as much momentum as any other team with a a young coach they get that good word of mouth or starting to be considered as the “popular new kid”.
            And sometimes one of these coaches gets one of these big time players to drink the kool aid. In the past these type of teams have either fell flat or kept it rolling.

            But all I’m saying is…..How many times have we said “I can’t believe that player signed with a team that has no tradition?”

            Later we learn that most of the time the Coach turned out be a good one. You never know Jack….

          • USC didn’t even make the Sweet 16. I wouldn’t exactly call that making noise. But USC’s hoops standards have been unbelievably low, so I get your point. Bottom line is, if USC even makes the tourney, Trojan fans are ecstatic.

            Obviously, anything can happen in recruiting. But I’m not impressed that USC makes a player’s top 6. In reality, he’s already narrowed down his picks to 2-3, and he’s not telling people that. There’s only maybe two people in his life who know what’s really going on and they aren’t talking.

            What I do know is that USC has been a second-rate basketball program for 50 years and occasionally has been a total bottom feeder. I’m happy that USC has Enfield, as I’ve said. It was a great hire by Haden.

            But USC hasn’t accomplished diddly squat yet in basketball and before I start believing USC is gonna sign the nation’s #1 recruit, we’ll have to do a lot better than finish finish mid-P12 and lose to all the good teams as usual. Plus our playpen out-of-conference schedule is good for our W/L record but merits nothing else.

            I say more power to you for believing USC’s gonna nail Bagley. Good for you! If it happens, I hope he works out a lot better than Mayo – who only succeeded in putting USC on probation and immed left after a year of very mediocre Trojan basketball.

            While I’m a big Trojan honk, I’m not so far in the woods that I would overlook the hardened fact that programs like ARIZ, UNC, UK, DUKE and KU are significantly better basketball programs than USC can ever dream of being at this stage.

            If Bagley wants to take a flyer and sign with USC, that would be great. But he’ll have to throw away some big opportunities that I’m sure these other true powerhouses are keeping him well-advised about. And if he came to USC, maybe some fans would actually start showing up to the games. But I’ll believe it when I see it, both in terms of Bagley’s signature and USC attendance.

          • Jack,
            We were the joke of the Pac12.

            We were embarrassed for the entire 1st weekend of tournament after losing in the final seconds for leaving a player open on an inbounds play. We were upset but we got it from everyone on tv that weekend.

            Hes the surest one and done since Carmello Anthony. A one and done may want play for this USC team and coach because Andy already let’s his team run and he’ll tell Bagley to be himself and lead this team. Yes…lead them as a true freshmen.

            As for Sweet 16 talk. We had a hyped play in game vs Providence. We picked to lose again and beat them.

            We were picked to lose to SIN. We beat them. I just read the other day that was called the best win if any team this year in the 1st weekend.

            And our third game was close as we lost in the final seconds to a very respected Baylor team.

            We made noise among college basketball followers outside Los Angeles or the PAC12 states.

          • Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Sounds like ucla football.

            As for the Sweet 16, go ahead and make all the excuses you want. We didn’t make it. Dozens of going-nowhere teams lost close games in the tourney, not just USC.

            Until USC starts winning instead of coming up with all these predictable excuses or allowances, I’m not drinking all your Kool-Aid.

            You and I will never agree on this. I respect your opinion and stand by mine. Bagley will never sign with USC. And last season we had a very mediocre team by national standards and got our clock cleaned in the P12.

            We should have a good team this year. If we don’t make the Elite 8, I don’t know what your excuse will be. Hopefully, close but no cigar isn’t one of them.

          • We’re USC Basketball. We’ve never had a final four appearance or been competitive consistently since the days of John Wooden and those teams might as well have been erased from history since they were the 2nd best program in the West and back then second place was not even enough for the tournament for a team with just two losses. So my point is we haven’t had any high expectations to be so down, especially now because the improvement is as clear as ever. Those aren’t excuses. Not sure how you got that. I only stated the facts of our trajectory and the possibilities of what history has awarded similar teams and coaches who and also made climb from years of being a joke to quickly being on the verge being a program picked in the top 10. We’re close there right? And in terms of patience for years if losing I’d say it’s been close to a blink of an eye seeing this program go from year 1 of the Enfield to heading into year 5 with magazines all in agreement that we’re gonna be challenging AZ for bigger and better days in the program. It’s been admirable job so far to say the least by Enfield and his staff when you revisit his first two seasons and got a first hand lesson of program that was starting from nothing. I didn’t go to USC but I do know that just because the Galen Center is not sold out it doesn’t mean were not a good team. It just says our fans aren’t as passionate as other programs. Enfield may have a team that could be our best since 2000. That’s not something we say or even seriously get to hope for and those tournament wins last year mean more than you know. And we just have to appreciate what we have going..

          • Whoever said I didn’t appreciate what we have going? You missed my point, which is that we won’t be signing Bagley.

            Go ahead and dream on. You’ve done this before with other big-timers USC got led along with. Sure miracles happen. That’s what it will take for USC to nail Bagley – a miracle.

            Show me the last time the nation’s unanimous #1 hoops recruit chose a tier 2 program like USC, which is a total football school, without money changing hands. It doesn’t happen. But go ahead. Point it out. Maybe it actually happened, so it would be fun to know.

            And as far as USC games not selling out, I’d say that’s a monumental understatement. Actually laughable. Sometimes, Galen seems almost vacant. If USC is famous for anything in basketball outside of total mediocrity, it’s ridiculous non-attendance. You bringing up so-called “sell-outs” is totally disingenuous.

            As I said before, I’m glad USC has Enfield and I hope we can hold onto him. Bagley isn’t coming, but so what? SC’s respectable now and maybe it will reach the stage some day where #1’s will legally sign one-and-dones with USC. This hasn’t happened in 50 years, but there’s always tomorrow and USC will have to start routinely stepping into the hoops elite for that to happen. Are those magazines predicting that too? No, they’re not. USC would have to actually accomplish something in basketball first. We’ll all be happy when that finally happens.

          • Jackie. You obviously missed my point point of the last two days also. I dropped in my hopes for him, but my point was the new found relevance of the program and Bagley’s interest even if he’s half serious o gives his public approval. For the record for you to say Never is a hear scratcher. No disrespect. But O.J. Mayo, Demar Derozan and now even Charles O’Bannon are just three players who argue that with a high backing because they’re “rankings” were out of USC’s league.
            You either took the sold out thing personally or totally missed the point of how USC Basketball doesn’t need a crowd for me to know how good they are for me because even in Mayo’s year and our 2000 season the crowds were still as if they weren’t paying attention.

          • I never said USC couldn’t sign good, even great prospects. I said they couldn’t sign the #1 guy. Period. And they can’t. They never have. And they won’t sign this Bagley dude either, absent a miracle. For you, just getting into the arena is good enough. For me 2nd place in recruiting doesn’t mean diddly squat, unless you like bragging about guys who almost came. There’s only one winner in recruiting and teams like ucla, UNC, DUKE, KU, UK, and a few others routinely wipe the floor with USC for elite players. And this is even though USC is in L.A., where ucla rules the roost, always has and always will.

            As far as crowds go, you still miss the point. If USC had decent, consistent huge crowds, they’d be able to recruit much, much better. Why play in front of a sparse few thousand a game at a football school when you can experience real atmosphere and sold out arenas every single game with huge national attention where basketball is king? Get over it. USC doesn’t measure up for kids that want or demand that experience and a lot of those types are the super huge recruits which USC always has a tough, if not impossible, time landing.

            USC has a place in college basketball and it’s definitely second tier for many, many reasons. Go ahead and brag about mediocre USC basketball all you want. I’ll wait until the Trojans actually accomplish something as opposed to getting their heads kicked in whenever serious elite college basketball is played. Actually, USC never even gets to that table, at least not in my lifetime.

            I went to USC when Paul Westphal and crew did. They were second fiddle then and guess what? None of us went to the games. Never. Shocker! We never missed a football game though and often traveled all over the U.S. to see the Trojans play ND, OU, TENN, UW, CAL, STAN, LSU, NEB, ALA, OHIO ST, et al. Funny how we often have no trouble signing the total cream-of-the-crops in football – every single year. I pity the football mid-majors who try to beat us in football recruiting. I know just how they feel as a Trojan sports fan who has never seen USC succeed in basketball. I think that one team coached by that jerk Bibby was pretty good. Otherwise, I honestly can’t think of another that deserved serious national recognition. Now wonder Bagley isn’t coming. Who cares if we’re in his top 6? You do, I guess. Whoopee!

          • sas, remember when Sam Clancy left Ohio and shocked the basketball world by chosing USC? That started a wave of good recruiting and USC basketball was very competitive.

          • If Clancy was considered a “work in progress” or just another big man by the coaches who recruited him. USC Bball recruiting wasn’t available for us back then so whenever we had an out of state player coming in we always hoped or assumed we he had to be a good ball player and we finally landed a nationally recruited kid. At least that was me as a young SC fan. But Clancy stood out from day 1. Bibby was hard on him and Clancy looked annoyed or intimidated at times but really he was just a smart talented player that probably should’ve been playing for Ohio State or Tom Izzo. He was our best player who did the physical dirty work inside for us after we were always getting bullied. He changed that when he played for SC. As a USC Basketball player….He’s up there for me.

  2. Who cares about sucla releasing it’s basketball schedule?
    Andy Enfield and USC have beaten SUCLA 4 times in the last 6 meetings so there’s that little stat.
    Sucla is the basketball school right?
    Well in case they haven’t noticed Andy Enfield took the SC basketball program from nothing. It was a last place program that only scored 45 points a game and nobody wanted to play at SC. Now the players like McDonald’s All American Charles O’Bannon Jr. are playing for USC. Kids are taking notice of USC Basketball. The #1 player in the nation 2018 Power Forward Marvin Bagley III has USC in his final 6 teams. Just being in the mix for a player of his talents says a lot about the current state of USC Basketball. He’s building a program…

    • True Sammy, bozo u Basketball is nothing, Ooooo forever.

      Oklahoma 11 – 20 Ly, vs bozo u in an empty Stables Ctr. Funny, funny, funny.

      Bagley has said if Andyain’twinning u signs Billy Preston, you know Sammy, your lock Toejam bb recruit, bozo u will move up from 35th to 34th in his recruiting sweepstakes.

      • Squatter, get the crap off your fingers and type so we can understand what the heck you are saying.

    • Condolences re: the UPS shooting in SF. Hope none of the victims were your friend,

      • Yeah it was a terrible thing and I feel sorry for everyone who lost their life or were effected by it all. There wasn’t much talking on the dispatch for us and I think most of us were just just surprised that it happened to our guys or maybe we thought it would never happen. We always have a morning huddle about safety and the days new schedules, and a chance to recognize who’s hustling it’s also a daily moment to keep the Union topics and members on a daily notice. It’s like a big lockerrooom at times that’s always colorful but can get heated quickly. So the first thing I thought was they had to be sitting ducks if he had a particular enemy or target in mind. I think that employee had a deeper issue not work related for this all to happen. That’s my personal feeling. Just a bad for those families and the company.

        • No shortage of crazy these days as we see all too often. Crazy with guns is really dangerous and we have also seen crazy with knives, cars used as weapons, you name it. I have had to fire a few people that concerned me over the years. Happy to be retired.

  3. They can’t release their full schedule until the Pac12 office released the conference schedule……. Wolf is an idiot!

    • Where did the blogger write ” full schedule”? That makes you the idiot.

      • What does “UCLA released its basketball schedule” mean to you, Wolf’s goux on you? It doesn’t say non-conference schedule, partial schedule, or some of its schedule.
        That would make both of you idiots.

  4. Such an informative and well thought out post. The world is a better place with this post. The blogger should be proud of himself.

  5. only proves that ucla is a head of usc, and it is reddy to get more chmapionchips

      • Eddie Haskell, Ugly is not a head of usc. Ugly is not a body part. I see that your ugly education is shining today. Your English, grammar, and writing skills are top notch, and is very well represented as an Ugly fan or alumni.

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