The USC basketball team is finally starting to play the way that everyone expected them to. The Trojans ended the regular season with a bang on Saturday night as they hosted #5 Arizona basketball, and USC pulled off the upset to head into the Pac-12 Tournament with a ton of momentum. The Trojans have won three in a row and five of their last seven, and they are looking like the team people thought they would be when Bronny James and Isaiah Collier committed.
USC basketball is playing well right now, but overall, the season has been a disappointment for the Trojans and Bronny James. USC finished the regular season with a 14-17 overall record and an 8-12 mark in conference play. They are certainly finding their stride right now, and James is starting to fit into his role as well.
As the son of LeBron James, Bronny came into the year with extremely high expectations. Not only is his dad the face of the NBA and one of the best players of all time, but he was also a five-star recruit. People expected greatness from him, and he hasn't met those expectations.
Everyone knows that LeBron wants to play with Bronny in the NBA before he retires. He has been extremely vocal about that, and because of that, most people expected Bronny to play one season at USC and then depart for the NBA. However, because of that fact that he hasn't quite lived up to the hype, he has been sliding down draft boards all year long. Now, it looks like it might be smart for Bronny to stay with the Trojans for another season.
Staying in college for at least two seasons is normal and it is what ends up happening to most college basketball players, but because it's Bronny James, it's different. All of the attention is going to be on him no matter what, and everyone will always expect greatness. However, the reality of the situation is that James is having a very normal freshman season as a D1 power five basketball player.
This season, James is averaging a little over 19 minutes per game, 4.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG and 2.4 APG. First off, most true freshman in college basketball don't play almost 20 minutes per game. A lot of them don't even leave the bench. James is adjusting to the college level, and that is normal. Now, he is starting to fit into his role well and this USC team is gelling.
Bronny James vs. Arizona
Once again, James didn't blow up the stat sheet with points against Arizona, but if you watched the game, you saw that he played well and played his role. He finished the game with five points on 2-3 shooting and he was 1-2 from three. James played well on the defensive end against the Wildcats as two of his points came on a big steal that led to a dunk. USC head coach Andy Enfield has preached all year long that he needs to be a good defender, and James has been playing well on that side of the court.
It's clear at this point that James isn't one of the main scorers on this Trojans team, and that's okay. The team can clearly find a way to win without him putting up a ton of points as they just beat a top-five team by 13 points. It's looking like the Trojans all know what they need to do, and they are starting to all do their jobs well.
We'll see what James decides to do in terms of the NBA Draft, but he has other things on his mind right now. USC basketball has to win the Pac-12 Tournament in order to make it to the big dance, and the Trojans are playing just as well as anybody in the conference right now. Next week in Las Vegas is going to be exciting.
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