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The USC basketball team came into this season with expectations of competing for a Pac-12 title and making a deep run into the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans brought in one of the best recruiting classes in the country that included the top overall prospect in the class and the son of arguably the best basketball player ever. The sky was the limit for this team, until it wasn't. Right now, USC is 8-11 overall on the season and 2-6 in Pac-12 play. The Trojans are in trouble.
During November, USC basketball looked like a typical young, but talented, team. They won some big games, and they lost some close ones, but they looked like how you would expect them to look. Now, they are looking much worse, and it doesn't look they are going to get better as the season goes on.
“We've had some highs and some lows during this season, just over halfway through the season,” USC head coach Andy Enfield said, according to an article from ESPN.
To be fair, there have been some things that are out of USC's control. For example, they have been playing shorthanded most of the season. Bronny James was out to start the season, and now James is in the starting lineup because of injuries to other players. That is hard to deal with.
“Our practices were pretty tough because we only had seven guys that were healthy [in November],” Enfield continued. “I really give our team a ton of credit. They have a tremendous attitude. They practice hard every day. For the most part, we've played hard in our games.”
Enfield mentioned the attitude, and that's an important thing to pay attention to when it comes to a struggling college basketball team that had high expectations coming into the season. It would be easy for the Trojans to give up, but Enfield noted that this team will keep fighting until the end, no matter what.
“At this level, we don't make excuses,” Enfield said. “We have to go out and compete. Whoever is on our roster, whoever is healthy has to go and play as hard as they can. We're not looking for sympathy and all that stuff about having guys out because no one really cares. That's what we tell them.”
At the end of the day, it can be a stressful job for Enfield. He is always thinking about his USC basketball team, and sometimes he can't think about himself.
“This position, sometimes you just forget about yourself,” Enfield added. “It's all about other people. You have your players and your coaching staff that you care about. Then, you have your own family at home and everybody else, all the stakeholders around campus. Sometimes, you wake up and you're not feeling the best or you're a little stressed. Sometimes, you just need to take a deep breath and relax and go get a workout in and get away from it all, as best you can, for an hour or two because there is not much time in a day that goes by where you're not being pulled in some direction.”
This season hasn't gone to plan so far for USC, but there is a lot of time left. It might not end the way they want it to, but the Trojans are going to battle until their season comes to a close.
