Freshman phenom Bronny James finally made his debut for USC on Sunday after missing the first month of the season following his cardiac arrest at a USC practice over the summer. James came off the bench and played 17 minutes, scoring four points to go with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, the team lost 84-79 to Long Beach State in a game where they led by as many as 17 points in the first half. The star of the game ended up being LBSU guard Marcus Tsohonis, who came off the bench to score a game-high 28 points — including the game-tying bucket with 3.9 seconds left in regulation.

After starting the season in the AP Top 25, USC is now 5-4 on the year, falling to 92nd in the NET Rankings and 40th in KenPom. And even with Bronny James back, the Trojans

USC, USC basketball, Trojans, Bronny James, Long Beach State

Turnover Woes Continue

It was hardly an efficient offensive performance for the USC offense in their loss to Long Beach State on Sunday. The team shot just 40% from the floor and was 20-36 (55%) from the free throw line. But perhaps the most worrying development was the offense's continued inability to protect the ball.

The Trojans tied a season-high with 19 turnovers and now rank 241st in the country in turnover rate per college basketball analytics website Bart Torvik. The main culprit is freshman point guard Isaiah Collier. For all the good Collier has done for this offense (17 PPG, 4 APG), the number-one overall recruit in the class of 2023 is averaging 4.4 turnovers per game — second-most in the country. The freshman only turned the ball over three times against LBSU, but he had just two assists on the afternoon.

Ten of the 11 Trojans who saw the floor against Long Beach committed a turnover. This is simply not good enough for a team with such high preseason expectations.

Struggles on the Defensive Glass

Long Beach State had just one starter over 6-6, but that did not prevent the Beach from racking up 11 offensive rebounds against USC. This comes a week after Gonzaga snagged offensive rebounds on nearly half of its missed shots against the Trojans (a game USC lost by 13 in Las Vegas).

The Trojans are now 276th in defensive rebounding rate per Bart Torvik — the worst among all Pac12 teams. Against mid-major teams, an inability to clean up on the defense glass is an equalizer that keeps lesser teams like Long Beach State in the game. Against better teams (like Gonzaga) this shortcoming can be disastrous.

The Trojans will need to improve their defensive rebounding if they even want to consider an at-large bid come March.

Two Home Losses to Big West Teams

Upsets are understandable, even commonplace in college basketball. Last year's USC team lost at home to Florida Gulf Coast (which finished 7-11 in the Atlantic Sun Conference) before bouncing back to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. But this year's Trojan team has lost not once, but twice to in-state mid-majors.

The first is excusable. UC-Irvine is an excellent program that is a perennial March Madness contender. The Anteaters are 63rd in the NET Rankings and 73rd in KenPom and have a top-25 defense in the country according to KenPom. But Long Beach State? The Beach have not made the NCAA Tournament since 2012 and have neutral site losses this year to Illinois State and Louisiana-Lafayette.

While neither Big West school would be considered “bad” in the larger confines of college basketball, these are not teams that a Power 5 contender like USC should be losing to. USC's best win this year is against Kansas State — a squad that is a fringe at-large team at best.