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"A Rudderless Ship"
An exasperated Kevin O'Neill admitted that he is trying everything to light a fire under his team which lacks energy and emotion, especially in the first half of games. "We're just not together for whatever reason," O'Neill said. "We don't play with a whole lot of enthusiasm, a whole lot of really caring for each other, a whole lot of unity." O'Neill is the captain of what he called "a rudderless ship." He took responsibility for his team not playing with the utmost effort, but at the same time, he has tried nearly everything to ignite them.The Return of J.T.
O'Neill used the bench as a motivator for J.T. Terrell (pictured) who was inserted into the game with 15 minutes left after being benched for the previous game and a half with the exception of garbage time minutes against Riverside. Terrell made a pair of threes in six tries, but the other end of the floor will determine his playing time going forward. "If J.T. plays defense like he did tonight, I'll play him," O'Neill said plainly. "He's a guy that can manufacture some shots." The back court needed an injection of scoring with Jio Fontan held to two points tonight, but no one really filled the void.
Coughing It Up
The Trojans cut the Irvine lead to 5 with more than four minutes to play, but turned the ball over on three of the next four possessions. "Of our 16 turnovers tonight, I bet 12 of them were unforced," said O'Neill about the sloppy ball handling. USC held UCI to 24 second half points on 33% shooting, so the Trojans had a chance to close the gap, but turnovers kept them from getting shots up down the stretch.
