USC never seemed quite awake for its early morning tip-off against Utah falling 67-39 at the Galen Center on Super Bowl Sunday.
Two Steps Back
The Trojans lost to Colorado in an epic triple-overtime battle on Wednesday night, but they put up a tremendous effort with Katin Reinhardt scoring a career-high 35 points including nine three-pointers. USC really showed it had improved since the Buffs blew them out of the gym in early January with an 86-65 victory. However, the Trojans' effort on Sunday looked like they had taken two steps backward in their development. "We've been improving dramatically as a team this last month of the season with three heart-breaking losses, last-possession losses where we had chances to win at the end," said head coach Andy Enfield. "I was very frustrated at halftime because I knew we weren't playing up to our potential, but that's on me as a coach...Whatever I did or did not do, that's on me."
Better Late than Never
USC scored just 12 points in the first half on 19% shooting in what Enfield called the team's worst first half performance all season. Utah came out after halftime and went on a 10-2 run much to the Trojan coaching staff's dismay. However, the Trojans saw a brief spark of life from the bench as Malik Martin woke up the crowd helping the Trojans to go on an 11-0 run. "Malik's been working. He's been up and down like a lot of our players but he showed some flashes tonight of his potential to develop," said Enfield. He finished with a team-best 11 points as the Trojans' usual leading scorers couldn't find their stroke.
Looking for Number Two
After a short two-game home stand, the Trojans head up north to the Bay this week to face Cal and Stanford. USC's only conference victory came against Cal on January 7 when the Trojans dominated the Golden Bears 72-57. In their next game, the Trojans hung in there with the Cardinal rallying in the second half before falling just short losing 78-76 at the buzzer. USC currently sits in last place of the Pac-12 conference, and Enfield will need a better offensive performance from his players if he wants to get his second win in conference play this week. "It's our job as a staff to keep developing these young players. We would like this process to be sped up, but at the same time, we still have an enthusiastic vision for the future," said the head coach. "They're starting to show flashes of potential, but at the same time, we've very streaky. It's our job as a coaching staff to eliminate some of that streakiness during games."
