USC Men's Basketball To Host Utah Thursday

The USC Trojans (9-15, 3-10) will host the Utah Runnin' Utes (15-9, 6-7) at the Galen Center on Feb. 15 at 8:00 p.m. The game will air on FS1 with Dan Hellie and Casey Jacobsen calling the action. USC won its last home game on Feb. 3 vs. Oregon State, but is 1-8 since sweeping California and Stanford at home on Jan. 6 and Jan. 10 respectively.

ROAD WOES CONTINUE -- USC lost 99-68 at Stanford on Feb. 10 to run its road losing streak to seven games, its longest road losing streak since falling in nine consecutive road contests in the 2015 season. USC is 1-8 in road games this season. Through games of Feb. 12, USC has played nine road games and four neutral site contests. The 13 games away from home (4 neutral, 9 road) are tied for the most among all Power 6 schools and its nine true road games are tied for the second-most.

USC'S STELLAR STRETCH -- USC won a school-record 95 games over the previous four seasons (22 in 2020, 25 in 2021, 26 in 2022 and 22 in 2023). The four consecutive seasons of 20+ wins sets a school record for most consecutive 20-win seasons, breaking the mark of three consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins from 2016-18. USC's 95 total wins the last four seasons was tied for sixth-most among all Power 6 basketball programs, trailing only Kansas (111), Baylor (104), Arizona (99), UCLA (99) and Duke (97).

FACING UTAH -- The Utah Runnin' Utes (15-9, 6-7) is coming off an 85-77 home loss to Arizona State on Feb. 10. Forward Branden Carlson leads Utah in scoring (17.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg). USC is 26-26 all-time against Utah, winning the last five meetings.

ON DECK: COLORADO -- The Colorado Buffaloes (16-8, 7-6) are coming off a 99-79 home loss to Arizona and will play at UCLA on Feb. 15 before facing USC at Galen on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. Guard KJ Simpson leads five Buffaloes scoring in double-figures with a 19.4 points per game average. USC lost 68-58 at Colorado on Jan. 13 with starters Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier & Joshua Morgan unavailable, a game it led by 13 at halftime. USC is 10-17 all-time against Colorado.

ENFIELD MOVING UP THE USC ALL-TIME COACHING WINS LIST -- USC head coach Andy Enfield is in his 11th season at USC and has compiled an 214-144 record. He picked up his 200th win on Feb. 4, 2023 vs. Washington. Enfield's win total ranks fourth on USC's all-time wins list, trailing only Sam Barry (260), Forrest Twogood (251) and Bob Boyd (216). Including his two seasons as the head coach at FGCU (2012-13), Enfield has compiled a 255-172 record.

THE DEFENSE RESTS-- After holding its previous six opponents to a combined 38.9 shooting percentage (149-for-383), USC allowed Stanford to make 56.3 percent of its shots on Feb. 10. On Dec. 30, USC allowed Oregon St. to make 59.6 percent of its shots, the highest shooting percentage by a Trojan opponent since UW made 67.3 percent of its FGs against USC on Dec. 29, 2017. USC opponents have shot 50 percent or higher from the field seven times in the last two seasons, including five times this season. This season, USC has held its opponents to 43.0 percent shooting, fifth in the conference. USC held its opponents to a 39.3 shooting percentage last season, 8th in the country. Over the last four seasons, USC's defense held the opposition to 38.9 FG percentage, third in the country, tops among teams in the six basketball power conferences. Also over the previous four seasons, USC held the opposition to a 42.4 shooting percentage on 2-point field goals, best in the country.

THE OFFENSE COMING ALIVE -- USC averaged 75.7 in its last three games, after averaging 62.5 points in its previous six games. USC scored 70 or more points in 14 of its first 15 games and averaged 78.9 points per game in that stretch.

MISSING IN ACTION -- USC has now had players miss 48 games of action due to injury or illness. To date players missing games are Gardner (23), James (8), Collier (6), Ellis (4), Morgan (2), Iwuchukwu (2), Johnson (2), Rodman (1). USC has at least one projected starter missing in 10 of its 24 games.

BLOCK AROUND THE CLOCK -- USC registered 14 blocks vs. Oregon on Feb. 1 to tie the school record for blocks in a single game. USC also had 14 blocks vs. Pepperdine on Dec. 11, 2016. Josh Morgan (4) and Arrinten Page (4) became the first Trojan teammates to record 4 or more blocks in the same game since Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic each had 4 blocks vs. Northern Arizona on Dec. 11, 2010. USC has 40 blocks in its last five games (8.0 blocks per game) and it has 126 blocks this season, tops among Pac-12 teams.

BOARD GAMES NOT ALWAYS FUN -- USC was outrebounded 95-52 on its two-game road trip the Bay Area and fell to 2-8 in games in which it is outrebounded.

APPARENTLY SHOOTING IS IMPORTANT -- USC is 8-4 in games it outshoots its opponent and 1-11 in games the opponent has a better shooting percentage.

A POINT OF COMPARISON – USC freshman guard Isaiah Collier returned from injury to post 20 points at California on Feb. 7 and 18 at Stanford on Feb. 10. Through his first 18 games (17 starts) he compares well with recent freshman point guard standout Jordan McLaughlin, now with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

                                    G-GS     Min/G     PPG     FG%     3PT%     FT%     REB/G     A/G     TO/G     STL/G
Isaiah Collier             18-17         28.6     15.8 .492 .327 .658 2.7      4.0 3.4 1.3
Jordan McLauglin     18-17         32.3     12.3 .350 .263 .651 3.0 4.9 2.2 1.6

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Isaiah Collier

Boogie Ellis

Joshua Morgan

Arrinten Page