LOS ANGELES — The outcomes, on paper, might look the same. But this isn’t 2015 anymore.
Andy Enfield knows it. The goal a decade ago when he was hired at USC, a former shot-guru turned rising architect, was simply to infuse the program with some talent; the school was fading into college basketball irrelevancy. So Enfield recruited. They emerged from the mud, and aside from a slip in 2019, USC has been on an upward trajectory ever since – continuing to stockpile some of the top names in the country.
There are few lessons to be learned at the moment, evidently, from the doldrums of Enfield’s first years: 11-21, 12-20. “This is completely different,” he said after practice on Wednesday, when asked about any parallels amid a losing season. And it’s true – they have the talent now, from Boogie Ellis to Isaiah Collier to Bronny James, big names, length, athleticism, shooting. Talent, however, cannot always beat out the injury bug, and USC is now 8-13 overall and 2-8 in Pac-12 play in what is shaping up to be the worst season in Enfield’s tenure, considering the expectations.
“Some seasons you’re very fortunate to stay healthy, and other seasons like this are an anomaly,” Enfield said Wednesday, continuing to point to Collier, Ellis and others’ missed time. “But you have to stay positive and keep working and keep trying to improve, and keep fighting. That’s what we plan to do here, and I think our players really bought into – no matter who’s on our roster, we’re gonna have good practices and go compete.”
Not a day later, his tune shifted.
Yes, they’d improved defensively in recent games, Enfield emphasized multiple times, to a postgame question about the program buying into him and the coaching staff. But the head coach also took aim – more directly than at any point in the season, following a frustrating loss to Oregon in which bad body language was rampant. He mentioned players would “blame the coaching staff” when they…
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