They crumbled in the span of 30 seconds in Pullman, a thorough systematic failure that summated the crunch-time identity of a USC basketball team that has never quite had one.
With two minutes left in a fantastic effort against Washington State, down by one after leading against a surging program for much of the night Thursday, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson and Boogie Ellis tossed the ball around the perimeter with all the intensity of a YMCA rec-league run. There seemed to be no offensive plan, outside of center Joshua Morgan attempting to seal 6-foot-3 guard Myles Rice, quickly blown up when Rice fronted the post. And with the shot clock winding down, Ellis stared daggers into Collier’s eyes in the weak-side corner, floating a duck of a pass that was easily picked off by the Cougars’ Jaylen Wells.
It got irreparably worse. As Washington State slowed the pace in transition and USC matched up, Morgan picked up Rice, well beyond the 3-point line. Johnson came over, motioning for him to switch. Morgan appeared to not hear. And by the time USC’s center realized what was happening and rushed to contest Rice had already fired a pass to an indefensibly wide-open Wells on the wing for a nail-in-the-coffin 3-pointer.
This USC season, head coach Andy Enfield said before last weekend’s victory over UCLA, has refreshed his “hatred of losing.” It has come in particularly cruel fashion. USC is 11-17 overall and 5-12 in Pac-12 play; the Trojans are 4-10 in games decided by 10 points or less, and 0-3 in overtime. His program, Enfield has said repeatedly, is not used to losing such close games.
“We’ve lost a variety of ways this year,” Enfield said last week. “But, what it reminds us all of, is the margin of error at this level is so small. And you have to defend at the highest level to have a chance to make March Madness and advance.”
By mid-February, the sobering realization had set in for USC that their late regular-season games were really just…
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