Usc Basketball

Pac-12 Conference Tries To Regain Its Swagger In Ncaa Basketball Tournament

... (the eventual champion), Georgetown and St. John's. Just as easily, there could be more disappointment. In the West Regional, Arizona might have to get past Gonzaga, a team that defeated the Wildcats convincingly in December. Last weekend, Oregon lost forward Chris Boucher, a key starter, to a knee injury. UCLA is a popular Final Four pick but has Kentucky and North Carolina in its regional. And USC must first compete in a play-in game. Early exits would fuel skeptics who argued that the Pac-12’s best teams had records inflated by weak competition. After the big three, the drop-off was steep: Only two other Pac-12 teams, USC and Colorado , notched wins against UCLA, Oregon or Arizona this season. And few had a nonconference resume strong enough to even garner NCAA tournament consideration. “Where our conference failed, I think, this year in terms of getting more teams in is, No. 1, some scheduling errors by some teams,” Colorado Coach ...

Usc-providence Is Wednesday’s Main Ncaa Event

... th seeds, playing about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game, are USC and Providence. That winner advances in the East region and will face No. 6 SMU in the first round, in what should be a pretty good game. The First Four can be a memorable event for the 16 th seeds involved, because it gives them a chance to win a Big Dance game before the harsh reality awaiting them in the first round. For the 11 th seeds, it might feel more like a nuisance, as it sets them back before a winnable game a couple of days later. Those are the breaks. Here’s the full schedule for Wednesday night. North Carolina Central vs. UC Davis. 6:40 p.m. ET, tru TV. Streaming: March Madness Live. You can also stream Wednesday’s games through your Amazon Fire TV or Fire Tablets if you have a paid subscription for the channel. Both games take place at UD Arena, the home of the Dayton Flyers. Dayton has long been the site for NCAA tournament play-in ...

2017 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament First Round Preview

... have the program’s future looking bright. As Romar noted, the Trojans have been a ball-hawking group in the previous two meetings between the two schools, as USC has recorded 25 combined steals in the pair of victories. “For us, we’ve got to take care of the ball,” Romar said. “They’ve done been very successful at getting us to turn the ball over with their length and their quickness.”. — USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) March 6, 2017. Players to watch. Height/Weight: 6-10, 230. Key stats: 14.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.4 3 pg. The Trojans have been at full strength for the second half of the season after Boatwright missed 15 games due to a knee injury. The skilled big fella announced his return with a 23-point effort off the bench against Washington on Feb. 1 so the Huskies know how dangerous he can be. In the lane or out on the perimeter, you always have to pay extra attention to Boatwright, the team’s leading scorer. Chimezie Metu, F, Sophomore. ...

De’anthony Melton’s Versatility Didn’t Go Unnoticed By Usc Basketball

... Metu, each with 3.3. Melton’s player efficiency rating (19.6) stands third as well after forward Bennie Boatwright (23.2) and Metu (21.2). Much of this has come by surprise. Melton for the most part, passed through high school as an unheralded recruit, particularly in comparison to the other star freshmen to leave an impact throughout the Pac-12. Not until the end of his junior season did Melton receive his first scholarship offer. It was from USC, and it remained the only one from a so-called Power 5 Conference program. The 64 other teams from the ACC, Big 12 Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC passed. It remains a slight. “It’s definitely a chip on my shoulder,” Melton said. Recruiting Melton. The commute was short for Jason Hart. The USC assistant coach lives in the San Fernando Valley, and so trekking to Crespi High in Encino to watch Melton play on weeknights was easy. It was right in his neighborhood. Hart noticed something early on about Melton, after first watching him play as a junior in January 2015. He mirrored Delon Wright, another lanky guard he coached on the local AAU circuit ...

Usc Is Still In Position To Reach The Ncaa Tournament Field, But It 'better Not Lose

... teams have more triumphs, and more baggage. Enfield argued USC’s schedule was better than perceived. “If you look at our schedule, we had the toughest schedule in the Pac-12 this year with the teams that we played twice and the mountain road trip,” Enfield said. Enfield said he wasn’t sure how many wins USC would need for a stress-free selection Sunday. “That decision is not up to us or me,” he said. “I really have no idea. I think a lot depends on teams around the country. Our RPI is high, we have a good RPI. UCLA’s ranked third [in the Associated Press top 25], we beat them. SMU’s ranked 14 th, we beat them. So we have some really good wins.". Some teams used USC’s stumble to leap over the Trojans. But there aren’t many capable of boosting their resumes in the final two weeks to reach the Trojans’. USC is one of few teams on the bubble with a single-digit loss total. It was one of few with 20 wins or more. This season’s bubble, Mast said, is forgiving. “Since the field expanded to 68, we’ve always had weak bubbles,” he said. “But this year’s is, I would say, historically weak.”. NEXT UP. Where: Galen Center. On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks; Radio: 710. ...

Ucla, Usc Basketball Teams Slipping Academically

... for the 2011-12 year is removed from the average, Tessalone said. The Trojans had a perfect 1,000 APR for the 2014-15 year. The team posted its highest semester cumulative grade point average in the 2016 fall semester, Tessalone said. Records have been kept since 2000. Seven teams had perfect scores of 1,000 - Bucknell, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Seton Hall and West Virginia. Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, and Virginia Commonwealth were next at 995, followed by defending champion Villanova at 994. New Orleans had the lowest score, 888, followed in the bottom 10 by Eastern Tennessee State (933), Southern Methodist (939), Iona (943), Oregon (945), Rhode Island and North Dakota (both 947), Mount St. Mary's (951), Virginia Tech (952) and Maryland (953). The rate cited in the study uses four years of data ending in the 2014- 15 school year. The Academic Progress Rate was created by the NCAA in 2004 in an effort to ...

Ty Harris Points Usc Into Ncaas

... freshman to senior. Freshman Ty Harris understood. “They told me, ‘You know what you’re doing. You know all the information, so just take turns and say what needs to be done,’ ” the Gamecocks’ point guard said. “They have confidence in me, so I just have to go do it.”. She was handed a mountain of responsibility before conference play, Staley inserting her into the starting lineup and telling her it was her team. A freshman, having to call out, recognize and distribute everything USC was doing on offense, with two All-Americans and two junior guards around her, was in charge. Harris didn’t gulp or beg for the bench. She took the spot, discarded any thought of easing into it and became an SEC All-Freshman selection for the regular-season and tournament champions. As USC heads into the biggest part of the season, the Gamecocks are down a ...

Ucla And Usc Are Bringing 'showtime' Back To La College Basketball

... February, a month it entered on a two-game losing streak. The Bruins are playing a fun, entertaining brand of basketball, and they might be playing it better than any other team in the country at the moment. Indeed, life is good right now for Alford and UCLA. In a year when the Lakers are near the bottom of the NBA standings and the Clippers are, well, the Clippers, the Bruins are the best show in town. That doesn’t mean they are the only show in town, however. And while they are helping to make the city of Los Angeles into a college basketball town again, that’s an undertaking that can’t be done alone. * * *. If February was a dream for the Bruins, it was a nightmare for the USC Trojans. USC finished February with four straight losses and did not post a victory against a team ranked higher than No. 10 in the Pac-12 standings. The last of those losses was the one that hurt the most, a game in which Andy Enfield’s team led ...

Ucla's Lonzo Ball Won't Face Ncaa Sanctions After Usc Reports Potential Violation

... apparel website after a report of concern from UCLA’s rival, USC , regarding the use of a student-athletes’ likeness for profit. According to USA Today, Big Baller Brand, a company started by La Var Ball prior to Lonzo’s arrival at UCLA , was asked to take down a photo of the Bruins star from its website. The call reportedly came from USC’s sports information director, though UCLA indicated that at the time of the report they were “aware” of the potential violation and “working on it.”. Good news for the Bruins: despite the mix-up and potential misstep in marketing, Ball won’t face any NCAA-related sanctions. The NCAA and UCLA released a joint statement to USA Today, confirming that “appropriate measures” were taken when the issue was reported and Ball’s eligibility for the NCAA Tournament is not at risk. “NCAA eligibility ...

Out Of The Wilderness

... guard Kevin Joyce and silky smooth forward Alex English, who, of course, later went on to a long and productive professional career. They told me about rough-and-tumble giants like Tom Riker and big Danny Traylor. And, on literally dozens of occasions, I heard the story of how my mom once camped overnight outside the old Carolina Coliseum, waiting in line to nab tickets to watch the Gamecocks play highly ranked Notre Dame. Those were the glory days of college basketball in Columbia. But, as much as I loved those old stories, for most of my life that relatively brief period in the late ’60 s and early ’70 s when Mc Guire made USC hoops relevant has seemed sort of alien to me. The idea of South Carolina basketball meaning something on the national stage is one that existed only in those tales my parents used to tell me. Sindarius Thornwell | photo by Jenny Dilworth. I mean, let’s be honest here: Outside of the occasional fleeting moment — Coach George Felton’s Barry Manning-led NCAA team in 1989, an SEC title in 1997, dynamo guard Devan Downey’s ...

Gamecocks Want To Add One More Reference To Their Resume

... make sure our guys are in a good place mentally to go at these games, because they’re all so hard in this league.”. The resume that was dissected last year seems to be safely preserved in cold storage this year. The Gamecocks are 22-9, 12-6 SEC and finished fourth in the league. They beat one of the top two teams in the league. Their RPI is 32 with a strength-of-schedule rated 37, far above last year’s totals. By Thursday’s numbers, USC was 4-5 against the Top 50 in RPI and 12-8 against the Top 100. It beat Monmouth, Michigan, Syracuse and Vermont and topped Georgia and Tennessee on the road. Bracketology considers the Gamecocks a lock, maybe as high as a 6 seed. That couldn’t change in the span of two days, right. Yes, it can. Unlikely, impossible. it can. So the Gamecocks are thinking of Friday and trying to get to Saturday, then trying to get to Sunday. Then, they’ll gather in Nashville or Columbia to watch the selection broadcast. Sunday’s coming. After Friday. “All of this is good, but the main focus is winning and advancing,” Thornwell said. “Only important thing that ...

Usc Isn't Happy With Its No. 1 Ranking In An Unusual Category. Where's The Luck

... a bunch of excuses,” Stewart said. “ ‘Oh, this happened. My girlfriend broke up with me. Yadda, yadda, yadda.’ It's always something. It’s just always an excuse. We don't get the benefit of the doubt. Whenever we lose, ‘Oh, they were supposed to lose.’ Come on now, how does that work?”. Of Pomeroy’s ratings, Stewart said, “Unless Jesus runs that site, it’s not very credible to me. If you’re so good at telling the future, work for the government.”. Currently, the argument is theoretical. But it could soon affect a team’s seeding in the NCAA tournament. In January, the NCAA convened stats experts, including Pomeroy, to discuss new tools that the NCAA tournament selection committee can use to select teams. USC basketball team held a wake for a season that ended just as some team members had expected: in the Pac-12 Conference tournament, with a loss to rival UCLA. Players showered, dressed and plodded. Two years ago, in a dim locker room in the bowels of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the USC basketball team held a wake for a ...