Rising to the Top of the Pac-12

[Myles Nelson]

2017-2018 USC Trojans

PG Marques Wheeler - SR - He made serious improvement last year, upping his assists to 4.9 a game and improving all of his shooting percentages. This year we'll be counting on him to keep running the offense and to lock down opposing PGs (60 DEF). He's one of my captains for this coming season.

SG Ben Read - SO - Read worked hard over summer to show me up for gluing him to the bench last season. He came back absolutely dominating practices, and looks to be primed for a star year this year. He's a tough defender on top of being a great scorer, and his only real weakness is his ball handling. This kid will be scary good.

SF Marquis Paben - SR - I'm torn between starting Paben or SF Darrell Ramage here. I'm going with Paben now but it could easily change. Paben scored a lot last year, but he has to work on being a more efficient scorer. He's an okay defender, but not great.

PF Rowland Laws - SR - Laws is getting his first start this year, after showing me that he could play well and efficiently. If he can come close to matching his career FG% of 53.1%, I'll be happy. His defense and rebounding are good enough.

C Carvell Jackson - JR - Jackson took a step back in his sophomore campaign, but he put in a lot of work in the summer as well and is trying to get back to the dominant player he once was. He's shooting for that Norton Award this year, but if he can be All Pac-12 1st Team, then I'll consider it a success.

SG/PG J.R. Williams - FR - A point guard by design, his height (6-5) allows me to move him over to SG as well. Williams comes in looking like one of the best scorers we've ever had, and a fantastic playmaker to boot. His defense isn't as good as Wheeler's, but everything else is better. I'm giving him the Jason Terry role, to come off the bench, play significant minutes, and destroy.

SF Darrell Ramage - SR - Ramage's percentages dropped last year with extended minutes, so I'm hoping that if I drop his minutes a little he'll go back to his efficient scoring ways. He's a good defender and shooter, and if he can play his role effectively, he'll continue to get significant minutes.

C/PF Clyde Collins - SO - Collins has shown potential as a good post scorer and rebounder, but he's just gotta keep up the hard work. Last year he shot 55% from the floor and I'm rewarding him with a few extra minutes at both post spots. He actually has more potential than Jackson but isn't there yet.

C/PF Kenny Tyler - SO - The only thing keeping Tyler from getting more minutes than he is currently is his defense. He has a lot of potential and is a good rebounder, but his defense keeps him from getting major minutes. Next year maybe.

PG Marquis Lee - JR - Lee is getting pushed back due to his own slump last year and the entrance of Williams. He'll still get a few minutes to spell Wheeler, but nowhere near the minutes he got last year. Hopefully he can regain his form from freshman year.

SG Brent Simmons - JR - He still has the world of potential he had when he was a freshman, but his time to get it is running out. I'm still giving him a few minutes of development time a game, but it's hard to justify giving him more when I have the depth I do at the guard spots.

SG Justin Hahn - JR - This kid can flat out shoot. That's it though. As a walk-on, he won't get many minutes.

PF Brandon Harriman - FR - He's a decent player now, but he'll be better given time. He won't get any minutes this year but I could see him getting a role off the bench next year.

PF Jamaal Marshall - FR - Another walk on. He can score inside, but he plays no defense. I wonder why walk ons never play defense. I never get a walk on that can only play defense. I'd rather have him than these all offense/no defense walk ons.

SF Louis Benton - FR - It's looking like a mistake, giving him that scholarship. He has no skills now and isn't likely to get any in the future. Then again, he could pull a Ben Read and surprise us all.

[Myles Nelson]

We're predicted to finish 3rd in our conference, but out of the Top 25. We'll show them...

November 13th, USC (0-0) vs. UNLV (0-0)
We come into this tournament as a (10) seed and with a bit of a chip on our shoulder. Yeah, we had a disappointing season last year. But we think we're better than that. Much better. We come out and show it. We trounce UNLV, Read leading the way with 22 points, Jackson following suit with 16 and Williams pitched in 11. Everyone played and got a decent amount of garbage time, since we had a 26 point lead at the half.
USC 96 UNLV 69

November 15th, USC (1-0) vs. #3 Michigan State (1-0)
Their preseason ranking of #3 doesn't scare us: preseason rankings don't mean much in my eyes. It's all just hype anyway. We aren't taking them lightly though. In their win against Northwestern, which they only won by 9, they were led by SG Josh Johnson (17 points) and PF Troy Dumic (22). We'll trust our man-to-man defense and just try to beat them. The refs handed them this game though. I gotta admit, we beat them pretty much everywhere: we shot better, we outrebounded them, but they shot double the amount of FTs that we did.
USC 76 Michigan St. 77

November 22nd, USC (1-1) @ #10 Michigan (4-0)
Michigan is off to a hot start, but I have faith in my players to be better than theirs. They're led by hot SG Brian Fitz. We'll see how well he does against our tough defenders. Well... he did really well. I mean... amazingly. 17/28 from the floor. 40 points. It was just hard to stop him. Luckily, we didn't have to, we shut down all his teammates instead. He had no help and our balanced attack (19 from Read, 13 from Jackson, 11 from Paben) beat their one man show.
USC 73 Michigan 65

November 25th, USC (2-1) @ Purdue (1-1)
Purdue has a nice little post tandem, complemented by a decent scoring SG. I'm not even worried. Well, maybe I should have been. We lost on the road, giving up big scoring games to their SG which shouldn't happen. I need to look into Read's defense. Jackson had a great game though, 14 points on 6 shots.
USC 70 Purdue 77

November 29th, USC (2-2) @ South Carolina (1-4)
The Gamecocks are struggling but their outside scoring is keeping them afloat. They have little to no post presence though, so we're gonna look to take advantage of that. We really do take advantage, driving to the basket and getting the ball inside to Jackson and Laws. We shot 55.4% to their 40%. It was a nice game all around.
USC 79 South Carolina 52

All in all, 3-2 isn't terrible considering that every single game was on the road, and we faced some tough teams. Losing to Purdue sucks, but beating Michigan and coming so close to beating Michigan State more than makes up for it. Jackson is showing he's a prime-time player again, Read and Williams are destroying teams from the perimeter. We're looking nice.

[Myles Nelson]

December 2nd, Syracuse (3-1) @ USC (3-2)
This is an interesting game. Despite Syracuse only losing one game, they have dropped out of the Top #25 entirely. They have a great backcourt, better than our vaunted backcourt somehow, but our frontcourt and bench is better. Hopefully we can pressure them into making mistakes and playing poorly at our house. In our first home game of the season, Carvell Jackson has a good game, the only starter who scored in double digits, but secret weapon JR Williams came off the bench to drop 22 points and lead us to a huge win.
Syracuse 59 USC 77

December 6th, Loyola Marymount (3-2) @ USC (4-2)
This is like a home game vs. LMU since they are in LA and down the street from us. Not that it really matters, since they aren't on our level. They have a decent team this year but are outmatched at every single position. Marques Wheeler gets in foul trouble early, Paben was my only starter in double digits, and we absolutely destroyed them. I think scoring 39 points in a college game is pretty bad, which, going along with 20 turnovers, is just awful.
LMU 39 USC 82

December 9th, USC (5-2) @ Old Dominion (3-2)
Pretty much the same thing as LMU, but the big difference is that we are on the road. According to my scout, we're better everywhere, and having players like Williams and Clyde Collins come off the bench means our bench is almost automatically better than everyone else's. However, being on the road always presents a challenge. We just have to go out and execute. This game was a lot closer than I'd like. Like, a 6 point differential at the end of the game. Luckily, we were the ones who came out on top. Rowland Laws stepped up with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Collins led my team with 12 points.
USC 61 Old Dominion 55

December 13th, USC (6-2) @ #13 Marquette (8-1)
Here's the big litmus test. How we do against Marquette will tell me how good this team really is. The only team they've lost to all season is Florida, one of the elite teams out here. Marquette has balanced scoring, but they are led by their PG and PF, and hopefully our tough defense can hold them on their home court. Honestly, we held our own with them. We shot 44% to their 46%. We turned the ball over 18 times to their 14. They had a +5 in the rebounding section. What killed us was home court advantage. We shot 15 free throws, making 12 of them. They shot 34.
USC 64 Marquette 81

December 16th, Ohio State (8-3) @ USC (6-3)
Ohio State is again led by top-notch scorer Bevon Crenshaw, who's averaging 23 ppg at the SG spot. Now he also has a good scoring PG running next to him. We'll just defend the hell out of these guys and not let them hit from outside. Crenshaw made us pay, scoring 29 points, but he went 7/19 from the floor to get there. 17 from Williams and 16 from Collins to highlight the best bench in the world, we beat them running away at home.
Ohio State 65 USC 79

December 20th, Georgia (6-4) @ USC (7-3)
Georgia is led by their guards, but their big weakness is their bench. We're gonna key on trying to take advantage of their weak post men and bench, by looking to get Jackson, Collins, and Laws the ball. The big key though, is to make sure their guards don't pop off for a ton of points. We hold their guards to a combined 7/25 shooting from the floor, Read drops 22, Collins and Jackson pitch in with 11 and 10 respectively, and we blow out Georgia.
Georgia 52 USC 81

December 23rd, Illinois (3-7) @ USC (8-3)
I don't know if this is a product of a tough schedule, sanctions, or just bad organizational skills, but Illinois has gone from being a ranked team in past years to just sucking now. I was hoping this would be a good preparation game to get us ready for the grind of the Pac-12, but it's looking like that won't be the case today. We aren't taking them lightly, but the goal today is to win by 20 or more. 6 players scored in double digits and we destroyed. Just absolutely killed them.
Illinois 52 USC 84

We end the non-conference run with a 9-3 record, which was pretty good all things considered. The only disappointing loss we really had was to Purdue, since losing to Marquette and Michigan State is acceptable.

[Myles Nelson]

Player Evaluation and Conference Preview

Guards
PG Marques Wheeler: 5.5 ppg, 3.4 apg, 1.6 topg, 46.7% fg, 100% STOP
SG Ben Read: 11.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.0 spg, 40.3% fg, 35.5% 3pt, 86.2% STOP
PG Marquis Lee: 1.6 ppg, 0.8 apg, 23.5% fg, 80% STOP
PG JR Williams: 11.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.7 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.2 bpg 54.7% fg, 56.3% 3pt, 95.1% STOP

Forwards
SF Marquis Paben: 10.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 45.8% fg, 40.5% 3pt, 95.2% STOP
PF Rowland Laws: 7.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 53.1% fg, 0.7 PA/SF
SF Darrell Ramage: 6.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 44.1% fg, 43.5% 3pt, 88.9% STOP
PF Kenny Tyler: 3.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 41.9% fg

Centers
C Carvell Jackson: 11.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 48.5% fg, 0.6 PA/SF
C Clyde Collins: 8.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 64.2% fg, 0.7 PA/SF

Williams is an absolute beast so far. Read and Jackson are both playing very well, but Collins is stepping up big off the bench, both Paben and Ramage have significantly increased their shooting percentages. I'm really happy with the team I have out there.

Pac-12 Standings
#8 Arizona (9-2)
#5 UCLA (11-3)
#25 USC (9-3)
#24 Utah (8-3)
Stanford (8-3)
Oregon State (8-3)
Washington State (8-3)
Colorado (8-4)
Oregon (7-4)
Arizona State (7-4)
California (8-5)
Washington (6-5)

4 ranked teams including us and Utah who have just barely made it in. Every single team has a winning record though, which bodes well. I feel like we have the talent to finish at least top 3 in the conference, if not higher. We have a really good team, perhaps even better than some of our earlier teams that took us a couple rounds into the tournament. I'm going to predict a 12-14 season with a 3rd seed in the conference tournament.

[Myles Nelson]

December 30th, #25 USC (9-3) @ #24 Utah (8-3)
Thank god Greg White is gone. Utah no longer has a SF who averages 6 steals per game, and that makes my life so much easier. Utah has two pretty good big man and a combo guard who is the best player on the team according to my scouting coach. We'll just go with the usual man defense. We forced them into 22 turnovers and not even shooting an extra 16 free throws helped them. We ran away with this one easily.
USC 72 Utah 57

January 3rd, #7 Arizona (10-2, 1-0) @ #22 USC (10-3, 1-0)
According to my scout, Arizona is better than us everywhere. I refuse to believe that. They have two great shooters, and everyone else just plays a role. Our team is better than theirs, period. At least, that's what I believe. Their guards scored a combined 31 points, but as a team they only shot 37% and were held to 62 points as we cruised to a big win at home.
Arizona 62 USC 77

January 6th, #22 USC (11-3, 2-0) @ Washington State (8-5, 0-2)
I feel like Washington State is one of those teams that although they aren't a very good team, they are capable of busting out for big games any time. They seem to recruit quick players who are inconsistent, but if they catch fire, watch out! Well, speaking of catching fire, both of their guards did and scored 33 points on 12/18 shooting. Lucky for us, having five players in double digits and forcing 18 turnovers does the trick and allows us to win this very high scoring game.
USC 85 Washington St. 75

January 10th, #17 USC (12-3, 3-0) @ Washington (7-7, 1-2)
Man to be ranked 17th is special. I mean, this is coming off a extremely disappointing season and now we're doing big things. Read and Williams have been huge for us this year, they are definitely a big reason why we're here, no doubt. Speaking of those guys, Read gets 15, Williams gets 14, and we dominate again.
USC 76 Washington 54

January 13th, #5 UCLA (15-3, 4-0) @ #17 USC (13-3, 4-0)
This is the marquee matchup right here. The two best teams in the Pac-12, the biggest rivalry on the West Coast, and match #1 is at our house. How UCLA is still so good despite all their sanctions is beyond me. Next year they will suck since about half of their team is seniors right now. Next year doesn't matter today though. We have an answer for everything they do, forcing them into 30% from the field, and they can't stop Read (21 points) or Jackson (12 points, 11 rebounds) and we get perhaps the biggest win of the season.
UCLA 57 USC 71

January 17th, #14 USC (14-3, 5-0) @ Stanford (11-5, 3-2)
Stanford has a decently balanced team but no one who's really capable of taking over a game. I'm always wary of road games but the way we are playing (8 game winning streak) I feel like we're unstoppable. We continue our streak with a very high scoring win over Stanford. We connect on 10/22 from beyond and Read dropped 18.
USC 90 Stanford 77

January 20th, #14 USC (15-3, 6-0) @ Arizona State (8-9, 1-5)
Arizona State is led by their 20 ppg SG John Johnson (horrible name) but we're led by our everyone. We'll take this game and move on to the next one. Johnson got 18 on 7/10 shooting, but no one else on his team did diddly-squat.
USC 81 Arizona St. 61

January 24th, California (13-7, 5-2) @ #12 USC (16-3, 7-0)
California is doing surprisingly well. We're doing much better. I know this is a short writeup but there isn't much to say when you're busy on a ten game winning streak and are about to make it 11. Btw, we are undefeated at home.
California 60 USC 83

[Myles Nelson]

Pac-12 Standings
#12 USC (8-0, 17-3)
#4 UCLA (7-1, 18-4)
Oregon State (6-2, 14-5)
#9 Arizona (5-3, 14-5)
California (5-3, 13-8)
Washington (4-4, 10-9)
Stanford (3-5, 11-8)
Oregon (3-5, 10-9)
Utah (2-6, 10-9)
Washington State (2-6, 10-9)
Colorado (2-6, 10-10)
Arizona State (1-7, 8-11)

Hopefully we can run the gauntlet again and finish undefeated in conference play. I am a little worried about having to play both Arizona and UCLA on the road, but I have confidence in our team. I say we finish 7-1 and keep the first seed in the tournament.

January 27th, Colorado (10-10, 2-6) @ #12 USC (17-3, 8-0)
Colorado is an okay balanced team, but they are at the bottom of the conference for a reason. Carvell Jackson and JR Williams both foul out, and our team gets chuck-happy, deciding to shoot a bunch of threes, and luckily, somehow, we still pull out the win. Our team can't afford to be so stupid ever again.
Colorado 61 USC 69

January 31st, #11 USC (18-3, 9-0) @ Oregon (10-10, 3-6)
Oregon has a good low post tandem and no real outside shooters, so I decided to throw a little 2-3 zone at them as well today. They do get some good looks from outside, but we completely negate their inside attack. They can't hold our offense back, and we crush them on their home court.
USC 80 Oregon 64

February 3rd, #25 Oregon State (15-6, 7-3) @ #11 USC (19-3, 10-0)
Aw this is cute, Oregon State is ranked now. Too bad we'll be knocking them back into the unranked zone. They have one big scorer, SG Javier Beaudean, and besides him, everyone else is just average or worse. We'll key on him and force the rest of this team to beat us. Even though we key on him, we still has a big game against us, scoring 26 points. Our offense struggles, but we've been in these situations before and know how to close out games. We stop their furious comeback just short of tying the game up and win it outright.
Oregon State 62 USC 66

February 7th, Utah (13-9, 5-6) @ #8 USC (20-3, 11-0)
Utah is usually a pretty solid team, but this year they just don't have it. I think losing star SF Greg White has hurt them. Their C Jo Jo Nealy tries to keep them in this game, but he couldn't do it all by himself. This game was never even close.
Utah 56 USC 78

February 10th, #8 USC (21-3, 12-0) @ #7 Arizona (18-5, 9-3)
Last time we played them at our house we won big on the strength of our defense. Now we're at their house and still have to face the two strong guards who do all the scoring. Hopefully our strong play carries us to a win this game again. It doesn't. We can't score to save our lives, shooting 26%, and our 15 game winning streak finally comes to an end.
USC 41 Arizona 60

February 14th, Washington State (12-12, 4-9) @ #9 USC (21-4, 12-1)
We had won 15 in a row, but that loss to Arizona kind of shocked us all. Hopefully by playing two weak teams in a row at home we can build some momentum before playing UCLA at their house. Here's a very telling stat about our defense and how much we won this game by: not a single player on the Cougars scored in double digits.
Washington St. 60 USC 92

February 17th, Washington (12-13, 6-8) @ #9 USC (22-4, 13-1)
This may be my downfall, but I just want to get past this game to UCLA already. I know they say never underestimate an opponent, and to always focus on today's game and not worry about tomorrow's, but the next game is such a huge one that I really want to focus on it. Besides, we won by 31. Who cares about the Huskies anyway?
Washington 47 USC 78

February 21st, #9 USC (23-4, 14-1) @ #4 UCLA (24-5, 13-2)
If we win this game, we get the top seed for the conference tournament outright. If we lose, I don't know because I don't know what the tiebreaker is. Let's just not lose. We annihilated UCLA on our homecourt, but we did the same to Arizona and we all know what happened when we traveled there. Let's just focus on kicking ass, shall we? I think for maybe the first time since I became head coach, we beat UCLA in both games during the regular season. Suck on that Bruins.
USC 73 UCLA 65

[Myles Nelson]

Pac-12 Standings
#12 USC (15-1, 24-4)
#4 UCLA (13-3, 24-6)
#9 Arizona (11-5, 20-7)
Oregon State (10-6, 18-9)
California (8-8, 16-13)
Washington (7-9, 13-14)
Oregon (7-9, 14-13)
Utah (7-9, 15-12)
Stanford (6-10, 14-13)
Washington State (5-11, 13-14)
Colorado (4-12, 12-16)
Arizona State (3-13, 10-17)

Getting the first seed is awesome, cause it means we get to play some sucky team in the next round, and then face Oregon State, and won't have to play UCLA or Arizona until the final.

March 10th, Oregon (15-13, 7-9) vs. #9 USC (24-4, 15-1)
Last time we played Oregon we won by 16 on their court. This is in a neutral area, so it should play out somewhat similar. We are definitely the superior team and plan to show it today. We only won by 12, but hey, a win is a win.
Oregon 66 USC 78

March 11th, Oregon State (19-9, 10-6) vs. #9 USC (25-4, 15-1)
We just have to keep up the strong play. We can get a great seed in the NCAA tournament if we just keep up the strong play. But we don't. We lose in overtime. FML
Oregon State 83 USC 76

Oregon State beat Arizona in the final.

[Myles Nelson]

End of the Year Stats
Ben Read: 13 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.1 spg, 41.1% fg, 37.1% 3pt, 87.1% STOP
Marquis Paben: 10.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 42% fg, 37.6% 3pt, 93.3% STOP
JR Williams: 9.5 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.8 apg, 1.2 spg, 47.3% fg, 46.1% 3pt, 96.5% STOP
Carvell Jackson: 9.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 49.5% fg, 0.5 PA/SF
Rowland Laws: 8.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 57.8% fg, 0.7 PA/SF
Clyde Collins: 7.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 55.6% fg, 0.9 PA/SF
Marques Wheeler: 7.4 ppg, 4.2 apg, 48.6% fg, 42.4% 3pt, 100% STOP
Darrell Ramage: 6.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 42.5% fg, 42.4% 3pt, 84.9% STOP

Selection Sunday

Dayton: Utah gets in the play-in game in a fight for the 12th seed.

St. Louis: Arizona gets the 2nd seed in this bracket.

San Antonio: Oregon State gets the 6th seed here.

San Jose: WE GET THE 1ST SEED IN THIS BRACKET!!! Oh yeah and California gets the 8th seed. Also Oregon gets the 11th seed.

Let's goooooo!!

[Myles Nelson]

Utah barely beats Cal State Long Beach to make it into the tournament.

Arizona beat Oral Roberts in their first round matchup, and Oregon State does the same to knock out Eastern Carolina. However, #20 Charlotte ends Utah's run early. Oregon beats #17 Wagner to move on but California falls to Wisconsin.

March 17th, Maine (15-17) vs. #9 USC (25-5)
Maine is a lucky team that barely won their conference tournament after going 6-10 during the conference season. We'll just destroy them. Incidentally, our scout didn't even scout them. Not a good sign. But it doesn't matter. Rowland Laws leads our team with 15 as we move on to the next round.
Maine 52 USC 75

Arizona crushes Clemson to move ahead, but Oregon State falls to Michigan State and Oregon falls to Syracuse, leaving us with just Arizona and us.

March 19th, Wisconsin (18-11) vs. #9 USC (26-5)
Wisconsin is led by superstar SG Brian Harris, but he has no teammates to surround him really. We'll just lock him down and move on. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. We are shut down ourselves and fall early. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.
Wisconsin 84 USC 76

Arizona makes it all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to Marquette.

Texas is the national champion after defeating Connecticut.

[PointGuard]

Great season even though things didn't work out in the NCAA Tourny.