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Recruiting shakeup! JuJu Lewis decommits from USC, Trojans flip Husan Longstreet from TAMU

Matt Moreno
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usc.rivals.com

Major QB dominoes fall with Lewis, Longstreet decisions

There was major quarterback news Sunday as Julian Lewis de-committed and Husan Longstreet flipped.
usc.rivals.com usc.rivals.com

It was an eventful morning for USC that all took place in about 5 minutes with Julian Lewis backing off his pledge immediately followed by Corona-Centennial quarterback Husan Longstreet announcing his pledge to the Trojans. None of this was unexpected, but now it is all official. USC is all in with the local star.

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What I'm hearing on the QB situation...

Adam Gorney
I've now been told by two people - neither inside the family - that the expectation now is that five-star JuJu Lewis flips to Colorado at some point and that Husan Longstreet would absolutely be the main target for the USC once that happens.

USC QB coach Luke Huard was at Longstreet's game Friday night - a win over Mission Viejo - and there is definitely mutual interest between the Trojans and Longstreet. Definitely something to watch here.
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Recruiting Emoji tracker

Ryan Young
This doesn’t have to replace the other thread, but I’m going to pin this just so we have a running count.

Emoji date —> result

May 24 —> CB Braylon Conley (announced June 30)
June 4 —> OT Hayden Treter
June 4 —> S Jarvis Boatwright
June 4 —> CB Dakoda Fields
June 5 —> RUSH Kameryn Fountain
June 5 —> OL Manasse Itete
June 5 —> OLB Elijah Newby
June 6 —> unrevealed
June 14 —> TE Walter Matthews
June 18 —> CB Marcelles Williams
June 18 —> OL Jason Zandamela
June 26 —> WR Ryan Pellum**
June 27 —> S Marquis Gallegos
June 27 —> OL Makai Saina
June 27 —> DT Deyvid Palepale
June 27 —> (Reneged silent commit from Tyanthony Smith?)

**Still checking to see if this might have been one of the unrevealed earlier ones, as Riley did not issue a fresh emoji for it.
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My notes on SC’s 98-95 win over University of Texas at Arlington

S
The University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington) was founded in 1895 as Arlington College, a private school for grades 1-10 in a schoolhouse built from donated materials from citizens of the city. From 1901-13 it was Carlisle Military Academy, then Arlington Training School, Arlington Military Academy, Grubb’s Vocational College, North Texas Agricultural College (1923-49) part of the Texas A&M system, Arlington State College 1949-65 (break from agricultural emphasis), 1965 joined the University of Texas system.

UTA has 420 acres in the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex, 40,990 students (27,704 undergrad), $218M endowment, USN&WR No. 231, No. 126 public school, WSJ No. 216

Famous alumni include TX Gov Greg Abbott, first Indian female astronaut in space KC Chawla (died in 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle accident), Country Music HOF singer Ray Price, Actors Lou Diamond Phillips, Charles Baker (Skinny Pete on Breaking Bad), Challenger/Atlantis Astronaut Ret. General Robert L. Stewart, Former Commander in Chief of US Central Command Tommy Franks, HOF Swimmer Doug Russell, MLB Pitcher & 3x World Series champ John Lackey, Pro Baseball coach Trey Hillman, 4x All-Star & 2x WS champ Hunter Pence, 2x Super Bowl champ OL Bruce Collie, 3x NFL Champ, SB I & II DB Doug Hart, 3x SB Champ CB Tim McKyer, Pentatonix singer Mitch Grassi, first black USMC 4-star general Michael Langley

UTA Athletics: NCAA Div I, Western Athletic Conference (WAC) – formerly in the Southland 1964-70 and Sun Belt Conferences, No NCAA championships. 116 Conference titles: 21 Volleyball,17 Men’s Tennis, 15 Women’s Tennis, 11 Men’s T&F, 8 Women’s bball, 8 Men’s XC, 7 Baseball, 7 Women’s Indoor T&F, 6 Women’s T&F, 5 Women’s XC, 4 Men’s golf, 4 Men’s bball, 3 Football; Olympic medals 2 gold,1 Silver,1 Bronze

Colors – Royal blue, orange, white, Nickname – Mavericks (since 1971, formerly the Rebels, Blue Riders, Hornets, Grubbworms), fight song UTA Fight Song (originally Dixie), Mascots – Blaze (horse, since 2007), was Johnny Reb

Basketball started 1959 (765-971, .441), 1 NCAA appearance (2008), 3 conf titles (last 2017), 1 conf tourney champ 2008, 4 NBA draft picks (Rd 2 Kevin Hervey – OKC, Rd 9 Ralph McPherson & Rd 10 Albert Culton – Dallas Mavericks, Rd 9 Paul Renfro – Utah Jazz)

Winningest coaches: Scott Cross 225-161, .583, Eddie McCarter 179-211, .466

Current – KT Turner (2nd season) 20-14, .588 – loss in WAC Championship game

Currently: 1-1 (W: UNT Dallas; L: La Tech). UTA picked 2nd in WAC preseason coaches’ poll (1 Grand Canyon, 3 Seattle, 4 Cal Baptist, 5 UT Valley, 6 Tarleton St, 7 Abilene Christian, 8 UT Tech, 9 So UT)

All-time: First meeting

UTA NET n/a, KenPom 190, SC NET n/a, KenPom 55

UTA Scores: 73.5 ppg (+10.0), 44.2% FG, 31.0% 3FG, 9.0 3’s/g, 71.1% FT. Rebounds 40.0 pg (+0.0), Assists 18.0 pg, TOs 12.5 pg (+1.9), 15.5 ppg/TO, Steals 8.0 pg, Blks 2.5 pg

UTA Leaders:

Scoring: Jaden Wells* 19.5 ppg (46.7% FG, 31.8% 3FG, 87.2% FT), Raysean Seamster 16.5 ppg (65.0% FG, 0.0% 3FG. 58.3% FT), Troy Hupstead 14.5 ppg (55.6% FG, 50% 3FG, 77.8% FT), Diante Smith 10.5 ppg (50% FG, 50% 3FG, 0% FT)

*Grad xfer from DII Central Oklahoma - 315 career 3FGs, 2nd among active NCAA players

Rebounding: Hupstead 9.0 rpg, Smith 6.5, Seamster 5.0, Assists – Brody Robinson 4.5 pg, Seamster 4.0; Steals – Wells 1.5 pg, Hupstead 1.5 stpg, Blks – Seamster 1.0

SC scores: 76.0 ppg (+16.0), 46.7% FG, 28.9% 3FG, 6.5 3’s/g, 65.9% FT, Rebs 30.5 rpg (-6.5), Assists 20.5 apg, TOs 7.5 pg (+9.0), 12.5 ppg/TO, Steals 7.5, Blks 3.0

SC Leaders

Scoring: Josh Cohen 11.5 ppg (58.8% FG, 0% 3FG, 75.0% FT), Wesley Yates 11.0 ppg (47.1% FG, 20.0% 3FG, 100% FT), Chibuzo Agbo 10.5 ppg (31.6% FG, 33.3% 3FG, 66.7% FT), Saint Thomas 9.5 ppg (44.4% FG, 50.0% 3FG, 0% FT)

Rebounds: Thomas 6.0 rpg, Cohen 4.0, Rashaun Agee 4.0; Assists – Thomas 6.5 apg (5 players at 2.0); Steals - Yates 2.5, Thomas 1.5; Blks – Cohen 1.5, Agee 1.0

Pregame

Founder’s is half empty. Asst Coach Michael Musselman (BA USD 2018, MA Nevada 2019) is the guest speaker. He continues the family coaching legacy started by Grandfather Bill and continued by Coach Eric Muss. Younger bro Matt is a grad asst.

Michael planted the seeds as a 4-yr student mgr at USD, first coaching job was grad asst at Nevada, then intern for Cleveland Cavs summer team, followed by 5 seasons at Arkansas (Dir of Recruiting, Asst Dir Bball Ops, then Asst Coach in 2023).

Knowling, Pope unavailable, but T-Will will play tonight. Thomas may play more PG this season than he has. Going with more experienced starting lineup to alleviate some pressure on the freshmen.

Practice stressed rebounding, getting out in transition, 3-pt shooting, guarding pick-n-roll. The message regarding the importance of fan support was reiterated.

Entering the arena, I see perhaps the smallest crowd I have seen at Galen, only a handful of students are here. Galen’s favorite usher Keith Williams, Jr (gospel singer, performer of national anthem at sports events (incl. World Series) agrees with me. There are only 4 media members at the press tables.

The Game

SC rolls out a starting lineup of Thomas, T-Will, Cohen, Claude, Agbo

Cohen opens the scoring with a layup and SC goes out to a 13-2 lead at 16:46, SC leads by 12 on a Claude layup at 15:26 (largest of the game). Claude continued to penetrate all game, as UTA didn’t have a rim protector. Behind 4 threes from Wells, UTA takes the lead 23-21 at 12:00. Wells may have spent 4 years in DII but the guy can play. He shoots lights out, rebounds, assists, steals. An all-around great player in a small package. One thing exposed in our games vs teams with fast diminutive guards is we have a tough time defending them and keeping them from driving to the hoop. Our tall guards are great for offense but are lacking in footspeed to stay with players like Wells and Idaho State’s Darling. With Cohen out of the game we have no rim protection, I wish Muss would consider running some zone to shore up the middle. The added benefit is that our team would get to face a zone in practice, because many teams will zone us up until we show we can shoot our way out of it.

SC fought its way back into the lead and went up by 11 40-29 on Kevin Patton’s first bucket as a Trojan, a three from the left corner. We were told he would debut vs. Cal, but in this early debut he looked like a rotation player for the rest of the season. As a USD frosh last yr he ranked 2nd in the WCC in blocks (1.3 blks pg) and had 5 blks vs. Navy.

The team gets scolded by Muss going into the tunnel despite a hard fought 51-42 lead, overcoming a 50% FG, 8-13 3FG performance by the Mavs.

When play resumes, SC takes its largest lead of the 2nd half 57-46 at 17:54. However, when you make shots like UTA you are never really out of the game and they stormed back to 60-58 at 15:49 with 3 threes from Kade Douglas. SC kept UTA in the game by settling for outside shots instead of driving to the rim The lane was open against smaller UTA and I kept yelling to take the ball inside. Finally, Claude would start exploiting the paint down the stretch. SC dominated the paint 50 pts to 24.

UTA tied it up at 66-66 with 12:44 on a Seamster layup and repeatedly went to him against Thomas close in to the basket and he found ways to convert, until Saint finally forced a TO to stop him. UTA took the lead at 5:16 83-82, SC tied it at 86-86 with 2:41 and again at 90-90 with 1:15, taking the lead at 94-90 on consecutive buckets by Claude. SC hung on for the 98-95 win. UTA had a chance to tie it, but Wells who played a great game had a huge mental error down by 3, driving to the hoop for 2 pts with time expiring rather than hoisting the 3 for the tie. SC fans breathed a sigh of relief.

In his absence, I see the importance of Matt Knowling to our team, he is a real glue guy and makes others better, I hope he is back soon (he may be in concussion protocol). We also need T-Will’s 3-pt shooting, because we are shooting only 30.2% from distance, while our opponents are hitting 37.1% - we need to shoot better and defend better.

For a team that wants to pride itself on getting to the foul line (Muss’ teams have been top 5 in FTAs), we have 68 attempts, but opponents have 72. I thought we had left our rebounding issues of the last several seasons behind, but we have been outrebounded in every game, even vs smaller opponents. Muss has called out our bigs (Agee and Cohen) but the whole team needs to rebound better. Agee must be in the doghouse as he played just 3 min in this one. He was supposed to be our big rebounder. He needs to bring it, the team needs him.

For the game:

UTA shot 56.6% FG (30-53), 66.7% 3FG (16-24), 82.6% FT (19-23)
SC shot 55.6% FG (35-63), 33.3% 3FG (6-18), 81.5% FT (22-27)

UTA

Scoring: Wells 27 pts, 9-16 FG, 7-10 3FG, 2-2 FT, Jaxon Ellingsworth 19 pts, 6-8 FG, 4-5 3FG, Seamster 15 pts, 7-11 FG, 0-1, 1-2 FT

Rebounds: Darius Burford 7, Wells 5; Assists Kade Douglas 8, Wells 5; Stls Wells 4; No blks

SC

Scoring: Claude 26 pts, 9-12 FG, 8-9 FT, Cohen 19, 8-10 FG, 3-4 FT, T-Will 18, 7-10 FG, 2-4 3FG, 2-2 FT, Yates 14, 6-9 FG, 1-3 3FG, 1-1 FT

Rebounds: Thomas 7, Claude 5; Assists Claude 8, Thomas 7; Stls Thomas 2; Blks 3 w/ 1

SC improved to 3-0 and UTA fell to 1-2.

Next up: Cal (2-1 – loss to Vandy). Watch on B1G Network.

Fight On! Beat the Bears!
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