Sometimes you have to win ugly, and the Trojans did that, averting disaster to escape with a 80-74 victory over the Huskies!
UW basketball started in 1895 (1847-1249, .597), 17 NCAA Tournaments (latest 2019), 1953 Final Four, 13 Pac-12 championships, 3 Pac-12 Tourney Championships, 5 AP All-Americans (Bob Houbregs (2X- 1952, 1953, NCAA POY, Naismith HOF), Nate Robinson 2005, Brandon Roy 2006, Markelle Fultz 2017), 3 Pac-12 POY: Christian Welp 1986, Brandon Roy 2006, Jay Nowell 2019. 2019 Naismith Defensive POY Matisse Thybulle. Retired numbers: No. 2 Isaiah Thomas, No. 3 Brandon Roy, No. 25 Bob Houbregs. 13 NBA 1st round draft picks, 8 current NBA players.
Notable coaches - Hec Edmondson 488-195,Lorenzo Romar 298-196, Marv Harshman (Naismith HOF) 246-146.
Mike Hopkins is 85-75 (.531) at UW and 13-11, 5-8 this season, coming off loss to No. 11 ucla (also No. 18 Gonzaga, No. 23 Auburn). Best win vs No. 18 St. Mary’s (NET 6, KenPom 7). UW (NET 121, KenPom 108) is 1-6 in road games. Despite being Pac COY in 2018, 2019 is Hopkins on the hot seat? (Once UW Basketball Season Ends, Coaching Change Appears a Certainty).
USC (NET 51, KenPom 40) has 80-75 series lead and beat UW 80-67 Dec. 30 in Seattle. SC is 16-6, 8-3, winners of 11 straight home games.
UW: 69.5 ppg (-1.0), 43.3% FGs, 32.0% 3FGs, 6.8 3’s/g. Rebs 34.1 rpg (-3.4), 11.6 assists pg, TOs 14.4/g (-1.3), 14.4 pts off TO, Steals 7.0/g, Blks 5.7/g (No. 1 in Pac), 74.7% FTs (No. 1 in Pac)
SC: 71.9 ppg (+5.5), 46% FGs, 33.3% 3FGs, 6.0 3’s/g, Rebs 35 rpg (-1.0), 13.9 assists pg, TOs 13.0/g (+.2), 14.7 pts off TO, Steals 7.3/g, Blks 5.6 bpg (No. 2 in Pac), FT 73.3%
SC is No. 7 in NCAA in FG% Defense (38.7%). UW is No. 92 at 41.9%. Over the last 3 seasons SC has ranked No. 3 in FG% Defense.
UW is led by UK transfer Keion Brooks’ 18.1 ppg (2nd in Pac to Tubelis, Boogie is No.4), Cole Bajema 9.9 ppg, Noah Williams 9.6 ppg.
Braxton Meah is leading rebounder 7.0 rpg (No. 8 in Pac), Brooks 6.9 rpg (No. 9). Drew leads SC with 6.5 rpg (No. 12).
Keyon Menifield, PJ Fuller lead UW with 2.6 assists pg. Drew is No. 6 in Pac at 4.6 apg
Fuller is No. 10 in steals (1.22 stpg). SC is led by Kobe 2.09 stpg (No.2) and Boogie 2.02 stpg (No. 5)
Braxton is No. 4 in Pac with 1.61 blks pg. For SC, Josh Morgan is No. 1 in blocks in Pac, but will miss game with an ankle injury. For UW, 3-pt shooter Cole Bajema (41, 37.6% 3FG) is suspended for giving bruin Adem Bona a shot to the groin (somewhere Leonard Washington is chuckling about his take down of OUs Blake Griffin and Chimezi Metu is smiling about his shot on WSUs Carter Skaggs.)- haha
Fun facts: SC’s John Block holds the UW opponent scoring record with 45 pts in 1966. SC grad Tex Winter was UW head coach from 1969-71. UW’s Detlef Schrempf is second to Dirk Nowitzki as the most popular German basketball player of all-time.
Coming off the 110 onto Fig, I see lots of ‘Parking-$40’ signs and remember qualifying for the NASCAR 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is in progress. Isn’t it amazing how many different types of events have been held there? I see Drew walking alone on his way into Galen. There’s seems to be a little more interest and a different vibe in the air for this game - against the conference’s 9th place team? Huh. Probably because it’s a Saturday 6:30 game and there are no excuses for not being able to attend.
The Founder’s Room is nearly full. Associate head coach Chris Capko is the speaker and comments on the good energy. He’s proud of the guys for getting better, 8-3 now, a game behind the 9-2 bruins. We’ve been shooting the 3-ball better lately, mainly Drew and Boogie, and hopefully that continues tonight. He says Josh has a bad low ankle sprain but is off his crutches and in a walking boot. There is no timetable for his return. Fan favorite Vince the Prince will be making his first start tonight, but Iaroslav, Harry and Kijani should play a lot. He didn’t mention that Reese is out with an ankle injury from getting rolled up on in the WSU game. He is day-to-day.
The arena is pretty full (announced crowd 5706). I see 6’10” former C Clayton Olivier (1980-85), currently Mater Dei Girls JV coach. He is one big man, well over his playing weight - haha. He was drafted by the Spurs but played mostly in the CBA. Former PG Jacque Hill (1980-83), No. 6 in career assists, is here as always. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. Former Stanford star Casey Jacobsen is providing analysis for Fox Sports. He was drafted by the Suns and also played for the Hornets and Grizzlies. Former SC All-American PF Sam Clancy (No. 3 in career scoring, No. 4 in rebs, No. 2 in blks and No. 9 in steals) is joining Jordan Moore on the radio call of the game. Sam was drafted by the 76ers, but spent most of his 19 years playing internationally. 8-time Grammy winning songwriter Brody Brown is in the house, along with Smac from the ‘no jumper’ internet podcast. We got some star power in the house!
The game tips off and is a back and forth affair with 12 lead changes and 10 ties. The largest lead by UW was 7 pts at 11:49 in the 1st half and SC’s was 10 pts at 1:03 left in the game. In the game SC led for 20:51, UW for 14:06 and it was tied for 5:01. Down 16-9, SC outscored UW 25-11 to take a 34-27 halftime lead. Neither team shot well in the first half, especially from 3-pt distance UW was 9-30 (30% FGs) and hit only 2 of 12 threes (16.7%). While SC shot 14-32 (43.8% FGs), but converted only 1-9 threes (11.1%).
Drew and Boogie could not buy a 3-pt basket this game, combining to go 2-14 (14.2% 3FGs). The only Trojan to have a good 1st half was Tre White, with 14 pts. He continued his strong performance in the 2nd half for a career high 22 pts on 10-16 FGs, 2-3 FTs, with 8 rebs, 4 assists, 1 steal and only 1 TO. Tre was my Co-Player of the Game, along with Kobe, with a career high 21 pts on only 7 shots (5-7 FGs, 2-4 3FGs, 9-9 FTs). That efficient offensive performance was complemented with 3 rebs, 5 assists, 4 steals and No TOs. Boogie would end with 14 pts, but took 14 shots to get it. He added 4 rebs, 5 assists and a block, but had 3 TOs. Drew had 11 pts on 4-14 FGs, with a game-high 8 assists, 2 blks and 4 TOs. If you ever wondered what would happen when both Drew and Boogie had off nights shooting, this game provided some answers. The rest of the team had to pick up the slack.
Vince started but early foul trouble ended his night at only 10 mins, after a season high 23 mins vs. WSU. SC was getting dominated in the post by Braxton Meah a burly 7’1” 250 lbs man who could not be contained, scoring 11 pts on 5-5 FGs, 1-2 FTs. The only way to stop him, was for him to stop himself and he did, fouling out in 19 mins. Vince scored 6 pts (3-4 FGs), had 2 rebs but also 2 TOs. Andy would say that you could see how much we missed Josh Morgan, who he called one of the top defensive big men in the country and that while Vince may get to Josh’s level some day, he is young and still learning how to play. Hornery gave the team 18 mins, scoring 2 pts and grabbing 5 rebs (2 offensive). Andy says Harry is a smart player - he knows he isn’t the best athlete, so he plays great positional basketball. Iaroslav played 7 mins, had 1 reb and 1 assist with no shot attempts. Kijani DNP. The other 2 players to get into the game were Malik who played 17 mins on his 21st B-day (4 pts on 2-4 FGs and 3 steals) and Oziyah, who just can’t get untracked. He missed his 2 shots in 5 mins of action and took a seat for the rest of the game.
The Trojans seemed destined to win this one. UW started the 2nd half with a 10-0 run to go up 37-34, and would shoot 15-25 FGs (60%), 4-5 3FGs (80%), 13-13 FTs (100%)---AND LOSE! This night belonged to Tre and Kobe who combined for 43 points. Kobe was clutch down the stretch, hitting 2 big 3’s and the last 6 FTs to seal the game. He stole the ball and drew charges at important times and showed the leadership that made him a team captain. Enfield said "Kobe Johnson played one of the best games I've ever seen a Trojan play." Kobe was the guest on the post-game show and Sam Clancy told him that he’d never seen a player take 4 charges in a game before. Jordan Moore asked how he got so good at defense – was it little brother syndrome? That was in reference to Kobe growing up in a basketball with older brothers Rod (played basketball at Chattanooga and Western Illinois) and Jalen (Nicolet High state title team in 2019), at Duke the 2020-21 season before being selected No. 20 overall by Atlanta in the 2021 NBA Draft. Kobe’s father Roderick played basketball at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Southeast Missouri State, and 2 seasons professionally in Poland. Mother Stacy played at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In conference games, SC is leading the PAC-12 in free throw shooting at 78%. Remember when we used to ask why we couldn’t make FTs?
This was a milestone win for Andy Enfield, his 200th victory at USC (200-124), trailing only Sam Barry (260), Forrest Twogood (251) and Bob Boyd (216) on SC’s all-time wins list. It was also the 200th USC victory at Galen Center. Postgame’ Jordan Moore gave Andy a chance to take credit for the FT shooting this season, since he was blamed for prior poor FT shooting. Andy joked ‘yeah it was my assistants coaching FTs the last few seasons, so I finally said I’ve had enough and had to do it myself”-haha.
Keion Brooks led Washington with 22 points and 12 rebs, FR Menifield had 21 points.
With the 80-74 win tonight, USC improved to 17-6 (9-3) and UW fell to 13-12 (5-9). USC's next game will be at Oregon (14-10, 8-5). SR G Will Richardson leads the Ducks in scoring 14.0 average. USC and Oregon split last year, USC won 70-69 In Eugene and Oregon won 79-70 at Galen. USC leads the all-time series 69-59 and have won 7 of the last 10 meetings.
UW basketball started in 1895 (1847-1249, .597), 17 NCAA Tournaments (latest 2019), 1953 Final Four, 13 Pac-12 championships, 3 Pac-12 Tourney Championships, 5 AP All-Americans (Bob Houbregs (2X- 1952, 1953, NCAA POY, Naismith HOF), Nate Robinson 2005, Brandon Roy 2006, Markelle Fultz 2017), 3 Pac-12 POY: Christian Welp 1986, Brandon Roy 2006, Jay Nowell 2019. 2019 Naismith Defensive POY Matisse Thybulle. Retired numbers: No. 2 Isaiah Thomas, No. 3 Brandon Roy, No. 25 Bob Houbregs. 13 NBA 1st round draft picks, 8 current NBA players.
Notable coaches - Hec Edmondson 488-195,Lorenzo Romar 298-196, Marv Harshman (Naismith HOF) 246-146.
Mike Hopkins is 85-75 (.531) at UW and 13-11, 5-8 this season, coming off loss to No. 11 ucla (also No. 18 Gonzaga, No. 23 Auburn). Best win vs No. 18 St. Mary’s (NET 6, KenPom 7). UW (NET 121, KenPom 108) is 1-6 in road games. Despite being Pac COY in 2018, 2019 is Hopkins on the hot seat? (Once UW Basketball Season Ends, Coaching Change Appears a Certainty).
USC (NET 51, KenPom 40) has 80-75 series lead and beat UW 80-67 Dec. 30 in Seattle. SC is 16-6, 8-3, winners of 11 straight home games.
UW: 69.5 ppg (-1.0), 43.3% FGs, 32.0% 3FGs, 6.8 3’s/g. Rebs 34.1 rpg (-3.4), 11.6 assists pg, TOs 14.4/g (-1.3), 14.4 pts off TO, Steals 7.0/g, Blks 5.7/g (No. 1 in Pac), 74.7% FTs (No. 1 in Pac)
SC: 71.9 ppg (+5.5), 46% FGs, 33.3% 3FGs, 6.0 3’s/g, Rebs 35 rpg (-1.0), 13.9 assists pg, TOs 13.0/g (+.2), 14.7 pts off TO, Steals 7.3/g, Blks 5.6 bpg (No. 2 in Pac), FT 73.3%
SC is No. 7 in NCAA in FG% Defense (38.7%). UW is No. 92 at 41.9%. Over the last 3 seasons SC has ranked No. 3 in FG% Defense.
UW is led by UK transfer Keion Brooks’ 18.1 ppg (2nd in Pac to Tubelis, Boogie is No.4), Cole Bajema 9.9 ppg, Noah Williams 9.6 ppg.
Braxton Meah is leading rebounder 7.0 rpg (No. 8 in Pac), Brooks 6.9 rpg (No. 9). Drew leads SC with 6.5 rpg (No. 12).
Keyon Menifield, PJ Fuller lead UW with 2.6 assists pg. Drew is No. 6 in Pac at 4.6 apg
Fuller is No. 10 in steals (1.22 stpg). SC is led by Kobe 2.09 stpg (No.2) and Boogie 2.02 stpg (No. 5)
Braxton is No. 4 in Pac with 1.61 blks pg. For SC, Josh Morgan is No. 1 in blocks in Pac, but will miss game with an ankle injury. For UW, 3-pt shooter Cole Bajema (41, 37.6% 3FG) is suspended for giving bruin Adem Bona a shot to the groin (somewhere Leonard Washington is chuckling about his take down of OUs Blake Griffin and Chimezi Metu is smiling about his shot on WSUs Carter Skaggs.)- haha
Fun facts: SC’s John Block holds the UW opponent scoring record with 45 pts in 1966. SC grad Tex Winter was UW head coach from 1969-71. UW’s Detlef Schrempf is second to Dirk Nowitzki as the most popular German basketball player of all-time.
Coming off the 110 onto Fig, I see lots of ‘Parking-$40’ signs and remember qualifying for the NASCAR 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is in progress. Isn’t it amazing how many different types of events have been held there? I see Drew walking alone on his way into Galen. There’s seems to be a little more interest and a different vibe in the air for this game - against the conference’s 9th place team? Huh. Probably because it’s a Saturday 6:30 game and there are no excuses for not being able to attend.
The Founder’s Room is nearly full. Associate head coach Chris Capko is the speaker and comments on the good energy. He’s proud of the guys for getting better, 8-3 now, a game behind the 9-2 bruins. We’ve been shooting the 3-ball better lately, mainly Drew and Boogie, and hopefully that continues tonight. He says Josh has a bad low ankle sprain but is off his crutches and in a walking boot. There is no timetable for his return. Fan favorite Vince the Prince will be making his first start tonight, but Iaroslav, Harry and Kijani should play a lot. He didn’t mention that Reese is out with an ankle injury from getting rolled up on in the WSU game. He is day-to-day.
The arena is pretty full (announced crowd 5706). I see 6’10” former C Clayton Olivier (1980-85), currently Mater Dei Girls JV coach. He is one big man, well over his playing weight - haha. He was drafted by the Spurs but played mostly in the CBA. Former PG Jacque Hill (1980-83), No. 6 in career assists, is here as always. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. Former Stanford star Casey Jacobsen is providing analysis for Fox Sports. He was drafted by the Suns and also played for the Hornets and Grizzlies. Former SC All-American PF Sam Clancy (No. 3 in career scoring, No. 4 in rebs, No. 2 in blks and No. 9 in steals) is joining Jordan Moore on the radio call of the game. Sam was drafted by the 76ers, but spent most of his 19 years playing internationally. 8-time Grammy winning songwriter Brody Brown is in the house, along with Smac from the ‘no jumper’ internet podcast. We got some star power in the house!
The game tips off and is a back and forth affair with 12 lead changes and 10 ties. The largest lead by UW was 7 pts at 11:49 in the 1st half and SC’s was 10 pts at 1:03 left in the game. In the game SC led for 20:51, UW for 14:06 and it was tied for 5:01. Down 16-9, SC outscored UW 25-11 to take a 34-27 halftime lead. Neither team shot well in the first half, especially from 3-pt distance UW was 9-30 (30% FGs) and hit only 2 of 12 threes (16.7%). While SC shot 14-32 (43.8% FGs), but converted only 1-9 threes (11.1%).
Drew and Boogie could not buy a 3-pt basket this game, combining to go 2-14 (14.2% 3FGs). The only Trojan to have a good 1st half was Tre White, with 14 pts. He continued his strong performance in the 2nd half for a career high 22 pts on 10-16 FGs, 2-3 FTs, with 8 rebs, 4 assists, 1 steal and only 1 TO. Tre was my Co-Player of the Game, along with Kobe, with a career high 21 pts on only 7 shots (5-7 FGs, 2-4 3FGs, 9-9 FTs). That efficient offensive performance was complemented with 3 rebs, 5 assists, 4 steals and No TOs. Boogie would end with 14 pts, but took 14 shots to get it. He added 4 rebs, 5 assists and a block, but had 3 TOs. Drew had 11 pts on 4-14 FGs, with a game-high 8 assists, 2 blks and 4 TOs. If you ever wondered what would happen when both Drew and Boogie had off nights shooting, this game provided some answers. The rest of the team had to pick up the slack.
Vince started but early foul trouble ended his night at only 10 mins, after a season high 23 mins vs. WSU. SC was getting dominated in the post by Braxton Meah a burly 7’1” 250 lbs man who could not be contained, scoring 11 pts on 5-5 FGs, 1-2 FTs. The only way to stop him, was for him to stop himself and he did, fouling out in 19 mins. Vince scored 6 pts (3-4 FGs), had 2 rebs but also 2 TOs. Andy would say that you could see how much we missed Josh Morgan, who he called one of the top defensive big men in the country and that while Vince may get to Josh’s level some day, he is young and still learning how to play. Hornery gave the team 18 mins, scoring 2 pts and grabbing 5 rebs (2 offensive). Andy says Harry is a smart player - he knows he isn’t the best athlete, so he plays great positional basketball. Iaroslav played 7 mins, had 1 reb and 1 assist with no shot attempts. Kijani DNP. The other 2 players to get into the game were Malik who played 17 mins on his 21st B-day (4 pts on 2-4 FGs and 3 steals) and Oziyah, who just can’t get untracked. He missed his 2 shots in 5 mins of action and took a seat for the rest of the game.
The Trojans seemed destined to win this one. UW started the 2nd half with a 10-0 run to go up 37-34, and would shoot 15-25 FGs (60%), 4-5 3FGs (80%), 13-13 FTs (100%)---AND LOSE! This night belonged to Tre and Kobe who combined for 43 points. Kobe was clutch down the stretch, hitting 2 big 3’s and the last 6 FTs to seal the game. He stole the ball and drew charges at important times and showed the leadership that made him a team captain. Enfield said "Kobe Johnson played one of the best games I've ever seen a Trojan play." Kobe was the guest on the post-game show and Sam Clancy told him that he’d never seen a player take 4 charges in a game before. Jordan Moore asked how he got so good at defense – was it little brother syndrome? That was in reference to Kobe growing up in a basketball with older brothers Rod (played basketball at Chattanooga and Western Illinois) and Jalen (Nicolet High state title team in 2019), at Duke the 2020-21 season before being selected No. 20 overall by Atlanta in the 2021 NBA Draft. Kobe’s father Roderick played basketball at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Southeast Missouri State, and 2 seasons professionally in Poland. Mother Stacy played at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In conference games, SC is leading the PAC-12 in free throw shooting at 78%. Remember when we used to ask why we couldn’t make FTs?
This was a milestone win for Andy Enfield, his 200th victory at USC (200-124), trailing only Sam Barry (260), Forrest Twogood (251) and Bob Boyd (216) on SC’s all-time wins list. It was also the 200th USC victory at Galen Center. Postgame’ Jordan Moore gave Andy a chance to take credit for the FT shooting this season, since he was blamed for prior poor FT shooting. Andy joked ‘yeah it was my assistants coaching FTs the last few seasons, so I finally said I’ve had enough and had to do it myself”-haha.
Keion Brooks led Washington with 22 points and 12 rebs, FR Menifield had 21 points.
With the 80-74 win tonight, USC improved to 17-6 (9-3) and UW fell to 13-12 (5-9). USC's next game will be at Oregon (14-10, 8-5). SR G Will Richardson leads the Ducks in scoring 14.0 average. USC and Oregon split last year, USC won 70-69 In Eugene and Oregon won 79-70 at Galen. USC leads the all-time series 69-59 and have won 7 of the last 10 meetings.
