Reports: USC basketball picks up commitment from grad transfer G Tahj Eaddy
USC picked up another piece for its 2020-21 roster Tuesday, landing a commitment from Santa Clara grad transfer guard Tahj Eaddy.
Rivals basketball recruiting analyst Corey Evans confirmed earlier reports on the commitment by.Marc Kulkin of USC Scoop and Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers.com.
Eaddy, a 6-foot-2, 165 pound guard, has one year of eligibility remaining. He started 14 of 33 games this past season, averaging 9.1 points per game for a 20-13 team. The previous season he started all 31 games for Santa Clara, leading the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game that year.
He averaged 1.4 3-pointers per in 2019-20 on 33.3-percent shooting after averaging 2.5 3s on 37.9-percent shooting the previous year.
USC will again be remaking its roster heading into next season while losing key seniors Jonah Mathews (13.4 points per game last season, USC career leader in 3-pointers), Nick Rakocevic (10.5 PPG, 8.3 rebounds per game) and Daniel Utomi (8.2 PPG). Coach Andy Enfield has also acknowledged that the plan is for Onyeka Okongwu (team-leading 16.2 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 76 blocks) to be one-and-done and enter the NBA Draft.
Those were the Trojans' top four players. Specifically, they lose 65.5 percent of their overall 3-point shooting and 84.7 percent of their rebounding.
RELATED: USC basketball coach Andy Enfield looks ahead to next season
The lone returning primary starter is rising-sophomore point guard Ethan Anderson (5.5 PPG, 4.2 assists per game), while rising-junior sixth man Elijah Weaver (6.6 PPG) and rising sophomore forward Isaiah Mobley (6.3 PPG, 5.3 RPG) also played significant roles (and made a number of starts).
Backup point guard Kyle Sturdivant, forward Max Agbonkpolo and guard Drake London (limited to just 3 games due to football participation and illness) will be sophomores, while redshirt junior Noah Baumann will look to emerge after sitting out last season following his transfer from San Jose State. The 6-foot-6 Baumann could help fill the perimeter shooting void as he shot 45.5 percent (81 of 178) from 3-point range in his last season at SJSU.
Enfield had suggested that the Trojans could add another grad transfer to help in that department. USC now has three commitments for 2020 newcomers in 5-star 7-foot center Evan Mobley (already signed), 3-star 6-foot-10 center Boubacar Coulibaly and now Eaddy.
"We will be extremely young next year and the great thing about college basketball is the freshmen become sophomores and they have a chance to prove themselves and make big improvements in the offseason. We expect all our freshmen to do that," Enfield said Monday. "Elijah Weaver will be a junior and we expect him to be a big-time leader for us next season, and we're going to have to have a huge offseason with improvement. So it's an exciting time for our young players to improve and take ownership of the program."
USC also picked up a commitment Tuesday from top-50 2021 4-star SG Reese Dixon-Waters.