USC basketball jumps into AP Top 25 poll for first time since 2017
The USC basketball team finally got the attention of Associated Press poll voters with its 66-48 win over a ranked UCLA team on Saturday night.
That victory moved the Trojans (15-3, 9-2 Pac-12) atop the conference standings and into the AP poll at No. 20.
UCLA, which was No. 21 entering that matchup, fell out of the rankings, meaning USC is the only Pac-12 team presently ranked.
It's USC's first appearance in the AP poll since December of 2017.
The Trojans have won 10 of their last 11 games and return to action Thursday at Washington. They are tied in the W-L column with UCLA, but with the head-to-head advantage they sit atop the Pac-12 standings with nine games to play.
It's arguably been Andy Enfield's finest coaching job in his now nine seasons at USC. He's made two NCAA Tournament appearances in that time and likely would have made it last year had the season not been abruptly ended by the pandemic in March. The Trojans are well on their way to an NCAA berth at this point. In his latest "Bracketology" update, ESPN's Joe Lunardi had USC projected as a No. 6 seed prior to that win over UCLA.
Meanwhile, Enfield's USC teams have never finished higher than second in the Pac-12 regular-season standings. For that matter, the Trojans as a program haven't won a Pac-12 regular-season title since sharing it with Washington in the 1984-85 season.
The win over the Bruins, who were missing three key players, is the best statement on USC's resume so far, while its three losses have come against UConn in November in Connecticut, to Colorado at the end of December and at Oregon State in mid-January before then beating the Beavers at home the following week.
The Huskies are just 8-4 having had a large number of games cancelled due to COVID-19, the Buffaloes are 14-5 and Oregon State is 10-7.
What's especially impressive about USC's record to this point is that the Trojans have done it largely with only one returning established contributor in sophomore forward Isaiah Mobley (9.2 points per game, 7.4 rebounds per game).
Sophomore point guard Ethan Anderson was supposed to be a stabilizing force for the roster, but a back injury cost him six weeks and even after returning he didn't look to be himself until breaking out for a career-high 19 points (including 5 3-pointers) vs. UCLA on Saturday night. If Anderson is ready to build on that performance, he adds another dimension to this team as the only natural point guard on the roster.
USC had patched through his absence with Tahj Eaddy (a transfer from Santa Clara) and Drew Peterson (a 6-foot-7 transfer from Rice) filling in as facilitators for the offense, but neither are true point guards and Enfield often lamented needing Anderson's "creativity" back on offense.
Again, he and Mobley were the only returning contributors of any significance from last season, while sophomore forward Max Agbonkpolo also returned and has seen his role grow (albeit with inconsistent production). In all, USC lost its top five scorers from last season, including first-round NBA draft pick Onyeka Okongwu.
In rebuilding the roster, Enfield brought in 5-star 7-foot freshman Evan Mobley and four transfers (plus another in Joshua Morgan who is mostly sitting out the season for development purposes).
The younger Mobley has been as advertised, leading the team in scoring (16.3 PPG) and the Pac-12 in rebounding (9.0 RPG) and blocks (53).
Eaddy (12.8 PPG), Peterson (9.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG), Utah Valley transfer Isaiah White (7.7 PPG, 3.4 RPG) and Wofford transfer Chevez Goodwin (6.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG) have all had big moments along the way for the Trojans, with Eaddy emerging more and more as a dependable scoring option. Noah Baumann (4.7 PPG), who had sat out last season after transferring in from San Jose State, and Agbonkpolo (4.2 PPG) round out the rotation.
The Trojans were picked sixth in the Pac-12's preseason poll and have been one of the league's best stories so far.
"We were confident coming into the season, throughout the summer. We were picked to finish sixth and we kind of looked at each other like, 'Like, what? There's no way.' So we're not surprised. We're not surprised," Eaddy said. "This is what we expected and we're just trying to keep the ball rolling. We expect to win championships so this is the right step forward."
Added Anderson: "I've been telling people all summer and leading up to this season that we have some big-time transfers, and nobody really knew their name. We didn't have any 5-star transfers come in -- all they knew was Evan Mobley that was joining us -- and I kept telling them, repeating their names. ... I kept repeating those names. And I'm so glad, I'm not happy I got hurt, but I'm happy our team got a chance to have a lot of other people step up and really show what they can do. ... I really enjoyed watching them take over this team and really will us to where we are. I just added [another] piece to it when I came back."
