USC basketball coach Andy Enfield bemoaned his team's lack of points in transition and its inability to finish around the rim. He critiqued the shots the Trojans did take early and the ones they passed up late, while noting that Colorado's bigs hit 3-pointers they don't normally hit.
But he didn't have an answer to one overarching question Saturday night.
Why is it that when the Trojans lose, they usually lose like this -- thoroughly and convincingly as they did in this 78-57 loss to No. 20 Colorado inside the Galen Center.
USC is 17-5 overall and 6-3 in the Pac-12, but it's average margin of defeat in those five losses is 18.6 points with the closest defeats a pair of 9-point losses (albeit one was in double overtime).
"When we're bad, we're bad. I don't really have an answer for that, but it is unusual," Enfield said. "… It just seems like when we don't have [it] offensively, we're really bad."
USC's timing for a clunker like this was also bad, as the Trojans had a chance to claim first place in the conference with a win on their home court.
Instead, they shot 31 percent from the field in the first half, went into halftime down 33-24 and let it get worse from there.
Colorado (17-5, 6-3) shot 62.5 percent after halftime to easily put this game away as Tyler Bey (16 points, 7 rebounds), De'Shawn Schwartz (12 points), McKinley Wright (12 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals) and Lucas Siewert (12 points) contributed to a balanced effort.
USC got 12 points from freshman forward Isaiah Mobley, but 9 of those points came once the Buffaloes' lead had already eclipsed 20 points. Fellow freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu had 11 points and 10 rebounds, but he shot just 3 of 8 from the field. Senior guard Jonah Mathews scored 11, but it came on 4-of-15 shooting.
"We had a lot of chances early and throughout the game to make layups and make post moves and make 3s and we just didn't get it done. So we'll have to figure out how to improve our offense and we'll go from there," Enfield said. "… The first half I thought our guards took a couple bad shots, our bigs took a couple tough shots and then we were passing up open shots and driving into the lane. It's decision-making, it's a confidence thing and it's just play basketball the right way -- and our guys are capable of doing that. But tonight was certainly an off night."
Mobley said he felt Colorado had done a good job scouting USC and seemed to know what the Trojans were trying to do.
"Their defense was sinking in because I think they noticed we weren't shooting very well from the field, so they made it tough on the inside to get shots," he said. "I think we tried to make adjustments, like run a different style of offense at the end it was a little too late."
USC actually led 14-13 before things started to come undone. Colorado followed with a 13-3 run and led by as many as 12 in the first half. Unfortunately halftime was about as good as it would get for the Trojans.
The Buffaloes led 37-28 when they proceeded to score the next 13 points. That stretch encapsulated the evening for USC.
At one point, Mathews failed to finish an otherwise nice drive to the rim, and Schwartz followed with a 3-pointer for Colorado. Then Okongwu had one roll off the rim after getting a nice look in the paint, and Dallas Walton followed with another 3 for the visitors. Elijah Weaver promptly turned it over for USC, and Schwartz turned it into a fastbreak dunk.
After a USC timeout, Mobley bricked a shot jumper from the free throw line, and Schwartz followed with a nice take to the rim for Colorado. Then Mathews had the ball stripped (though the turnover was given to Nick Rakocevic on the pass), and when the Buffaloes mercifully didn't score that time, USC gave it right back as Rakocevic lost the ball in the paint. This time Schwartz got to the foul line for two successful free throws. Mathews then drove into the pain and was blocked, and Walton eventually got to the line for two more Colorado free throws to make it 50-28 with 11:32 to play.
Yeah, that pretty much summed up the night for the Trojans.
"It's easy to say, we can run this or run that, or we should throw the ball here or throw the ball there. It's a team effort and you get scouted," Enfield said. "… We have lack of transition baskets right now and we don't get anything easily, and offensively we are missing a lot, a lot, a lot of shots that if you're going to be consistently good offensively you've got to make a higher percentage of those."
USC didn't shoot well on Thursday night against Utah either (37.3 percent), but it found a way to win that game thanks to its defense. No such luck this time.
"It's just a wake-up call," Mobley said. "And the Pac-12 this year is really good so everyone's beating everyone. ... We've just got to fix the little things and I think we'll be all right."
To be fair, yes, this team is still 17-5, has collected some nice wins and shown plenty of resilience. And the Trojans are now tied with Colorado for second in the Pac-12 at 6-3, just a half game behind Oregon (7-3) -- though they've now lost to both teams.
"The good thing is we are 17-5, we're off to a very good start, we're 6-3 in the league, so we've done enough offensively and defensively to put ourself in a good position," Enfield said. "But obviously the second half of the Pac-12 season we have to make some improvements in certain areas."
