LOS ANGELES — Seconds passed, and Saint Thomas of USC men’s basketball sat at the postgame podium Sunday night still contemplating the question, unsure of how to answer because he didn’t have the answer himself.
What’s not clicking defensively?
“Um,” the USC forward Thomas said eventually, “I think that’s something that we’re still trying to figure out.”
“Because it’s not like we’re a team that doesn’t play hard,” he continued. “And there’s no guy out there that’s, like, not in a puddle of sweat.”
Indeed, and yet puddles of sweat paid no dividends in a 71-66 USC loss to Cal Sunday – the first loss of Eric Musselman’s tenure – because of a clear early-season problem that has continued to plague these Trojans. They may not quite be able to figure it out, yes. But most all are plain and well aware, as Thomas and point guard Desmond Claude and Musselman all admonished postgame, that USC has a defense problem.
It was overshadowed, early, by the shine of Musselman’s arrival at Galen and an unblemished record. On Wednesday, USC let mid-major UT Arlington drop 95 points on them and shoot 16-for-24 on threes. Even in an explosive preseason exhibition win over Gonzaga, as Thomas pointed out, these Trojans gave up 93 points. And on Sunday, by the time guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. drained another triple at the end of the half and big Rashaun Agee walked off the floor yelling in frustration, the Trojans got shredded again to the tune of 42 first-half Cal points and a Golden Bears team that shot well over 50% for most of the night.
“Yeah, there’s some lack of lateral quickness that’s showing up,” Musselman said postgame. “That’s why sometimes they make threes, because we’re too nervous to get too close because they’re going to go by us. And then when we crowd ‘em, guys are going around us.
“So, huge concern, but we gotta try to figure it out,” he continued. “This is a tough loss, for sure.”
Especially tough, because USC made necessary adjustments, an opportunity to close waiting at their fingertips. With 13 minutes left and USC continuing to struggle with pick-and-roll defense and any kind of interior presence, Musselman subbed Agee for starting guard Chibuzo Agbo Jr. – and gambled his hand at a complete-smallball lineup.
Thomas. 6-foot-6 Claude. 6-foot-7 guard Chibuzo Agbo Jr. and 6-foot-7 wing Terrance Williams II. 6-foot-6 Swiss Army Knife Matt Knowling. Down five, they provided an instant spark, Knowling swatting a late-clock Cal shot and freewheeling his way to a tip-in of his layup miss to cut Cal’s lead to one with nine minutes left. A couple of minutes later, Thomas scored back-to-back post-up buckets on Cal guard DJ Campbell, taunting him on subsequent trots down the floor with a rock-a-baby and a flex. And USC held Blacksher Jr., who’d torched them for 18 first-half points, to one second-half point on 0-of-3 shooting.
“We kinda came back,” Thomas said of the small lineup, “and they couldn’t handle it.”
But after that second Thomas baby-hook, USC’s offense went cold, going nearly five minutes without a bucket until a midrange by Claude cut Cal’s lead to 68-66 with 1:35 to go. And the no-center gamble fell one play short, as Cal grabbed a backbreaking offensive rebound with less than 30 seconds left to set up virtual game-sealing free throws from Golden Bears wing Andrej Stojakovic.
Musselman said it was a tough loss with USC coming up short in a matchup between two former Pac-12 rivals. Thomas admonished postgame that a group of majority-transfers is still trying to figure out its defensive communication.
“I think we showed the fans something, that we have energy,” Thomas said postgame. “I mean, we might have failed them, and lost.”
“But hey, we’re still here, and we still got something to prove.”
