Andy Enfield sat around late on Friday night and asked himself the following: What can we do to change this up?
USC was set to tip off against Cal at 4 p.m. the following day, and its head coach was digging for ways to reverse a trend that had marred the last three weeks for the Trojans: slow starts.
It’s a trend that’s not just a hair-splitting excuse to critique a team that was, at that point, 17-3; it’s a trend that’s arguably a leading reason why that latter number is indeed a three and not a zero.
History lesson time. Just five minutes and 16 seconds into USC’s road matchup with Stanford on Jan. 11, the Trojans found themselves already down by six points. The Cardinal went on to hand them loss No. 1 — by six points.
Five minutes into USC’s home matchup with Oregon on Jan. 15, the Trojans found themselves already behind by 10 points. Loss No. 2 came that night at the hands of the Ducks — by 10 points.
Four minutes and 46 seconds into USC’s home matchup with Stanford on Thursday, the Trojans found themselves already trailing by nine points. Loss No. 3, again dealt by the Cardinal, was decided by just three points.
Take out those rough opening five minutes — plus or minus some pocket change — and USC could very well still be undefeated.
Those struggles have even plagued the Trojans in games where the early woes weren’t dooming. They trailed Oregon State by seven points just 3:44 into a Jan. 13 win; Arizona State 12-2 less than six minutes into a Jan. 24 win.
So, while those exact numbers may not have been front of mind Friday night in the Enfield household, the coach was certainly well aware of the issue at hand. And while he sat around and dug for a solution, it occurred to him that the Trojans hadn’t opened a game in zone defense yet.
Can’t hurt to try, right?
“And, sure enough,” Enfield said postgame, smiling, “they got a three-foot little jump hook from [senior forward Andre] Kelly, and they scored again.”
Welp. Next.
What followed was a start similarly ugly in nature to the aforementioned; the Trojans went down 20-9 at the 12:10 mark in the first half. That score became 22-11, then 24-13 — and from there, USC outscored Cal 66-48 en route to a seven-point win.
It ultimately didn’t cost them against sub-.500 Cal. However (no disrespect to the Bears), against teams like No. 3 Arizona or No. 7 UCLA, recovery might not be as simple as flipping the switch they must have found on the walls of a packed Galen Center on Saturday. Knocking off either top-tier Pac-12 opponent — which USC will have to do in order to challenge for the conference title — will be hard enough as is.
One factor that certainly could’ve played a role most recently is that USC’s schedule of late has been nothing short of a doozy. Saturday was the team’s fifth game in 10 days, and the first of those five composed the Colorado-to-Utah Mountain road trip notorious for its detrimental effects on visiting teams’ collective energy.
That doesn’t explain the first three instances, though, against Stanford and the Oregon schools. If it’s not the zone defense (though the sample size is admittedly too small to disqualify that as the culprit), and if it’s not the busy schedule, it’s hard to know what exactly it is — and hard, thus, to find a simple solution.
There is one possibility: Maybe USC just needs to do more punching?
“We’ve just gotta come together and start punching teams first,” said junior guard Boogie Ellis, whose 3-for-3 start indicated that he, at least, was absolved of blame Saturday. (He finished with a season-high 21.) “Because in big games, we’re not gonna be able to keep getting punched first. We’ve gotta hit them first.”
Whatever works.
Oh, by the way. USC’s next three opponents? Arizona State — then Arizona, then UCLA.
USC might want to start punching — and fast.