After missing his jumper, he moves to the wings, waiting patiently, ready for the ball. Josh Cohen pulls down the rebound, and after finding himself triple-teamed in the paint, kicks the ball outside. In an instant, Chibuzo Agbo drains it from downtown.
The graduate transfer joined USC this offseason following a mass exodus after former head coach Andy Enfield departed for SMU and current head coach Eric Musselman replaced him. After spending his first two years of college at Texas Tech before transferring to Boise State for his junior and senior seasons, Agbo is taking full advantage of his final year of eligibility to prove his sharpshooting abilities at the Power conference level.
After never starting in his 45 appearances as a Red Raider, Agbo decided to search for a new opportunity. That opportunity came in the Mountain West Conference, courtesy of Boise State, where Agbo started all but one of his 67 games. During his time with the Broncos, Agbo saw his 3-point accuracy increase by almost 15% from his days with Texas Tech.
Although Agbo was an everyday starter at Boise State and earned an opening day starting role with USC on November 4 against Chattanooga, the grad transfer struggled in his first four starts, especially from downtown, shooting just 27% from behind the arc. This contributed to Agbo losing his starting spot and playing fewer minutes after those first four games, having failed to make a field goal in a 71-66 loss versus Cal on November 17.
After coming off the bench for the next three games, during which his shooting production increased significantly, Musselman put Agbo back in the starting lineup. Since then, the graduate student has not looked back, even as the level of opponents increased once the Trojans got into the thick of Big Ten conference play.
Agbo has started every game since November 30, and his numbers have improved significantly since his brief demotion to a reserve role. Despite a subpar overall field goal percentage on the season at 38.6%, he has drilled 35.6% of his 3-point shots and is currently averaging 11.8 points per game.
Because of his increased production since November, Musselman has trusted Agbo to play more and more minutes. He now averages over 30 minutes per game. On Saturday, against then-No. 7 ranked Michigan State, Agbo spent 38 minutes on the court and scored 14 points as USC upset the Spartans 70-64. He went just 2-9 from 3-point range, but having the freedom to fire away will help his team over the long run.
With USC’s hopes for an at-large bid to March Madness dwindling with tough losses like Tuesday night’s 77-75 road defeat to Northwestern, it will be up to playmakers like Agbo, who had 14 points against Northwestern on more efficient shooting than he managed versus Michigan State, to lead USC through the final stretch of the regular season and the tough matchups that remain. The next big opportunity for the Trojans to bolster their resume will be against No. 7-ranked Purdue in West Lafayette on Friday.
As the new-look USC men’s basketball team continues to make noise in its new conference as a first-year Big Ten member, it will be important for Agbo to continue to step up with the game on the line or to rally his team back from deficits.
If Agbo continues to dominate from downtown like the sharpshooter he is, USC could make some noise in March Madness.