I have no ill will towards the USC Basketball program. In a very indirect way, they are responsible for me ending up at Cal(*). Andy Enfield is a good coach who has shown the ability to change the team’s style based on his roster. Coach Enfield started off his first two seasons at USC in 2013-14 with a combined 33-43 record. Since then, Enfield has compiled a 165-80 record, always finishing in the top half of the conference, and reaching 4 NCAA tournaments. It is the ideal trajectory for a non-legacy basketball school. Instead, I reserve my USC vitriol for the football program.

This year, USC is off to a sluggish start. Coming into last night’s game, USC was 4-3, with no notable wins and a season-opening home loss to Florida Gulf-Coast, Enfield’s previous school. There was a good crowd at Haas for a midweek game, the team played with intensity, and USC was still showing signs of sluggishness. This was a winnable game for Cal.

Except you can’t win if you can’t score.

First, let’s highlight the positives;

• Cal had 19 offensive rebounds

• Cal had 8 total turnovers, less than half their season average

• Cal played very good on-ball defense. Their switches were better, and they were closing out on the shooters better than I’ve seen all year. USC’s star duo of Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson were held to 20 combined points on 7-of-16 shooting

• Devin Askew only shot 7-for-21 from the field, but his driving and penetration earned him 7 foul shots (game high), and opened up some secondhand baskets for Lars Theimann

And now, the negatives;

• Those 19 offensive rebounds netted only seven second-chance points.

• In the first half, Cal shot 17.6% on field goal attempts (6-of-34). For the game, they shot only 27.7%(18-of-65)

• At one point late in the first half, Cal missed 4 layups or easy putbacks in a row

• For all their success on perimeter defense, Cal had no answer for Joshua Morgan in the middle. The big man owned the paint on both ends, finishing with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 blocks(!!)

• For most of the game Cal was down 6-12 points. Cal was able to get the margin down to 3 points with around 15 minutes left in the game. Haas was filling with energy. USC then rattles off a 20-0 run to put the game away

If Cal shoots near their .387 team season shooting average, they make about 7 more baskets. In a 15 point loss, that could’ve been the difference. Instead, the Golden Bears fall to 0-8.

I’ll let Nick and the others write better thinkpieces on this team and direction. We all know Fox’s time is limited. I’m interested in how the players respond and work through this stretch. Coach Fox has said for the last few games how this is on him and not on the players. A ‘Stop Blaming Student Athletes’ sign was spotted in the student section, but confiscated early in the second half. Jerome Randle posted a message to the team to take ownership for turning it around. Kuany Kuany said all the right things in the postgame press conference; “I know we’ve had a rough spot, but no one’s giving up.”

I’m keeping my eye on Devin Askew. He played with a very high level of intensity for the entire game, pacing Cal with 23 points. Though he was only 7-for-21 from the field, he drew 9 fouls, was aggressive on offense and defense, and was very vocal the entire game to both teams. In the postgame handshake line, he got into a scuffle with USC’s Kijani Wright and had to be physically restrained by Assistant Coach Chris Harriman.

After the Southern game, Coach Fox talked about how he is asking Askew to do too much. My impression of that game was that Askew and the team were holding back, with an underwhelming intensity level. In tonight’s game, Askew was pressing a bit, highly energetic to the point of volatility. While I will continue to praise his overall effort, he also drew his 4th foul at around the 10 minute mark of the second half, had a technical foul for a flop in the first half, and was obviously in a combative spirit after the game. He is the best player this roster has. For any hope of even small improvement, he and Coach Fox have to figure out a way to harness his passion and talents to positively impact the rest of the team.

Cal travels to Arizona this week, for a battle against the #4 team in the country. Next week, they play Eastern Washington at Haas on Wednesday. That is the first of four winnable games in December before conference play picks up heading into the new year.

* My dad was raised in South Dakota, and earned a partial scholarship to USC in the mid-50’s. He was given the opportunity to walk on the basketball team, having been an exceptional player in SD. He did not stick on the team, but he did graduate with honors. Growing up in NE, I had no interest in west coast colleges. Dad told me I needed to apply to a west coast school, as his time at USC were the best years of his life. I applied to Cal, and they accepted me on a spring admission. This gave me 6 months to earn money before going to college, so I changed my mind from going to school in St. Louis to going to Berkeley instead.