Fringe Top 25

I think we're a dangerous team that can beat any team on any given night. Question is whether we'll stack up the wins to get us into the tourney to test that theory. It's crazy how poorly we shot against UConn. Having that win + (hopefully) beating Stanford this weekend, would've had us in the top 25, I think. Now, we'll need to go undefeated through December, IMO.

I like our teams make-up & came into the season with the expectation that we would surprise a lot of people. Evan is as good as I expected, but Isaiah while being effective on the boards I do wish he was more efficient on offense more importantly at the FT Line. I also expected Ethan to make some sort of improvement but he’s been on the shelf as of late. I didn’t expect Drew to be eligible at all & with what we saw last night with Noah, it’ll only make our team a force to be reckoned with. The P12 so far has been mediocre but Oregon will improve as Will Richardson comes back from his injury and a few of their transfers become eligible. UCLA is still a bit of a question mark since they haven’t played with their entire team & Arizona while very talented they haven’t played a good quality opponent as of yet. I already mentioned that Stanford doesn’t scare me as much now that Tyrell Terry is in the NBA. Guess we will have to see how we really stack up this weekend...

USC seems like a tourney team to me and if they get in have the talent to get to the sweet 16, maybe more. Unfortunately the conference is struggling OOC, which could mean less teams get in. Can't remember a deeper USC team than this one and there really aren't any players that I perpetually cringe at watching offensively, they all seem to fit the system well. Maybe Boubacar with his long fadeaways, but he's a project and shouldn't be relied on for critical minutes anyways.

The key to USC being great is keeping up the defensive intensity, running shooters off the line and into the Mobleys and making the extra pass. Some of the playmakers still default to putting their head down to bull their way to the hoop and I'd like to see them develop some court awareness, wait for the defense to commit and pass to the open man for an easier layup/shot.

We have to defend the three-point shot better

The team is a work in progress. But I do think we have potential to be great. Our ceiling is Pac 12 champion. It is more realistic that we finish 2-4. But worst case, 5th . Hope we beat Cardinals on Sunday, go on a 6 game winning streak, and be in Top 25 before we play the Arizona schools.