What a great and spot on article! I have been a fan(not an alum) for over 50 years of this basketball program(difficult to explain why?) and it's never been supported by the students, alumni, or university very well. Enfield came in after a terrible era under the asshole O'Neiill and has built a very respectable basketball team. IMO, his recruiting has been amazing considering the problems I have stated. I believe Enfield has gotten to be a much better coach with the added experience he has now and it shows on the defensive end. I hope this coach is with USC for a long time. The best coaches aren't coming to come coach USC basketball. The future is bright for the program under this coach.

The program is certainly in better shape under Enfield than it has been under most previous coaches. And he may be the best recruiter we've had in my 40+ years following the program. My issue is I believe he has a ceiling. I just don't think he's a good enough coach to ever take us past the sweet 16. If you're content with not being crappy, winning 15+ games every year and usually finishing in the top half of the conference then he's your guy. It's not enough for me.

Wow! I remember all that history but it was nice to see it all laid out. A lot of our coaches did have some real success but couldn't sustain it. Many have also said we should be content with our coach because it's USC basketball not football. That's not the only reason I like Andy. He seems to me to be first-class. He seems to represent USC very well. He seems like a nice guy; the players seem to like him.

I can only guess he has been frustrated many times with the performance of some of the players. Then people ask why he doesn't do something. I noticed this and I had a hunch that he'd do something if he thought it would help. Sometimes he seems complacent with the play of our team. But I don't think he is. I think he has reasonable expectations and gets a lot from what he has.

It's like free-throws. He can tell the guys to practice. He can work with them on their form. He can talk about the psychology of relaxation and focus. But when they step up to the line and miss both free-throws it wouldn't help much if Andy threw a temper tantrum and yanked the guy out of the game. And Andy knows a thing or two about free-throws. I'll just stop here. I really felt bad about last season being cancelled with the Big-O. And now this team--so much to prove and sidelined. It's been tough. At least we have a good coach for the future.

such a great post. I have always heard/read that CAE let’s his kids play & doesn’t publicly scold them during the games. You normally see J-Hart do that lol. I’ve been very vocal about my support towards CAE because of many of the reasons that have already been mentioned on this thread but the most important thing is that he wanted this job when nobody else did post Kevin O’Neil. He was also willing to get physical with Tim Floyd & Bob Cantu ha-ha!

Jokes aside, we have a good coach, a greater man & one hell of a leader amongst young men. Hope he is here for a very long time. Recruiting will continue to pick up along with the overall success of this program. Fight on!

I could not agree more-he has turned the program around-it is up to the students and alumnae to come out and support the team

I hope I'm wrong but 5 years from now I think you'll all feel differently about him.

curious as to why you think that?

Given the support and resources the program receives, Enfield is on the right trajectory to bringing USC more tourney success. As long as he stays competitive in conference and keeps making the tourney, local recruits will be interested in USC. USC's "ceiling" is Texas under Rick Barnes or FSU under Leonard Hamilton (who Enfield coached under). Those coaches recruited well and exceeded expectations despite being at schools where the focus has been football. Enfield isn't a perfect coach, but he's one of the best USC's ever had and he deserves a shot to keep improving the program.

One thing is for certain about Rich's articles...they are in depth and don't lack knowledge. He has been an avid SC BB fan for a long time... more than most here excluding just a few long timers. That article should be required reading for SC fans that are under 35 yrs old and don't understand USC BB place in Los Angeles sports history...let along USC sports history. We have always suffered because of a lack of attendance/interest from our own fanbase. It doesn't really matter who the coach is....

if something happened and we had to pick between enfield or jason hart to be the coach at usc for the next 10 years, who would you pick?

The attendance thing will never change. USC fans don't care enough about basketball to go to games consistently. It sucks but it's our reality.

I'm afraid you are right. The only way more fans would show up is if football season was cancelled....and even that's a big maybe.

the only time Galen is ever full is against ucla. Though I was told last season's rivalry game didnt even sell out 🤦‍♂️

The anti Enfield takes are silly IMO. We are in the best era of USC basketball in the last 50 years. Enfield is laying a foundation of consistent success that the program has never had. Over time, this type of consistency pays dividends. No gimmicks, just rock solid recruiting and maintaining a high profile in SoCal and beyond. USC is going through what a lot of top basketball schools once went through: the grueling, arduous process of building and maintaining a competitive culture. We’ve never had that for an extended period. It has always been two steps forward, three steps back. While we aren’t moving forward in leaps and bounds, we are making incremental progress, which over time matters. Moving in the right direction matters and building a tradition of success over time matters. USC has never had patience in basketball, but now we do. It will pay off one day, because somewhere there is a kid who is watching usc hoops who wants to go to usc to be the next Big O or Evan Mobley and that kid will be one of the ones to push the program to the next tier. But you can’t get to the top tier from the bottom tier: you need to be in striking distance. We are getting there.