USC basketball looks set to reset after first loss of the season – Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES – Head coach Andy Enfield didn’t have any big messages to send to his USC men’s basketball team Tuesday afternoon after Trojan’s first loss of the season.

When the team went to Galen Center for practice on Wednesday, there was a movie session dissecting the 75-69 loss. It then continued to practice, with the fifth-ranked Trojans poised to continue their three-game five-day run, starting Thursday night against Oregon State.

“Our players are refocusing. We’ve made sure of that,” Enfield said after Wednesday’s practice, before adding with a smile, “And if they’re not focused, they’re not going to play many minutes tomorrow. ”

During the movie, Enfield and the coaching staff focused mainly on the defense of holding the ball. In the first 12 games of the season, USC (13-1 final, 3-1 in Pac-12) kept all opponents under 40% from field shots. In the two games since the Trojans returned from their COVID-19 hiatus, both Cal and Stanford have passed that mark.

Cardinal fired 43.9% at USC and specifically hurt Trojans from a 3-point range, knocking out 10 out of 24 attempts. Enfield felt that the team had failed to comply with the spying report and allowed Stanford to obtain the look that USC wanted to prevent from entering the game.

“We didn’t defend at the level we defended all season,” said Enfield. “Every time we were leading by four or five or six points, it seemed like we made a defensive mistake or two or three in a row. Just not special. ”

Defender Drew Peterson added that USC did not play with the right energy against Cardinal. But the team felt satisfied with Wednesday’s training session. It was not a focused session due to the busy schedule this week, but the players communicated with each other and showed attention to detail.