It was a phenomenal weekend for Tim Floyd and the USC Trojans. Super freshman DeMar DeRozan led them past Cal, UCLA and Arizona St. as Southern California goes to “The Big Dance” for the third straight year. Looking at the way the seedings for the tournament went down, there is no doubt in my mind that USC would have been left out of the field of 65 had they not come back to beat ASU.
Counting the Pac 10 tournament, the Trojans finished the year on a 5-game winning streak, and they are healthy and in-stride for the Madness. Since back-to-back dog games against the Washington schools February 19-21, DeRozan has been a huge force. (He was 2 of 8 against Washington St. and 3 of 10 against Washington.) In the last 7 games, DeMar is shooting 61% from the field for about 17.5 ppg and 6 rpg. He is finding himself at exactly the right time.
Junior guard Daniel Hackett gives them a steady presence at the point, and Taj Gibson is an animal down low, but Floyd relies heavily on 4 guys – DeRozan, Hackett, Gibson and junior Dwight Lewis. If one of those guys gets into foul trouble, it makes USC very vulnerable.
Sophomore G Marcus Simmons has become a dynamic defensive star, and Floyd is playing him more and more (32 minutes against Cal and 38 minutes against UCLA). He brings the defensive grit that helps to suffocate a team like the Bruins.
Troy’s opponent in the first round is Boston College, who was 22-11 while playing in the ACC. With the ACC tourney included, BC lost 5 of its last 9 games, but they almost upset Duke in the first round of the conference tournament falling 66-65.
The Eagles go-to-guy is senior guard Tyrese Rice. He is averaging 17 points and 5 assists per game, and he has played over 4,000 minutes of big-time D1 basketball, much of it against the elite ACC. But aside from Rice, they are very young. In fact, 7 players in Al Skinner’s 9-man rotation are freshmen or sophomores.
Young and inconsistent. Boston College team did something amazing this year. They won at North Carolina. That’s pretty good, but not amazing. The amazing thing is that they lost at home to Harvard three days later.
One guy for Floyd to watch, aside from Rice, is 6’5” sophomore guard Rakim Sanders. He has led the Eagles in scoring 8 times this season, and he has drilled 2 buzzer-beating, game-winning baskets.
Overall, this is a winnable game. USC can beat Boston College. The Trojans’ second round opponent would be regular season Big 10 champion Michigan St. That is an unbelievably tough spot for SC, but let’s take ‘em one at a time.
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