To get some inside information on the USC men’s basketball team, Daily Bruin Sports reached out to the Daily Trojan – USC’s student news publication – and asked its Sports editor Aidan Berg a few questions about the Trojans before their upcoming rivalry game against the Bruins on Thursday.
Daily Bruin: For those who may not be up to speed, where do the Trojans stand and how has their year gone so far?
Aidan Berg: This team is very similar to the football team in that it has a good amount of talent, but is just incredibly inconsistent. Just completely up and down throughout the season. It started out Pac-12 play good, then lost a few games and then had that stretch – including a win against UCLA at home – where they won a tough couple of games in a row. And since then, they’ve been kind of on the downslide. It’s a very inconsistent team and you don’t really know what you’re going to get from them on any given day.
DB: What has it been like for you and the (USC) fanbase to watch what’s happened with UCLA given its ups and downs this season?
AB: UCLA is historically, perhaps, the greatest college basketball program there is and it’s rare to see the Bruins being even a little bit on the downslide. Not even speaking to being buried by what they have been this year. And it’s kind of weird to empathize with UCLA as a USC student, but I think the Bruins have pretty similar problems (to the Trojans). Plenty of talent – guys like (sophomore guard) Jaylen Hands – but not really being able to put it all together for long stretches.
DB: Given UCLA and USC’s identical records, do you think there’s any added energy for USC knowing that they have to get that Pac-12 bye and last year UCLA sneaking into the tournament over them?
AB: From what I’ve seen from USC-UCLA basketball, they don’t really need a lot of motivation to have high energy games. Both of the games last year and the one earlier this season – it seemed like the teams really wanted it and played really hard. The standings are always going to matter a little bit in conference play, but I don’t think either team is really going to need energy to get up for this type of rivalry game.
DB: What matchups are you looking forward to most in Thursday night’s game?
AB: I’ll be interested to see how the (freshman center) Moses Brown and (Nick) Rakocevic matchup goes again. In the first game, Rakocevic really took it to Brown. Rakocevic went for 21 points, 12 rebounds, whereas Brown had two points and seven rebounds. Brown is a big presence and Rakocevic had kind of struggled with that earlier in the season, so I’d be interested to see if it goes the same way this time around.
DB: Score Prediction?
AB: The thing about USC that is important to know is that they are 2-5 in road games and 1-3 on neutral courts. They’re a lot better at home – 12-5 – so I don’t really see them necessarily being able to go into UCLA and taking it to them like they did in the last game. I think I’m probably going to go with UCLA in a close one. Let’s say it’s 77-73.
DB: Do you think either school has a chance to pull off an upset in the Pac-12 tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?
AB: I think they definitely could, just because of how the Pac-12 is so incredibly mediocre. That being said, I do expect Washington to end up being the tournament winner and the only bid in the tournament for the Pac-12. But UCLA and USC – I think I’d give them both a fair chance of making it to the conference championship game or as far as they can go before they end up playing Washington.