With a top-five class coming in, USC might be becoming LA’s basketball school

UCLA is a “basketball school,” USC is not.

Or at least, that’s been the narrative for the past 50 or so years.

“Everyone’s aware that (the Trojans) have a great class coming in,” said Daily Trojan Sports writer Julia Poe. “We’re probably going to have the pieces to get back on the top of the Pac-12 in the next few years.”

While UCLA men’s basketball has been unable to recapture the national titles it monopolized in the John Wooden era , its crosstown rival USC has had no such expectations. The Trojans have never won an NCAA championship and they have only advanced past the Round of 64 six times in their 113-year history.

“For (USC) fans, it’s easier, because when you care less, it’s fun when you’re winning, and then you just don’t care when you’re losing,” Poe said. “For UCLA, if you aren’t doing well for a season, everyone’s mad and disappointed and upset. Whereas for us, it’s like, ‘Oh OK, we’ll just wait for the next football season.'”

Under coach Andy Enfield, USC has a record 109-89 and put together a three-year streak of 20-plus win seasons for just the second time in program history. UCLA, on the other hand, has been without a long-term solution for head coach since firing Steve Alford on Dec. 31.

The drama present during the end of the Alford era and the China incident under Alford’s watch hurt the Bruins’ recruiting outlook in the short term by demonstrating the instability of the program, said 247Sports.com national recruiting analyst Josh Gershon.

Meanwhile, USC is scheduled to reel in its best recruiting class in school history, boasting two five-stars and two four-stars after adding assistant coach Eric Mobley.

“USC’s been doing a good job recruiting in general under this staff,” Gershon said. “I mean, they weren’t recruiting to this same level, but I think in this instance, the Trojans were really aided by a strong assistant coach hire that kind of helps swing loyalty amongst any program towards them.”

Mobley was an assistant coach for a Los Angeles-area AAU team, the Compton Magic, before taking the job at USC and his son Isaiah Mobley is one of USC’s five-star commits. One of Isaiah Mobley’s close friends and teammates on the Magic, Onyeka Okongwu, was initially favored to go to UCLA due to his ties to the Ball family – he too went to Chino Hills High School.

But the Ball family cut ties with the Bruins following LiAngelo Ball’s suspension and eventual decision to drop out of school. And in April, UCLA fired assistant coach and former Magic coach David Grace, one of the program’s top recruiters.

Now, the five-star prospect Okongwu has signed his letter of intent to attend USC next year.

Solidifying a top-three recruiting class is rare for any program not named Duke, and it is even more surprising USC has done so amid an FBI investigation into their recruiting violations. However, Gershon said USC and fellow UCLA rival Arizona – which owns the No. 1 class in the country – must have proven to their targets that both Enfield and Wildcats coach Sean Miller will stick around despite the noise.

“Kids worry about stability more than anything else,” Gershon said. “I’m sure they’ve been reassured that (Enfield and Miller) have the full support of their universities. So when that’s no longer the case, of course recruiting is going to fall off. But if the perception is those guys are safe, I don’t think recruits are going to be too scared.”

Miller is the sixth-highest paid coach in the country, and even Enfield is making over $1 million per year. UCLA’s current head coach is interim coach Murry Bartow, and the future of the position is murky.

Two of the bigger names connected to the Bruins – Nevada coach Eric Musselman and former Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg – have a reputation of building their teams through graduate transfers and three-star recruits, but Gershon said that won’t be an issue if they end up in Westwood.

“Anyone is going to recruit well at UCLA because it’s UCLA,” Gershon said. “Are there some coaches that would probably recruit closer to the top-five range nationally? Sure. But I can’t imagine UCLA making a hire … that’s not capable of recruiting at a very high level.”

And while UCLA’s two biggest rivals continue to poach big names from the Bruins’ backyard, Gershon said the school’s coaching decision should not take into account anyone else’s payroll, staff or recruiting classes.

“I say this with no disrespect whatsoever for USC – I think if you’re UCLA, you’re hiring the very best coach possible,” Gershon said. “You’re trying to compete for championships every single year and I think that it doesn’t matter who USC’s head coach is or Arizona’s head coach is.”

The Trojans may be impressing on the recruiting trail, but on the other side of the aisle, members of the Bruin faithful aren’t buying in just yet.

“USC is a football school, UCLA is a basketball school – there are certain truths in this world,” said third-year political science student George Lasko. “(USC) will never be a basketball school. It doesn’t matter if you get one or two recruits a year, you need have a head coach who can recruit players every year.”