University Southern California Trojans
USC Opens Pac-12 Play At California
December 27, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2011
USC (5-8) will play at California (10-3) at Haas Pavilion on Dec. 29 at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Comcast Sportsnet California. The game will also air on 1090 AM.
BREAKING DOWN THE GOLDEN BEARS -- California is coming off a 85-68 loss at UNLV on Dec. 23 which snapped a four-game winning streak. California, the Pac-12 preseason No. 2 pick, has three guards averaging in double figures in scoring: Allen Crabbe (15.8), Jorge Gutierrez (13.8) and Justin Cobbs (12.6). USC won two of three games against California last season, but trails 128-121 in the all-time series.
USC FALLS TO No. 12 KANSAS -- After a sluggish start which saw USC trailing 13-12 with 5:46 left in the first half, Kansas went on a 12-1 run to finish the half and cruise to a 63-47 victory at the Galen Center. USC made just 5 of 22 first-half shots (22.7 percent) and committed 13 first-half turnovers to trail 25-13 at the break. The 13 first-half points were a season low and too much to overcome, despite playing the Jayhawks pretty even in the second half. Aaron Fuller had two early fouls and four points, but came back in the second half to finish with a game-high 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Kansas had four players score in double figures and outrebounded USC 39-29, dropping the Trojans to 1-7 in games they have been outrebounded.
STANFORD ON DECK -- USC will play at Stanford (10-2) on Dec. 31 at 3:30 p.m. The Cardinal is coming off a 71-66 loss vs. Butler on Dec. 22 and will host UCLA on Dec. 29 before facing the Trojans. Stanford has scored an average of 16.7 points more than its opponents and also has three players scoring in double figures: Josh Owens (12.7), Chasson Randle (11.8) and Aaron Bright (11.3). USC has won its last three games against Stanford and leads the all-time series 121-118.
OPENING PAC-12 PLAY IN THE BAY -- USC is opening Pac-12 play in the Bay Area, not the easiest road trip traditionally for the Trojans. USC pulled off a sweep of Cal and Stanford up north last season, its first since the 1992 season. From 1993-2010 USC went a combined 7-29 at Cal and Stanford with five of the wins against the Bears (2 by forfeit).
A BIG HILL TO CLIMB -- When starting point guard and senior leader Jio Fontan went down with a knee injury in August it left USC with just 19.7 percent of its scoring returning and 12.4 percent of its rebounding returning entering the 2011-12 season. In terms of returning scoring for teams from BCS conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12), only 3 schools: St. Johns (3.7 percent), Boston College (10.8 percent) and Texas (17.0 percent) have a lower percentage of returning production. There were only eight schools in the country which entered the season with less than 20 percent of its scoring returning from a season ago.
FACING THE BEST -- USC's 2011-12 schedule features 22 of 31 games against teams which finished the 2010-11 season with a record of .500 or better. Among the nonconference highlights were games against perennial national powers Kansas, UNLV, New Mexico, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Carolina and Georgia. Through games of Dec. 26, the teams USC has played are a combined 100-53 (65.4 winning percentage) and eight of the 13 teams have four losses or less.
PAC-12 PREDICTIONS -- USC was picked to finish 7th (194 points) in 2011-12 in the Pac-10 Conference in a vote by the league media. UCLA was picked 1st (421), California 2nd (405), Arizona 3rd (404), Washington 4th (355), Oregon 5th (282), Stanford 6th (255), Oregon State 8th (188), Arizona State 9th (148), Colorado and Washington State 10th (119) and Utah 12th (74).
MIGHTY MO -- USC's Maurice Jones leads the country in minutes played per game, averaging 39.1 through the first 13 games, the only player in the country averaging more than 39.0 minutes per game. It is nothing new for Jones who averaged 37.6 minutes per game through 13 games last season and finished averaging 34.5 minutes played per game.
BIG GAME HUNTERS -- USC has four wins against ranked teams outside of the conference in the three seasons with Kevin O'Neill as the head coach. The Pac-12 as a whole has a total of nine wins in that stretch against ranked non-conference opponents.
TROJANS TAKE ROUTE 66 -- USC has held its opponents to an average of 56.0 points per game (11th lowest in the country) and has not allowed an opponent to score more than 66 points this season. It is the first time USC has started a season holding the opposition to 66 points or less for the first 13 games since the 1948 season when it held all 24 opponents to under 66 points.
