Andy Enfield shares how Auburn win impacts USC's confidence

USC hoops picked up a monumental victory over the weekend, defeating a ranked Auburn squad at home to pick up their fifth straight win after a 4-3 start. Andy Enfield’s club has suffered one setback after another lately and is piecing together its rotation, but it finally seems like the Trojans have found some consistency.

The win over the Tigers represents a shift in the season. When top-40 freshman big man Vince Iwuchukwu went down right before the year, then USC lost its opener to Florida Gulf Coast, the immediate future looked dire in SoCal. However, behind a strong defensive effort down low, the emergence of several freshmen, and improvements from Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson — the Trojans are turning into a good basketball team, one game at a time.

Coach Enfield noticed the progress most against Auburn. USC had to play at a high level in order to defeat an opponent of the Tigers’ prestige, and they came through with their best performance of the year. Here was the Trojan head coach on the win:

Andy Enfield on USC win over Auburn

“We really improved as a basketball team and it’s nice when you’re improving. To play at this high a level game [against Auburn], it was a high level game. The fans were great. You can feel the intensity in the arena, because two teams are going at it physically. And both teams are very good and this is a high level college basketball game and it’s very important for us to win one of those, especially on our home court. And I think that’s going to give us more confidence as we start Pac 12 play.”

The Pac 12 does offer plenty of challenges, with Arizona , UCLA and even Arizona State all ranked in the AP Top 25 right now, while several other squads have plenty of talent and a chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps USC could be one of them now that they have a marquee non-conference win to hang their helmets on.