Andy Enfield shares how USC can build on Utah win

Andy Enfield’s USC Trojans added a big victory to their resume earlier this week, when they defeated the Utah Utes by four.

It’s been an uneven season for the Trojans, but perhaps the program can build on their impressive conference win over the remainder of their season. Speaking with the media following the game, Enfield explained where USC goes from here.

“We’re not good enough to start looking ahead, because we just have to focus on the next day in practice, and then we have a game Saturday, so I think we can improve before that,” Enfield explained. “Our goal is to keep getting better as a basketball team. I think our defense is much improved. We’re keeping our turnovers down.

“So we’re just focused on the things that we can control right now, and then we’ll ramp up for that later in the season.”

Alas, that’s a smart way to look at things from Enfield’s perspective. Still, there’s many reasons to be excited with the way USC has been playing, including the performances we’ve seen from Bronny James of late.

Continuing, Enfield applauded James’ impact in press conference. Simply put, he thought his freshman guard was fantastic with how he played in his reserve role against their latest conference opponent.

“He was terrific tonight,” said Enfield, regarding James’ seven points (2-4 FG, 1-3 from three), three rebounds, and three assists off the bench. That’s right around his season averages of 5.9 points, three rebounds, and 2.6 assists over his 17 games so far.

While James may only be knocking 36.2% of his overall attempts from the field and 27.5% from three to this point, his overall impact on the game far surpasses just how effective he is only when he’s shooting or scoring.

“He had been struggling with his shooting. We want him to shoot open shots but, as you saw tonight, he can affect winning in a variety of ways,” said Enfield. “He did that.”

To this point, the best example of how James affects the game in more ways than one is on the defensive end. He finished with one block and one steal versus Utah. That was part of a performance that featured seven blocks and 10 steals for USC.

It took a few errors that the staff had to correct James on to get there. Still, as the game went on, Enfield was proud of how James competed on that side of the ball.

“He played outstanding defense,” said Enfield. “He made a couple of defensive mistakes in the first half. The second half? He learned from that. We talked to him at halftime. In the second half? He was terrific.”

Time will tell if USC can use their momentum to make a little run over the remainder of the season, but Andy Enfield will be looking for more performance like he got against Utah out of Bronny James if they’re to do so.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.