Andy Enfield shares where USC has grown in recent weeks

USC is not off to the start most had hoped coming off back-to-back tournament appearances while returning their second and third leading scorers of the 2022 team. Instead of starting 13-0, as they did a year ago, the Trojans have already dropped three games, including their season-opener against Florida Gulf Coast. In short: it’s been a tough start for Andy Enfield’s club. And no thanks to the shocking loss of projected starter and top-40 freshman Vince Iwuchukwu, who suffered a heart issue before the season and may not play all year.

So, in trying to recover from early season road bumps and injury setbacks, head coach Andy Enfield thinks his team is starting to figure out some stuff on offense. After their win over Cal-State Fullerton, he went in-depth on where the Trojans have improved offensively.

“Well, we really improved in the last few weeks offensively. You saw tonight: better ball movement, better straight line drives, better decision making,” said Enfield, before going into the importance of creating open threes for this roster.

“We had a few lapses, but we were able to generate some open shooting. We have to. If you play four guards, you like to keep your turnovers down, shoot a lot of threes. And we were able to get 20 up tonight. But if you can’t get by anybody and make the defense help, it’s hard to get a three-point shot off cleanly.”

Having guards who can break down their man off the dribble and force help is the key to generating consistent good looks from deep. Because you can run all the plays you want to get guys open, says Enfield, but the other team is going to be ready for that. So you need that spark, that creativity, from your guards to get those shots.

“You can run plays and screen actions, but wait, you’re scouted. So it’s not like you can just say — hey, we’re gonna get a three off this play — because team scouted you, so you really need players to to make plays for teammates, and that’s driving the ball, throwing the ball in the post. Get in the lane and get paint touches and then kick it out for relocated threes. And I thought we did a really good job tonight of that.”

With Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson, Andy Enfield has a pair of creators who can open up space for threes in the offense. After years of playing paint-oriented basketball, perhaps Enfield knew he had to shift his scoring emphasis more to the perimeter, where his best players and playmakers are.