Andy Enfield says USC has 'hands full' every night in Pac-12

USC finished their latest road trip strong with a 77-69 win over Arizona State on Saturday night. The Trojans extend their Pac-12 conference record to 6-3, just two games behind first place, and head coach Andy Enfield spoke about where USC stands in the conference following their most recent win.

“There’s a lot of good teams in our conference, and Arizona State’s a very good team, so we have our hands full every night,” Enfield. “So we’re 6-3 and we’ve had six road games and only three home games, so to be 6-3 at this point we’re fortunate and playing well.”

Enfield and the Trojans’ remaining Pac-12 schedule consists of seven home games and just four road games, a great sign for USC considering they’re still undefeated at home in Pac-12 conference play. However, they do start their three-game home stand with a matchup versus No. 5 ranked UCLA, the conference’s top seed and the highest-ranked team who defeated the Trojans in heartbreaking fashion earlier this month.

“We have a big game against UCLA on Thursday so we’re right there. We lost a buzzer-beater to UCLA, and we didn’t deserve to win the Arizona game on Thursday we didn’t play well enough,” Enfield said. “But we’re right there, we’re getting better as a team and we have some guys that have really improved.”

The Trojans’ game versus Arizona was disappointing to say the least, losing 81-66 to the Wildcats on a night where they shot 36.9% from the field and 23.5% from three-point range. But they bounced back in their next game, shooting an impressive 49.1% from the field and 38.9% from downtown on Saturday versus Arizona State.

USC also recently inserted freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu into their lineup, a former highly touted high school recruit who has played in the Trojan’s last four games following a major heart failure and collapse over the summer.

“And now we have Vince back, it brings another dimension to us with our size, our length, and athleticism with him coming off the bench,” Enfield said.

Iwuchukwu is a seven-footer that definitely changes the dynamic of the Trojans’ rotation, as he scored a career-high 12 points in their win over Arizona State. It will be interesting to see how Enfield continues to utilize him, as the Trojans prepare for their Pac-12 rematch with UCLA on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET in a game airing on ESPN2.