By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
Sports
USC Peaking at Right Time with Alijah Arenas in Top Form
Following their win over Indiana on Tuesday night, USC has won consecutive games and three of their last four, with the lone loss during that stretch a tough one-point game at Iowa.
And the importance of the win over another bubble team was not lost on Eric Musselman, who pointed out in the postgame that given the NCAA Tournament implications and Big Ten Standings, “This game is not worth one game.”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the victory was the play of Alijah Arenas. The five-star recruit with an NBA pedigree had his best game to date in the win over the Hoosiers. Arenas established new career highs with 29 points and six rebounds.
It was the first time in his five games played that he had cracked double figures in scoring. Perhaps more importantly, he played 37 minutes on Tuesday night.
Arenas made his Trojan debut on January 21 following a tumultuous 11 months in which he nearly died in a horrendous car accident, then had to rehab from a torn meniscus.
In his first four games with the Trojans, he averaged just 23.3 minutes per game. Getting a full run is a promising sign.
And for a USC team on the bubble, getting production from the talented guard as he finds his stride is huge.
Arenas is a bona fide scorer and playmaker who can create his own shot. Moving forward, opponents will have to pay even more attention to Arenas’s offensive prowess—and that should open things even more on the offensive end for the likes of Chad Baker-Mazara and Ezra Ausar.
Baker-Mazara is another guy who can create space for himself on offense. Ausar is athletic in the front court and has reached double figures in 20 of 23 games, including 12 in a row. Adding another scorer also allows Kam Woods to be a true point guard and really play to his strengths.
With Arenas hitting his stride, the Trojans have a chance to make a lot of noise down the stretch.
The lone East Coast trip remaining is the Penn State/Ohio State combo.
The Nittany Lions have been a disaster this season with just one Big Ten win and nine of their 10 wins on the season being Quad 4 wins. The Buckeyes offer SC a chance to steal a road game against another bubble team, albeit in a tough place to pick up a road win.
The rest of the slate sees just one road game, a trip to a sneaky good Washington team and the cross-town trip to UCLA.
USC could certainly solidify themselves as tournament locks before the calendar turns to March with visits from a pair of top 10 opponents in Illinois and Nebraska later this month. Even getting one of those would certainly erase doubt as long as the Trojans take care of their business.
With the firepower USC possesses, especially with a healthy and productive Alijah Arenas, this is a squad that could put together a run in March.
Simply making the big dance may not seem very ambitious once we reach mid-March.
writes about various topics for SuperWest sports, including stats and records, college sports, and motorsports. He also founded and runs the Sports and Entertainment Research Center (SERC).
Latest posts by Stephen Vilardo (see all)