Sunday, November 25th, 2012

#91 USC: College Basketball Countdown

Published on October 6, 2012 by Scott Shirley   ·   No Comments

College basketball is right around the corner. Games will be starting before you know it, and practices are just right around the corner.

Here at Roundballchat I will release my top 100 teams for the 2012-13 college basketball season. I will start at 100 and count my way down. I will rank all the 75 programs in the six major conferences, as well as 25 mid majors in my top 100 countdown.

Along with my top 100 countdown I will also feature a ton of previews. Like the top players at each position, All Conference teams, top players by class, top games, previewing the early season tournaments and much more.

Who will put at number 1? Louisville or Indiana or maybe a surprise stay tuned to Roundballchat for the next month to find out.

#91 USC

Coach: Kevin O’Neill (Three seasons at USC 41-55) Overall 212-235, 15 years

2011-12: Record 6-26 overall, 1-17 in Big East (12th)

Starters Returning (2 ) Byron Wesley, Dewayne Dedmon

Preseason Tournament: Maui Invitational

Top Non-Conference Games: at Nebraska, vs. Minnesota, at Georgia

Transfers Out : Garrett Jackson (St. Mary’s); Curtis Washington (Georgia State); Alexis Moore (Penn), Maurice Jones

Transfers In: IN — Renaldo Woolridge (Tennessee - eligible immediately), Omar Oraby (sit out 1 year)

Sat Out: Ari Stewart (Wake Forest); Eric Wise (UC Irvine)

Last season was a very disappointing season for the Trojans winning just 1 game in Pac 12 play. This year was looking promising until returning leader scorer Maurice Jones was deemed ineligible and transferred out of the program. There has been great player turnover the last couple of years with players leaving and transferring into the program. The last couple of years the Trojan roster hasn’t come close to having 13 scholarship players until this season.

The Trojans will be led by their starting point guard Jio Fontan. Fontan sat out all of last year with an ACL injury. The year before he started every game for USC. Fontan added 10.5 ppg in 2010-11. Joining Fontan in the backcourt is Wake Forest transfer J.T. Terrell. Terrell averaged 11.1 ppg as a freshman at Wake Forest. Providing depth in the backcourt is Greg Allen (4.7 ppg) and freshman and Brendyn Taylor.

Starting at the power forward position will be Byron Wesley (9.6 ppg). He started every game last year as a freshman. The rest of the starting frontcourt will be handled by two guys who suffered season ended injuries last season. Aaron Fuller (10.3 ppg) was probably the team’s best player before suffering his a shoulder injury. Center Dewyane Dedmon (7.6 ppg) returns at center. Providing depth will be a bunch of players that transferred into the program Renaldo Woolridge (Tennessee), Eric Wise (UC Irvine), and Ari Stewart (Wake Forest). Also providing depth is Freshman Strahinja Gavrilovic and James Blasczyk (3.2 ppg). Also watch out for Zach Banner who might join the basketball team after football season. If he would ever play he be one of the biggest players to play college basketball.

 

Follow me on twitter @ScottBasketball  http://twitter.com/#!/ScottBasketball

Also like the Roundballchat site on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/roundballchatcom/191263564258333

Share

Readers Comments (0)

Comments are closed.

NBA

Nets Reggie Evans first NBA player to get fined for flopping

Reggie Evans of the Brooklyn Nets just made NBA history. You will probably ask why? Well is the ...

Kevin Martin gets warning for Flopping

Finally the NBA is doing something about flopping. I have been calling for this for the last couple ...

Russell Westbrook monster dunk on Golden State

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook is probably the most explosive guard in the NBA. Yesterday in a ...

Pistons dunk over all the Magic

Last night in was a dunk fest in Detroit between the Pistons and Orlando Magic. Both Jason Maxiell ...

Danny Green hits game winning three to lift Spurs over Lakers

The San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers were going back and forth all night but in the ...

17 Seconds or More to 7 Seconds or Less

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="192" caption="Mike D'Antoni is burdened with bringing the 2013 Los Angeles Lakers to a place ...

NBA warns 2 players for Flopping

Finally the NBA is doing something about flopping. I have been calling for this for the last couple ...

Mario Chalmers to LeBron James for the Alley Oop

On Sunday the Memphis Grizzlies destroyed the Miami Heat 104 to 86 but the highlight of the game ...

¾ Court Alley-Oop by the Denver Nuggets

The NBA season has just begun but the Denver Nuggets are in mid-season form. In their 93-87 win ...

Bloopers from LeBron James and Dwight Howard

Two of the best players in the NBA had embarrassing bloopers last night. Although the Miami Heat crushed the ...