USC 77-UCR 67: 1-0 for KO

The Trojans scored an opening night win for new Head Coach Kevin O'Neil on Tuesday night at the Galen Center, defeating UC Riverside 77-67. I got to call the game for KSCR and was very impressed with the Trojans, especially considering they were missing four key contributors, in Alex Stepheson, Marcus Johnson, Mike Gerrity, and Leonard Washington. Here are my impressions after game one:

-Dwight Lewis stepped up and was the player and leader the Trojans will need him to be this year. The Senior came out red hot, scoring the first 7 Trojans points and tallying 14 in the first half. He already looks more aggressive in taking the ball to the rim and more confident with his outside shot. It's his time, and so far, he's making the most of it.

-Marcus Simmons' 18 points was a pleasant surprise. I know Simmons worked on his shooting over the summer. In fact, he shot over 1,000 shots per day and it really has shown in practice and last night. Simmons dominated the game at times on both ends and if he can become a scoring threat along with being his normal tenacious self on defense, the Trojans have themselves a player.

-Nikola Vucevic, the player who I think is poised for a huge breakout season, was solid with 18 points and 8 boards. Vucevic is a guy who played a lot in Montenegro over the summer and has really added some muscle to his frame. He now looks much more aggressive in the post and it showed last night, as Nik was able to move along the baseline for some nifty layups. The defense still needs improvement, but I like what I've seen from Nikola in practices and in the opener.

-Maybe the most pleasant surprise of the night was the play of PG Donte Smith. Smith was dreadful last year, to put it lightly. He turned over the ball too much and couldn't shoot at all from the outside (less than 30%). Although he did have 5 TO last night, Head Coach Kevin O'Neil took responsibility for a few of them, siting bad play calls from the bench. More importantly, Smith showed that he can indeed shoot from the outside, making two threes en route to 12 points. Also, Donte played all 40 minutes, a truly gutsy effort from a guy who rarely saw the floor last season.

-Kasey Cunningham was the only real disappointment, tallying 4 points and fouling out in the second half. Cunningham looked a little sluggish and couldn't really get into the flow of the game on either side of the ball. That should be expected, however, after coming off his third ACL injury in three years. It will take him some time. The thing I didn't like to see was Kasey kick the scorers table after he fouled out and pick up an unnecessary technical foul. Have some more discipline and don't do stupid things like that. It was completely unacceptable and Coach KO let Kasey know about it, glaring and yelling at Cunningham on the bench.

-The interior and transition defense was not particularly good. A big reason for this was the absence of Alex Stepheson in the middle and the absence of Marcus Johnson, one of the best defenders on the team. Defense is really the last thing I'm worried about with this team, especially considering how much O'Neil emphasizes it over everything else in practice.


All in all, it was a solid debut for Coach O'Neil and the Trojans. Any win with the lack of depth they have right now is good. Alex Stepheson might be back Saturday against LMU and Marcus Johnson will be back for the third game next Friday night. Coming into the season, people thought I was absolutely crazy for being optimistic about this team. However, as you will see, this team has talent and will be competitive, especially in Pac-10 play when they get Gerrity and Washington back. I said this team would win 20 games, finish 5th in the Pac-10, and sneak into the NCAA Tournament. Again, people think I'm off the deep end for predicting this, but I'm sticking to it. 19 more wins to go. Fight On.