USC kinda reminds me of what would happen if you took Wazzu’s top 7 guys in NCAA 08 on your Plyastation into player-edit mode, and made all their stats and attributes about 10 points higher. They’ve got a leader PG in Hackett, a PF/C in Gibson, a senior role player in Wilkinson, and a bunch of freshmen with expectations….oh and also Dwight Lewis, who’s having quite the breakout season. Very impressed so far.
Also somewhat impressed with Oregon so far despite the lopsided loss. This may be the first time I’ve ever seen the Ducks commit and rotate on defense. I think it was more of a matter of the Trojans just being overwhelming on offense. The Ducks on offense are quite an adventure, as it seemed like a lot of it was whichever guard has the ball with about 20 seconds left in the shot clock just puts his head down and hope he gets to the rim, or hoping Porter or Brown can get open for a 3. I’m very impressed so far with what I’ve seen out of their freshmen too (specifically Dunigan and Crittle, albeit Crittle will have a rough couple years learning to stay out of foul trouble.)
Oregon kept this one close for about 30 minutes, partially because DeRozan and Gibson spent a great deal of the game in foul trouble, partially because USC had more offensive lapses than Oregon had defensive lapses. But in the last 10 minutes, USC found another gear and left the Quacks behind.
Oregon’s still going to win some games this year. Especially once their freshmen get a few more games under them. Playing UCLA on Sunday isn’t going to help.
If USC is ever going to win the Pac-10, this is definitely the year to do it. DeRozan’s looking more and more like the NBA prospect he was projected to be, and Gibson and Hackett might both leave after this year too (Wright too if he keeps this up.) First Pac impressions: The Trojans are the team to beat.
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