One of the beautiful but strangely dangerous things about playing the Washington Huskies is their near bi-polar tendencies. Overall, they average 90.5 points per game, but when they lose, they struggle, averaging less than seventy per game - a significant dropoff in offensive productive. A year ago, USC benefited from that, sweeping the Huskies, even winning by 26 points at Galen Center.
Recently, 'SC has been surging, winners of four of its last five games, including wins over ranked opponents, Tennessee and Texas. Possibly even more impressive was a near-victory on the road at No. 3 Kansas, where the Jayhawks had won over 60 consecutive games. But despite their strong play as of late with the arrival of transfer Jio Fontan, Wednesday's Pac-10 opener presents a stifling challenge. Per the LA Times:
Washington's high-powered offense includes four starters back from last season. USC has mostly replaced veterans with freshmen.
"It will be interesting to see how our younger guys react to their pressure," USC Coach Kevin O'Neill said. "If we don't control tempo, we don't win. We know that. I'm sure they're thinking the same thing."
Despite the challenge, however, this is a team USC matches up well against. They play a zone and are more of a fines team. As a result, O'Neill & Co., historically, have been able to slow the game down, play at more mundane pace, and feed the ball inside, where the Trojans have a sizable advantage.
Simply based on talent alone, this is likely the Pac-10's best team, but from a matchups perspective, this is a game that could easily tilt in favor of USC.
Unfortunately, it won't be televised, but I will be in attendance on providing live updates for DailyTrojan.com. So your options for viewing are rather limited outside of USCTrojans.com. Nonetheless...
FIGHT ON!