Many opinions are circulating on what steps USC basketball should take next year.
Whether it is replacing Kevin O'Neill or giving him, or what type of players O'Neill should recruit everyone has an opinion.
I feel pretty certain that O'Neill will be back next year. Fairness dictates that he get at least three years to get his system in place with all of his players.
Of course there has been talk of who should replace O'Neill if he were to be let go.
The names are all familiar...From Jamie Dixon to Mark Few to Lon Kruger and the like. But let me be the first to say Dixon will never come here, it doesn't matter what his local ties are here.
As long as the athletic department takes a lukewarm approach as to how they currently market the basketball program and as long as the school goes down the path that many think they are of de-emphasizing sports by walking away from the money that they are rumored to be leaving on the table and the current administrations long range vision of trying to be like Stanford etc. no high quality, proven basketball coach will come to USC.
That's the administration side but what about the roster?
Michael Lev of the OCR gives us some different scenarios of what the roster could look like next season...
It’s as much a preview as a review, and in that vein, here’s a look at three possible starting lineups for USC next season:
WITH VUCEVIC ‘BIG’
- F Nikola Vucevic
- F DeWayne Dedmon
- F Aaron Fuller
- G Jio Fontan
- G Greg Allen
WITH VUCEVIC ‘SMALL’
- F Nikola Vucevic
- F Aaron Fuller
- G Jio Fontan
- G Greg Allen
- G Maurice Jones
WITHOUT VUCEVIC
- F DeWayne Dedmon
- F Aaron Fuller
- G Jio Fontan
- G Greg Allen
- G Maurice Jones
We all know how this team does with Vucevic in the line-up. Without Vucevic, USC will have a tough time doing well in the conference.
O'Neill also needs to get some other players involved. His six man rotation just doesn't give us a chance as the season wears on. He needs to give some of the kids some trial by fire.
The question I have for Pat Haden is this...What are your expectations?
You can't say you want to win titles if you are not willing to invest in the product. Are we doing that now?
I laid my expectations in the comments of the Open Thread in the first day of games.
I think they are pretty simple...
Compete and win some conference titles…not just the CCG
How about going deep into the NCAAT…I would be happy to see some Sweet 16’s and Elite 8’s as the program builds its brand and depth.
I am not going to demand winning it all when we can’t even when the conference.
I just want some progress…unfortunately this aint it
At times we have had the talent but after this season we are headed for a bit of a drop off...sanctions do that to you. They hurt your ability to recruit and like we saw with Garrett's move of letting players out of their LOI's it really hurts your depth.
It is going to be a rough season next year...especially if Vucevic moves on.
And I think he will...