The mid-major coach isn’t ready for the big-time. … USC made a mistake. … A change is needed.
Andy Enfield heard the whispers. He felt the heat. USC, under his watch, was a combined 23-41, finishing each of his first two seasons in the Pac-12 basement.
“There was pressure,” the 46-year-old architect of Florida Gulf Coast’s miraculous “Dunk City” team that reached the Sweet 16 as a 15th seed in 2013 said in a phone interview. “This is Year 3 with our coaching staff. Sure we felt pressure to show progress. We thought we could compete this year, so in this business, the goal is to improve every year, and when you take over a new program, there’s pressure to show progress and show improvement.”
And he answered the critics as only he knows how: by winning games, guiding USC to a 19-9 record overall and 8-7 in the Pac-12, in the top half of the conference.
He inherited a difficult job, a program bereft of talent coming off a 14-win campaign. Last year’s team, with five freshmen and six sophomores, was the youngest power conference team in the country. During those trying years — winning a combined five league games — Enfield won over his young players with his steely approach. Sure, he yelled at times, but he didn’t let the losses get to him, at least not outwardly.
Turning around the program, he told his players, was a process. The only substitute for experience was gaining it. The losses would make them better. It would eventually turn.
“When we were losing, he was always the first to remind us that we always have another game,” junior guard Julian Jacobs said. “It kept us grounded and it put it into perspective. It’s not the end of the world.
“He stuck true to who he was. He lets us have a lot of freedom. He trusts us. He respects us as young men. He lets us be who we want to be.”
This year, it has turned, USC in the mix for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2011, was ranked earlier this season for the first time in eight years. It has defeated bitter rival UCLA twice, by a combined 33 points, and knocked off perennial conference powerhouse Arizona. The young core has grown, and the staff added highly ranked freshmen in Bennie Boatwright and Chimezie Metu, who have thrived in Enfield’s up-tempo system. The Trojans have six players who average in double-figures in points, led by sophomore guard Jordan McLaughlin.
It’s not all about football, at least not right now, on the Los Angeles campus.
“We’re definitely getting some recognition around the school,” Jacobs said. “People are actually talking about the basketball program. People are really eager to say hi and compliment us on the way we play.”
Lately, USC has struggled, dropping games to Arizona State, Utah and Stanford. The program has yet to truly arrive, Enfield admitted. There is plenty of growing left to do, maturing for his still young core. But compared to the last two seasons, it has come a long way, and so has the perception of Enfield, fair or not.
He knew what he was doing, after all. Dunk City wasn’t an accident. Neither is this USC team. Andy Enfield can still coach. This year is just a reminder of why he landed the job in the first place.
Doing the Rice thing
Dave Rice didn’t get the job done at UNLV, and was rightfully let go in early January halfway through his fifth season, with the Rebels struggling.
On Saturday night, on Senior Day, he was in the crowd to honor the kids who he spent so much time with, who worked so hard for him. Well done. If he’s up for another job, this selfless gesture many coaches in his position wouldn’t make should only help him.
Game of the Week
No. 18 Indiana at No. 8 Iowa, Tuesday, 9 p.m.
Indiana can somehow clinch the Big Ten regular-season title outright with a win, a remarkable feat considering all the heat coach Tom Crean was under when the season started, all the hysteria about the Hoosiers midseason woes, and the season-ending loss of second-leading scorer James Blackmon Jr. (knee) in December.
Stock Watch — Up
Vanderbilt
One of the nation’s most disappointing teams is changing the narrative. Picked by some as a Final Four sleeper in November, Vanderbilt is finally living up to the hype, winning five of its last six games, highlighted by Saturday’s 12-point win over No. 16 Kentucky, to move into NCAA Tournament consideration. Talent was never a question with the Commodores, led by potential first-round picks Damian Jones and Wade Baldwin IV, and now they are starting to turn potential into production. In fact, an SEC title isn’t out of the question, with Vandy just a game behind co-leaders Texas A&M and Kentucky with two games to go.
Malcolm Brogdon
Virginia is in position to win its third straight ACC regular-season crown, and the tough-as-nails 6-foot-5 senior shooting guard is making a run at conference player of the year honors. He was the best player on the floor in Saturday’s win over seventh-ranked North Carolina, scoring 26 points, and has scored 22 points or more in his last three games, giving the Cavaliers the go-to scorer they have lacked in previous seasons that ended too early for their liking.
Stock Watch — Down
North Carolina
There is something missing with the Tar Heels. On paper, they should be the best team in the country, deep and experienced, talented and explosive. And yet, North Carolina continues to falter against top competition. The effort isn’t consistent, and neither is the defensive tenacity. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them win a national championship, but it also wouldn’t be stunning to see coach Roy Williams’ enigmatic team fail to make it out of the first weekend of the tournament.
Atlantic 10
Is the league too deep for its own good? Or, are the teams at the top just not very good? Nobody, not St. Joseph’s, VCU or Dayton — the league’s top three — is immune to a bad loss. The latest was Dayton falling at home to seventh-place Rhode Island, which is now playing without its two best players, Hassan Martin and E.C. Matthews. VCU recently fell to George Mason, which has all of four conference victories. The league will have to earn its reputation in March, because at this point, it doesn’t seem like it has an elite team, and the tournament seedings will likely bear that out.
Super 16
A prediction of the top four seeds in the NCAA Tournament (listed in order):
1. Kansas, Virginia, Villanova, Michigan State
2. Oklahoma, Xavier, Miami, North Carolina
3. West Virginia, Iowa State, Maryland, Utah
4. Purdue, Iowa, Kentucky, Oregon