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USC basketball: Takeaways from Trojans close loss to surging Arizona Wildcats

By Michael Walton

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 03: Head coach Andy Enfield of the USC Trojans yells from the bench during the game against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on February 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 03: Head coach Andy Enfield of the USC Trojans yells from the bench during the game against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on February 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /
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EUGENE, OREGON – JANUARY 23: Onyeka Okongwu #21 of the USC Trojans (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
EUGENE, OREGON – JANUARY 23: Onyeka Okongwu #21 of the USC Trojans (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

Give Okongwu the ball more

It seems somewhat ridiculous to ask for more from Okongwu–who leads USC in usage rate (24.3%)  and true shooting percentage (64.3%)–so we won’t, we will simply use this space to advocate for even more touches for Okongwu on offense, hopefully fully encouraged by the Trojans’ coaching staff.

On Thursday night, Okongwu was displaying much of the growth and skill set that has tantalized NBA scouts thus far, just check out the block at the 10-second mark in the clip below and his mid-range jumper in the next clip.

Onyeka Okongwu went deep into his bag–as evidenced by the euro step finish to start the video below–against Arizona and his magnificent play kept the Trojans within 10 points despite their uneven play.

With Okongwu converting on an excellent 73.6% of his shots at the rim and at the same time hitting a solid-for-his-role 39.5% of his 2-point jump shots, Andy Enfield can get even more creative with his offense, possibly going to more high-low sets to utilize Okonwgu’s burgeoning playmaking skills. And with Okongwu clearly being the driving force behind USC’s top-50 (via KenPom) defense, using the simple threat of him scoring rather than force-feeding him shots can keep him as fresh as possible considering his workload (30.1 minutes per game).

Okongwu continues to fluster defenses with the speed and force of which he cuts after setting screens and we will start to see more and more defenses choose to foul him rather than let him get easy offense around the basket but this is not a great option either. Over the last five games, Okongwu is averaging 7.0 free throw attempts per game while hitting at least 75% of his free throws in each contest (his season average is 74.6% from the charity stripe).

If you need more evidence that Okongwu should be even more involved in Enfield’s offense, just take a gander at the USC basketball Basketball-Reference page, using their numbers, USC as a unit has a 100.6 offensive rating while Okongwu individually has a startlingly impressive 126.2 offensive rating in 663 minutes. If USC wants to improve their struggling offense, then they need to allow even more offensive freedom from the star of their great defense.

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