Ruben Report: 2022-2023 USC Player And Coaching Grades
In the spring after each season and portal transfers calm down I’ve written an article giving grades to individual players and the coaching staff as a whole. Important for any reader, the grades are based on how the staff and each player performed measured against my personal expectations. They are very subjective. My expectations were formed based on a combination of the prior season’s performance for returning players, discussions with members of the team staff in the summer and fall and my observations during the many fall practices I attended leading up to the beginning of the season.
These grades are not formed by watching the season and giving a grade on the season’s body of work. Instead, they are subjective conclusions measured by comparing my personal expectations against each individual’s season performance. In my grading system, a player receives a B if he had the season I expected and higher and lower grades from there.
Coaching Staff: A
Andy Enfield said before the season began that this was the best shooting team he’d had at USC. It didn’t turn out that way. He probably based that assessment in part on the prior season’s three-point shooting of his returning players and the potential of Oziyah Sellers. The team made 74.5% of its free throws, improved but not elite (67th in the country), but the three-point shooting was a pedestrian 34.5%.
However, if I ignore Enfield’s prediction and instead focus on how the team did versus my expectations the staff did an outstanding job. The Trojans had only three upperclassmen and two sophomores who had played some meaningful minutes. Only Drew Peterson and Boogie Ellis had previously played major roles for the Trojans. The other returnees were put in much more significant roles and along with the freshmen had a lot to learn. Plus, the heart issues causing Vince Iwuchukwu to miss half the season and all of summer and fall practice made the season a difficult one for the entire staff.
The Trojans finished tied for second in the Pac-12 with Arizona and 22-11 overall after the first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan State. MSU was a bad matchup for the Trojans. The Spartans were a very physical team while the Trojans played almost the entire season with one big man on the court and four guards/wings. They were led by Boogie Ellis playing out of position as the lead guard.
In my opinion, the staff did a very good job with this group under the circumstances.
Reese Dixon-Waters: B-
I expected Reese Dixon-Waters to have a big year based on how he finished his freshman season and what I saw in fall practice. His season was solid, earning Pac 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors, but did not live up to my expectations. As a freshman, his minutes grew late in the season. He averaged 13.8 minutes per game in his freshman season and 4.8 points, making 44% of his shots and 46% of his three point attempts.
In the fall he looked like the player the Trojans could count on to make the big three, but he never regained his three-point touch. He played over 25 minutes per game and averaged 9.8 points. He almost single-handily won the game at UCLA, making every second half shot he took. On the season he averaged 9.8 ppg, making 43% of his shots but only 29% of his threes. His free throw shooting declined by almost 10% to 77.5%.
RDW had a solid season but I expected more. One of the national basketball writers picked him as one of the top breakout players in the country before the season started. Like me, that writer must have been disappointed.
Boogie Ellis: A+
Ellis was asked to play on the ball most of the time he was on the court, which was somewhat new to him. He exceeded every possible expectation. Ellis did a good job running the offense and raised his scoring average over five points to 17.7. He made a very good 38.6% of his threes and over 80% from the line. His assist-to-turnover ratio was an acceptable 1.6. Although at times he was too set on getting his own shot, overall he did an admirable job in this role.
He was also much improved on defense, averaging 1.4 steals per game, second on the team. He became an easy All-Pac 12 selection and may be the favorite to win the POY award this coming season.
I did not expect him to be as good as he was running the team or on defense. He worked very hard in every practice and became a vocal team leader. Everyone associated with USC basketball would agree that last season the Trojans’ became Boogie’s team.
Harrison (Harry) Hornery: C+
Harrison Hornery certainly improved his interior defense and blocking out and rebounding, but he never broke into the regular rotation on a team that needed production from its bigs. Hornery is a hybrid 3&D without the required athleticism. In his freshman season, he averaged only 4.4 minutes and 1.6 points in the games he played. He played so little inside that he didn’t take a free throw all season.
I expected to see a jump in his development; there was certainly improvement but not enough to earn significant playing time. Last season he played in 24 of the 33 games and averaged 7 minutes. He didn’t make much of a mark when he was in the game, averaging only 1.5 points and 1 rebound. Hornery didn’t play enough to get any confidence or rhythm, and his shooting percentages were very pedestrian.
He looked good enough in the practices I saw that I expected he would have more of an impact on the team’s season.
Kobe Johnson: A+
Kobe Johnson made the leap from a marginal freshman season to an All-Pac 12 Defensive Team member and a very good all-around player. He was listed as a forward much of the time but really played as a wing/ guard. He seemed to lack confidence as a freshman and when I saw him in the fall he had a different look in his eye. That said, I didn’t expect him to become one of the league’s premier all-around players.
As a freshman, he played in 27 of the 34 games and averaged 7.5 minutes. He scored only 1.2 ppg, averaged just over a half steal and made only 32% of his shots and 35% from three. Some players take longer to get acclimated to high level college basketball and that is certainly the case with Johnson.
He was not highly ranked coming out of high school but Enfield and staff saw something they liked. Last season he played in every game and played almost 29 minutes per. He averaged 9.2 points, 5 boards, 2.6 assists and led the team with 2.2 steals per game. He made 46% of his shots, 36% from three and 84% from the line. The biggest obstacle he may face in being named all conference this season is the other two starting guards he plays with.
Josh Morgan: A-
Some may be shocked at an A- for Josh Morgan, but I think it is completely warranted. The year before last, Morgan played behind Isaiah Mobley and Chevez Goodwin and played only 12 minutes per game and averaged 3.2 points and 2.9 rebounds. After Iwuchukwu’s heart problem Morgan became the main big man for the Trojans.
I thought in his first two seasons at USC that Morgan didn’t look confident on the court, and during fall practice I wasn’t completely convinced that he had overcome his lack of confidence. But Morgan played far better than I expected. Like Johnson, he was named to the Pac-12 All-Defense team. He averaged 7 ppg, 5.2 rebounds and a very high 2.2 blocks. Morgan became an elite rim protector and his presence inside altered many other shots. He made 58% of his shots, many of them dunks, though only 55% from the line.
Usually playing with four small teammates and he was the interior defense. He didn’t block out particularly well under the defensive board and teammates often didn’t help on his man when he contested a shot. Still, his presence helped the Trojans inside much more than any other big man on the team. He also showed on occasion that he has a 12 foot jump shot which he can make consistently.
Iaroslav Niagu: C-
The Trojans threw a dart at the board after Iwuchukwu collapsed on the court in July. No one knew at the time if he would ever play basketball again much less during his freshman season. The staff looked at the other bigs on the roster, Morgan, Hornery, and Kijani Wright and quickly decided they needed to find another player and found Iroslav Niagu in the NBA Global Academy in Australia which has produced some good players.
Niagu came to USC late and missed summer camp and he was injured and missed much of fall camp. The lack of integration into the team combined with his limited language ability led to a forgettable season. He played in 16 games and scored a total of 6 points and had 12 boards.
I was hoping for much more even though he was obviously outside the close circle of the other players. It was so obvious that I talked to Drew Peterson during the early season trip to the Bahamas about helping to integrate “Euro” into the team. The reason I had a bit of optimism is that he has a good shot from beyond the arc and thought he might help the Trojans. As it turned out, he didn’t attempt a three in a game.
Drew Peterson: B+
Peterson had a good enough season to be named to the All Pac 12 team for the second year in a row. He led the team with 6.2 boards per game and assists with 4.3 and in minutes played at almost 36. He scored 13.9 points, made 44.2% of his shots, 35.8% of his threes and 75.2% from the line. All good numbers; so why only a B+?
I expected him to raise his game to a higher level and that didn’t happen. I was hoping he had spent the summer working on a new shot such as a floater in the lane and was disappointed when I didn’t see anything new during fall practice. When the season began I was still hoping to see more from Peterson but his strengths and weaknesses from the prior season remained. He had more pressure on him as did Ellis; they became the key cogs for the Trojans and it was improvement of a sort for him to play as well with defenses keying on him much more.
Peterson still found himself in the air too often with no place to go. He still scooped his shots at the rim rather than finishing aggressively to avoid blocks. I loved covering Peterson; he always made himself available and was thoughtful in answers to questions. I hope he has great success moving on but I expected and hoped for more last season.
Oziyah Sellers: C
It was in part because of Sellers’ shooting ability that I believe Enfield made the pre-season statement that this would be his best shooting team since he arrived at USC. In one of the closed pre-season games, he led the Trojans with 19 points, and in practice he demonstrated his effortless pure form from three.
When the season began I expected Oziyah Sellers to be in the backcourt rotation ahead of Malik Thomas and make an impact. That never happened. I still believe in Sellers’ potential, but in games, he looked like he questioned whether he belonged. He played over 5 minutes in 25 games, taking 35 shots and making only 11. Sellers shot 19 threes and made only 5.
He often looked lost on defense and he didn’t earn more minutes because his shots weren’t falling. It was altogether a learning season for Sellers, but I’m hoping for a major sophomore jump like Johnson last season.
Malik Thomas: B-
The one time California POY barely left the bench as a freshman. Last fall in preseason practice he was often the lead guard for the second unit when the team was split up. That role didn’t seem to fit Malik Thomas, who was more out of place playing on the ball than Ellis.
Last season Thomas played with great energy but the results didn’t match his effort. He played 8 minutes per game in 27 games and averaged 2.4 ppg. He had only .3 assists per game and shot very poorly from the floor, making 36% of his shots and 26% of his threes. It felt as if he was in a rush to get shots up knowing he wouldn’t be in the game very long.
The Thomas we all saw in games was the Thomas I saw in fall practice: a player with a great desire to be very good but who lacked the skill set to contribute meaningfully in Enfield’s system. Add in that he was often out of place on defense and he made a good decision to move on this spring.
Vince Iwuchukwu: A
I can’t compare Iwuchukwu’s play with what I saw in the fall because of course he had no fall. I considered giving him an “incomplete” but decided instead to recognize what a tremendous accomplishment it was for him to join the team in January after a near-death heart problem on the court. He has credited the team’s medical staff and trainers along with Eric Mobley for literally saving his life.
What I did see in the fall was Vince shooting while the other players warmed up and he has a shot out to three-point range and looks like a natural scorer. He played in only 14 games and averaged 5.4 ppg. He made 50% of his shots and 79% from the line and had one very big game at Oregon State where he scored 19 points including 9-9 from the line in the narrow loss.
Iwuchukwu has a lot to learn and should benefit greatly from the extra practice time this summer before the foreign trip. He didn’t rebound particularly well, only 2.5 per game and less than one offense board, and wasn’t the same defensive presence inside as Morgan. That said, his talent and athletic skills are undeniable. I can’t wait to see him this fall.
Tre White: B+
It can easily be argued that this grade is too low for Tre White, who was on the conference All-Freshman Team. And I recognize that he was often asked to defend an opponent’s second big man and I think that wore him down in the late stages of the season. That said his reputation coming to USC was elite in every facet of the game and when I saw him in the fall I thought he could even be a one-and-done; he was that impressive.
He played in every game and averaged over 26 minutes. White averaged 9 ppg and slightly over 5 rpg. He made 47% of his shots but only 26% from three and 69% from the line. In the fall he shot from everywhere and was very good beyond the arc, but he wasn’t able to duplicate that success in the games. When he entered the portal I was very surprised. I don’t know if the coaching staff expected him to leave or they were caught by surprise.
DJ Rodman is a very similar player with a far better three point shot. For those who say White might have been at USC for another couple of years had a stayed, we are in a new generation of college sports and the next season is never guaranteed.
Kijani Wright: B
Wright was the player who most disappointed me in the fall. I expected much more of an overall game based on his high school ranking and his selection to the McD All-American game. In the fall he was very limited on offense and wasn’t particularly athletic. He could use his big body on defense but didn’t rebound very well.
By the start of the season, I understood his limitations and also knew that he worked very hard and wasn’t surprised that he played much better on defense, blocking out on the defensive boards and rebounding late in the season. I’d go further and say he was the best Trojan blocking out offensive players on the defensive boards late in the season.
Wright is the type of player who will work as hard as possible to improve this off-season. I just don’t know if he can develop a shot from more than five feet from the rim. Last season he played 9.9 minutes pg in 27 games and averaged 1.9 points and 1.8 boards. With more competition for minutes inside with a healthy Iwuckukwu, fifth-year senior Morgan and incoming freshman Arrinten Page, he will have to fight for playing time.
And One
At this point, we can only guess whether USC will play with one or two bigs. They might play different lineups depending on the opponent. I think the perimeter rotation of Isaiah Collier, Ellis and Johnson starting backed up by D.J. Rodman, Bronny James and Sellers could be as good as any in the country. They have the lead guard they have been missing the last few years who will find his running mates and a lot of spot-up three-point shooters. The only thing they arguably lack is players who can routinely create their own shot besides Ellis and Collier, but with Collier’s passing skills that may not be needed.
The success of the 2023-2024 Trojans will likely depend on how well the frontcourt plays. Collier will make it easier for them on offense. USC needs more rebounding from this group as well as better scoring. Iwuchukwu’s development may be key along with how well Arrinten will play in his freshman season.
This will be the most anticipated Trojan basketball season in a long time, partly due to the talent on this team and partly due to the anticipation surrounding newcomers James, Collier and Rodman. Attendance should rise sharply and this team will win a lot of games.
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