Ethan can’t play in any game. Josh can only play against sub 100 KenPom teams

Well, you guys have now officially ruined this place. Brian must be disgusted.

Thanks, Mickey.

Your opinions here will always be welcomed.

If you’re looking for a message board that does not tolerate dissenting opinions and will relentlessly taunt posters for engaging in wrongthink, that place already exists.

As for personnel use, USC was +7 when Vez was on the court, and -3 when Morgan was on the court; that’s a 10-point swing. And, of course, it was with Vez in and Morgan out that SC finally pulled ahead for good. The argument is stronger with Ethan; however, EA’s plus/minus was negative until the final 12 minutes of the game. Reese and Max were both +5 for the game.

Morgan played six minutes in the game which gave Goodwin the only six minutes out during the game except for the one inbounds pass in the last minute. Riley and Johnson basically split the game against him (without Mobley). Would you have had Goodwin play all forty minutes, played Coulibaly, gone small?

Anderson played 30 minutes, had seven points, three rebounds, two assists, two personals, and no turnovers. He had a bad stretch at the end of the first half where Campbell hit two threes and Anderson got lost on the plays. However, in the second half, he defended against a UCLA fast break (I think Jaquez) where he made the UCLA player divert toward the basket without fouling and Peterson got the block from behind as the player brought the ball back to shoot, knocked the ball away to Peterson for a turnover, either got a piece of a Campbell shot in the lane in teh laast few minutes or altered the shot so that it only hit the front rim, and took a charge on Juzang at the basket. That was four solid defensive plays in a game we won by three points. Who would you have rather seen in the game on Saturday?

I appreciate the statistics of the games and fully agree that they tell a lot about the players. They don't however tell everything particularly about individual plays that have effects on the outcome of individual games.

On Morgan, it should have been clear from his first substitution into the rotation that it wasn't going to work. He was on the court for 8 defensive possessions, and we gave up 13 points in those 8 possessions, with UCLA grabbing 2/3 of the rebounds on our defensive end. The entire rest of the game, on 62 possessions, UCLA scored a total of 51 points -- and 7 of those were in the final 41 seconds. It just didn't work. And it was clear it wasn't working. It also didn't work against Arizona, where we gave up 31 points and nearly 70% offensive rebounds in the 22 possessions he was on the court.

What do you do? You either go to Coulibaly or you play Harri at the 5, or maybe you play Isaiah White at the 5 with both Drew and Max in the game.

Ethan did play a strong 2nd Half, and did make some nice plays that mattered. But we still performed better on offense when he was on the bench. I personally would have 100% stuck with Boogie.

It is unfortunate particularly that Coulibaly was injured so much this year so that the staff could have had greater confidence in what he can bring to the court in situations like this game. By reputation, he is very athletic and very quick which likely would help him to be a strong rebounder and defender. Coaches tend to be risk averse and so it appears that Enfield got Goodwin the rest he needed with Morgan on the court and then put Goodwin back in with 13 minutes left and left him there the rest of the way. Fortunately, he didn't get into foul trouble and was strong the rest of the game. I was at the game and I think that not getting too far out of the ordinary in a close game like that was the better idea. I don't think that Hornery is ready to play at the 5 and I don't think we shoot well enough from the outside to go too small. I am hopeful that all of that gets resolved.

I hope that Boogie pulls out of his slump for the rest of the season and that Peterson stays hot but on Saturday, I didn't see it from Boogie. I am sure that UCLA kept hoping that they were going to get someting from Juzang, Jaquez and Bernard but the three of them shot under 20% and our two best scorers didn't score at all. (I know that Mobley didn't play.) It seemed to me that we were going to win the game as it unfolded on the defensive end and EA was really contributing to that end in my judgment.

I appreciate your perspective on USC basketball and enjoy reading what you post. I also appreciate your work to have the board and the pod casts. Nice chatting with you.

You too, NV.

I wonder if Morgan's knee tendinitis is still bothering him