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The Next Hex to Overcome: Enfield's Record When Ranked

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  • The Next Hex to Overcome: Enfield's Record When Ranked

    So far the story of this season has been SC overcoming some of the monkeys that have plagued the program during the Enfield era. These include being unprepared in preseason tournaments, players turning to hero ball on offense, and winning big games in February. So far, and only thus far, this Enfield team has been conquering those monkeys.

    But big ones remain -- and they are connected to each other:

    #1 winning road games in the 2nd Half of the conference season

    #2 performance after being ranked in the polls

    So let's look at the latter.

    Prior to this week, Andy Enfield's teams at USC have made 12 appearances in the AP Top 25: twice in 2016 and five times each in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.

    Here are SC's records after those week's rankings:

    January 18, 2016 (ranked #21): lost @ Oregon, lost @ Oregon State

    February 8, 2016 (ranked #23): lost @ Stanford, lost @ Cal

    December 12, 2016 (ranked #24): beat Troy at home

    December 19, 2016 (ranked #23): beat Cornell at home, beat Missouri State and Wyoming in Las Vegas Tourney

    December 26, 2016 (ranked #22): won @ Oregon State, lost @ Oregon

    January 2, 2017 (ranked #25): beat Stanford at home, lost to Cal at home

    January 9, 2017 (ranked #25): lost @ Utah, won @ Colorado

    November 1, 2017 (ranked #10): DNP

    November 13, 2017 (ranked #10): beat N.D. State at home, won @ Vanderbilt

    November 20, 2017 (ranked #10): beat Lehign at home, lost to Texas A&M at home

    November 27, 2017 (ranked #14): lost @ SMU

    December 4, 2017 (ranked #25): lost to Oklahoma @ Staples


    A few observations here:

    -- These appearances in the AP Top 25 really reflect four appearances: January 18, 2016 (fell out after losing twice); February 8, 2016 (fell out after losing twice); December 12, 2016 (stayed in the poll for 5 weeks); the preseason poll in 2017 (stayed in the poll for 5 weeks).

    -- USC's cumulative record during those appearances before appearing in the polls: 42-8

    -- USC's record under Andy Enfield when ranked is: 9-10

    -- USC's record against Power conference schools under Andy Enfield when ranked is: 4-10


    A couple more quick notes:

    Andy Enfield has had hot starts to seasons before. In the 2015-16, USC started 15-3 and was at one point 18-5 (7-3 in the Pac-12); in the 2016-17 season, USC started 14-0 and was 21-4 (8-4 in the Pac-12 at one point); in the 2017-18 season, USC started 8-2 in conference play; and last season USC started 15-3 and was 6-2 in conference play at one point.

    So starting 15-3 is nothing new for Enfield; nor is starting hot in conference play.

    What Andy Enfield had not yet pulled off, prior to this past week, was starting 9-2 and being in first place in the conference in February.

    What's more .... Andy Enfield's record in conference road games while ranked is .... 2-6.

    Well, USC is back in the polls under Andy Enfield and what's on the slate? A pair of road games up in the Pacific Northwest.

    Make no mistake, this is a test of a remaining monkey on Andy's back. Can he and the team overcome it?

  • #2
    Nice summary.

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