Recap of the 2010-11 Season

USC had a decent year in 2010-11 having a 19-15 record and a fourth place finish within the Pac-10 conference.  During the conference tournament, USC made it to the semifinals, then proceeded to go down in the play-in game of the NCAA tourney to Virginia Commonwealth.

The Trojans achieved results by being a fantastic defensive team.  USC held their foes to 40.9% from the field shooting and also to less than 64 points per contest.

The loss of Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson will be a challenge.  Vucevic averaged 17.1 points each game and brought down more than 10 rebounds every night.  Stepheson was the team's second leading rebounder at more than seven per night and also contributed 9.8 points.

2011-12 Overview

Kevin O'Neill has been the USC head coach for a couple of seasons and has given the supporters teams that play tough and improve as the season progresses.  This year's team has lots of production to replace, but O'Neill does have Jio Fontan, Maurice Jones, and Garrett Jackson all back.  The Trojans brought in transfers Aaron Fuller and Dewayne Dedmon to go along with a solid group of newcomers.  Check out the entire USC basketball schedule to see who they face this season.

Backcourt

Southern Cal is going be heavily relying on their returning guards, Fontan and Jones.  Fontan sat out the fall semester last year, but came on in the spring to lead the team in assists and finished second in points at 10.5 points each game.

Jones was third on the Trojans in offense with 9.9 points every contest, had 110 overall assists, and established the team record with 69 steals as a freshman.  His achievements helped to earn him a place on the Pac-10 All-Freshman team.

Bryon Wesley is a 6'5" freshman guard who is anticipated to help out on the offensive side right away.  Alexis Moore is yet another freshman who should see time and plays very well on both sides sides of the floor.  Junior college transfer Greg Allen is actually a lock down defender and can shoot 3.

Frontcourt

USC's three big men should be Aaron Fuller, Dewayne Dedmon, and James Blascyk.  Fuller was forced to sit out last season after transferring from Iowa.  In his sophomore season for the Hawkeyes, he was honorable mention on the All-Conference team with just under 10 points and 6.7 boards each game.

These players will probably be pushed in practice by a couple of transfers who can't play this season.  Ari Stewart came over from Wake Forest and Eric Wise is a transfer from UC-Irvine.