NCAA Bracket 2011: USC Proving Pundits Proud, First Ones Gone from Weak Pac-10

The pundits who claimed that the Pac-10 was very weak this year are applauding themselves after the University of Southern California easily bowed out to Virginia Commonwealth 59-46.

In a game that USC could have and should have won, the Trojans found three ways to lose and ended with a complete collapse. The Trojans lost because of a lack of commitment on the defensive boards, turnovers and too many missed free throws.

VCU out-rebounded the bigger Trojans by only six, 35-29, but had 15 offensive rebounds.

USC turned the ball over 15 times compared to VCU’s eight. The combination of poor rebounding and unforced errors on the part of the Trojans allowed VCU to take a whopping 21 more shots than USC.

The Trojans went to the free-throw line 10 more times than VCU, but only shot 60 percent from the charity stripe, making 15 of 25.

That could have been the difference right there as the Trojans, who were down for most of the second half, had cut the deficit to a single point with 7:21 to go at 43-42.

But USC would go on to get just one field goal for the remainder of the game while being outscored 16-4 in crunch time.

The one bright spot for the Trojans was junior guard Jio Fontan, who was able to use the dribble to drive through the VCU defense for most of the night.

He racked up a team high 14 points for his efforts.

Unfortunately, the Trojan's best player, Nikola Vucevic was held to 11 points on just five field goal attempts for the entire game.

In embarrassing fashion, USC waved the white flag and conceded the game with less than two minutes to play and down by nine. USC coach Kevin O'Neill shouted to his players after the final TV timeout to refrain from fouling even though VCU had shot only 65 percent from the free-throw line themselves.

USC let VCU run the clock down and after a missed shot USC just dropped the ball onto the floor and walked off the court with a few seconds left. The officials were savvy to USC’s humility and did not blow the whistle for a kicked ball with two seconds remaining on the clock.

This sad ending was par for the course for a Trojan team that saw O’Neill suspended for their prior game—a 67-62 loss to Arizona in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament.

After a public apology for getting into an argument with a booster in a hotel, O’Neill was reinstated for the NCAA tournament.

Perhaps he and the rest of the team should have stayed in Los Angeles.