For the 2nd time in Mr Cooper’s tenure he has turned over the Staff bringing in 3 new Assistant Coaches. Darren Park comes from Cal where he spent the past season and the 7 seasons prior at Louisiana Tech and Maryland. Tai Dillard comes from Texas San Antonio where she coach for 5 years. Evan Unrau comes from Santa Clara where she coached for 3 seasons and before that a season at UCSB. Fans here may remember her as her first job in the college ranks was the Video Coordinator at Stanford.
Head Coach Michael Cooper returns for his 4th season at USC. Last season USC was 18-12 and 12-6 in Pac 12 play. USC played a tough non conference schedule but beat only Gonzaga as they went 6-6.
THE SCHEDULE: USC plays Gonzaga, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Duke and Vanderbilt at home and Fresno State and San Diego State at their arenas. A very strong and difficult non conference schedule. USC does not play the Oregon schools at home nor travel to Utah or Colorado.
LOSSES: USC lost 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year’s team. Brianna Gilbreath graduated after starting for 4 seasons. Last season Brianna averaged a team high 12 points per game and also 7 rebounds per game. She hit 24 threes at
39%. Sister Stephanie Gilbreath who spent most of her career with knee injuries decided to play her 5th season at New Mexico after she graduated in June. Stephanie averaged 4 points per game.
Ashley Corral started most of her career at USC, last season averaging 12 points and hitting 69 threes at 38%. Jackie Gemelos ended her career after 9 games last season with still another knee injury. In those 9 games she averaged 11 points. Michelle Jenkins was a starting Center at one point but injuries kept her from playing last season and she has graduated. Danielle Peacon was scheduled to enroll at USC after her frosh year at UOP and a great Soph year at JC. She is a 6-3 Post but did not enroll at USC.
RETURNEES: Cassie Harberts returns as the starting Center. She is a 6-2 Jr who averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds while starting every game for the Trojans. Cassie will be a very strong presence in the Post and at the 4. Harberts was a High School All American. She’s a great student and wants to be a Doctor.
Christina Marinacci is a 6-1 Sr who like Harberts has been a starter most of her USC career. Last season Marinacci averaged 9 points and a team leading 7 ½ rebounds per game. Christina was a McDonalds All American and Honorable Mention All Pac 12 Defensive player.
Ariya Crook only started 4 games but averaged 20 minutes per game and 5 points per. It’ll be interesting to see where Crook plays as it was some at the Point last year but she had a poor assist to turnover ratio, 1:2. Crook is a 5-7 Soph. Also she shot 21% from three. But she can be an excellent player and expect big improvement from her this season. Crook was a McDonalds All American and her career goal is to be a Detective.
Alexvz Vaioletama is a 6-1 Soph Forward who averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds and 21 minutes per game. Alexvz was a McDonalds All American and her cousin, Steve Francis, played in the NBA.
Desiree Bradley is a 6-1 JR Forward who averaged almost 4 points and a bit over 1 rebound per game last season. Bradley was the # 35 player out of High School.
Thaddesia Southall is 6-4 Redshirt Soph Post. Southall injured her knee in High School and sat out her Frosh season. Then 6 games into her Soph year she injured her knee again. She was the # 99 player out of High School.
NEWCOMERS: Jordan Adams leads the way and should be the Starting Point Guard. Jordan is a 6-1 Frosh and was on everyone’s All American Team and the McDonalds All American team. Adams was the # 6 player in High School last season. Jordan should start from Day 1.
Brianna Barnett is a 5-7 Frosh Guard # 95 recruit. She could play either Guard position.
Destinie Gibbs is a 5-11 Frosh Guard, ranked # 24 among guards in High School.
And there are more who are not incoming Frosh. Kate Oliver is a 6-4 JR post, a transfer from Marist a year ago. As a Soph at Marist, this Aussie averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds per game as Marist was ranked # 21 in the final pool. Oliver sat out last season practicing with USC and she is ready to play a big role in the Post with Harberts.
Kiki Alofatuli is a 6-1 Redshirt Frosh Wing. Kiki is one of three Mater Dei players (Adams and Vaioletama) with the Trojans. Kiki signed with ASU out of High School and sat out last season as a transfer although she did not play at ASU. She was ranked
# 26 in High School.
Deanna Calhoun is a 6-3 Redshirt Frosh from Northern California, Albany HS. Calhoun was the # 34 Forward in High School 2 years ago. She tore her ACL in Dec of her Sr year so redshirted this past season at USC. In High School Deanna was averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds before her injury.
Malia Cravens is a 5-9 Soph Guard who transferred from Hawaii. She will sit out this season.
OUTLOOK: USC shot only 37% from the floor last season. Not good at all, and certainly was their limiting factor. Their offensive scheme must improve this season. The fact that they shot 33% from three really shows how poorly they shot within the circle. As usual USC is loaded with talent, six players were top 30 out of High School. With the coaches changes, and I would gage for the better, maybe USC will finally rise to a top 20 program which many have been expecting.
AN UPDATE: ASU Schedule. ASU plays non conference games against North Carolina State, and Florida in a Las Vegas Tournament. Boston College and Providence on the road and Texas Tech and University of San Diego at home. They don’t travel to Oregon or host Stanford or Cal.
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