Pac 12 Preview: USC

Last Season:
15-15 overall and 7-11 in Conference play.

The Coaches:
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is a former All American at USC and was great pro player and now in her 3rd season as Head Coach.
Beth Burns is in her 2nd season as an assistant. Beth has been a Head Coach for many years and worked at Stanford once.
Jualeah Woods is in her 3rd year as an assistant. Ironically she replaced Burns briefly at San Diego State and was a Burns assistant for 6 years.
Taja Edwards is in her 2nd year as an assistant.


Losses:
Two graduated, two transferred and one was dismissed mid last season, and another transferred right after the season started.
The top three scorers graduated (2) or transferred (1). Alexyz Vaioletama was the leading scorer at 12 points per game and tied as the leading rebounder at 7 per game.

Kaneisha Horn was tied as the leading rebounder at 7 and was the # 2 scorer at 10 points per game.

McKenzie Calvert averaged 10 points as a highly recruited Frosh and transferred to Kansas.
Amy Okonkwo averaged just 7 minutes but 3 points per game and transferred to TCU.


Kiki Alofaituki averaged 7 points in 12 games before leaving the team. Kiki was a Sr last year.




Additions:
Khaedin Taito is a 5-11 Frosh Guard from New Zealand although she went to HS in Australia. Taito has played for the 16U, 17U and 18U National Junior teams for the New Zealand Tall Ferns.

Dani Milisic is a 6-3 Frosh Forward who is in her final semester of HS and will join the Trojans in December. Milsic is from Australia and has played for their National 16U, 17U and 18U teams.

Candela Abejon is a 6-1 Frosh Guard from Spain. Abejon has a year of college in Spain, not playing basketball and still has 4 years as a Trojan. She averaged 16 points and 8 rebounds this past season for her Club team in Spain.

Temi Fagbenle is a 6-4 Grad student who played at Harvard for 3 seasons, injured her fourth. Temi averaged 13 points during her Harvard career and last season 14 points and 10 rebounds. She was twice All Ivy League and in HS was the Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey and ranked # 13 out of HS. Temi averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds in the 2012 Olympics for her native England.

Aliyah Mazyck is a 5-9 Frosh Guard from North Carolina. Probably a Point Guard at USC ranked # 58 .

Marguerite Effa is a 6-3 Post from Los Angeles. Effa is a two time LA City Player of the Year, averaging 23 points per game in her HS career. She was born in Cameroon.

Those are the six new players, however there is another who has been practicing with the USC team. Sadie Edwards is 5-10 Soph Guard who transferred from UConn last December. Edwards played 6 games with UConn and will be eligible in December. She was the # 8 player out of HS in the country.


The Schedule:
West Virginia and Gonzaga are the only challenges on the non conference schedule, ranked the 11th toughest, or 2nd easiest in the Pac 12. USC doesn’t play at either Stanford or Cal nor do Utah or Colorado travel to USC.



The Team:
Jordan Adams is a 6-1 Redshirt Jr Point Guard, thus starting her 4th year at USC and is already a graduate and working on her Masters. Adams was a McD All American and a top 10 player out of HS. Injuries, she missed most of her Frosh year, have contributed to her career 39% shooting and 21% from three. However we remember she scored 21 points against Stanford. Last season Adams averaged 7 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game.

Brianna Barrett is a 5-7 Sr Guard who started every game last season averaging 10 points but shooting just 36% and made only 8 threes. She did average 4 assists per game. Like Adams Brianna has already graduated and in a Masters program.

Courtney Jaco is 5-8 Jr Guard who started all but six games last season. Jaco averaged 7 points and made 48 threes, tops on the team, at 37%.
Kristen Simon is a 6-1 Soph Post who averaged 7 points and 5 rebounds in just 17 minutes last season. Simon was the # 47 recruit out of HS.
Alexis Lloyd is a 5-10 redshirt Jr Guard. Lloyd was ranked # 81 out of HS and played at Virginia Tech as a Frosh averaging 3 points. She sat out a year ago after transferring to USC then last season averaged 2 points for the Trojans.

Drew Edelman is a 6-4 Jr Center from Menlo School and Sunnyvale. She hasn’t played much thus far.




Predictions:
So hard to tell with just 6 players back and 2 didn’t play much last season. New players look very good on paper but outside of Edwards and Fagbenle, can they contribute in their first year?




2016 Recruiting:
Valarie Higgins, 6-0 Wing # 31 from So Cal
Minyon Moore, 5-9 Point Guard, # 97 from Nor Cal
Asiah Jones, 6-2 Post from South Carolina, unranked