In a season when the USC men’s basketball team has dealt with many devastating injuries, the Trojans finally got a star player back into the lineup. Five star freshman guard Alijah Arenas made his NCAA debut on Wednesday night against Northwestern. The son of NBA legend Gilbert Arenas, Alijah has the kind of star power that rarely comes around for USC hoops.
But rather than being a cause for celebration, Arenas’ debut turned out to be a bit of a difficult night for the Trojans. USC lost 74-68 to a Northwestern team that was previously 0-7 in Big Ten conference play. The loss dealt a huge blow to USC men’s basketball’s NCAA tournament hopes.
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But aside from that, USC fans learned a lot about Alijah Arenas and USC’s plans for him. Let’s talk about the biggest takeaways.
The scoring talent is there
Arenas only made 3 field goals and scored 8 points, but all three of his field goals were highlight-reel buckets. Arenas made the first field goal of his college career on a jab step pull up jump shot from the corner. A few minutes later, he made a spinning layup that dazzled everyone inside of Galen Center and much of the online basketball community. His third field goal, in the second half, was a fadeaway jumper off the dribble with the Northwestern defender all over him.
It’s clear that Arenas has the capability to make special plays and that when he is hitting shots, he will be one of the most fun players to watch in all of college basketball.
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Flashes of his famous court vision
Head coach Eric Musselman has been very complimentary of Alijah Arenas’s court vision and called him an unselfish player, despite the fact that he’s widely known as a scorer first. We saw flashes of that in this game as well. Arenas made some nice crisp passes against Northwestern, setting his teammates up with great offensive opportunities.
USC’s offense has struggled to be fluid at times with Rodney Rice out of the lineup, so perhaps having a true point guard like Arenas in the lineup will help USC’s offense run smoothly more consistently.
Arenas should be a featured part of the offense
The fact that Arenas shot only 3-15 from the field is, well, a stat line to forget. He also shot 0-6 on three-pointers and 2-6 from the free-throw line. It was simply a poor shooting night for him.
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But another relevant part of that stat line is purely how much he shot the basketball. Despite the fact that it was his first game back after suffering two major injuries this offseason and the fact that he is a freshman who was playing in his first college basketball game, Arenas took 15 shots. No other Trojan took more than 10 shots, and no other USC starter shot the ball more than 7 times.
It’s clear that USC wants Arenas to take a lot of shots and believes in his scoring ability. If he starts to make more of those shots, he could unlock a new dimension of this USC offense.
He didn’t make too many big mistakes
He had a bad shooting night, but Alijah Arenas only turned the ball over once and picked up just two personal fouls. He didn’t seem overwhelmed or immature. It seems like he will quickly adapt to the collegiate level.
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There is rust, but he seems to be in game shape
Part of that was also how much Arenas played. Often players who are coming off a big injury are eased back into the lineup. Musselman put Arenas into the starting lineup immediately and he played 29 minutes, third-most on the Trojans behind only Ezra Ausar and Jacob Cofie.
All in all, while the stat line isn’t eye popping and he needs to get into a shooting rhythm at the collegiate level, it was an impressive debut for the 18-year old freshman in a lot of ways in terms of his poise and immediate role in the Trojan offense.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Alijah Arenas makes NCAA debut for USC men’s basketball
