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  USC guard Boogie Ellis, left, reacts as Cal State Bakersfield guard Marvin McGhee III, right, vies for the ball during the first half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Cal State Bakersfield guard Kaleb Higgins, left, dribbles as USC guard Isaiah Collier defends during the first half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC forward DJ Rodman gestures after making a 3-point shot during the first half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC freshman guard Bronny James, right, celebrates from the bench during the first half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. James is not medically cleared to play yet. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Cal State Bakersfield guard Kaleb Higgins, right, shoots as USC guard Boogie Ellis defends during the first half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Cal State Bakersfield guard Cameron Wilbon, right, pokes the ball out of the hands of USC forward DJ Rodman during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Cal State Bakersfield guard Kaleb Higgins gets to the basket for a layup during the first half of their game against USC on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier, left, considers his options as Cal State Bakersfield guard Marvin McGhee III defends during the first half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. Collier had 19 points, five assists and four steals as the Trojans rolled to an 85-59 win. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Boogie Ellis shoots as Cal State Bakersfield forward Fidelis Okereke defends during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Comedian Chris Rock, center, watches during the first half of a college basketball game between USC and Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Boogie Ellis brings the ball up the court during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC forward Joshua Morgan, center, Cal State Bakersfield guard Marvin McGhee III, left, and forward Fidelis Okereke vie for a rebound during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Cal State Bakersfield head coach Rod Barnes gestures from the sideline during the first half of their game against USC on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Boogie Ellis, center, handles the ball as Cal State Bakersfield guards Dalph Panopio, left, and Corey Stephenson defend during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC head coach Andy Enfield calls out to his team from the sideline during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier brings the ball up the court during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier, left, shoots as Cal State Bakersfield forward Ugnius Jarusevicius defends during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC head coach Andy Enfield, right, speaks with freshman guard Isaiah Collier during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier, center, is hit in the face by Cal State Bakersfield guard Jaden Alexander, left, after driving past forward Fidelis Okereke during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier, right, is hit on the face by Cal State Bakersfield guard Jaden Alexander, left, during the second half on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC forward Brandon Gardner reacts after dunking during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC forward Brandon Gardner flexes after dunking during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC freshman guard Ronny James reacts from the bench during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. James has not been medically cleared to play. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Isaiah Collier (1) takes off the warmup pants of guard JD Plough during the second half of their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  USC guard Boogie Ellis warms up before their game against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday night at the Galen Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

LOS ANGELES — Before the Galen Center was filled on Thursday night, the stands were vacant enough for one shrill voice to pierce the sanctuary of USC’s early warm-ups.

“Isaiah!” yelled one young fan wearing a USC jersey, beaming, leaning toward the court in the direction of Isaiah Collier.

The Trojans’ electric freshman floor general turned to him, a smile spreading across the 19-year-old’s face. He pointed, right at him.

And the boy shrieked. 

The USC basketball program hasn’t had a figure quite like this in a while, a player who combines one-and-done talent with style and charisma to match. And a bolt of lightning shot through Galen on Thursday, amid an otherwise sleepy crowd for the 6 p.m. start in the team’s home debut, when Collier emerged from the tunnel during pregame introductions to the tune of Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag,” the crowd roaring so loud it temporarily drowned out the public address announcer.

And the show Collier put on in the first half was special, the engine of a No. 21 Trojans squad that built a 24-point lead by halftime and boat raced Cal State Bakersfield, 85-59, Roadrunner defenders looking like tumbleweeds when he decided to gearshift from 0 to 60. He spent much of the first 15 minutes pushing the pace in transition, dishing assists to bigs off pick-and-rolls or firing torpedoes to shooters stationed in weak-side corners, and he showed notable patience after a six-turnover debut.

“Track meet – we say that a lot, so, I mean, it’s just runnin’,” Collier said after the game.

With a minute left in the first half and a 20-point lead, though, Collier went into attack mode, calling for a transition pass he never received. Senior guard Boogie Ellis motioned at him though, and a burly Collier sealed his defender, driving baseline and hanging long enough to split the outstretched arms of a couple of potential shot blockers.

He flipped a right-handed layup over his head, looking like it would clank off the backboard, but, seeming to defy the laws of momentum, it kissed with perfect spin and dropped through.

Collier finished with 19 points, five assists and four steals, part of a dynamic USC attack that has improved noticeably in shooting and ball movement compared to last year’s squad. Washington State transfer DJ Rodman hit back-to-back 3-pointers at one point in the first half, later draining a wide-open transition look, and finished with 13 points after a quiet showing in an 82-69 victory over Kansas State on Monday night in Las Vegas.

“I really feel like I’m gonna step into a role that’s going to be more of a scoring, more assertive role here,” Rodman said last week, a prophecy fulfilled on Thursday night.

USC shot 59% from the field in the first half, scoring 19 points off Bakersfield turnovers.

Collier, though, ran into some second-half trouble, turning the ball over on three straight possessions after he had six turnovers in his collegiate debut on Monday. It’s a noticeable issue for a lead guard who attacks at breakneck speed, sometimes prone to tripping over his own feet or getting stripped – but it’s also part of who Collier is, an agent of chaos in the open court.

“The good players can get to where they want,” Coach Andy Enfield said after the win, “but the great players know what to do when they get there. And so, he has to figure out what to do when he gets there, because he can get where he wants on the court.”

They couldn’t rely entirely, too, on a freshman point guard, as Enfield pointed out. And USC was helped, too, by balanced scoring overall, even in wing Kobe Johnson’s absence – day-to-day, Enfield said, after an injury suffered in the season opener.

Lithe sophomore guard Oziyah Sellers, who Enfield has pointed out as much-improved, chipped in an efficient 16 points. Stalwart big Joshua Morgan added 12 points off some nice feeds from Collier and Ellis, and the USC bigs and perimeter defenders rotated well while holding Bakersfield to 42% shooting.

Ellis was held to 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting (1 for 6 from 3-point range) after scoring 24 in the season opener.

Kaleb Higgins led the Roadrunners (1-1) with 19 points and Cameron Wilbon had 10.

UP NEXT

USC hosts UC Irvine on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

.@chrisrock is all of us watching @isaiahcollier04 pic.twitter.com/JO1XNgx9dc

— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) November 10, 2023

That Georgia boy connection @isaiahcollier04 @arrintenp22

: @Pac12Network
: https://t.co/sun5jxJiSz pic.twitter.com/8rZ6F1RzM9

— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) November 10, 2023

Surprise, surprise@bgardner2023's first bucket at Galen Center is a slaaam dunk

: @Pac12Network
: https://t.co/sun5jxJiSz pic.twitter.com/ilSQKXv3r9

— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) November 10, 2023

.@isaiahcollier04's triple gives us a big lead!

: @Pac12Network
: https://t.co/sun5jxJiSz pic.twitter.com/HPhuKEsjBy

— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) November 10, 2023

They were boys since Pop Warner, playing on the same youth team. And both were headed to USC, highly rated local recruits who had committed to the Trojans in the summer.

Except Fields, in a surprise, announced in August that he had switched his commitment to Oregon.

“You flipped,” Fields recalled Jordan saying to him pregame.

“Go Ducks,” Fields responded.

They went at it over the next 48 minutes, Fields matched up one-on-one with Jordan and stifling him for much of the night. Until Jordan broke free for some room on a late fourth down, catching a pass before being tackled by Fields, looking down and flexing at the Serra senior as he got up.

“That’s my guy, but (expletive), he flipped,” Jordan said after a 35-28 Sierra Canyon win, “so I kinda took that personally.”

It wasn’t just the commitment flip. It was to whom.

An all-out dogfight has emerged between USC and Oregon on Friday night fields across the West Coast, an explosive, tug-of-war recruiting rivalry for top local talent that coaches and players in the mix are well aware of, growing in size and scope with both programs’ new regimes and upcoming moves to the Big Ten.

“They see everything each other’s doing,” said Sierra Canyon assistant Bruce Bible, who is well-connected in the Southern California recruiting world. “I mean, recruits going on trips, unofficial visits, official visits. And I don’t think the battle’s going to stop anytime soon.”

For years, USC had dominated the West Coast recruiting scene, particularly in California. But since Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning took the reins of their respective USC and Oregon programs, there’s been a shift that reveals different approaches to program-building between longtime rivals.

The Southern California News Group compiled data on commitment decisions, from 247Sports, on every recruit across the western U.S. who has received an offer from both USC and Oregon since 2017. Before 2022, when Riley and Lanning were hired, the number of future Trojans outweighed Ducks 50 to 37.

Since then – including the class of 2024 – USC has signed 25. Oregon has signed 33.

The reasons for changing fortunes are complex and varied. Oregon’s aggressiveness in utilizing NIL, coaches say, has been a major factor. But USC, too, has become much more selective in local recruiting as it has built largely through the transfer portal – leaving the Ducks often more present across high school campuses, even in Southern California.

“You’re seeing this school that’s not in your backyard more than this school that is in their backyard,” Serra assistant coach Darrin Minor said. “So they’re making that effort to be in your face.”

Oregon’s ‘West Coast’ mentality

When Riley’s regime began at USC, the Trojans quickly established a strong presence at St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, the reigning national champions and one of the most successful football programs in the country.

USC went hard after Bosco defensive lineman Matayo Uiagalelei, who eventually signed with Oregon. The Trojans did get a commitment from Marcelles Williams, one of the top-ranked cornerbacks in the class of 2024, in the summer.

But since, as of late October, Negro said he hadn’t seen a USC recruiter on campus once.

“Oregon is just much – and other programs across the country – are just so much more aggressive in coming after our kids than they have been,” Negro said of USC, adding you could hardly criticize someone who has been as successful as Riley.

USC has had a string of local wins in recent weeks, getting commitments from 2024 Los Alamitos cornerback Isaiah Rubin and 2026 Loyola cornerback Brandon Lockhart. But Negro’s comments, on paper, hold true wider than Bosco; a pipeline from local power Mater Dei appears to have dried up, and just five of USC’s commits in the class of 2024 come from California. Oregon, by comparison, has nine.

That’s intentional, on USC’s part, to some degree. In late October, when asked about the approach to local recruiting, Riley said upon his first evaluation of the program, “there were a lot of players from the state of California who should not be on the USC roster.”

“Hiding behind the curtain of, ‘Well, at least we’re recruiting California kids,’ I don’t think does the program any good,” Riley said. “It’s – we want to get California kids, we want to get local kids, we want them to be the right kids.”

It’s an interesting contrast to Oregon’s philosophy in program-building – take comments to the SCNG from Pat Biondo, the Ducks’ football director of recruiting strategy.

“The biggest thing for us, in recruiting, is we want to keep the best guys on the West Coast,” Biondo said.

When their microscopes do align – and they do frequently – coaches and players in Southern California indicate Oregon is often more pushy in pursuing targets. Take St. John Bosco, a school ripe with defensive talent, where Negro says he’s in contact with Lanning and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi “weekly,” wooing Uiagalelei to the Ducks with now-fulfilled promises of playing immediately.

On Feb. 1, Gardena Serra cornerback Rodrick Pleasant tugged on an Oregon hat inside Serra’s gym, announcing a commitment that was a “shock to everybody,” according to assistant coach Minor.

Pleasant had been leaning toward USC, Minor said; what ultimately swayed the dual-sport prospect was a relentless and coordinated push from Oregon’s football and track departments. A little over a month later, Pleasant was featured on a billboard in Times Square in Nike gear.

It was the same concept of constant follow-up, constant love shown, that led Fields to flip, Minor said. Always there. Always visible.

“You don’t necessarily have to have a roster full of California kids,” Negro said, when asked about Riley’s comments, “but you better get the elite ones.”

“And I don’t think that that’s what they’re doing a very good job of right now.”

NIL affecting recruiting

Two years into the legalization of NIL monetization in collegiate athletics, discussion of its usage in local high school recruiting is still strangely taboo. Local coaches swear, widely, that Athlete X wasn’t wooed to a commitment by money or endorsement deals; Riley himself, even, expressed the desire for more transparency in the NIL space.

“We’re stuck somewhere right now in between kind of half-professional, half-amateur right now,” the USC coach said in late August.

And it’s hard to pin down USC’s exact approach to utilizing donor money in pitches to recruits. It’s less hard to pin down Oregon’s.

Sam Gallegos, the father of 2024 Sierra Canyon safety Marquis Gallegos, said every school in his son’s recruitment, including USC and Oregon, promised him a minimum of $75,000 in his first year. In general, according to coaches in Southern California with firsthand knowledge of recruitment, Oregon is much more up front with recruits in monetary compensation. It was the last part of USC’s pitch to Marquis, Gallegos said, and his son eventually chose the Trojans.

One source familiar with the situation told the SCNG that big-time freshman recruits – such as wide receivers Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson – are “highly compensated” through NIL collectives that support USC student-athletes. But that same source told the SCNG that Oregon was simply spending more money in the NIL space than USC.

“Far as ’SC, they talk about it if you really break it up and kinda break it down, but there’s no for-sure number for everybody,” Minor, the Serra assistant, said in regards to NIL discussions with prospective recruits. “Oregon can literally tell you somewhat of what it’s going to be, and you know what to expect. You don’t fully know what to expect at ’SC.”

The future of USC’s NIL approach, however, will likely hinge on searching for sponsorship deals rather than tossing donor money at recruits. Major headway is already being made on that front: Another source told the SCNG that the Conquest Collective, a marketing agency supporting USC athletes, is finalizing a football program-wide deal with a major company that would provide players with a flat payment and percentage of back-end profits of merchandising revenue.

And Riley said new USC athletic director Jen Cohen and her team have been “really impactful” on the NIL front, with a clear vision to unify university-supporting collectives.

“Our goal is to be at the forefront of it,” Riley said, “and we have the firepower here to be at the absolute forefront of it.”

Two competing approaches, two programs casting different nets in this West Coast recruiting war, will collide Saturday night in Eugene in a present-day battle for a spot in the Pac-12 championship game.

And with Oregon following USC to the Big Ten, the jockeying for position will only intensify, both in the short- and long-term.

“It’s like, I don’t know who first,” Jordan, the Sierra Canyon star, said of the local recruiting rivalry. “But I know it’s Oregon and ’SC.”

And if you’re a USC or UCLA fan, you probably don’t find them funny. They probably seem kind of sick and twisted to you. Cruel, even.

Because all the Trojans’ College Football Championship puzzle is missing are those pesky defensive pieces, corner pieces that slipped out of their grasp and inexplicably disappeared. I assure you, if you spent months working on this glorious vision only to realize it’s not going to come together, you’d cry too.

And the Bruins’ have those very pieces!

But UCLA’s puzzle isn’t looking too hot either – because what it is missing is a crown-shaped piece under center, a dependable quarterback to complement a historically effective defense. And, be real, you’d get frustrated and “un-unified” too if giving up 129 yards on the ground (fewer than USC’s defense has in all but three games) proved insurmountable, as it did in last week’s 27-10 loss to Arizona.

Entering Saturday’s games at No. 6 Oregon and at home against Arizona State, USC and UCLA both have something the other wishes it did: The Bruins (6-3 overall, 3-3 Pac-12) have the defense the Trojans need. And USC (7-3, 5-2) has the offense UCLA needs.

And I’m sorry, but what in the 24-hour Alaskan winter darkness is going on?

It’s like a mirror image: identical, but backward.

All gas, all gas. All brakes, all brakes. Nothing in moderation.

And a couple of unranked football teams. A big bowl of pudding worth of proof: Football really is the sum of all its parts.

Maybe it’s the ghosts of the Pac-12 past delivering some penance to the schools that punctured the dam last year, the institutions that were first to announce their pending departure to the Big Ten, which took out the legs from and essentially delivered the death knell for the 64-year-old conference?

Or maybe it’s just the nature of the sport – of the quintessential team sport?

Caleb Williams tonight in the loss against Washington:

• 27/35 (77.1%)
• 328 total yards
• 4 total touchdowns

He gave it his all tonight
pic.twitter.com/4mP4lN4am9

— Ensign Gridiron (@EnsignGridiron) November 5, 2023

You can have Superman on your team, a Heisman Trophy-winning QB who is driving an offense averaging a gaudy 45.5 points per game – second both in the Pac-12 and nationally, among all FBS teams – and still be losing games.

You can have a new star defensive coordinator like D’Anton Lynn, who has engineered a unit that’s on pace to set school records in both rushing defense (70.4 yards per game) and sacks per game (3.8 per game) – both second-best in FBS rankings – and still be losing games.

PICKED!

Alex Johnson comes up with his team-high fourth interception of the year, and the Bruins have the ball back.

UCLA 0, Arizona 0
11:33 – 1st quarter

: FS1
: https://t.co/jrTMSerf7Z#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/W8BLAZgRNh

— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) November 5, 2023

Because no matter how stout your defense is, if your team is able to muster only 28.6 points and 240.9 passing yards (62nd and 56th, nationally) per game while also giving the ball away 17 times (11th in the Pac-12 and 111th in the nation), you’re going to be losing games.

And no matter how prolific your offense is, if your defense is hemorrhaging points to the tune of 34.5 points per game (121st in FBS), including allowing more than 40 points in five of the past six contests – you’re going to be losing games.

That’s why USC coach Lincoln Riley finally made the call this week to fire his friend, former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, excusing him after the Trojans relinquished 52 points and 572 yards against Washington – the most, in both cases, since the Trojans lost 62-33 to UCLA in 2021.

Is it any wonder major USC donors were fed up with their defense’s performance? Sources with knowledge of the situation told our reporter Luca Evans: “There was no way that Grinch was going to survive this season.”

Any surprise that UCLA fans also are starting to get agitated? Expectations weren’t as sky high as the Trojans’ were this year, but still Bruin believers are rustling around in their sheds and garages for pitchforks, starting to circle up, united by their dissatisfaction with Coach Chip Kelly – who is 33-32 in six seasons but recently signed an extension through 2027.

“Our execution on the offensive side of the ball has to improve,” Kelly said last Saturday, speaking specifically about his banged-up offense having squandered multiple red zone opportunities against Arizona – while also making a broader point about point-scoring.

Said Riley on Monday: “We’re gonna play great defense here. Like, period. It’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen soon. There’s no reason why it can’t.”

You can imagine both coaches pondering: If the guys across the way – on the opposite side of town, if not the other side of the ball – can do it, why can’t we?

Washington’s response: “It’s incredibly hard.”

Lots of social media memes were repeating that line Wednesday afternoon, and while it’s been noted that the conversation didn’t exactly happen that way, that line is probably an accurate description of what Washington’s going to be getting into in Anaheim.

Everybody in baseball seems thrilled for him and optimistic that his infectious spirit and ability to teach will benefit the Angels, and particularly some of their young middle infielders. He’s 71, and while that will raise some eyebrows, I’m the last person who’s going to rag on someone’s age.

But … it’s still the Angels, still Arte Moreno’s organization, still a chaotic mess in so many ways. I think it’s a Sisyphean task. Brad Ausmus, Joe Maddon and Phil Nevin all tried to push that boulder up the hill only to have it crush them on the way back down. (Plus, not only does GM Perry Minasian not have a president of baseball operations above him to help/guide him, but his assistant GM Alex Tamin left the club earlier this fall. Who knows when, if or how that position will be filled.)

Yeah, incredibly hard is a good description.

Mirjam Swanson: Well said.

Washington has a reputation as a teacher and someone who can really cultivate and develop young talent – which is exciting if you’re into that kind of thing, and likely a sign of what the Angels intend to prioritize going forward, post-Shohei Ohtani. I think it could be good, actually. (What that might mean for Mike Trout, though, I’m not sure…)

It’s heartening to see baseball people all celebrating the hire; from fans to former players, everyone loves Washington. Adding someone like him to the organization ought to give the Angels a lift – but, as you point out, it’s the Angels. And the weight of all their failures tends inevitably to be crushing, as you noted, even for someone with a personality as buoyant as Washington’s. So I don’t have great expectations.

But the guy loves baseball, he’s a lifer, and the Angels’ young players will be better for having played for him – whether that adds up to wins in the short term, well, we’ll see. (I also like that he’s bringing aboard Chili Davis as a hitting coach, because Chili was my favorite player as a kid.)

Jim: If he can bottle and bring with him any of what has made the Braves excellent, who knows what might happen?

Next topic: Should we be thinking of USC as a basketball school? I know, that’s extreme, but the Trojans’ two highly regarded freshmen made their debuts this week in Las Vegas, and both demonstrated they’re ready for the bright lights. Our Luca Evans wrote about Isaiah Collier’s debut the other night against Kansas State, when in Luca’s description he “attacked his first game in cardinal-and-gold without a shred of passivity” en route to an 18-point, six-assist night.

Meanwhile, JuJu Watkins lit up future conference foe Ohio State for 32 points and five assists in her debut, and while I must confess I wasn’t riveted to that game since it was an afternoon game, and I was busy multitasking (writing some, watching some), every time I looked up JuJu was doing something guaranteed to get your attention. USC’s women’s program has had some legends pass through – my all-time list remains Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson, in that order – and it may seem kind of early to say it, but JuJu will be somewhere on that list before she’s through.

And it’s worth noting: USC, under Lindsay Gottlieb, and UCLA, under Cori Close, could be battling for the final women’s basketball championship of the Pac-12 as we know it. The Bruins are awfully good, too, No. 4 in the country coming in, and Lauren Betts – a 6-7 transfer from Stanford, who scored 20 points with seven rebounds and two blocks against Purdue on Monday night – might just be their missing piece. Worth noting: The Bruins and Trojans play each other Jan. 27 at Galen Center and Feb. 24 at Pauley Pavilion.

Mirjam: We might have to play a game of H.O.R.S.E. to see who covers that one!

Because it’s absolutely not premature to say that Watkins is going to wind up among the pantheon of USC women’s basketball greats.

Tarek Fattal encouraged me to get out and watch her play last season at Sierra Canyon, and I’m so glad I did. What a pleasure that was, because she’s one of those great athletes whose presence is just felt in the gym.

I mean, yeah, she was Gatorade National Player of the Year, she’s been hooping with the age group national teams, all that. But you know someone is special when you see the family of a referee, a woman who’s reffed for decades, trying to snap a photo when she and Watkins would be near enough to each other they’d be in the same frame. That’s the kind of potentially generational talent we’re talking about – and at a time when women’s basketball is gaining steam, judging by the historic ratings for last season’s NCAA tournament (including a peak of 12.6 million for the title game).

What makes Watkins’ story more compelling is that she elected to stay home, in L.A., to build something here. That’s especially significant considering NIL implications, that she might have made more playing in a place that’s an established women’s basketball hotbed – a Connecticut or a South Carolina, say. One of those programs that’s on TV more at this point, that’s got a higher profile. I’m really curious to see if Southern California basketball fans catch on to the JuJu Watkins show. I hope they do.

Jim: This may be a sign of the growth of the women’s game: An AP story a couple of days ago reported that the NCAA acknowledged that the officiating in last April’s championship game between Iowa and LSU was “below expectations.” And that was an understatement in the eyes of most of those who were paying attention. This tells me the bar has been raised, and also that the NCAA is finally taking the women’s game seriously.

Maybe the next thing they’ll do is negotiate a TV contract that accurately reflects its interest and popularity, rather than lumping women’s hoops in with all of the Olympic sports when approaching the networks.

Now … Chip Kelly on the hot seat? I really wasn’t expecting this, given the ennui of his first five seasons at the helm of UCLA football. If declining attendance totals and the sort of listlessness of the program didn’t discourage the school from extending his contract, what would? Similarly, I got the impression most Bruin alumni by this point of a season have been resigned to waiting for basketball season to begin.

The curse of raised expectations, perhaps?

Consider this, too: The Bruins, now 6-3 overall and 3-3 in conference, could find themselves assigned to the L.A. Bowl – the Rob Gronkowski Bowl? – as the No. 7 team in what may be the most competitive conference in America, and if so they may set a record. What other team has ever gone to a bowl game that’s closer to campus than their home stadium? It’s 13 miles from Westwood to SoFi Stadium down the 405 – OK, it’s the 405 parking lot, so what’s your point? – and 36.4 miles (according to Google) from campus to the Rose Bowl.

Would they get per diem for that bowl trip?

Mirjam: I don’t think Chip Kelly is going anywhere anytime too soon. Going into the season, they signed him to an extension through the 2027 season – including upping his salary to $6.1 million this year and next. So, ya know…

I get fans having higher expectations following the Bruins’ success last season with Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Zach Charbonnet and Jake Bobo (all now in the NFL) leading the team, but if we’re being real, it was hard to know what to expect this season without that experience and that talent – largely because no one knew how good freshman QB Dante Moore would be, or how good Ethan Garbers could be.

And it turns out, they’ve not been good.

But while UCLA’s offense has sputtered all season – their 28.6 points per game rank ninth in the Pac-12, their 240.9 passing yards per game are eighth in the Pac-12 and the offense’s 17 turnovers are 11th in the Pac-12 – its defense is playing historically well under new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

The Bruins are on pace to set program records in rush defense (70.4 yards per game, second-best in FBS) and sacks per game (3.8, also No. 2 in FBS).

Ironically, across town, it’s the opposite story. Caleb Williams and the Trojans have remained absolute juggernauts, averaging 45.5 points per game – second best in FBS. But USC’s defense, we all know, has hemorrhaged points – including 52 in last week’s loss to Washington at The Coliseum, the most since Lincoln Riley arrived.

If only the teams could take their best pieces and put it together – who’d beat them?!

Jim: Well, If UCLA’s defense and USC’s offense went against the UCLA offense and USC defense, I’d set the point spread at 51.

Here’s what you need to know about the nonconference matchup:

UCLA VS. LAFAYETTE

When: Friday, 8 p.m.

Where: Pauley Pavilion

TV/Radio: Pac-12 Network/1150 AM

Records: UCLA 1-0, Lafayette 0-1

UCLA’s latest result: UCLA won its season opener against Saint Francis (Pa.), 75-44, on Monday at Pauley Pavilion. Sophomore forward/center Adem Bona emerged with a career-high 28 points, nine rebounds, four blocked shots, two assists and one steal in the blowout victory. Junior guard Lazar Stefanovic, who transferred from Utah, had 11 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Senior forward/center Kenneth Nwuba added 10 points. The Bruins took a 10-point lead at halftime and outscored St. Francis 43-22 in the second half. It was also a milestone victory for UCLA coach Mick Cronin, who earned win No. 100 to kick off his fifth season in Westwood.

UCLA men’s basketball head coach Mick Cronin on winning his 100th career game in Westwood. pic.twitter.com/YxTvHnSipx

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) November 7, 2023

Despite the team’s 31-point win, Cronin was not satisfied with his team’s overall performance.

“Very sloppy game for us,” Cronin said. “Disappointed in a lot of things that went on (Monday night) so I have a saying that if we’re going to die, we’re going to die my way. Danny Glover, Lethal Weapon.

“Which is with guys who don’t take bad shots because they’re hunting points and guys that pass the ball. That’s got me upset. Other than that, I need to play Brandon Williams more because he understands the most important thing on offense on this team. Anybody want to guess what it is? Pass the ball to Adem Bona. If you want to play, it’s real simple. Play defense, solid rebounding. And on offense, when Adem Bona is open in the low post, pass him the ball. You’ll probably be in. I’m sure there’s a lot of guys in the history of basketball that are smart enough to figure it out by now. Guys that played with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It’s pretty simple.”

Lafayette’s latest result: Lafayette lost its season opener to Saint Joseph’s, 81-60, on Monday. The Leopards were led by junior guard Devin Hines, who had 15 points and five rebounds, the only Lafayette player in double figures.

Matchup to watch: Bona, who is 6-foot-10 and 245 pounds vs. 7-foot junior center Justin Vander Baan, who is 240 pounds. Vander Baan had only six points and three rebounds in Lafayette’s season opener but he did have four blocks. Bona dominated against St. Francis’ roster, whose tallest player was 6-9, in his first game since suffering a left shoulder injury in March that kept him out of international scrimmages and the team’s exhibition on Oct. 31.

Kenneth Nwuba, Adem Bona and Lazar Stefanovic on UCLA basketball’s 75-44 win in their season opener against Saint Francis. pic.twitter.com/HNMDbjscEX

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) November 7, 2023

UCLA trends to watch: The Bruins were not ranked in the preseason AP poll but are currently ranked No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. UCLA has eight newcomers this year, including seven freshmen, highlighted by 7-3 center Aday Mara from Spain, 6-10 forward Devin Williams for Corona Centennial High and 6-9 forward Berke Buyuktuncel from Turkey, who has not been cleared yet by the NCAA.

Also, UCLA signed Corona Centennial guard Eric Freeny to a national letter of intent on Wednesday. The 6-4 guard is ranked as one of the nation’s top 100 players by 247Sports. Freeny and Williams were teammates the past two seasons at Centennial.

𝙒𝙀𝙇𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙀 𝙏𝙊 𝙒𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙒𝙊𝙊𝘿, 𝙀𝙍𝙄𝘾

Eric Freeny, from nearby Corona, Calif., has signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) with the Bruins and will join our program in 2024-25.

: https://t.co/37XQRos8UH pic.twitter.com/BhC3os7Pc6

— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) November 8, 2023

On a third-and-8 during the first quarter of Saturday’s loss to Washington, the freshman receiver found himself lined up on the outside in the most crucial game of the season. And lo and behold, he found himself wide open across the middle of the field, quarterback Caleb Williams firing a pass at him high and hard.

And a potential touchdown clunked off Robinson’s fingers.

It felt like a complete deflation of momentum in the moment, a true freshman who had gotten a shot unable to capitalize. It was defeating, Robinson said, in the moment; you could see it in his body language, outside receivers Dennis Simmons coach said. Robinson returned to the sideline, teammates grouping around him, telling him he’d have another shot to make a play.

“I don’t think any of us,” he said on Wednesday, smiling, “knew it was gonna be that soon.”

After the only three-and-out of an otherwise surgical night for the Huskies’ offense, Robinson trotted back out with the special teams unit, burst through the line, and stuck the lanky arms of his 6-foot-6 frame out for an emphatic blocked punt, setting up a Williams touchdown run on a silver platter.

“True character of a man is how he responds to adversity … I think that leveled him out, ground him and gave him his confidence to continue to play through the rest of the game,” Simmons said.

It’s a little generous at this point, perhaps, to call Robinson a man; despite a beard and natural self-assuredness, he’s still growing in both frame and understanding of the collegiate game, committing a key late-game holding call on a USC drive. But the fact he was even in the game in a key fourth-quarter situation speaks volumes to Simmons and the staff’s rapid trust in Robinson, a top 2023 recruit out of Pinnacle High in Phoenix who carved out a rotational role against Washington.

And through a largely disappointing season for USC (7-3 overall, 5-2 Pac-12), Robinson is one of the program’s brightest points for the future, with potentially dominant size and a gazelle’s speed to match.

“He’s gon’ be an animal,” running back MarShawn Lloyd said earlier this season. “He’s 6-foot-6, he’s going to grow more into his body … y’all don’t see it, plays that we see, it’s only going to get better.”

It took effort, too, to get dual-sport athlete Robinson to USC, a truly unique commitment journey that – considering all factors – might be head coach Lincoln Riley’s biggest recruiting win since taking over the program. Robinson and his family, Pinnacle High coach Dana Zupke said, were “carefully” looking at schools that demonstrated a willingness for football and baseball programs to work together so Robinson could play both. And that plan appears to have held, as Robinson said earlier this fall that he has been in constant contact with Trojans baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz and Riley was “completely on board with it.”

His recruitment within football, too, was complex. Robinson has always taken pride in his combination of size and athletic ability; that 6-6 frame, though, often led college teams to typecast him as a tight end, Zupke said.

“Duce wasn’t real high on that,” Zupke said, “and to (USC’s) credit, they shifted their lens towards him and started getting their receivers coach more involved.”

Riley, Robinson said, saw the way his body had evolved, and viewed him as a wideout. And he made an immediate impact in garbage time during three blowout wins to start the season, racking up 186 yards on a variety of long grabs; predictably, he then went quiet amid a stacked receiver’s room, but he showcased enough in practice to earn crucial snaps against Washington.

And not long after the blocked punt, he got another measure of redemption, too: catching a 43-yard pass from Williams.

“If I can get a little bit better every day,” Robinson said Wednesday, “eventually you’re gonna look back and you’re not even gonna know where you were.”

The Bruins (6-3 overall, 3-3 Pac-12) are bowl-eligible for the third time in six years under head coach Chip Kelly, but the team is coming off a loss to coach Jedd Fisch and Arizona for a second consecutive season.

Fisch briefly spent time as the Bruins’ interim head coach in 2017, being promoted from offensive coordinator after Jim Mora was fired and before Kelly was hired.

Kelly has since accumulated an overall record of 33-32 and a Pac-12 Conference record of 25-24 with the Bruins. He will have an opportunity to match his best conference record with the program at 6-3, which was achieved in each of the past two seasons.

The Bruins are currently 3-3 in Pac-12 play, with games against Arizona State, crosstown rival USC and Cal remaining.

Kelly has improved the overall record with each season at UCLA, aside from the shortened pandemic season in 2020, but holds a 5-25 record in games against opponents (from 2018 to 2022) that later finished the season with winning records.

Some fans have already become disheartened and expressed their concern for the direction of the program following losses to Oregon State, Arizona and Utah this season, hoping that a change to the Big Ten Conference would also include a new head coach.

“I think anytime you lose, everybody just gets frustrated,” Kelly said. “That’s just part of the process that you have to go through when you lose a game.

“I think you have to stick together as a team. We win as a team and lose as a team, so that’s just part of the nature when you lose.”

Kelly agreed to a two-year contract extension in March that will keep him at in Westwood through 2027.

If Kelly is fired before December 2023, he will receive an $8.5 million buyout. The amount falls to $4.27 million if he is dismissed before December 2024.

This season, the defense took a significant step forward and became one of the stingiest in the country, allowing 294.3 yards per game. The unit is led by a group of transfers that returned to play another season together under first-year defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

Kelly has built a reputation as being an effective offensive-minded coach, which was on full display last year as the Bruins had one of the top-producing offenses in the country, but hasn’t been able to maintain that level following the loss of impact players to the NFL draft and graduation.

UCLA’s staff was intentional about replenishing the offense through the transfer portal, welcoming players such as quarterback Collin Schlee (Kent State), receiver J.Michael Sturdivant (Cal) and running back Carson Steele (Ball State) among others.

After another unproductive showing from the offense in the recent loss to the Wildcats, the Bruins were knocked out of the College Football Playoff Rankings on Tuesday evening. UCLA was ranked No. 19 in the initial rankings Oct. 31.

The team is seventh in the conference standings and all but eliminated from the Pac-12 championship race.

A level of tension within the team has also surfaced, with linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo – another notable transfer – among the players speaking out about the need to stay “unified as a group” to finish out the season.

Defensive lineman Jake Heimlicher and center Duke Clemens also spoke about the need to hold each other accountable.

“We always rely on our team leaders and our position coaches,” Kelly said. “We rely on everybody in the program so we always talk about it. You have to rally when you lose a game and I think that’s a big thing that everyone has to focus and concentrate on.”

“Y’all are going to see just how good he actually is,” Ellis said, after a USC practice last week. “Yeah. Y’all see.”

How so?

“Just  –” Ellis paused. He smiled. He shrugged. “Y’all gon’ see.”

It took less than three minutes for the world to see on Monday, to realize that USC had something special here, in this top recruit who attacked his first game in cardinal-and-gold without a shred of passivity. Early in the first half of an 82-69 season-opening win over Kansas State, Collier snagged a rebound and took off, already feet ahead of four teammates on the fast break and two defenders back in transition; conventional wisdom would dictate that a conventional floor-general would slow and wait for a play to develop.

But Collier is anything but conventional, and he only accelerated, shifting into sport mode and somehow beating not one but two defenders in front of him to the rim for a finish through contact. He had three and-ones in the first half, a burly torso completely unmoved by any defensive resistance, showcasing a combination of lightning-quick handles and body control rarely seen in a USC jersey.

“The way he can go 20 miles an hour, then stop on a dime, then get into a euro-step, push a defender off – push me off,” said Washington State transfer DJ Rodman of Collier. “I’m one of the strongest on the team, and he can push me off with ease.”

The freshman finished with 18 points – 15 in the first half – and six assists, showing flashes of a more complete game than transition bully-ball. He hit a yo-yo midrange jumper in the first, also threaded a nice backdoor pass to wing Kobe Johnson, and hit a double-take stepback three in the first half; a scary sign that defenses might not be able to consistently go under pick-and-rolls set for Collier.

He was met with a resounding standing ovation after fouling out late in the second half.

“Isaiah got downhill, was able to get to the rim, made some great passes,” coach Andy Enfield said postgame. “But we expected that of him. I think he expected that of himself.”

His much-anticipated debut at the Galen Center comes Thursday, against a Cal State Bakersfield team coming off an 11-22 season and ill-equipped to stop him. CSUB’s point guard is 5-10 Kaleb Higgins; their best option on Collier might be 6-foot-6 Corey Stephenson, a sophomore who has played one game of collegiate basketball. If the Roadrunners throw a zone at USC to try to slow Collier and Ellis attacking off the dribble, USC showed poise in dissecting a Kansas State 1-2-2 look on Monday, swinging the ball on the perimeter to find open shooters and center Joshua Morgan made some nifty reads from the high post.

Collier’s biggest challenge Thursday – and through the rest of the season – will come in slowing pace and making correct reads, as he had six turnovers in his debut and struggled with ball control in a preseason Europe showcase. But his relentless motor adds a new dimension to this USC program, and makes his first appearance at the Galen Center a must-see.

“We have a certain standard,” said senior Ellis, who led USC with an efficient 24 points Monday, of him and Collier. “And we’re trying to bring everybody with us.”

Bent Leuchten had 14 points and six rebounds and Devin Tillis added 12 points, but the Anteaters fell behind in a more fast-paced second half and could not catch the Spartans down the stretch.

UCI scored 38 points in the paint but shot just 2 for 12 from 3-point range and 16 for 26 from the free-throw line, allowed 48 points after halftime and finished with more turnovers (15) than assists (11). San Jose State shot 46% from the field, an uncharacteristically high percentage for a UCI opponent.

“We got beat by a better, tougher team tonight,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “We played some pretty good defense in the first half but could not put it together on both ends. We need to be tougher, hungrier, execute better, and more together.”

Trey Anderson had 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting to pace San Jose, while Tibet Gorener went 3 for 4 from 3-point range and had 17 points and five rebounds. Myron Amey Jr. had 12 points, going 6 for 6 from the free-throw line, and Alvaro Cardenas finished with 11 points and seven assists.

The teams were tied at 24-all at halftime, but the Spartans went on an 8-0 run a few minutes into the second half and never relinquished the lead. They added a 9-0 run in a 90-second span to extend their lead to 13 points with 12:12 left.

Leuchten scored seven straight points for the Anteaters to cut the margin to 50-44, and Dean Keeler got them within 57-53 with 5:47 left, but a Cardenas jumper started a 7-1 San Jose run and the Spartans were able to maintain at least a five-point cushion the rest of the way.

Justin Hohn and Derin Saran added eight points each for UCI. Ten of the 12 players who suited up for the Anteaters played at least 11 minutes.

UP NEXT

New Mexico State at UC Irvine, 7 p.m.

Linebacker Mason Cobb strode ahead, placing himself directly at the center of post-Alex Grinch scrutiny.

“I’ll go right in the middle,” said Cobb, a senior and team captain.

Three days earlier, Cobb was a shell of himself, face reserved and words clipped after the 52-42 loss that sealed former defensive coordinator Grinch’s fate. But before practice Tuesday, with a pair of assistant coaches now sharing one coordinator’s chair and general instability swirling before a final chance to save their season on Saturday, Cobb pulled the defense together and delivered a message: What’re you gonna do? Tuck your tail? Or stick your fist out and fight? 

“It’s like you lose a brother, man,” Cobb said, referring to Grinch. “It hurts a little. It stings. But we have to keep focusing on the next game. That’s our only option.”

“There’s no – can’t lay down,” Cobb continued, as peppy as he’d been for weeks. “We don’t got time to lay down. We got Oregon this week, still.”

Collegiate football programs changing coordinators during a season, certainly, is not unprecedented; heck, Arkansas just fired its offensive coordinator a couple of weeks back. Less common, though, is firing a coordinator while days away from one final shot at a conference championship.

If USC (7-3 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) beats Oregon (8-1, 5-1) this Saturday and beats UCLA the following week – okay, a tall task, given the results of the past few months – the Trojans would earn a trip to Las Vegas with a shot at a Pac-12 championship trophy. And head coach Lincoln Riley made it clear Monday that he’d fired Grinch, in part, not as a white flag but because this team still had something to play for.

The caveat to that, though: do new co-defensive coordinators Shaun Nua and Brian Odom, elevated from respective roles as defensive line coach and inside linebackers coach, make any tweaks to the scheme Grinch set in place?

“That’s the million dollar question right now,” Nua said Tuesday.

Neither coaches nor players revealed much on Tuesday – Nua confirmed he’d be on the field Saturday and answered “we’ll see” when asked who would be in charge of play-calling. Odom, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of not straying far from concepts players were comfortable with. But the answer, still, to a million dollar question appears to be yes. To a degree.

Cobb said he had talked with Odom on Sunday about the coach’s defensive ideas, and that Odom was listening to players’ opinions. And Nua acknowledged a change was made at coordinator to look for a defensive spark.

“We might go in with one call,” Nua said, “if that’s what it takes for them to fly around and play as physical as possible.”

The slate, in one sense, has been wiped clean. Cobb, someone who has said he has to immediately go home after games and watch them back multiple times, didn’t even watch film from the loss to Washington. But this USC team still brings a dizzying array of defensive question marks into one loud exclamation point of a Eugene atmosphere on Saturday.

Oregon has looked for several weeks like the best team in the Pac-12; the Ducks rank second in the nation in yards per game and have steamrolled an assortment of decent defensive units. There is no room to figure out new concepts on the fly. No room for error.

“My focus is, like, every minute matters now,” Nua said.