As he laid in a hospital mattress final April, fortunate to be alive, Alijah Arenas dreamed of this second. He considered it within the weeks and months after his Tesla Cybertruck hit a tree and burst into flames in Reseda, leaving him hospitalized for six days. And he considered it over a protracted summer time and fall spent rehabbing the injured knee that failed him in his first week again to follow at USC.
9 troublesome months spent ready for the day to lastly culminated Wednesday night time with Arenas roaring into the lane, with only one defender standing between him and the ring. The five-star freshman had dedicated to USC with each intention of bolting for the NBA after one season, just for the setbacks of the previous yr to place his seemingly lottery standing unsure.
Now right here, as he lifted towards the ring early in his school debut, Arenas spun round that lone defender in mid-air and softly laid in a finger roll, reminding everybody in attendance of the expertise they’d waited so eagerly to see.
However what unfolded from that second on Wednesday night time in all probability wasn’t how Arenas or any Trojan would have envisioned it, as Northwestern, a group beforehand winless within the Huge Ten, spoiled the star freshman’s debut and left USC spiraling with a 74-68 defeat.
“Essential, vital loss tonight,” USC coach Eric Musselman stated. “I can’t. I imply, simply brutal.”
It definitely wasn’t the way in which the Trojans coach hoped his group would look upon returning its most proficient participant. Afterward, Musselman puzzled aloud if he’d made the suitable resolution to throw Arenas proper into the fireplace as a starter and play him 29 minutes. He completed with eight factors in his debut, taking pictures three of 15 from the perimeter in a efficiency that left him clearly gassed all through. At one level he left to have his knee evaluated by trainers on the bench.
“He must be a highschool senior,” Musselman stated. “Reclassified, missed a complete summer time, and then you definately’re throwing him in the midst of Huge Ten play. … Ought to I’ve began him? Perhaps not. Ought to I’ve performed him much less minutes? Perhaps. However we’re struggling proper now to seek out 5 guys with the way in which we’re taking pictures and blowing coverages.“
With losses in three of their final 5 coming into Wednesday, USC (14-5 total, 3-5 in Huge Ten) had hoped that its five-star freshman’s arrival would act as a salve at the beginning of its Huge Ten slate. However there have been solely so many issues that expertise might paper over for the Trojans, even when Northwestern had come into Wednesday night time on the heels of a five-game shedding streak.
Arenas’ debut didn’t all of a sudden appropriate the Trojans’ free-throw woes. After hitting simply 5 of 14 from the stripe in a loss to Purdue on Saturday, USC responded by taking pictures 26 of 43 on Wednesday night time, with Northwestern content material to foul them just about each time the Trojans drove inside.
As soon as once more, nobody, Arenas included, might get going from three-point vary for USC both, because the Trojans adopted up a three-of-20 exhibiting from deep towards Purdue loss by making their first two three-pointers … solely to overlook their subsequent 11.
Musselman deemed USC’s effort from the stripe and three-point line nothing wanting “horrific”.
“That may’t occur if we need to win,” Marsh stated.
Nor can USC count on to have its main scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara, foul out with 9 minutes remaining within the sport and count on to remain afloat.
“Sixth-year participant, and he fouls out in 13 minutes,” Musselman stated, pissed off. “It’s extraordinary.”
It was Marsh, Arenas’ backup within the backcourt, who dragged the Trojans again from the brink towards Northwestern after the Wildcats had led almost all the sport. Only a week earlier, Marsh had dropped 17 within the second half of USC’s win over Maryland. On Wednesday, he was even higher, piling up 19 after halftime.
However there was little he or USC’s five-star freshman might do within the last minutes as Northwestern fended off each push from the determined Trojans, thanks largely to the efforts of senior ahead Nick Martinelli, who torched USC for 22 factors.
Nonetheless, USC held on tight by means of the second half, by no means letting Northwestern’s lead develop to greater than eight. Marsh drove the lane with an opportunity to chop Northwestern’s result in a single possession within the last 15 seconds. However his lay-in flew wildly out of his fingers.
The loss spoiled a debut that had been maybe probably the most anticipated at USC in at the least half a decade, since Evan Mobley graced the Galen Middle court docket in 2021. However whereas Mobley led the Trojans on an Elite Eight run, his lone season at USC was performed entrance of empty arenas due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Arenas, in the meantime, was simply the kind of blue-chip prospect that Musselman and his employees had hoped to construct round, the kind that might persuade of us to return watch USC hoops.
The trail to that time had confirmed way more harrowing than anybody anticipated. However what felt like a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel Wednesday night time didn’t really feel almost as looking forward to USC by the ultimate buzzer sounded.
It left USC’s coach and his gamers as an alternative questioning the place this season is likely to be headed subsequent. And never essentially in a great way.
“I don’t know,” Musselman stated. “I suppose I’ll simply preserve looking.”
