Why is usc offense so bad at times?

[bill curley II]

Agreed that Floyd's system is pretty bad. He plays a pro style offense, which won't work with the closer 3 pt line. He has two very good big guys in Davon and Taj but it seems like at most only one of them is involved in the offense. Hackett and OJ should be driving and kicking out more but again, Floyd's offense is too congested.

As for OJ, he has been hugely disappointing. He's extremely inefficient (45% fg, which is bad for NCAA, and 3.6 TO's per game). And lastly, most importantly, against the best teams, he's been very bad.

Their three biggest non conference games:
Oklahoma (W) 8-19 18 pts 1 assts 6 TO
Kansas (L) 6-21 21 pts 2 assts 5 TO
Memphis (L) 6-20 16 pts 3 assts 2 TO

Against top Pac 10 teams:
UCLA (1-1) 7-20 20 pts 7 assts 14 TO
Stanford (L) 5-19 14 pts 0 assts 5 TO
Wash St (0-2) 15-32 36 pts 3 assts 10 TO

So in those games, he's a combined 47-131 from the field (36% fg), averaging 15.6 ppg, 2 assts, and 5.25 TO. Those are just atrocious numbers, and even though he was going against good teams, other then against Memphis and Wash St, he wasn't really matched up against another NBA caliber prospect. And you can factor in Floyd's offense or whatever, but really, theres no way anyone can defend Mayo against those facts.

[Wu_Wizardry]

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Not that OJ Mayo should be compared to Jordan but:

As Freshman:

Jordan 13.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.8 apg
Mayo 20.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 3.0 apg

After his freshman year few were declaring future greatness for Michael Jordan. It is very seldom for a freshman guard to average 20 points like Mayo is. In any other class you without similar players like Gordon, Bayless and Rose, Mayo would be getting a lot more hyped. He has a package of skills which make him a tweener in a positive way. His defence is exceptional for a frosh as well.

How can you say a player making 40.9% of his 3's on a high number of attempts is not a good 3pt shooter?

Dude, just about every top freshman in today's game has a higher average than Jordan in his freshman year. It is a different era of college hoops completely.

Not to mention different coaching philosophies. Tim Floyd favors a more NBA-type of offense. Everybody knows the popular quote that only Dean Smtih could hold Jordan under 20 points.

You did yourself a disservice with that comparison.

[Village Idiot]

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Dude, just about every top freshman in today's game has a higher average than Jordan in his freshman year. It is a different era of college hoops completely.

Not to mention different coaching philosophies. Tim Floyd favors a more NBA-type of offense. Everybody knows the popular quote that only Dean Smtih could hold Jordan under 20 points.

You did yourself a disservice with that comparison.

Dude. Just because three freshman combo guards are averaging 20 points doesn't mean it's common. Who did it last year? The year before that? The year before that again?

Dwayne Wade averaged 17.8. Brandon Roy 6.1 , Randy Foye 15.5, Chris Paul 14.8, Deron Williams 6.3, Ben Gordon 12.6. So who are all these top freshman averaging 20+ points?

It wasn't I who compared Mayo to Jordan it was Dr MJ. I just took a look at the numbers.

My point was that nobody knew Michael Jordan was going to be a superstar mid-way through is freshman year.

My other point was that when people think a freshman guard averaging 20 points and playing solid defence is a disappointment, maybe it is their expectations that are unrealistic and not the player who is underperforming.

When we take into consideration that we are all in agreement that USC is a poorly coached team I don't see how people can harp on Mayo so much. Imagine how much better he might look on a well coached team.

[DDV]

mayos game reminds me of joe johnson

[Wu_Wizardry]

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Dude. Just because three freshman combo guards are averaging 20 points doesn't mean it's common. Who did it last year? The year before that? The year before that again?

Dwayne Wade averaged 17.8. Brandon Roy 6.1 , Randy Foye 15.5, Chris Paul 14.8, Deron Williams 6.3, Ben Gordon 12.6. So who are all these top freshman averaging 20+ points?

It wasn't I who compared Mayo to Jordan it was Dr MJ. I just took a look at the numbers.

My point was that nobody knew Michael Jordan was going to be a superstar mid-way through is freshman year.

My other point was that when people think a freshman guard averaging 20 points and playing solid defence is a disappointment, maybe it is their expectations that are unrealistic and not the player who is underperforming.

When we take into consideration that we are all in agreement that USC is a poorly coached team I don't see how people can harp on Mayo so much. Imagine how much better he might look on a well coached team.

First of all, I never said there were a bunch of freshmen scoring 20+. I said most top freshmen in today's game average more than Jordan's 13-14 ppg so it is stupid to compare the scoring avg of a top freshman in today's game to Jordan's freshman year scoring avg.

Did a quick search on some of the top freshman for just the 07-08 season:

Eric Gordon 21.3, Kevin Love 17.1, Derrick Rose 13.9, Blake Griffin 15, Bill Walker 15.8, James Anderson (Oklahoma State) 13.3, Lacedarius Dunn (Baylor) 13.5, Patrick Patterson 16.4, Johnny Flynn 15.9, Donte Greene 17.5, AJ Ogilvy (Vandy) 17, Dominique Jones (South Florida) 17.1...need I go on?

It is very common for top freshmen today to better Jordan's freshman year avg.

[DDV]

awful first half for usc

i dont know why these pro prospects want to go to floyd he doesnt exactly run a wide open pretty offense

[Doctor MJ]

awful first half for usc

i dont know why these pro prospects want to go to floyd he doesnt exactly run a wide open pretty offense

Well as far as I know, Mayo picked USC for two reasons: 1) Big city, and 2) A non-great program he was going to take to the next level. Seems pretty clear he thought he was so good the coach wouldn't matter. So I guess the answer is that for Mayo at least, it was about failing in his basketball ability and lacking in his understanding of the game.