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USC-Washington: Trojans Impose Big D on the Basketball Court, Defeat Huskies
Published by Bill Hare on February 19, 2010
Supposing someone said before last fall’s football campaign that the USC defense would implode on the football field, as it did at Oregon and at home against Stanford, but that after being ruled out of any postseason rewards the Trojan basketball team would impose defensive muscle.
How would those predictions have been greeted?
So it is in the glorious and unpredictable world of college sports, where first-year basketball mentor Kevin O’Neill took over a troubled program and instilled a clinging, aggressive defense, while Pete Carroll’s football team, an anticipated defensive juggernaut, had trouble galore stopping Oregon and Stanford.
O’Neill announced after USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett levied strong penalties against the basketball team—which shut it out of any postseason activity, including the Pac-10 tourney and any NCAA March Madness competition—that the Trojans would look at every game as an opportunity to prove themselves.
The strategy was simple: The incentive would be winning. Each time the team took the floor, the idea of a postseason reward was structured around that particular game.
As to how to win, O’Neill kept...
Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - College Baseball
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