USC Basketball: Sunday's Showdown Between Two Top-10 Recruits Postponed

The USC Trojans had to postpone their Pac-12 play debut after a confirmed COVID-19 case.

The USC Trojans (4-1) were scheduled to open their Pac-12 play against the Stanford Cardinal (2-2) on Sunday. But after USC confirmed a case of COVID-19, the game had to be postponed and all team activities were paused. The Pac-12 will work with both programs on rescheduling the game at a later date.

Per USC Athletics, 

"The USC men's basketball program is pausing team activities due to a confirmed case of COVID-19. As a result, this evening's (Sunday, Dec. 13) Pac-12 game between USC and Stanford at the Galen Center has been postponed. The Pac-12 will work with both programs to attempt to find a mutually agreeable date to reschedule the contest.

USC Student Health and the USC athletic medicine staff will conduct contact tracing. The individual who tested positive was identified prior to contact with anyone expected to participate in tonight's game. The individual who tested positive has been isolated. The Pac-12 Conference has been alerted."

For anyone who watches college basketball for the potential NBA talent, this was a matchup you didn’t want to miss. The headliners were No. 3 recruit Evan Mobley (USC) and No. 6 recruit Ziaire Williams (Stanford) according to Recruiting Services Consensus Index.

Evan Mobley has been the catalyst for USC all season, currently finishing top two in total points (88), rebounds (45), blocks (15), and field-goal percentage (61.1%) in the Pac-12. He has been as consistent as it comes on both sides of the floor. Through five games, Mobley has at least double-digit points in every game so far this season.

Not even something Onyeka Okongwu can say he did in his first 5 games. And Mobley’s 15 blocks during that time is outpacing what Okongwu did as well, who set USC’s freshman record for blocks (76) last season.

Mobley has been nothing short of magnificent to start his short career. But on the other side of the court, Stanford also has someone with nuclear capabilities in Ziaire Williams.

Williams really showed out in his debut, going for 19 points, 8 rebounds, and knocking down five three-pointers. But he’s cooled off since then, only making 7 of his next 31 shots. Even though the scoring hasn’t been there, it hasn’t affected him on the defensive end. He’s still been able to stay locked in by crashing the defensive glass, getting into passing lanes, and using his athleticism to block shots.

The problem for Williams is he doesn’t go to the hoop enough and he takes a lot of low-percentage perimeter shots. He only has four free-throws made in four games because 41% of his total shot attempts come from behind the arc. Now, he is hitting 37% of his three-point attempts, but if the Trojans were able to run him off the three-point line, he was going to have a tough time scoring inside against their front-court.

Stanford is an undersized team with their tallest starter being 6-foot-9 Oscar Da Silva. This could have led to Evan Mobley and Ziaire Williams to match up a decent amount. If Mobley was able to show-off the ability to put the ball on the floor and face-up score against a more athletic defender, he would have improved his already rising draft-stock. 

Hopefully, the wait won’t be long to see these two top recruits matchup against one another on the court.

[Read: USC Hoops: Roster Turnover Hasn't Slowed Down The Trojans]

[Read: USC Basketball: Trojans Leave No Doubts Against The Anteaters]

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