USC Basketball: How Trojans' Practices Improved Ahead Of UCLA Bout

USC took down its rivals for a big upset win over the weekend.

The USC Trojans men's basketball team took down its biggest rival over the weekend for a major upset. USC went into Pauley Pavilion and came away with an impressive victory.

After all the issues from the season, the Trojans were able to put things together for one game. This was the type of effort expected all year long, but it may be a little too late.

With only a small amount of games left in the season, the Trojans will have to win out and hope for the best. They likely won't be making the NCAA Tournament, barring a great performance in the Pac-12 Tournament.

But head coach Andy Enfield gave some insight into how the Trojans were able to beat the Bruins. He pinned much of it on the practices that they had leading up to the game.

“We finally had our team healthy. It’s great to have them in practice. We’ve never really had everybody back, so it’s great to have them practice hard. It was also great that we held Adem [Bona] to three rebounds. We used three bigs to neutralize his energy. He’s so athletic, so that was a plus. We have really improved defensively since the beginning of the year. Right now, we just have to compete. We have been hoping all year to get everybody back. We had three days of practice that have been sporadic, but last week, we had our best three practices of the year.”

Per Andy Enfield via UCLA Communications

USC has dealt with different injuries all season long, but they've slowly gotten healthy. It's been part of why they've struggled in different spots throughout the year, but they are hoping to finish strong.

Even if nothing comes of it, the Trojans will look to use this win as motivation. They can learn from it and try to end the year on a high note.