The Trojans earned a much-needed upset of the #19 Texas Longhorns at Galen Center.
- USC finally played like a Kevin O'Neill coached team. After a road trip of ducking under screens and playing soft on the glass, the Trojans played the kind of ferocious defense that was their staple last season. "We've found out what's important to us and that's playing great defense," head coach Kevin O'Neill said (full presser on USCTrojans.com). "If you'd been at practice this week, you'd know we were going to play well defensively."
- The game played out similarly to the home upset of Tennessee last year. While Texas did not press like the Vols, they believed their superior athleticism would win the night, so they played the Trojans straight up. "They really just tried to play man-to-man defense without any help. Thankfully, we were able to take advantage of that," said senior captain Alex Stepheson.
- Going into the season, the "Trojan Towers" Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic were supposed to be the pillars of an otherwise young USC team. However, the true freshman back court was the story early and the Trojans lost their identity, but they found it again tonight. The two bigs combined for 38 points and 20 rebounds. "Our plan for the year is to go inside with the ball," O'Neill stated plainly. "That's who we're going to be. We need to run our offense through our post guys."
- Finally, here's a great bonus quote on Stepheson from his head coach. "Alex is the only guy on our team who has played with a pure heart every single game." Here's Stepheson in his own words...
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