The USC Men's Basketball team kicked off their 2009-10 season at Galen Center tonight. It was a new look team out on the court. New coach, new players, new practice style, and above all a newfound energy.

About 50 spectators sat in the stands to watch. The practice started at 7pm with a 45 minute walkthrough of transition offense and set offensive plays. They then went into a short warm up jogging, lunging, stretching, and jumping...then came non-stop energy for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes.

It started with a full court weave drill at full speed to practice the new transition offense. They then moved onto half-court 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 drills, running through their new set offense. Then they took it to another level...

Coach O'Neill introduced the 50 passes game, where each team received a point for every pass made and 5 points for each basket. Sound easy, right? Not so much. Players couldn't pass back to the player they just received the pass from and...couldn't dribble. They played with a physical demeanor that was brought out by the fire of Coach O'Neill. He swallowed his whistle during this drill, letting the players dive after loose balls both in bounds and out. The Gold team prevailed over the Cardinal team, but what really came out of this competition was trust.

The team went on to play in full court five on five scrimmage, running over different schemes and plays. The play was still very uptempo and physical even 2 hours into practice. The Trojans finished up with some free throws and then huddled at center court to finalize their first practice of the season.

The Trojans practice tomorrow at 9am, with a walk on try out just before at 8am. Practice will be held on the arena floor again. Practice is open to the public, so come out and watch before you head home to watch the USC @ Notre Dame football game at 12:30pm.