IMO USC ultimately was a legit Sweet-Sixteen team, which was where they ended up. They didn't deserve a #1-seed for the tourny. The biggest issues last season for USC was depth particularly at the perimeter at both the 1 and 3 positions.
The starters for those positions were PG Sessions and SF Dozier. Both were fairly well-rated out of high school as 4* prospects (Sessions was actually rated higher than Mitchell per ESPN Hoopgurlz: Sessions, Mitchell, and Dozier were all 4*s in the 2012 class together). Last season however was the first year of them being elevated to starter's roles as sophomores, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and expect them to improve.
Sessions was never a good distributing PG, and was not a major offensive contributor once the conf. season began. Dozier was poor at both the O & D ends. USC finished 29-5 last season, with the 5 losses arguably being against their toughest opponents. They lost by 8 (UNC), 2 (A&M), 12 (UT), 10 (UK), and 7 (UNC#2). In those gms, both Sessions and Dozier combine to average 6 pts, 5 reb, and 3 asst. per gm. That's combined, not individually. Their disappearance in the bigger gms made it very hard for the rest of the team to score points, as opposing defenses could choose to either swarm on Mitchell or Welch, or collapse the paint and cut off passes to Ibiam or Coates. If either Mitchell or Welch got into foul trouble, the odds got even worse with 40% of the starting unit being ineffective offensively....
One big issue at those positions was depth: at PG at least Sessions had Tiffany Davis and Olivia Gaines to back her up and practice against, but Davis was coming back from an injury that cut her true freshman season off at just 3 gms, so she was basically starting all over again. Gaines was a JUCO POY gem that Coach Staley found, and she shows she can contribute, but it was a Div. II JUCO program, so last season was a huge step up in competition for her.
As for Dozier, she really is as much (if not more) a SG as she is a SF, and all she had to back her up was Tina Roy who is a SG. Roy herself was coming back last season from an ACL injury suffered late in 2011-12 that she needed 2012-13 to fully recover from. Dozier is not very physical at the 3, does not drive to the basket much and prefers to set up and shoot perimeter shots, but she's been a bit hesitant at even doing those. She is solid at distributing the ball (assists) but hasn't developed as a defender yet. IMO, both still have a lot of potential and still could develop more into solid offensive contributors, but they need to get to work. Sessions is an above-average perimeter defender and was excellent at shutting down top scoring guards for opponents last season, especially towards the end of the year.
As for their positions, USC got major upgrades in talent in two McD All-Americans in Cuevas and Wilson. 5* talent Kaydra Duckett is also capable of playing the point, and both Cuevas and Duckett were scoring forces in high school (Sessions was too, so we'll see).
USC does not have a lot of experience with McDonalds All-Americans in their program: certainly not like UT has. The first involvement I can remember of course was in 2009-10 with Kelcey Bone, who was the overall #2 prospect in her class behind Brittany Griner. Bone only played one season at USC, but was a main starter for USC and was 2nd on the team in scoring (14.0 ppg) and led the team in rebounding (9.2 rpg). Then there was Coates last season who was 3rd in scoring (12.3), 2nd in blocked shots (2.2) and led the team in rebounding (8.4) despite only starting one game. I don't know if the incoming McDs (Wilson, Cuevas, & White) will get the same opportunities as Bone and Coates with all the returning starters, but if each can just have half the impact that the first 2 had they will be substantial contributors this season. At the least they will deepen not-so-deep positions at the 1 and 3, and should push Sessions and Dozier from behind to improve their production, or fear getting passed by on the depth chart.
Wilson IMO can find plenty of court time at both the 3 and 4 positions. She'll IMO be the first to spell Welch at the 4, or perhaps platoon with Coates at the 4 with White spelling Ibiam at the 5. She could also spell Dozier at the 3, or perhaps Welch (who has a solid mid-range perimeter game facing the basket) could slide to the 3 and let Wilson take the 4. Welch looks more like a 3 at 6-0, but has the wing-span and physicality of a 4 and the innate nose for the rebound her entire college career, so she not only has done well at the 4 but has thrived there at USC.
When one considers that in 2013-14 USC really only had 4 players that they could rely on consistently to provide offense - and that 2 of those 4 actually platooned for each other at the same position, so that for 80% of the season there were only 3 of the 4 on the floor at the same time - it's impressive that they went 29-5 and won the SEC. The signature of a Dawn Staley-coached team is the defense, not offense, and USC has had nationally top-10 scoring defenses each of the past 3 seasons. Last season only Welch and Mitchell were returning starters for USC, as Ibiam, Dozier, and Sessions were all reserves previously, and Coates of course was in high school. Despite all the success USC had last season, there really shouldn't be any reason to not think that they could still experience substantial improvement this season. But the biggest issue to address IMO is improvement offensively on the perimeter, especially at the 1 and 3 positions...
:happy:
