What we learned in Alijah Arenas’ debut for USC

In a season when the USC men’s basketball team has dealt with many devastating injuries, the Trojans finally got a star player back into the lineup. Five star freshman guard Alijah Arenas made his NCAA debut on Wednesday night against Northwestern. The son of NBA legend Gilbert Arenas, Alijah has the kind of star power that rarely comes around for USC hoops.

But rather than being a cause for celebration, Arenas’ debut turned out to be a bit of a difficult night for the Trojans. USC lost 74-68 to a Northwestern team that was previously 0-7 in Big Ten conference play. The loss dealt a huge blow to USC men’s basketball’s NCAA tournament hopes.

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But aside from that, USC fans learned a lot about Alijah Arenas and USC’s plans for him. Let’s talk about the biggest takeaways.

The scoring talent is there

Arenas only made 3 field goals and scored 8 points, but all three of his field goals were highlight-reel buckets. Arenas made the first field goal of his college career on a jab step pull up jump shot from the corner. A few minutes later, he made a spinning layup that dazzled everyone inside of Galen Center and much of the online basketball community. His third field goal, in the second half, was a fadeaway jumper off the dribble with the Northwestern defender all over him.

It’s clear that Arenas has the capability to make special plays and that when he is hitting shots, he will be one of the most fun players to watch in all of college basketball.

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Flashes of his famous court vision

Head coach Eric Musselman has been very complimentary of Alijah Arenas’s court vision and called him an unselfish player, despite the fact that he’s widely known as a scorer first. We saw flashes of that in this game as well. Arenas made some nice crisp passes against Northwestern, setting his teammates up with great offensive opportunities.

USC’s offense has struggled to be fluid at times with Rodney Rice out of the lineup, so perhaps having a true point guard like Arenas in the lineup…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/learned-alijah-arenas-debut-usc-182856092.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-22 18:28:00

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