LAHAINA, Maui — Chad Baker-Mazara was seated at the end of the bench, somewhat engaged but not entirely.
He had played just under 10 minutes in the first half of USC’s Maui Invitational semifinal against Seton Hall. He scored two points, took two shots and was a minus-10 in his time on the floor as the Trojans trailed the Pirates 42-38 at halftime.
So naturally, after he finished with 18 points and bailed out the Trojans after junior guard Rodney Rice left with a shoulder injury, he explained why he was out of it.
“I just started the game slow and I let them get into my head a little bit,” said Baker-Mazara, a 6-foot-7 senior wing who has so much talent but sometimes can get in his own way by losing focus. “Thankfully (Rice) was carrying us. But then once I saw him go down, that lit a spark in me. I was like, ‘OK, now I’ve got to do the same thing,’ and God let me hit the shots and take care of the offense.”
Baker-Mazara’s absence was felt by USC coach Eric Musselman. Desperate for his star to step up with the 6-foot-5 Rice hurting, he approached him in the locker room at halftime.
The whole deal seemed a bit strange.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s why I love him,” Musselman said. “At halftime, I was like, ‘Hey, man, we need you. Rodney is over here, hurt. What are you going to do, man? Because we’re with you. We love you. Come produce.’
“He did a phenomenal job.”
Baker-Mazara ended up getting fouled late and making decisive free throws in the Trojans’ 83-81 win.
It’s unclear if Rice, who finished with 13 points, will play in Wednesday’s title game against Arizona State. He had the go-ahead three-point play with 14.6 seconds left Monday night against Boise State. Baker-Mazara took matters into his own hands Tuesday with 27 seconds left, when he hit two free throws to break a 78-78 tie and give the Trojans the lead for good.
“I was going to take him to the basket, but then I saw (my defender) wobbly and I went up and he ended up pulling me down,” Baker-Mazara said.
Baker-Mazara has a chance to make history Wednesday. Few players have played in this event twice. It may happen a bit more with the transfer portal, and there are a few others who were here a year ago with different teams. Baker-Mazara won it with Auburn last season, and no player has won this event twice.
“The job is not done,” Baker-Mazara said. “I appreciate the guys working hard for me because they knew how important this was for me. They’ve been locked in a little extra for me. I’m hyped for (Wednesday).”
The Trojans, who were counting on 6-foot-7 freshman Alijah Arenas being a major factor before a season-ending knee injury, are going to be a team that plays on the edge. The hope is that Rice isn’t down long. Regardless, the Trojans are constantly going to be playing late-possession games, the way they did in triple-overtime against Troy on Nov. 20 and thus far here against Boise State and Seton Hall.
This is a team talented enough to get to the NCAA Tournament and compete for a top-half Big Ten finish. Having 6-foot-9 senior Ezra Ausar be an anchor in the post is a must. He got to the line 19 times against the Pirates, made 15, and finished with 25 points and eight rebounds.
“Right now, we’re just trying to survive,” Musselman said. “Looks like playing close games is the formula for us. … We hang around, hang around, hang around and see what happens towards the end.”
Arizona State’s backcourt finds
USC will play former Pac-12 rival Arizona State in the Maui Invitational title game. The Sun Devils’ success thus far – they’re 6-1 – is directly tied to two transfer guards: 6-foot-2 senior Moe Odum from Pepperdine and 6-foot-3 senior Anthony “Pig” Johnson from the University of the Cumberlands, an NAIA school in Williamsburg, Ky., in the southeastern corner of the state near the border with Tennessee.
Odum has been a bucket-getter. He scored 36 in the 87-86 first-round win over Texas, then followed that up with 26 in Tuesday’s 100-94 semifinal victory over Washington State.
Odum drips with confidence. He doesn’t shy from the moment and embraces taking – and making – the big shot. Johnson may be one of the fastest end-to-end guards in the country.
Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley told me this week that he loves the pair because they are underdogs like him.
Fun fact on Hurley in the state of Hawaii: He said he’s undefeated here. That includes a high school game, winning the Maui title with Duke as a player, an NBA exhibition win with Sacramento over the Lakers and three wins this season, on Nov. 20 at Hawaii and the two in Maui.
Remember the name: Ace Glass III
Washington State guard Ace Glass III, a 6-foot-3 freshman, is going to be trouble in the WCC. He dropped 40 on Arizona State in the semifinal after scoring 26 in Monday’s 90-85 first-round win over Chaminade.
Glass III, who is from Rialto, Calif., an eastern suburb of Los Angeles, said he chose Washington State because of a connection with coach David Riley and the entire staff. He’s going to be a name to remember all season amid a historically good freshman class.
Get on the Seton Hall bus
Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway has his guys. The players transferred in from schools like Merrimack, Elon and Pacific or didn’t get a lot of run at places like Miami, LSU and NC State. The lone contributing freshman is going to be a problem in the Big East in summer pickup Najai Hines, a 6-foot-10, 265-pounder.
The Pirates were within a whisker of beating USC and reaching the Maui Invitational title game. The pre-Maui schedule was soft, so trying to get a read on Seton Hall was tough. Well, the book is out. This team is going to fight, defend, win 50-50 balls, make shots and ensure that the opponent is going to be in for a tough game.
Seth Davis’ Top 25: Michigan State Routs Kentucky, Arizona Leaps
Nov 23: Men’s college basketball Top 25: Michigan State skyrockets after humiliating Kentucky. Santa Clara and St. Mary’s make ranked debuts.
NC State will be just fine
The Wolfpack’s loss to Seton Hall will age well. The Pirates are going to be in the chase for a top-half Big East finish, and the wakeup call it delivered for NC State was needed.
Darrion Williams, a 6-foot-6 senior, came in with all the hype from Texas Tech and was named the ACC’s preseason player of the year. It may be hard to get that with the way Duke’s Cameron Boozer and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson are lighting it up. But it’s still plausible. Williams can be a stat-sheet stuffer. But more importantly, he was a leader when the Wolfpack needed him Tuesday in an 81-70 win over Boise State.
Michigan State transfer Tre Holloman, a 6-foot-2 senior, hit big shots and had three steals and five assists. And the play of 6-foot-6 freshman Matt Able turned plenty of heads. He wasn’t dominant, but he clearly made the right reads and contributed at key moments. He’s only going to get better.
NC State coach Will Wade didn’t hide from the poor performance against Seton Hall. He called it lackadaisical. He said his players needed more pep in their step. He told me they needed to raise their activity level. And they did in the win over Boise State.
“We weren’t very good in our huddles; we weren’t very tight,” Wade said of the Seton Hall game. “Everything was sloppy. That’s on me as a leader. You put that slop out there and it’s on you as a leader. But (Tuesday) we were better. Our guys were better. Our bench was better. Our energy was better. Everybody was locked in. And now we’ve got to turn the page and do it again.”
Love the transparency from Wade. This team has oodles of talent and will be a factor in the ACC’s top five.
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