Can Bronny James Script a Comeback? USC Trojans vs UCLA Bruins: Injury Report, Starting Lineup, and Prediction

The University of Southern California Trojans men’s basketball team will clash with the UCLA Bruins at the Galen Center shortly. While the Trojans have an abysmal 8-11 record, the Bruins also have an 8-11 tally.

This game will help the fans know if there has been an improvement in the Trojans’ performances and if they made anything of the introspective time they had at hand.

Players to Watch

For the Trojans, the main player to watch will be their forward DJ Rodman. With injuries ruling out their main players, the team will depend a lot on Rodman. And this is the perfect platform for him to script a comeback.

He has potted an average of 7.3 points per game and nabbed 4.7 rebounds per match. Fans would be curious to watch how Rodman reacts in the situation given his team is not going through an easy time and all hopes rest on him.

The other player for the Trojans who would grab eyeballs is their guard Bronny James. Bronny hasn’t lived up to the expectations, but that could also be due to the lesser role he was playing at the time.

This is the ideal time for him to make a difference and show the world what he is made of. Till now he hasn’t played any major role, only basketing 5.9 points per game with 2.6 rebounds per match.

For the UCLA Bruins, all hopes will rest on their alpha guard Sebastian Mack. Mack has throttled 13.9 points per game with 4.2 rebounds per match. In the absence of the main players of the Trojans, this match presents a good opportunity for Mack to decimate his opponents and win the game by a huge margin.

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He recently potted 21 points in his last game against the Arizona and what better way to continue an on-song performance than by clobbering up the rivals?

Head to Head

As per the UCLA Bruins website, the Bruins have won 35 games while losing 23 against the USC Trojans from January 1998 onwards. They have an 11-12 record against their long-term rivals in away matches and have an edge in the conference games with a 20-15 tally. However, in their last game during January 2023, the Trojans had smashed 77 points while restricting their opponents to 64. 

Prediction

The Bruins will look to attack from the get-go and might be the better team. But we will have to take into account that the game is being played at the Trojans home court and they might have that advantage.

The game can swing to either side since both the teams have had horrible times this season and are equally competitive when compared to each other. However, the Bruins might just win this since the Trojans lack their main players.

Injury Report

As per Covers.com, the Trojans have three injured players. First in line is their guard Boogie Ellis. It is unclear if he will be able to make it to the clash against the Bruins.

Their another guard Isaiah Collier has been ruled out with an injury to his right hand and is likely to miss the game.

Another of their forwards Brandon Gardner has missed the last two games with an undisclosed issue and it remains to be seen if he will participate in the marquee clash.

Starting Lineup

USC Trojans: Vincent Iwuchukwu, DJ Rodman, Oziyah Sellers, Kobe Johnson, Bronny James 

UCLA Bruins: Berke Buyuktuncel, Adem Bona, Dylan Andrews, Sebastian Mack, Lazar Stefanovic

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