Diary Series: Bob Cantu, Assoc. Head Coach - USC

Well I am now getting ready to start my 11th year at USC. Time has flown by but it has been a great experience.

After last season we had Nikola Vucevic drafted #16 in the 2011 NBA Draft and lost three other Senior starters. This past August we traveled to Brazil for a foreign tour. It started out great until Jio Fontan tore his ACL and is out for the season.

We are now left with a total of nine points per game returning on our team. I really don't know what to expect from our team because of our lack of experience. I do know we will defend which will allow us to be in games. A big key to our success will be the development of 7-0 Dewayne Dedmon who has an amazing story which was just featured in Sports Illustrated. He scored two points in his high school career and has only played one year of organized basketball. He has worked on his game during his red shirt year and is now 7-0 253 lbs. He actually has a great chance to be a future first round pick. We have had 18 NBA teams come in so far to see him and he has never played D-1.

We have had five first round draft picks in the past five years. More than any Pac-12 and Big East teams.  With that success has caused us to always be rebuilding every year. I hope we can return this team and add some good players for 2012-13 and be able to make a run.

We have the second most difficult schedule in the country this season. We play Nebraska, UNLV, North Carolina, Minnesota, Kansas, Georgia, New Mexico, and San Diego St to name a few. This is by far the toughest schedule in my 11 years. Our hope is to upset a few, try to finish in the top five of the Pac-12 and sneak into the tourney as we did last year.

Easier said than done.

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