Rising Coaches Report: USC's Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen, Director of Operations - USC
There truly is nothing better than the start to the season. With
opening week upon us, I am honored to be writing for College
Chalktalk. This will be my fourth year working for Coach
O’Neill (one year at Arizona, three years at USC), and I
continue to learn from him each day. His defensive expertise has
shown over the last two years, as we have done a great job fighting
through some adverse times. In just year two at USC, we made the
NCAA tournament and have continued to play the right
way. Every team obviously has different values. Some want to
score 90 points and force 20 turnovers per game - but Coach O'Neill
takes pride in taking good shots, playing great defense,
sharing the ball, gang rebounding, and having a hit-first
mentality.
At USC, we have had an extremely interesting off-season. First, we lost a great player in Nikola Vucevic who was drafted 16th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. When our staff first got here, Nik averaged one point per game and two years later, he became one of the best post players in the country. Although we wish we had Nik this year, we are so excited for him to start his NBA career and continue his development as a player. He will always be a Trojan, and there is no better example of a person who represents our program the right way.
Next, on our team trip to Brazil this past August, we lost our
point guard and leader Jio
Fontan to a torn ACL. On our trip we played four games
against professional teams in Sao Jose dos Campos and Rio de
Janiero – an incredible experience for us. We went 2-2
in our games, playing some of the best teams in Brazil. We visited
the Christ the Redeemer Statue, Sugarloaf Mountain and enjoyed a
Flamengo Futbol match. Though Jio’s torn ACL will
temporarily keep him out of competition, we know that he will come
back better than ever. He is an unbelievable student-athlete who
has faced a lot of adversity throughout his career, and we all know
it will make him better when he gets back. Since the injury, Jio
has been instrumental in helping our guards develop. It is tough to
find a better leader than Jio.
Also, this preseason we have had a couple of other injuries in our practices. However, our team is ready and excited for our challenging upcoming schedule. As always, we want to play the best teams out there here at USC. Our schedule this year is top-ranked, with games at San Diego State, UNLV, Minnesota, a neutral site contest against either North Carolina or South Carolina and home games against Nebraska, New Mexico, Georgia, TCU and Kansas. Although we have a young and inexperienced group (only have 11 points per game returning), I know Coach O'Neill will have us playing hard, competing and playing the right way. Our guys are an unbelievable group to be around, because they get along with each other better than almost any other team that I have been a part of.
With the season about to start, I could not be happier with the position I am in. Being able to work at such an incredible place like USC is a dream come true. The people I work with day in and day out make the job that much more enjoyable. There is no one better to work for than Coach O’Neill, and the staff that I have worked with for the past three years has provided me with invaluable experience.
All the best to everyone with the start to their season and FIGHT ON!
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