USC Guard Tahj Eaddy takes on his own challenge – Orange County Register

When Tahj Eaddy hooped in Santa Clara, his favorite vacation spot was Los Angeles. Many of his teammates were from Los Angeles, so when the weekends were long, they headed south to enjoy the beach.

“I was always in LA,” Eaddy said.

When Eaddy decided to transfer to school in the final year of his qualification, it wasn’t a big deal that he couldn’t visit the USC campus when the Trojan came to recruit. But USC wasn’t the only finalist in his service that Eaddy was familiar with.

His hometown public school, Connecticut, sought a 6-foot-2 guard, which was an option he had to consider. His college career kept him away from home, and his family rarely had the opportunity to see him play directly.

But the Trojan offered something that Huskies couldn’t: a wide open competition for play time.

“I didn’t want to be in a situation where there were already a lot of senior guards already in the role. I wanted to go to a really reliable place,” Edie explained. “I had never experienced it throughout my career and was looking for the challenge.”

As the second best scorer at USC, Senior Guard scored 13.7 points per game, started all but one game, and played an average of 31.6 minutes per contest.

He has proven to be a perfect complement to Evan Mobley, the protagonist of the Trojan horse. Eaddy has secured floor space by creating 37.3% of the 3 pointers and is increasing the space in the post to the freshman center.

And Eaddy doesn’t have to play in the flow of attacks. He can make his own shots and supply his energy when he sees several attempts passing through the rim. This ability is often compared to Lou Williams, the Clippers Sixth Man scoring connoisseur.

Eaddy was fully on display in the first half of the USC’s victory over Arizona on Wednesday. In possession of the opening, he went in the opposite direction of the screen and drove to the top of the key to sink the rushing jumper.

Two minutes later, Edie drilled Catch and Shoot 3. On his next possession, he took an inbound pass to the length of the court and finished with a left-handed finger roll despite the efforts of the two defenders.

It was the beginning of half of the 15 points and was just another of Eaddy’s series of scorching performances this month. In February, guards scored an average of 17.4 points per game with 48.5% of the shots.

USC head coach Andienfield said after Edie’s season’s best 29-point performance against Washington last week, “He knows when to win the ball himself and does a great job of involving his teammates. I did. ” “If we’re going to keep winning the game, we need to keep him doing this.”

The 17th place Trojan has won many victories. At 18-3, USC got off to a great start in 47 years, leading UCLA, which is number one on the Pac-12, by one game.

And in addition to the expansion of the role Eaddy expected when he committed to the USC this summer, there was also hope that the team could give Eaddy a chance to play in his first NCAA tournament.