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USC coach Andy Enfield: ‘If you want to play slow, go to UCLA’

USC Introduces New Basketball Coach Andy Enfield

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 03: Basketball coach Andy Enfield addresses the audience during the press conference to introduce Enfield as USC’s new basketball head coach on April 3, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

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Florida-Gulf Coast earned themselves quite a reputation as they knocked off Georgetown and San Diego State en route to last season’s Sweet 16.

#DunkCity became a craze. Ft. Myers, for one week last March, turned into the epicenter of the college hoops world, as writer after writer tried to figure where in the hell these guys came from and why no one knew that they would be dunking all over everybody.

And while it was the dunking that got everyone’s attention, those highlight reels plays were mainly the product of the uptempo style of play that head coach Andy Enfield employed. FGCU was 42nd nationally in tempo last season, according to Kenpom, but they were 19th in average length of possession.

Enfield wants his guys to play fast and loose, and when you combine that with a pass-first point guard like Brett Comer and a bunch of big guys that can run and jump, you get #DunkCity.

That’s the biggest reason why so many people believe that Enfield is going to have quite a bit of success at his new job, USC. Southern California has quite a bit of talent currently in the high school ranks, and not only has Enfield landed two of the region’s best recruiters, he’s drilling it in his team’s head that they should be getting up and down the floor as much as possible.

It’s a stark contrast to that team across town, and Enfield isn’t afraid of making that fact known.

“We play up-tempo basketball here. If you want to play slow, go to UCLA,” Enfield told his players at a recent practice, according to the LA Times.

USC may struggle a bit this season as Enfield stocks the roster with the kind of talent that he wants and needs, but that’s quite the recruiting pitch, isn’t it?

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