On April Fools' Day of 2013, Athletic Director Pat Haden offered coach Andy Enfield an irrefutable amount of money to leave the depths of Fort Meyers, Florida at Florida Gulf Coast and head across the country to head the USC men’s basketball program, all in hopes of bringing “Dunk City” to the Galen Center. 

Of course, the phrase “Dunk City, USA” originated when Enfield and his Florida Gulf Coast team shocked the country during the 2013 NCAA Tournament by becoming the first ever No. 15 seed to reach the “Sweet Sixteen," while playing with an exciting style of flashy up-tempo basketball. 

As of now, it appears that Haden was fooled by Enfield’s success at Florida Gulf Coast. 

When Haden initially hired Enfield, just a month after his team’s dream run ended at Cowboys Stadium against No. 3 seed Florida, he imagined bringing Enfield’s style of showtime-like basketball to USC in order to spur more enthusiasm around USC basketball. 

Fortunately for Enfield, he didn’t really have any big shoes to fill, replacing Bob Cantu, who took over in the middle of the 2012-2013 season on an interim basis after Kevin O’Neill was shown the door. 

Unfortunately for Enfield and Haden, the team’s 2013-2014 campaign did not go as well as they may have wished, as the team went on to finish dead last in the Pac-12 with a 2-16 conference record and 11-21 overall. 

In addition to the team’s poor performance on the court, attendance at games remained dismal, though both of these aspects pretty much go hand and hand with each other. If the team’s playing well or playing for something for that matter, people will go to the games, while if the opposite happens, only “true” fans would likely attend games. 

Last season, the average home attendance at the Galen Center was 4,370, which is far less than what the team’s opponents average on a game-by-game basis. 

Therefore, this serves as a public service announcement to Enfield to give fans a reason to go to the games this season. 

I will always remember when a group of friends and I attended a pre-winter break game against Cal State Bakersfield last year. 

It seemed like we were the only fans in the student section, and it didn’t help that the Trojans were about to lose to a team that ended up finishing second to last in the WAC. 

Fans don’t want to come see the team pull out close games against dismal teams, they'd rather see them be able to keep up with the elites of the Pac-12 like Arizona and cross-town rival UCLA. 

USC likes to see winners, not losers, and that’s further exemplified by attendance at football games towards the beginning stages of last season when the Coliseum was visibly empty, as fans continued to call for Lane Kiffin’s job. That’s just the culture of USC Athletics.

As for the upcoming season for the Trojans, I honestly don’t think that it will go much differently from the last, based on the team’s current personnel and a grueling schedule at the hands of the Pac-12 Conference. 

And the media agrees as USC was picked to finish 10th in the preseason poll, which is better than being last, but it’s still not up to the caliber and precedent that’s expected at USC. 

The only teams picked to finish behind the Trojans were Washington State and Oregon Sate. 

If something is for sure, though, this year’s team looks a lot different, and a lot younger, than last year’s team. And I wouldn’t say for the better, either. 

This year’s team returns only two starters, in center Nikola Jovanovic and guard Julian Jacobs, who are both sophomores. 

Younger players will be forced to enter into leadership capacities for the Trojans, as Enfield’s team features no seniors. 

Team captain roles have been placed on Jacobs and Charlotte transfer Darion Clark, who is also a sophomore. 

Younger players leading the team should prove to be beneficial down the road, in the upcoming year, but there’s still a learning curve that the Trojans will have to go through this season. 

As for who’s going to put the ball in the basket for Enfield’s team...well, the Trojans lost their top four scorers including leading scorer Byron Wesley, who transferred to Gonzaga. 

The additions of freshman point guard and highly touted recruit Jodan McLaughlin [Etiwanda HS] and UNLV transfer Katin Reinhardt should prove to be very helpful in the scoring department. 

With these younger players entering into greater leadership and scoring roles, the future is undoubtedly bright for the Trojans, but as Enfield has mentioned a few times, it takes time to turn around a college basketball program. 

It doesn’t look like this season will be the year for Enfield’s team, but it could prove to be a good stepping stone for years to come. 

Reach Staff Columnist Darian Nourian here.