Staff WriterFollow
Wesley Yates III wiped the sweat already pouring from his forehead and steeled himself for the 40 minutes to come. The freshman was running on fumes. It had been a miserable few days leading up to Tuesday night, as an illness wreaked havoc on USC’s rotation, right after the Trojans returned from a two-loss trip in which their egos and tournament hopes had taken a considerable hit.
And now, at the worst possible time, Yates and fellow starter Chibuzo Agbo, two of USC’s three leading scorers, both were sick. They had spent the afternoon and most of the preceding days on intermittent IV drips, forcing USC to completely rearrange its plans, their statuses very much in doubt for a conference game the Trojans could ill afford to lose.