Alijah Arenas switched between his forehand shot and backhand, flicking the plastic ball over the net to his opponent, former NBA star Brandon Jennings.
Arenas shuffled up and down the pickleball court and shifted laterally, quickly racking up the points and shutting out Jennings in the game, 11-0.
“I’m trying to learn how to lose,” Arenas joked after the match. “Winning has gotten tiresome.”
The friendly competition was posted to the YouTube channel for Gilbert Arenas’ podcast just a day before the younger Arenas will make his college basketball debut with the USC men’s basketball team (14-4 overall, 3-4 Big Ten). He’s healthy and set to play on Wednesday night against Northwestern.
Arenas’ mom, Laura Govan, confirmed reports that he would be “probable” with an Instagram post that read “Alijah Arenas confirms USC debut Wednesday night!”
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And the Trojans are more than ready to have him back.
“Alijah’s going to help us a lot,” head coach Eric Musselman told reporters in mid-December. “Great passer, willing passer, one-on-one player, can go get a shot whenever he wants. He’ll add 3-point shooting.”
Arenas suffered a torn meniscus in July, and Musselman said he was expected to begin playing in mid-January.
The former five-star recruit out of Chatsworth High School was seen running on the court before games as early as Dec. 14 and, more recently, he’s been sitting on the sidelines during games with ice on his knee.
Adding him to the rotation will add depth and shrink the injury list from three players to two. Rodney Rice and Amarion Dickerson are still expected to miss the remainder of the season.
USC added point guard Kam Woods to the roster at the end of the fall semester, and Musselman said that the combination of Woods and Arenas has brought up the energy level of the team. He’s also excited to see how Arenas and 6-foot-7 guard Chad Baker-Mazara work off each other.
“We’re really long with him and Chad out there at the guard spot,” Musselman said. “Like, we are long. Which is what we envisioned when we took this job. We wanted to have great length at the 1-2.”
Baker-Mazara played limited minutes against Maryland due to neck stiffness but appeared to be back to full strength in Saturday’s narrow loss to No. 5 Purdue.
Arenas will be able to ease his way into college basketball against a Northwestern team that’s winless in Big Ten Conference play and currently on a five-game losing streak.
They do have the conference’s leading scorer, though, in Nick Martinelli. The four-year Wildcat is averaging 23.7 points while shooting 56.3% from the field and 53.3% from long range.
“When you don’t win for seven games — trust me, it ain’t fun,” Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said. “It ain’t fun for anybody. But we got 13 of these things left and we’ve got to try to find a way to win one. And if we do, kids are kids. All of a sudden you get a little confidence, you get a little momentum, and maybe one can string into two and two into three. That’s the challenge for us right now.”
Northwestern (8-10 overall, 0-7 Big Ten) at USC (14-4, 3-4)
When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Galen Center
TV/Radio: Big Ten Network/710 AM
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