planned

The long-awaited debut of star USC freshman Alijah Arenas will have to wait at least another week.

Arenas is “progressing well” from the knee injury he suffered in the summer, but not ready to return, a person familiar with his status not authorized to speak publicly told The Times.

The five-star prospect has already been ruled out for this week’s matchups against Maryland or Purdue, which had initially been the target for his return.

When Arenas will suit up for USC is uncertain. The expectation is that he’ll play for the Trojans at some point during Big Ten play, possibly by the end of this month.

Arenas returned to practice last month after sitting out since July. He said at the time that he’d been undecided on whether to return to play for the Trojans versus just declaring for the draft, but that his teammates “were kind of the key factor in me wanting to come back.”

They could use him back as soon as possible. The Trojans (13-3, 2-3 Big Ten) narrowly escaped a third straight loss Friday in Minneapolis and are still scraping by with a ballhander-by-committee approach. When he does return, Arenas is expected to step into a significant role.

Two of USC’s next three games are at home against the Big Ten’s two worst teams — Maryland and Northwestern — but after that, road matchups against Iowa and Wisconsin, each of which have lost just one home game this season, will loom large for the Trojans.

Without Arenas, USC will continue to lean heavily on sixth-year senior Chad Baker-Mazara, who bounced back in a big way from a two-game slump Friday, scoring 29 points.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Sydney police have detained seven men in a suburb Thursday with officers reportedly ramming a car and detaining the men after a tip about a planned “violent attack.”

The arrests came just a few days after 15 people were killed on Bondi Beach in Australia at a Hanukkah gathering.

The seven men were believed to be traveling from Melbourne to Bondi. The intercepted cars had Victoria plates, which is the state that includes Melbourne, 550 miles from Sydney.

“At this point in time, police have not identified any connection to the current police investigation of the Bondi terror attack,” a New South Wales police press release said.

“Police subsequently intercepted two cars as part of the investigation. As investigations continue, seven men are assisting police with their inquiries,” the release said.

Police didn’t release any more details about the men or the attack plans.

The men were stopped in Liverpool, a suburb southwest of Sydney.

Social media images showed a white hatchback with body damage from a collision that was blocked off by police tape at a Liverpool intersection, The Guardian reported.

Other images showed several heavily armed police in camouflage gear, and men with their hands zip-tied behind their backs lined up against a nearby fence.

Though police said there is no link to the Bondi shooting, Thursday morning Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said to expect more raids in the wake of the Bondi attack.

“In the coming days, the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team will execute further search warrants to support our investigation. There is a lot of material to be examined, and the AFP continues to work with both domestic and international partners to build a more complete picture of the movements and who the alleged offenders had contact with, both in Australia and offshore,” she said.