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.