USC’s Nikola Vucevic gets aggressive

The adjustment was small, but the payoff proved hefty.

In the USC men’s basketball team’s first half against UC Irvine on Saturday, junior forward Nikola Vucevic knew the Anteaters would double-team him any time he touched the ball.

But instead of being aggressive, the 6-foot-10, 260-pound Vucevic looked to pass, which explains his paltry halftime stats: two points on one-for-three shooting.

In the second half of USC’s 62-49 win, though, Vucevic scored 17 points, including nine of the Trojans’ first 13 after intermission, to finish with a career-high-tying 19.

What changed? Not too much. The coaches just told him to spin baseline, the area the defenders who crowded him were leaving open.

And it worked.

Vucevic shot five for seven in the second half, and made six of seven free throws. His best play came when he grabbed a missed three-point shot by USC and slammed it in with one hand.

But Vucevic acknowledges that the type of performance he had in the second half might not have happened last season.

“Last year, if I only scored two points in the first half, I don’t think I would’ve went for 17 in the second half,” said Vucevic, who was one of 50 players named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List.

“It’s something that comes with being more mature, and that if you don’t do something in the first half, you can change in the middle of the game and make more adjustments.”

USC Coach Kevin O’Neill agreed, simply saying, “He’s a better player this year.”

It’s gotta be the shoes

For the last two seasons, senior forward Alex Stepheson always wore the same pair of red and white sneakers.

“Old Reliable,” he calls them.

He got them during his first season with the Trojans after he sat out following his transfer from North Carolina, and he wore them in a few games last season.

“So I’m like, ‘These are my lucky pair of shoes,’ ” Stepheson said.

But Saturday, he wore a fresh pair of sneakers after chiding from his teammates.

“Everybody was on me, ‘No, Alex, you need to give those shoes a rest. Alex, we’ve seen these shoes too much,’ ” he said.

The switch may not have been for the best.

Despite Stepheson’s 13 rebounds against the Anteaters, he shot only two for nine and struggled to take care of the ball, his main issue last season.

Stepheson turned it over three times, including twice on consecutive plays that gave points to the opponent and also disqualified a dunk by him.

And on another series of consecutive plays, Stepheson missed two tip-in tries.

“These are the new ones,” he said, pointing to his pair of clean red-and-white sneakers, “and they’re still vintage, but I think I’m going to go back to my old ones.”

In terms of luck, switching back might not be a bad idea, as Stepheson sprained his left hand while it was caught in the jersey of another player Saturday. He said it’s swollen and sore but that he’s fine.

Etc.

O’Neill said USC’s defensive positioning against UC Irvine was impressive. “To take three charges is pretty good,” he said. USC was pretty good defensively overall last season, when the Trojans ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense (57.2)…O’Neill said the Trojans’ offensive struggles were largely a result of UC Irvine’s two-three zone defense that double-teamed his big men. He said overcoming a zone and those double-teams against Vucevic and Stepheson will be key all season, especially against Santa Clara, a team O’Neill expects to have a similar game plan.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com