Sophomore guard Jordan Usher to transfer from USC basketball

Sophomore guard Jordan Usher announced his decision to transfer from USC basketball on Monday. He had been indefinitely suspended on Sunday.

USC basketball finished out 2018 with good news and bad news. The good? A win over UC Davis on Sunday night. The bad? The transfer of sophomore guard Jordan Usher.

Usher has been suspended indefinitely for “unspecified conduct issues,” per Joey Kaufman of the OC Register, ahead of the Trojans final non-conference game against UC Davis, which USC won 73-55 with a second-half surge.

While little information was available as to the nature of Usher’s suspension, he took to Twitter around midday on Monday with a statement announcing his transfer.

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“With the help of my family, mentors and the USC basketball program, an athletic transfer has been requested and granted,” Usher wrote. “My sincere gratitude for the opportunity and support provided. I wish my teammates and coaches a successful remaining conference schedule.”

Usher had been averaging 24 minutes per game as a sophomore, pitching in 8.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game to start the 2018-19 season. He appeared in 12 of 13 games, starting twice.

There was promising improvement from his freshmen campaign when he averaged 4.8 points and 2 rebounds while playing in every game. He started the final two games of the season in the NIT against UNC Asheville and Western Kentucky, scoring 13 points in each. He was the only Trojan that season to shoot over 40 percent from the field and from beyond the arc while also hitting 75 percent or more of his free throws.

He came to the Trojans as a four-star shooting guard out of Georgia, ranking No. 104 in the 2017 recruiting class, 22nd among shooting guards.

Usher’s presence will be missed as USC continues to deal with the injury absence of freshman Kevin Porter Jr. and fellow sophomore Charles O’Bannon Jr. With a return date unknown for those two, the Trojans will have to depend even more on the contributions of Jonah Matthews, Derryck Thornton and Shaqquan Aaron from the guard spots while perhaps seeing more from freshman Elijah Weaver.