The USC Trojan men’s basketball team is right on the middle of the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Its March Madness outlook is cloudy and uncertain. The USC women’s basketball team is in a noticeably better position, but like the men, the Women of Troy suffered a road loss in February which makes their lives a lot more complicated than it had to be.
USC wouldn’t have been a 100-percent lock for the 2023 NCAA Tournament with a win over Cal on Sunday in Berkeley, but the Trojans would have been awfully close. They would have been 98-percent set. (Or 96, if you prefer. The point is that they would have been halfway in the door and nearly certain to get in.)
Now, after losing to Cal in overtime, the Trojans are still in a good position, but things could get messy if the Trojans don’t lock things down and handle their business.
USC fought so hard on Friday in a narrow loss to Stanford. The Trojans once again played elite defense against an opponent which is likely to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. USC’s defense, at its best, is so good that it makes the Trojans a Sweet 16 darkhorse. That kind of defense enables USC to compete with anyone in the country.
However, USC has poured forth so much effort this season — and not just on Friday at Stanford — that a letdown was bound to occur. No, not likely, but completely understandable.
That letdown game happened on Sunday.
Cal was hosting its Senior Day in Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Cal seniors wanted to go out on a high note. They played hard. USC didn’t match the Bears’ effort and obviously didn’t play defense at the standard the Trojans expect from themselves.
They fouled more: 22 fouls is unusually high for this USC team.
Cal shot more free throws than most USC opponents do: 24 attempts.
Cal made 8 of 18 3-pointers, enabling the Bears to score at least 20 points in two separate quarters within the same game. That hadn’t happened to USC’s defense since January 27 at Utah.
USC’s Kadi Sissoko was fantastic in this game, scoring 30 points, but the defensive regression was ultimately more than what the Trojans could handle. They like to play games in the 50s and low 60s if not the high 40s. This game was nowhere near that range or tempo.
USC comes home for its last homestand of the season on Friday against Washington and on Sunday versus Washington State. USC will need one win in those next two games to feel good about its March Madness chances. Losing both games would put USC on…
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