The USC men’s basketball team protected home court and moved to 17-6 on the season in a hard fought win over the Indiana Hoosiers, 81-75.
Coming into last night, the Trojans were barely on the correct side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, making every game a must win. The Hoosiers were also on the bubble, raising the stakes of this matchup significantly.
After the game, head coach Eric Musselman alluded to this, saying, “I told the team that this game is not worth one game. There’s bubble implications tonight, there’s Big Ten standings implications and there’s tiebreaker implications.”
With this win under their belt, the Trojans have a strong resume to present to the NCAA committee. They picked up their third quadrant one victory of the season and improved their record against quadrant one and two teams to 8-6. Looking ahead, seven of their last eight games this season will be quadrant one or two battles, so there is no shortage of difficulty on the remaining schedule.
According to ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi, the win moved USC up from being one of the last four teams in the tournament to the last four byes.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, injuries have riddled their season, and it only got worse in last night’s game.
After losing their leading scorer, junior guard Rodney Rice, and defensive anchor senior forward Amarion Dickerson for the season, they relied heavily on graduate forward Chad Baker-Mazara to carry the bulk of the offensive load. He’s been key, averaging 18.4 points per game since Rice’s injury. Only one minute into the second half, Baker-Mazara went up for a dunk, came down hard on his knee and didn’t return to the court after coming out of the locker room on crutches.
“We have no update on Chad,” Musselman said. “It seems like a sprain and probably the MCL, not the ACL. We have no real time table until they do the MRI.”
Even though this injury is devastating, the news that it could be an MCL sprain provides a chance that Baker-Mazara might return to action later this season.
In the wake of his absence, freshman guard Alijah Arenas had a breakout game, scoring 29 points while playing 37 of 40 minutes on the night. Senior guard Kam Woods added 18 points while playing all 40 minutes.
After a back and forth period in the second half, the Hoosiers narrowed their deficit to 4 with one minute to play.
In the final minute of the game, Musselman was forced to deploy an unusual lineup of five point guards. The move was likely prompted by Baker Mazara’s injury, along with sophomore forward Jacob Cofie and senior forward Ezra Ausar fouling out.
Nonetheless, the shorthanded Trojans finished the job and got a marquee win after a monster block from senior guard Ryan Cornish and two huge free-throws by junior guard Jordan Marsh.
“I’m about as proud of a team as I can be,” Musselman said. “To think that Chad wouldn’t play a second half and [Cofie and Ausar] foul out and then we still found a way to win… it’s remarkable.”
The Trojans will travel across the country on a two-game road trip that can decide the fate of their tournament life, where they will face Penn State and Ohio State this Sunday and next Wednesday.