No. 10 seed USC opens NCAA Tournament vs. Michigan State

The USC men’s basketball team is going dancing for the third straight year.

The Trojans were named the No. 10 seeds in the East bracket of the NCAA Tournament and will face No. 7 seed Michigan State in Columbus on Friday.

It marks the second time in program history that USC has made it to the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive seasons. The streak would have been four if not for the canceled 2020 event at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a credit to these guys next to me and their teammates,” said Coach Andy Enfield, flanked by captains Drew Peterson, Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson. “We’re excited to be in March Madness. Our players had an outstanding season.”

USC (22-10, 14-6 in Pac-12) finished third in conference play and hoped to parlay that into a favorable location like Sacramento or Denver for fans to travel to the tournament. But an uninspired loss to Arizona State in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals spoiled any hope of the Trojans staying close to home.

And USC had to wait to see its fate as three Pac-12 teams went ahead of the Trojans before USC was one of the final teams revealed on the selection show.

“I think we all thought we deserved to be in the tournament,” Enfield said when asked if there were any nerves.

Instead, the Trojans will be in the Midwest, a close commute for fans of Michigan State (19-12). It’ll be a little taste of what USC can expect when it joins the Spartans in the Big Ten in two years.

“I haven’t even thought of that,” Enfield said with a laugh.

It does represent a return closer to home for Peterson and Johnson, both from the Midwest.

“It’s always fun to go back to where I used to play lot,” Johnson said.

Should USC beat the Spartans, it would face the winner of No. 2 Marquette and No. 15 Vermont.

At the start of the season, it was not clear that this iteration of the Trojans was a tournament team. USC dropped its season opener to Florida Gulf Coast, a dreaded Quadrant 4 loss right off the bat. With all the young players and few veterans to balance it out, it appeared USC was in for a rebuilding year.

But USC won 11 of its next 13 games, including a top-25 victory over Auburn, to jumpstart another March push.

“Just staying together,” Ellis said. “Any season there’s wins and losses. We told each other we still had a lot of basketball left. ‘We’re not going to let this one game define us.’ I felt like Coach Andy believed in us and we turned it around.”

“This team is a little unique because with [just] two experienced players, Drew and Boogie, coming into the year, we didn’t know what to expect,” Enfield said. “They improved dramatically and we’re proud of them.”

The Trojans took a few licks the past couple weeks. Peterson has dealt with back spasms while freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu missed the last two games with his own back injury.

Peterson said he’s starting to feel better and expects no limitations for Friday’s game against Michigan State as he tries to replicate last year’s heroic efforts in a first-round loss to Miami.

“It was definitely affecting me,” Peterson said. “But I’ll be ready to go this week. But I’m excited to get back at it. It’s win or go home now, so it’s all cards on the table. We’re going to be ready to go, regardless.”

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