The No. 24 USC men’s basketball team is about to embark on the most difficult portion of its schedule.
The weeklong road trip will begin with No. 2 Michigan (12-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) on Friday, move on to No. 9 Michigan State (12-1, 2-0) on Monday and finally wrap up with Minnesota (8-5, 1-1) on Jan. 9.
“I don’t know if anybody’s prepared in the country for that trip,” head coach Eric Musselman told reporters in mid-December.
“We’re going to be on the road longer than a lot of NBA teams when they go on their East Coast trip. And that’s coming right out of the break.”
The Trojans (12-1, 1-1) will have to quickly shake off any rust accumulated over the winter break to be ready for a Michigan team that has the No. 3 scoring offense in men’s college basketball.
The Wolverines are putting up 96.8 points a game and are shooting 53.59% from the field, which is second-best in the country. They became the first Big Ten team in conference history to record six wins of 40 or more points in a season when they beat McNeese State 112-71 on Monday night.
“When you defend the way we defend, you stay with it,” head coach Dusty May told reporters after the win, “and you’re going to turn some of those stops into baskets when you’re as lethal and have the passing ability that we have.”
Michigan has picked up conference wins over Rutgers and Maryland and has beaten two ranked teams in Auburn and Gonzaga in the Players Era Championship.
Friday night will be a sold-out game at Crisler Center and will mark Terrace Williams II’s return to Ann Arbor. The 6-foot-7 graduate guard played at Michigan for four seasons and made Sweet 16 runs with Michigan in 2021 and 2022.
Five Wolverines are averaging double digits in scoring and 6-foot-9 forward Yale Lendeborg leads all players with an average of 15.7 points per game in addition to 7.2 rebounds.
Aday Mara, a 7-foot-3 center and UCLA transfer, is averaging a team-best 8.2 rebounds per game. He could match up well with USC’s 7-foot-6 Gabe Dynes in the post.
“I don’t know what the lineup will be for us in Ann Arbor, but at least now we have film to try to help our team,” Musselman said after closing out the non-conference season against UC Santa Cruz.
“The thought process was we go to Michigan — Michigan starts a huge lineup. Michigan does it for about four minutes. And so the question is, do we do that with four minutes?”
After USC faces Michigan, they’ll take on a Michigan State team that’s on a four-game winnning streak and has only one loss this season to No. 6 Duke.
The Spartans’ scoring offense ranks 12th out of 18 Big Ten teams with 80.8 points per game, but they have a major all-around weapon in 6-foot-9 senior forward Jaxon Kohler. He’s averaging a double-double of 13.7 points and 10.3 rebounds a game while shooting 53.2% from the field.
The Trojans could have an advantage if they jump on the Spartans early. Michigan State gave up 53 points in the first half in their most recent game against Cornell but recovered to win 114-97.
“There’s something about having a team down and being able to put foot on their throat, as they say, and this team doesn’t have that yet,” said head coach Tom Izzo, who is in his 31st season with the program. “We’re going to have to work on that.”
No. 24 USC (12-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) at No. 2 Michigan (12-0, 2-0)
When: Friday, 4 p.m.
Where: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
TV/Radio: Peacock/USCTrojans.com/Listen
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