USC Men's Basketball Set To Face Stanford On The Road Tuesday

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The USC Trojans (13-3, 7-2) will play at the Stanford Cardinal (10-5, 6-3) at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto Calif. on Feb. 2 at 6 p.m.  The game will air on FS1 with Joe Davis and Casey Jacobsen calling the action. USC has won 8 of its last 9 games.  USC's 7-2 start to Pac-12 play is its best since beginning the 2018 season 8-2 in conference play.

FACING STANFORD -- Stanford (10-6, 6-4) is coming off a 79-75 loss at Arizona State on Jan. 30, following wins at Arizona (73-64) and "home" against UCLA (73-72 in OT).  Four Cardinal players are averaging double figures in scoring led by Oscar da Silva's 19.5 points per game.  USC defeated Stanford 82-78 in overtime on Jan. 18,2020 in the only meeting between the schools last season.  USC has lost its last five games at Maples Pavilion.  USC is 126*-127 all-time against Stanford, with a win in 2008 vacated due to NCAA penalty (original record 127-127).

JUST LIKE WE PLANNED... -- USC was originally scheduled to host Stanford on Dec. 13, only to find out hours before the game that there was a positive COVID-19 test within the USC program.  Then USC was set to play Stanford in Santa Cruz on Jan. 21, only to have a false-positive test in the USC program cause the postponement of that game at the last minute. The Dec. 13 game was rescheduled for Feb. 2 at the Galen Center and then on Jan. 27, was switched to a Stanford home game, which will be the Cardinal's first game at Maples Pavilion in 338 days.  The postponed game at Stanford on Jan. 21 will now be played at the Galen Center on Feb. 22.

USC EVENS THE SCORE WITH OREGON STATE  -- Evan Mobley had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and USC pulled away over the final 10 minutes to beat Oregon State 75-62 on Jan. 28. Mobley had five dunks on his way to the freshman's seventh double-double of the season. Isaiah White and Noah Baumann added 11 points each and Ethan Anderson had 10 points for the Trojans. They avenged a two-point loss to the Beavers on Jan. 19 that snapped USC's six-game winning streak. Ethan Thompson had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Jarod Lucas added 18 points for the Beavers. 

UCLA ON DECK -- USC will be hosting No. 23/No. 21 UCLA (13-3, 9-1) at the Galen Center on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.  UCLA is coming off a 57-52 home win against Oregon State on Jan. 30.  Six Bruins are averaging at least 9.3 points or more, led by Chris Smith and Jaime Jacquez at 12.6 points per game. Smith tore his left ACL on Dec. 31 and is out for the rest of the season.  UCLA has won eight of its last nine games with the lone loss coming in overtime at Stanford. USC won both games against UCLA last season, including the 54-52 season-ending game at the Galen Center on March 6, won on a three-pointer by Jonah Mathews.  USC trails in the all-time series with UCLA 111*-143 (1 win later vacated by NCAA penalty, original record 112-143).

JOYFUL JANUARY -- USC went 8-1 in the month of January, its most wins in any month since going 8-1 in January of 2002.

THE MAGIC MARK --  With the 75-62 home win vs. Oregon State on Jan. 29, USC is now 80-5 in its last 85 games when holding the opposition to under 70 points scored dating back to Feb. 28, 2015.

DOING IT WITH DEFENSE -- USC has held its opponents to 37.4 percent shooting this season, sixth-best in the country. The highest shooting percentage by a Trojan opponent this season is 49.1 percent by Washington State on Jan. 16.  

THE SULTANS OF SWAT -- USC has had 91 blocks in its first 16 games for an average of 5.7 blocks per game, sixth in the country.  Freshman Evan Mobley is averaging 2.9 blocks per game, ninth in the country and first among freshmen. Mobley already ranks fourth on USC's all-time freshman blocks list (47).

THE GOOD AND THE BAD -- The good news is USC ranks T-17th in the country with 379 free throw attempts. The bad news is it has made just 247 of those shots for a 65.2 shooting percentage from the charity stripe, which ranks 302nd in the country (out of 340 teams).

OWNING THE PAINT -- USC has outrebounded its opponents 665-527 through the first 16 games and has outscored the opposition 558-370 on points scored in the paint.  USC's +8.6 rebound margin ranks 16th in the country.

LIKE NIGHT AND DAY --  In its 13 wins, USC is shooting 48.3 percent from the floor (376-for-779) and in its three losses is shooting 38.5 percent (62-for-161).  USC has also outrebounded or had the same amount of boards as the opposition in all 13 of the wins (145 more total rebounds) and was outrebounded in two of its three losses.  USC has a total of 29 assists in its three losses.  

LAST WEEK'S HONORS - Last week freshman Evan Mobley was named a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award finalist as the nation's top center, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award and Pac-12 Freshman of the week. His Pac-12 honor was his fourth of the season, tying the record.

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS -- USC outscored Oregon State 45-35 in the second half on Jan. 28.  USC has only been outscored by the opposition in the second half in two games this season (Montana & WSU).