No. 22 USC Men's Basketball To Face Miami In NCAA Tournament First-Round Game Friday
The No. 22 USC Trojans (26-7, 14-6, 3rd-Pac-12), the No. 7 seed, will take on the No. 10 seed Miami Hurricanes (23-10, 14-6, 4th-ACC) in a first-round game in the Midwest Regional of the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on March 18 at 12:10 p.m. PT. The game will be played at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. The game will air on truTV with Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery and Grant Hill calling the action and Tracy Wolfson providing sideline reports. It will also be broadcast on Westwood One with Bill Rosinski and Jordan Cornette handling the radio call. USC's 26 wins have tied for the most wins in school history with the 2016-17 team (26-10). USC's 25 regular season wins set a team record.
WINNING WAYS -- USC has won a school-record 73 games over the last three seasons (22 in 2020, 25 in 2021 and 26 in 2022). The previous school record for wins in three consecutive seasons was 71 (2016-18). The three consecutive seasons of 20+ wins also equals the school record for most consecutive 20-win seasons set from 2016-18.
FACING MIAMI -- The Miami Hurricanes (23-10, 14-6) are coming off an 80-76 lost to Duke in the ACC Semifinals on March 11. Miami has won 7 of its last 10 games. Four Miami players are averaging double figures in points, led by redshirt senior guard Kameron McGusty at 17.6 ppg. USC leads the all-time series with Miami, 2-0, winning 92-71 on Dec. 1, 1990 at the L.A. Sports Arena and 86-66 on Dec. 27, 1992 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
USC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT -- USC is 17-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament (1 loss in 2008 later vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 17-21). USC reached the 2021 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight last season, defeating Drake (72-56), Kansas (85-51) and Oregon (82-68), before falling to Gonzaga, 85-66. USC is 5-2 in its last seven NCAA Tournament games.
FEELS LIKE HOME -- USC (13-4) and Miami (13-5) are tied for second with Duke (13-3) among Power 6 conference teams with 13 wins away from their home arenas. Only Villanova at 14-6 has won more games when not playing at home this season.
IT STARTS WITH DEFENSE -- Despite allowing Arizona to make 55.6 percent of its field goals on March 1, the highest percentage by a Trojan opponent since 2019, USC has held 21 of its 32 opponents to under 40 percent shooting this season. USC is holding the opposition to a 38.6 shooting percentage, 10th in the country. USC held its first 12 opponents under 40 percent shooting in each game and to a combined 35.2 shooting percentage, which was second in the country. The Trojans were the first team in the last 15 seasons to hold its first 12 opponents to under 40 percent shooting in each game.
USC FALLS IN PAC-12 SEMIFINAL -- Boogie Ellis matched a career-high with 27 points and made a season-best five 3-pointers, but it wasn't enough as No. 3-seed USC fell to No.2-seed UCLA, 69-59, in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals on March 11. Drew Peterson added 11 points and Isaiah Mobley had 9 points and 7 rebounds. USC struggle with its shooting in the first half and despite Peterson's first-half buzzer-beater, the Trojans trailed 36-28 at halftime and shot 31 percent from the field before the break. After a layup by Mobley and an alleyoop conversion by Kobe Johnson, USC had cut the lead to four at 42-38 at the 14:38 mark of the second half, UCLA responded with a 7-0 run in the Trojans got no closer that 6 points the rest of the way. Ellis scored 18 of USC's 31 second-half points. UCLA made 48.9 percent of its shots,including 54.5 percent in the second half to keep the Trojans at bay. USC had a season-low six assists.
GOODWIN EYES THE TOP OF THE HILL -- USC forward Chevez Goodwin has played in 171 career games, second all-time among NCAA Division I players behind Jordan Bohannon of Iowa who has played in 177 through March 13. The NCAA record for games played entering this season was 157 by David Lighty of Ohio State (2007-11). Goodwin has played in 66 games as a member of the Trojans' program.
HOMECOMING WEEK FOR GOODWIN -- It will be a homecoming of sorts for USC forward Chevez Goodwin who grew up in Columbia, S.C. roughly 100 miles away from Greenville, S.C. Goodwin also played two seasons at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., roughly 30 miles away from Greenville and one at College of Charleston, roughly 200 miles away from Greenville.
THE TOASTS OF THE COASTS AND NCAA - When USC defeated Pacific 74-68 on Feb. 8 it completed an undefeated nonconference slate of 11-0. USC was also undefeated during the 2016-17 nonconference schedule. Only USC and Villanova (2016-17 and 2017-18) have posted two perfect nonconference seasons of 10 or more wins in the last six years.
LEADERS OF THE PAC -- USC is tied for second in conference regular season wins among Pac-12 teams for the past five seasons (since the 2017-18 season).. USC is 60-34 in conference games during that stretch, one behind Arizona who is at 61-33. UCLA is 60-33, Oregon is 58-34 and Colorado is 54-40.
TROJAN TIDBITS:
• USC is 10-1 in games decided by 5 points or less
• USC is 20-2 in games this season when Chevez Goodwin scores 9 or more points
•USC has comeback from 5 deficits of 10 points or more and has trailed by as many as 5
points in 17 of its wins.