This was not the tournament contention Eric Musselman hoped his team would be fighting for come March, his first as USC’s coach. But the season had slid away through a frustrating February, and now his Trojans were left tiptoeing along the brink of the Big Ten tournament cutline, a discomfiting place he never expected them to be in his debut.
There was no changing all that now. What USC could still do, with the Big Ten’s last-place team on deck for its final home game, was win and all but ensure it’s in a field it should have easily made in the first place.
USC wouldn’t have much trouble with that Wednesday, as it dispatched Washington, 92-61, finally putting a stop to a frustrating five-game losing streak.
With the win, USC needs just a single Iowa loss — either tomorrow against Michigan State or Sunday at Nebraska — to secure its place in Indianapolis next week. But as the likely 15th and final seed in the tournament, it’s got a long, difficult road ahead if it hopes to get past that.
That picture didn’t always seem so bleak for USC. At the start of February, the Trojans took care of Michigan State, the current Big Ten leader, on its homecourt. They were 5-5 in the conference then, firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble.
USC has lost seven of eight games since, three of which came against teams in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings. That’s the worst mark of any team in the conference over the last month.
But Wednesday felt like a departure from that dark stretch, in spurts at least. USC was absolutely blistering from deep, knocking down 15 of 26 from three-point range. The 26 attempts were the second most the Trojans had attempted all season.
It was Rashaun Agee who found his deep stroke first. Fresh off his best game of the season — a 29-point effort in Oregon — Agee hit three first-half three-pointers. During one stretch, he scored 10 points in three minutes. He finished with 18.
Desmond Claude, the Trojans leading scorer, stepped up after that, brushing off his worst performance to score 25, while dishing out 11 assists.
Chibuzo Agbo drove the dagger in late, hitting three straight second-half threes to put Washington away for good. He finished with 26, his highest-scoring game at USC.
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