LOOK: Auburn, USC announce basketball home and home series starting in 2022
Schedules for the upcoming college basketball season are beginning to take shape, with some thrilling non-conference matchups on the docket. On Friday, two of the top emerging programs announced they would be playing each other, with a West Coast trip in order for an SEC powerhouse.
Auburn and USC have announced a home and home series, with the first game coming this season in Los Angeles on Dec. 18. A return trip will be made to the Plains by the Trojans during Dec. 2023.
It’s been a while since these two have faced off on the hardwood. USC has won both matchups as they took place in the 1970s, with Dec. 1977 being the last matchup. A longer extended version of a home and home series, the Trojans initially hosted the Tigers in 1972.
Fifty years later and it’s the beginning of a new series.
Auburn will be fresh off an SEC Championship where head coach Bruce Pearl helped them earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The likes of Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler are off to the NBA but the Tigers will bring back a good chunk of the backcourt and bring two On3 Consensus top 50 prospects from their 2022 recruiting class.
As for USC, Boogie Ellis returning for another season of college basketball will be huge for head coach Andy Enfield. He was the Trojans’ second-leading scorer of the year and decided against keeping his name in the 2022 NBA Draft. 2009 was the last time the red side of Los Angeles made three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and getting nonconference wins against a program such as Auburn would be a huge boost.
This could have been a matchup in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, had USC won their Round of 64 matchup against Miami. Instead, the Hurricanes took care of business and made an Elite Eight run. December will fulfill a “what if” scenario from last season.