USC Men's Basketball Announces Nonconference Schedule and Pac-12 Pairings
The USC men’s basketball team announced its nonconference schedule and its Pac-12 pairings for the upcoming 2022-23 season.
USC will open the season against FGCU on Nov. 7 at the Galen Center. USC head coach Andy Enfield began his head coaching career at FGCU and was inducted into the FGCU Hall of Fame last season when the Trojans played there.
The Trojans will then host home games against Alabama State on Nov. 7, Vermont on Nov. 15 and Mt. St. Mary’s on Nov. 18.
USC’s first games away from Galen will take place in the Bahamas, at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. The Trojans will open against BYU, then play either Butler or Tennessee. Defending champion Kansas, Dayton, Wisconsin and North Carolina State are the potential matchups for USC’s third game there.
The Trojans’ standalone Pac-12 games will be at Cal on Nov. 30 and home against Oregon State on Dec. 4.
Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and Auburn then visit the Galen Center before USC plays Colorado State in Phoenix at the Jerry Colangelo Classic. Fullerton, Auburn and Colorado State were all NCAA Tournament teams, while Long Beach State won the Big West.
USC tied the school record with 26 wins last season. The Trojans will be built this season around two returning veterans in Drew Peterson and Boogie Ellis. A host of freshmen and sophomore will need to contribute heavily.
Conference Schedule
The specific dates and times for USC’s conference games have not been announced yet. But they know the order of when they’ll play the conference travel partners.
USC will play Washington State and Washington the week of Dec. 29-Jan. 2.
The Trojans then get right to it with a visit across town to take on the Bruins.
USC hosts Colorado and Utah Jan. 11-15.
A road trip to the Arizona schools is next, Jan. 18-22.
The Trojans then host UCLA the final week of January, finishing off the two rivalry games fairly early in the season.
February opens with a visit from the Washington schools, then a trip to Oregon.
The regular season finishes by hosting the Bay Area schools, visiting Colorado and Utah and then welcoming the Arizona schools to Galen to wrap things up.
With 20 conference games, the Trojans will not host Oregon and will not travel to Palo Alto to take on Stanford.
The Pac-12 Tournament is set to begin March 8. It will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.