USC resumed practice Tuesday after taking a week off for spring vacation. The workout ended when Max Browne completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ajene Harris. Browne, a fourth-year junior, leads the competition to be the starting quarterback, alsong with redshirt sophomore Jalen Greene, redshirt...
The season was on the line, and USC was panicking. In a stunned postgame locker room, the players would run through all the ways it had lost Thursday's NCAA tournament first-round game to Providence, 70-69. If only the Trojans had slowed down, been less reckless. If only they had made their free...
One of the most feared players in college basketball took the court here Wednesday evening for a light shoot-around. Down the tunnel, in USC's locker room, the player assigned to contain him noted his opponent's attire. Providence's Kris Dunn was wearing shorts. Regular, no-frills basketball shorts....
It was a loss that gave birth to a dynasty. Or so thought the poor souls who forgot this was still USC basketball. It was March of 2001, and the young and athletic Trojans had just come within 10 points of a berth in the Final Four, losing to Duke in the Elite Eight and scoring the ultimate compliment....
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the NCAA’s petition to review an appellate court ruling that allowed former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit against the organization to proceed. That means the case -- on appeal since 2012 -- can finally resume in Los...
Soaked and smiling, Andy Enfield sat in the trainers room inside Wells Fargo Arena with three of his players and tried to comprehend what had just happened. It was a Sunday night in Philadelphia, and Florida Gulf Coast had just pulled off one of the most improbable first-weekend runs in NCAA basketball...
It's an NCAA tournament game; additional motivation is not supposed to be required. The basketball world is watching. One loss and your season is kaput. But forgive Providence sophomore Kyron Cartwright if he plays with added incentive Thursday when the Friars meet USC in a first-round game in...
For USC's basketball team, success has not been sweet. It tastes a little earthy and a tad gritty — a bit like eating dirt, some players say. Turns out, success tastes like beet juice. Since the season started, the Trojans have chugged beet juice before workouts, vigorous practices and games. It...
A look at the NCAA tournament East Regional: TOP SEEDS 1 NORTH CAROLINA: This is the sixth time the Tar Heels have been a No. 1 seed under Coach Roy Williams. They’ve reached a regional final each time. 2 XAVIER: The high-scoring Musketeers average 81.3 points per game — 18th in the nation — to...
UCLA's basketball season was plummeting. The team was splintering. And no one knew how to fix it. It was the last weekend in February and the Bruins had just been defeated by Stanford, one of many frustrating losses in a rare UCLA season full of them. For weeks, some Bruins thought teammates were...
Nobody likes a bully, so this year the NCAA brings you its annual men's college basketball tournament without a designated intimidator in the room.No team close to being undefeated, none teeming with future top-10 NBA draft picks and ready to sneer its way to the Final Four. Not one team that thinks...
No. 8 USC vs. No. 9 Providence THURSDAY AT PNC ARENA, RALEIGH, N.C. How they got here: USC lost six of eight games in a stretch late in the season but used a 95-71 victory over UCLA in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament as a strong closing statement. Providence endured its own...
Over the last four months, the USC basketball team was the best show in town … that few people saw. The Trojans spent the majority of their season in anonymity, as local sports fans were busy decrying the downtrodden state of the Lakers or wondering what went wrong with the traditional college...
About halfway into Sunday's NCAA tournament selection show, rumors began to spread among the USC basketball team. The Trojans were at Galen Center watching the show and felt good about their chances, but they weren't a lock. So they waited. One bracket filled up. No USC. Then another. The tension...
The NCAA tournament's annual drama has become so all-encompassing that it is colloquially known as March Madness. That sometimes obscures the fact that the action leading up to the tournament can be even better. Hours before the selections will be announced Sunday, a wild conference tournament...
Elijah Stewart thumbed his phone inside a quiet USC locker room Thursday night, then looked up. “Someone just texted me right now,” Stewart said, then read: “‘Some nights, some people can hit a moving basket.' ” He shook his head. USC's much-improved Pac-12 Conference season had ended moments before...
They didn't slink off, they stalked off, away from a Pac-12 tournament that didn't knock them out, into an NCAA tournament where they will come out punching. The USC pep band was blaring, the fingers on their hearty collection of fans were wagging, but the losing Trojans basketball team felt none...
Those wonderful March cliches often associated with UCLA basketball quickly disappeared Wednesday, stolen by their neighbors, dangled above their despair. No dancing here, only stumbling and staggering and finishing flat on a casino floor. No madness, only moping and meandering and missed layup...
Officially, the game, UCLA's season and probably USC's stint in NCAA tournament purgatory, ended at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday. Effectively, it was over before halftime, in USC's 95-71 victory in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament. If ever one sequence captured two widely divergent seasons,...
There was something new about the USC football team's first spring practice on campus Tuesday, and it didn't have anything to do with the changes on the coaching staff. For the first time in three years, there is competition to become the starter at quarterback. Fourth-year junior Max Browne, Cody...
College basketball tonight USC vs. UCLA When: 6 p.m. Wednesday. Where: MGM Garden Arena, Las Vegas. On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks; Radio: 570, 710. Update: A year ago, these teams met in a Pac-12 tournament quarterfinal. The situation was similar — only in reverse. UCLA couldn't afford a loss,...
The last time USC defeated UCLA three times in a season, it was big news. Sports Illustrated may have even made it a cover story, had the magazine existed. The year was 1954. That is why, when asked about the basketball adage that it is difficult to beat a team for a third time, USC guard Julian...
The Pac-12 Networks is in its fourth year, which network President Lydia Murphy-Stephans says makes it "a toddler now." Network officials hope that means maturation. For college basketball fans, it means changes to how some people will watch the Pac-12 tournament beginning Wednesday. As always,...
The date has been circled on calendars for almost two years. On Sept. 3 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, USC will open the season against defending national champion Alabama. The Trojans best be prepared. Coming off yet another year of turmoil, USC will begin working toward the coming season...
UCLA's Christoph Bono hit a bases-loaded chopper behind the Dodger Stadium mound in the 14th inning and the ball slid under USC shortstop Reggie Southall's glove, allowing two runs to score, giving the Bruins a 5-3 victory in the finale of the Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic. "It's an outstanding...
The lights went out on USC on Saturday. The Trojans were teetering on a blowout. Ninth-ranked Oregon led big in the first half, and the Ducks were hot. Then, without warning, the Galen Center lights cut out. The arena went dark. The delay lasted 22 minutes. There is a metaphor there, somewhere....
Monique Billings had 18 points and eight rebounds, and No. 12 UCLA raced past Arizona for a 72-51 victory in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals Friday in Seattle. The Bruins (23-7) used a big first half to take a 21-point halftime lead and cruised into the semifinals. They will face California...
An NCAA tournament at-large bid is no longer on the table for the UCLA basketball team. Neither is movement in the Pac-12 Conference standings. UCLA will finish the regular season in 10th place. UCLA's game Saturday against Oregon State matters little for the Bruins, except in one way: to avoid...
USC VS. NO. 9 OREGON When: 1 p.m. Where: Galen Center. On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks; Radio: 710. Update: USC (20-10, 9-8 in Pac-12 play) has faced one top-10 team this season. In January, Arizona was highly ranked when the Trojans defeated the Wildcats in four overtimes. Another quality win...
USC starts spring practice on Tuesday. Safeties Coach: Ronnie Bradford Key returners: Senior Leon McQuay III, fourth-year junior Chris Hawkins, junior John Plattenburg and sophomore Marvell Tell III Returners: Redshirt freshman Ykili Ross Joining in the fall: Freshmen Jamel Cook and Keyshawn Young...
Courtney Jaco scored 19 points and Temi Fagbenie added 18 as eighth-seeded USC rallied through a tense finish Thursday to defeat No. 9 Washington State, 77-73, in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference women's basketball tournament at Key Arena. The win advances the Trojans (19-12) to a quarterfinal...
USC starts spring practice on Tuesday. Cornerbacks Coach: Ronnie Bradford Key departure: Kevon Seymour Key returners: Junior Adoree’ Jackson, sophomore Iman Marshall Returners: Junior Jonathan Lockett and sophomore Isaiah Langley Newcomer: Freshman C.J. Pollard Joining in the fall: Freshman Jack...
USC's first shot against Oregon State on Wednesday was an open three-pointer by Bennie Boatwright, and it did not go in. This was not surprising. The Trojans entered the game having lost four of five games, swerving their season from pleasant surprise to the NCAA tournament bubble. Their offense...
USC is scheduled to begin spring practice on Tuesday. Coach: Kenechi Udeze. Key departures: Antwaun Woods, Delvon Simmons, Claude Pelon, Greg Townsend Jr. and Cody Temple. Returners: Fifth-year senior Jordan Simmons, fourth-year junior Kenny Bigelow, third-year sophomore Malik Dorton, sophomores...
The messy dispute between Steve Sarkisian and USC dropped out of public view with a few lines on a Los Angeles Superior Court docket. For almost three months, filings in the former football coach's lawsuit against the school over his firing hinted at the legal brawl to come. Sarkisian claimed USC...
Last season, the UCLA women's basketball team limped out of the Pac-12 Conference tournament with a losing record, hoping to salvage what it could from the NIT. Before the Bruins' first NIT game, Coach Cori Close invited a speaker to address the team: Ed Schilling, an assistant coach for the UCLA's...
Jamal McCoy has 965,437 songs in his collection and a track or sound effect cued up for nearly every occasion. Sometimes, that gets him in trouble. In 2013, McCoy, who goes by "DJ Mal-Ski," was the in-game DJ for the Cal State Northridge women's basketball team. A game against USC was coming down...
USC tonight USC VS. OREGON STATE When: 8 p.m. Where: Galen Center. On the air: TV: FS1; Radio: 690. Update: USC (19-10, 8-8 Pac-12 Conference) has won only two of seven games without its backup forward, Darion Clark, who separated his shoulder nearly a month ago. Clark averages less than 12 minutes...
USC forward Darion Clark returned to practice on Monday. Clark had missed seven games after suffering a separated shoulder. USC Coach Andy Enfield said Clark is day to day. “We’ll see how he goes,” Enfield said. “If he can play, he will. If not, he won’t.” Clark said that he is “ready to go.” Clark...
USC announced Monday that spring practice will begin on March 8 and will conclude April 16 with a game at the Coliseum. The Trojans finished 8-6 in 2015. They were 3-2 before coach Steve Sarkisian was fired, and finished 5-4 under Clay Helton, who was named the permanent coach before a loss to...