No one was expecting Keshad Johnson to transfer to USC on Saturday. The forward from San Diego State, who helped the Aztecs reach the 2023 NCAA Final Four and the national championship game, was a USC target, but when Washington State’s D.J. Rodman hit the portal and then transferred to USC, it was clear the Trojans had the forward they needed to round out their roster. Though USC was listed as one of five finalists for Johnson, no one was seriously considering USC as a possibility after the Rodman news broke.
Four other schools were contenders for Keshad Johnson in the transfer portal. On Saturday, we learned that coach Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats won that battle. With UCLA viewed as the third-best team in the Pac-12 heading into the start of the 2023-2024 college basketball season, the news of Johnson going to Tucson is a blow for a USC team which hopes to beat the Wildcats for a conference championship. If USC can pull off the feat, it would be the Trojans’ first regular-season conference title in men’s college basketball since 1985.
Here’s more on the Keshad Johnson story: