The USC Trojans finally had a bad day and a bad loss. They hadn’t endured a truly bad loss at any prior point in their season, which is why their NCAA Tournament outlook is still noticeably better than the USC men’s basketball team.
USC is still very likely to make the NCAA Tournament. If the Trojans do grab a win against Washington on Thursday or against Washington State on Saturday — either one will do — the team should make the Big Dance. Two wins will make USC a lock.
Yet, what happens if USC does lose twice this week? A measure of uncertainty has been thrown into the equation.
We look at what went wrong against Cal and how USC can address those deficiencies in short- and long-term contexts. We also take some time to appreciate how well USC played defense on Friday against Stanford, the first-place team in the Pac-12 and a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Ian Hest produced the show.
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