Wait a minute: USC basketball has at least 16 games left in its 2023 season. The Trojans have 15 regular-season games left, followed by their first game in the Pac-12 Tournament. It’s way too early to call any game a must-win, right?
Wrong.
The Trojans have just lost to Washington State and UCLA. They’re 11-5 with a good win over Auburn and a decent win over Vermont on their resume. However, their win over Colorado State is not going to provide value. The Rams have been bad since losing to the Trojans in late December. CSU lost at home to Air Force on Tuesday night, falling to the bottom tier of the Mountain West standings. Not getting value from that Colorado State game puts the squeeze on USC, which will need at least one win over Arizona or UCLA at some point, and has to hold serve against mid-tier Pac-12 teams.
Teams such as Colorado, which visits the Galen Center on Thursday night.
USC might lose an occasional road game against a team which is lower than the Trojans in the standings — such as Washington State on Jan. 1 — but the Men of Troy can’t drop home games against lower-level Pac-12 teams. The Trojans are outside the cut line for the NCAA Tournament. They have very little margin for error.
Yes, this Colorado game is a must-win. It’s on Pac-12 Network at 6 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday.
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