USC basketball is filling out its schedule for the coming season. The men and the women are both playing neutral-site games in Palm Desert, California, during Thanksgiving week. The men play Thursday and Friday, Nov. 28 and 29. The women play Wednesday and Friday, Nov. 27 and 29. It is notable that USC is playing neutral-site games that are not very far from the school’s campus. This point came up when USC coaches addressed the media after these neutral-site games were announced. The move to the Big Ten is shaping how USC coaches craft their nonconference schedules.
USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb acknowledged as much in this story from Shad Powers of the Palm Springs Desert Sun:
“We knew with the move to the Big Ten we wanted to be very strategic about when we travel and how we travel in the non-conference, so the chance to play in such a great event and not too far away, but still create a holiday atmosphere at a big-time tournament was great for us,” said Lindsay Gottlieb, head coach of a USC women’s basketball that is all but certain to be a top-5 team next year anchored by superstar JuJu Watkins. “There are so many positive things about it, that we knew we wanted to take part, and to go to a tournament where our men are going to be as well is great, too.”
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