USC releases nonconference slate for 2021-22 men’s basketball season

USC men’s basketball revealed its 2021-22 nonconference schedule Thursday, along with an approximate conference calendar.

The Trojans open their 2021-22 campaign with a home matchup against Cal State Northridge on Nov. 9. This will be the first opportunity for USC fans to watch incoming players such as junior guard Boogie Ellis, a Memphis transfer and 2020-21 AAC Co-Sixth Man of the Year.

Next, USC is set to head east for a two-game road trip consisting of Temple on Nov. 13 and Florida Gulf Coast on Nov. 16. The latter matchup will be a homecoming for USC head coach Andy Enfield, who led the Eagles for two seasons, including a historic Sweet 16 run as a No. 15 seed in 2013.

The Trojans will travel back to Southern California for a four-game stretch that begins with a home game against Dixie State, which seeks to improve on an 8-13 record in its inaugural season in Division 1 basketball in 2020-21.

USC will then participate in the two-day Wooden Legacy tournament in Anaheim; the Trojans are scheduled to play Saint Joseph’s on Nov. 25 before a matchup against either Georgetown or San Diego State the next day. That second game will likely be USC’s first major test of the season, regardless of who it faces. Both the Hoyas and the Aztecs made the NCAA Tournament in the spring, though neither advanced past the first round.

Soon after, the Trojans will face their first conference opponent of the year on Dec. 1 when they host Utah, a team that took down USC in the 2021 regular season and nearly did so again in a double-overtime Pac-12 Tournament thriller. USC then faces another Pac-12 foe — Washington State — up in Pullman on Dec. 4.

The Trojans will return home again for three more nonconference contests against Eastern Kentucky (Dec. 7), Long Beach State (Dec. 12) and UC Irvine (Dec. 15). None of these matchups should especially scare Enfield and his team, even with the loss of star big man Evan Mobley to the NBA.

USC wraps up its nonconference slate with a pair of intriguing matchups, the first being a neutral-site clash with Georgia Tech on Dec. 18 in the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Phoenix. Georgia Tech was another NCAA Tournament team last season, as Yellow Jackets head coach Josh Pastner has done a fantastic job in rebuilding the program. On Dec. 21, the Trojans will partake in the Compete 4 Cause Classic in Oklahoma City, where they will face an Oklahoma State team that is in a similar position to USC after guard Cade Cunningham became the first overall pick in last month’s NBA Draft.

Out of its 13 non-conference games, USC should be able to win at least 10, as none of its non-power conference opponents are particularly impressive. The Trojans’ contests with three 2021 NCAA Tournament teams — Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State and Georgetown/San Diego State — will give us a better idea of this team’s potential to make another NCAA Tournament run.

As for its conference calendar, USC will only face Washington and Colorado once; the latter defeated the Trojans in all three of their contests last season, including in the Pac-12 Tournament final.

Other notable conference matchups will be against UCLA, a projected top-five team in the nation next season, as well as Oregon, which narrowly edged out USC for the Pac-12 regular season title earlier this year. Watch out for the Trojans’ season finale in the first week of March against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion — USC has defeated its rival in their second matchup via a late three each of the last two seasons.