It’s March.
In the world of basketball, this means anything can happen. This hit close to home for USC students last weekend.
USC women’s basketball gave students the unique experience of watching their team play two March Madness games on their home court.
“The opportunity to attend the games because we are a 1 seed and were able to host is kind of unparalleled,” said Adam Jasper, who graduated from USC last winter.
Yet, just two years ago, USC’s record was below .500.
Lindsay Gottlieb took over as head coach to start the 2021-22 season and finished with a 12-16 record. Her squad improved to 21-10 and a NCAA Tournament appearance the following season. This year, the Trojans finished 28-5, won the Pac-12 Tournament and earned a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1986.
“It just shows you how they have come as individuals with their abilities to work together,” Kassandra Colón, a junior at USC studying theater, said.
Every top-four seed plays its first-round matchup at its home arena, and if they win, they will also play at home during their second-round game.
USC defeated its first opponent, 16th-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 87-55 on Saturday at Galen Center. Over 8,000 students and other fans began flocking in one hour before tipoff.
In its second-round matchup, USC beat eighth-seeded Kansas 73-55 on Monday, with 8,941 fans in attendance. Fans were even more eager for this game than Saturday’s.
“I have not waited in a line that long since the USC UCLA men’s basketball game in 2022 two years ago,” Jasper said.
The fans made the home court a huge advantage.
“I sat down in my seat, and the game tipped off,” Jasper said. “We got back on defense and the defense chant throughout Galen was louder than any other chant I’ve heard at Galen.”
Single-game tickets were $20 for the general public, and three-game tickets were just over $30. Some students got free tickets to both of the Trojans’ matchups through a lottery system.
“The cheap prices made a huge impact because everyone showed up,” Jack Barrera, a freshman studying applied math, said. “You could tell everyone really wanted to be there, and students were so excited.”
For many, these two games were a memorable experience.
“Those were my first two NCAA March Madness games in my life,” Jasper said. “The opportunity to go to that and see your own team in a position where you think they’re going to make a big run, no one was going to pass that up.”