USC men’s basketball announced its 11-game non-conference schedule on Monday ahead of its first season in the Big Ten Conference under new head coach Eric Musselman.
USC opens the season with six straight home games. The Trojans’ first game will be against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on November 4. The Trojans then play Idaho State on November 7 followed by a date with the University of Texas at Arlington on November 13.
USC’s next home game is with former Pac-12 opponent Cal on November 17, as part of a recently announced home-and-home series between the two schools. Following the Pac-12′s collapse last year, the Golden Bears found a new home in the ACC along with Stanford.
The Golden Bears will come to Los Angeles this season before the Trojans make the return trip up to Berkeley during the 2025-26 season. Last year, the Trojans beat the Bears at Galen Center 82-74 in January before losing the rematch 83-77 in overtime at Haas Pavilion a month later.
Following the matchup with Cal, USC will host San José State on November 20 and Grambling on November 24 to close out the homestand. The Trojans then take part in the Acrisure Classic in Palm Desert over Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. USC will play WCC power Saint Mary’s on November 28 and, depending on the results of that game and the game between New Mexico and former Pac-12 member Arizona State (now in the Big 12), the Trojans will take on either the Lobos or the Sun Devils the next day.
The Trojans’ final three non-conference matchups will be in Los Angeles on their home court. USC will host Montana State, Cal State Northridge and Southern — USC’s final non-conference opponent — between mid and late December.
With USC now in the Big Ten and having to play its road conference games further away from home, it appears the Trojans opted to not play any non-conference games outside of California, with nine of those games being home games. In addition, USC faces three and possibly four teams that won their conference tournaments last year (Grambling, Saint Mary’s, Montana State and possibly New Mexico). This makes for a tough, yet manageable schedule for the Trojans to start their campaign, especially with teams like Saint Mary’s and New Mexico, who both made the NCAA Tournament from competitive basketball conferences in the WCC and Mountain West respectively.
While USC knows which Big Ten opponents it will play and where, the conference has still yet to announce the dates for the Trojans’ first 20 conference games as a Big Ten member.
Last season, USC went 15-18 to finish tied for ninth in the Pac-12 conference standings with a 8-12 conference mark, despite starting the season ranked No. 21 in the preseason Associated Press poll. The Trojans advanced to the second round of the Pac-12 tournament before falling to Arizona to end the season.
After the season ended, former head coach Andy Enfield left for SMU, prompting athletic director Jen Cohen to hire Musselman away from Arkansas. This ultimately triggered most of the roster to depart the team, causing Musselman to bring in 16 new players. Senior forward Harrison Hornery and senior walk-on guard JD Plough were the only two players not to graduate, transfer or declare for the NBA Draft after the 2023-24 campaign ended.
With a new-look roster under a brand new coaching staff, USC will debut as Big Ten members when it plays host to UT Chattanooga on November 4.