After a breathless game for the better part of 40 minutes, USC men’s basketball will continue searching for its first marquee win of the season after losing to the Michigan Wolverines 85-74.
USC resumed conference play in the new-look Big Ten Saturday night after a 13-day holiday break from action as fellow “rebuilders” Michigan made its first-ever visit to Galen Center. Much like USC head coach Eric Musselman has done for the Trojans, first-year Wolverines coach Dusty May has revamped a Michigan roster that went 8-24 last season and finished last in the Big Ten. However, May has put his team on an accelerated timeline compared to the Trojans, with Michigan displaying moments of dominance Saturday night and looking ready to contend for a conference title.
But despite the final scoreline, USC battled until the final minutes and the team gave itself reasons to emerge encouraged after Saturday night’s game.
For one, going into the matchup, it appeared that USC’s relative lack of interior size would hurt the Trojans against the Wolverines in particular. Michigan’s two 7-footers, graduate center Vladislav Goldin and junior forward Danny Wolf, have played key roles under May, both averaging double figures in points per game.
Instead, USC flipped the script in the first half, scoring 14 points in the paint to Michigan’s six, while Michigan’s offense rained threes. In the game’s opening minutes, the Wolverines looked like they might run away with the game, shooting 5-for-5 from distance in the opening four minutes, jumping out to a 15-6 lead.
Yet, the Trojans trusted their plan on both sides of the floor and gradually chipped away at Michigan’s lead. While Wolf shot 2-for-2 from 3-point range in the first half, his impact inside the arc was limited, and Goldin found himself completely frustrated by USC’s coterie of athletic defenders, such as graduate guard Chibuzo Agbo, as the Russian big man scored just two first-half points.
USC escaped the first half down only 42-38 despite Michigan hitting 10 3-pointers to USC’s one, with redshirt freshman guard Wesley Yates III and junior guard Desmond Claude leading the offense with 12 and eight first-half points, respectively.
In the second half, however, the trend of Michigan scoring from range while USC kept to the inside proved unsustainable. The Wolverines’ early blitz from 3-point range gave them a buffer to start creating opportunities for Goldin and Wolf around the basket, which Michigan managed to do immediately out of the break.
In the opening four minutes of the second half, Michigan’s big men scored a combined six dunks and layups, establishing a 55-40 lead. Michigan had seemingly unlocked its offense and looked ready to jog towards a comfortable victory.
But one has to credit USC’s resilience, as the Trojans’ offense stayed aggressive, with Yates III and Claude continuing to attack the paint and put both Goldin and Wolf in foul trouble. Midway through the second half, May opted to bench Goldin after sophomore guard Kevin Patton Jr. forced the graduate’s fourth foul.
Patton Jr. put forth his best effort of the 2024-25 season as Musselman tightened his lineup against a superior opponent. The transfer from San Diego ended up playing more minutes off the bench (28) than graduate starting center Josh Cohen (21). Patton scored 14 points — comprising all of USC’s bench scoring — and gave the Trojans a more athletic and active defensive presence than Cohen, who led USC in assists with six, but was otherwise outmatched by Michigan’s larger and more versatile bigs. In his postgame press conference, Musselman noted that Cohen was minus-23 on the night.
But as the game came to a close, USC’s small-ball lineup just couldn’t hold back Michigan’s offense any longer.
“They started going to the foul line at an alarming rate,” Musselman said. “We had a couple guys out there with four fouls and we were trying to do everything we could not to foul.”
One of the players with four fouls was Claude, who failed to stay in the game much longer, and once he exited, USC’s night was over. The point guard walked off the floor with just over three minutes remaining, forcing Musselman to substitute Cohen back in, and Michigan executed down the stretch to seal a win.
USC will travel to Bloomington for a midweek game against the Indiana Hoosiers on Wednesday, looking to get back to .500 in conference play. After the game, Musselman expressed concern over USC’s early Big Ten record.
“We’re 0-2 at home and this is a league that dominates at home… you go play at Indiana, there’s going to be 20,000 people, 19,000, whatever Assembly Hall is,” Musselman said. “We’ve got an uphill battle in this league just based on home-court advantage, there’s zero doubt about that.”
But if Saturday night’s game was any preview of what’s to come for USC, Musselman’s team will give itself a fighting chance.