University Southern California Trojans
USC To Host Rival UCLA Thursday At Galen
February 01, 2016 | Men's Basketball
The USC Trojans (17-5, 6-3) will host the UCLA Bruins (13-9, 4-5) at the Galen Center on Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. The game will air on the Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Los Angeles with Ted Robinson and Don MacLean calling the action, and Yogi Roth providing sideline commentary. USC's 17-5 start is its best since beginning the 1991-92 season with an 18-4 record. That team began its season 21-4. Former Trojan great Gus Williams will have his No. 10 uniform retired during a halftime ceremony. Tickets are still available for the game. To purchase tickets, click here: Order tickets
BREAKING DOWN THE BRUINS - UCLA is coming off an 83-50 home win against Washington State on Jan. 30. USC defeated UCLA 89-75 at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 13. USC trails in the all-time series 105-138 which reflects one win vacated by the Trojans in 2008. USC is seeking its first regular season series sweep over the Bruins since 2010. Junior guard Bryce Alford leads UCLA in scoring with a 17.0 average and five Bruins average double figures in scoring.
TROJANS HOLD OF HUSKIES -- USC raced out to an 11-point halftime lead and went on to defeat Washington 98-88 on Jan. 30 at the Galen Center. After having lost a 22-point lead at Washington on Jan. 3, the Trojans were determined to hold-back a Washington rally and were able to accomplish that by shooting 65.2 percent in the second half. Nikola Jovanovic led USC with a season-best 28 points and Jordan McLaughlin added 21 with seven rebounds and five assists.
ASU ON DECK -- USC's next game will be at Arizona State (12-10, 2-7) on Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. PT in Tempe, Ariz. The Sun Devils are coming off a 91-74 home loss to Oregon on Jan. 31. USC defeated ASU 75-65 on Jan. 7 at the Galen Center. USC leads the all-time series 52-38 which reflects two wins vacated by USC from the 2008 season. USC is 1-7 in its last eight trips to Wells Fargo Arena and ASU is 9-4 at home this season. ASU is led in scoring by sophomore Tra Holder (15.4 ppg).
SC STANDS FOR SLAM CITY - USC has registered 83 dunks in the first 22 games, compared to its opponents' 41. Chimezie Metu, who leads USC with 36 dunks, had four vs. Washington State and has at least one in 12 of the last 14 games. Julian Jacobs, who led USC in dunks last season with 19, is second on the team with 22.
USC TO RETIRE WILLIAMS' NO. 10 JERSEY -- USC will retire the No. 10 jersey of Gus Williams tonight. Williams was a three-year letterman (1973-75), earned All-America first team, All-Pac-8 first team and USC MVP honors in 1975 when he led the conference in scoring (21.2 ppg). He finished his career with 1,308 points, 15th on USC's all-time list. In 1974 he averaged a team-best 15.5 points and led USC to a 24-5 record. He then played in the NBA for 11 seasons, averaging 17.1 points with Golden State, Seattle (where he won an NBA title in 1979), Washington and Atlanta. He twice was named an NBA All-Star. He was inducted into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor in 2009.
TURNAROUND TOWN -- According to research by J.D. Hamilton of the NCAA, USC's 10.0 game improvement from last season (12-20 to 17-5) is tied for the fifth-best in the country and tops among teams in the Power 5 conferences. Through games of Jan. 30, her are the teams with the biggest improvements:
IT TAKES A TEAM -- USC has six players averaging 10.8 or more points and eight players have averaged 3.1 rebounds or more in the first 22 games. Seven different Trojans have scored at least 19 points in a game this season. USC has four players with at least 39 three-point baskets this season. Last season, USC had only three players all season make 16 or more three-pointers. USC had five players score in double figures vs. Monmouth on Nov. 16, the first time it had accomplished the feat since 2013 and has had five or more reach double figures in eight games this season. USC had six players score 10 or more points vs. Cal Poly on Dec. 17, the first time accomplishing that feat since Dec. 28, 2004 vs. Southern.
Team 2015-16 2014-15 Improvement Tennessee St. 15-6 5-26 15.0 Southern Illinois 18-5 12-21 11.0 Ark-Little Rock 19-2 13-18 11.0 Ball State 13-8 7-23 10.5 USC 17-5 12-20 10.0 Col. of Charleston 13-8 9-24 10.0 Fairfield 12-9 7-24 10.0 Saint Joseph's 18-3 13-18 10.0
THREE AT LAST, THREE AT LAST... - USC has made 182 three-point baskets this season, tops among Pac-12 teams through games of Jan. 30. USC has finished 11th or 12th among Pac-12 teams in three-pointers made the last four seasons. USC has made six or more three-pointers in 18 of the 21 games and six times has netted 12 or more, with a season-best 13 makes vs. CSUN on Nov. 23 and vs. Lafayette on Dec. 23. On the year, USC is averaging 38.7 percent from beyond the arc (27th in the country), while its opponents are shooting 30.5 percent from long-range. Last season USC made a total of 170 three-pointers for an average of 5.3 makes per game.
HOT START AT HOME -- USC is currently 13-0 at home this season, its most consecutive home wins to start a season since it went a perfect 13-0 at home in 1943. USC won its last home game of the 2014-15 season so it has won 14 straight games at home. The last time USC won 14 straight games was from the end of the 1992 season (9) to the beginning of the 1993 season (5) which is tied for the second longest home winning streak in school history along with 14 in 1942 (1) and 1943 (13). USC's longest home winning streak was 20 games from 1939-41 ( 6 at the end of the 1939 season, all 10 games during the 1940 seaon and the first 4 of the 1941 season).
STEWART ZEROED IN FROM BEYOND THE ARC - Sophomore guard Elijah Stewart has averaged 13.3 points (133 total) in USC's last 10 games, twice matching his career high of 27 points. He has made 47.7 percent of his shots in the 10 games (42-for-88), including making 54.2 percent of this three-point attempts (26-for-48). In the nine Pac-12 games, he is shooting 51.3 percent from beyond the arc (20-for-39), tied for third among Pac-12 players.
FOUR FROM DEEP ON THE FLOOR - Elijah Stewart (42), Bennie Boatwright (40), Katin Reinhardt (40) and Jordan McLaughlin (39) all rank in the top 15 among Pac-12 players in three-point baskets made. No other conference team has more that two players in the top 15. USC has four players with 30 or more makes for the first time since the 2001-02 season (Brandon Granville-56, David Bluthenthal-62, Errick Craven-34 and Desmon Farmer-35). That was the only time the Trojans had four players with 34 or more made shots from beyond the arc since the three-point shot went into effect beginning with the 1986-87 season.
EN GUARDE! -- USC's four primary guards Julian Jacobs, Jordan McLaughlin, Katin Reinhardt and Elijah Stewart have combined to average 46.5 points (1022 total), 15.3 rebounds (336 total) and 12.7 assists (280 total) per game. Despite going 29-for-72 (40.3 percent) on the trip to Oregon, they are shooting 44.8 percent (355-for-792) from the floor, 39.8 percent from three-point range (130-for-327).
J-MAC ON THE ATTACK - Sophomore guard Jordan McLaughlin, a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection a year ago despite missing the final eight games due to injury, has come back from labral repair surgery to both shoulders to average 12.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists in his first 22 games. He also has 32 steals and a 39 three-point baskets. McLaughlin broke his nose late in the first half against Xavier on Nov. 27, sat out the rest of that game and played wearing a mask since Nov. 29 vs. Monmouth until playing "unmasked" vs. SIUE on Dec. 21. Excluding the game vs. Xavier when he broke his nose and didn't play in the second half, in the 16 games he has played this season without wearing a mask he has averaged 15.1 points (242 total) and in the five games with a mask on, 7.2 points. He scored 6 points in the first half against Xavier.
REINHARDT SCORES 1,OOOTH CAREER POINT - When USC guard Katin Reinhardt scored 18 points vs. WSU on Jan. 28 he surpassed the 1,000 career points scored mark. He now has tallied 1,018 career points (355 coming as a freshman at UNLV in 2013 and 663 in two seasons at USC). He also has made 101 three-pointers in his two years at USC which 18th on the Trojans' all-time three-point baskets list.
IT STARTS WITH DEFENSE - USC held Washington to 36.4 percent shooting on Jan. 30. It was the ninth time in 22 games this season that USC's opponent shot under 40 percent in a game. For the season, USC is making 46.2 percent of its shots, while its opponents are hitting 40.0 percent. The 40.0 shooting percentage by its opponents ranks 43rd best in the country through games of Jan. 30. Arizona shot an opponent season best of 49.4 percent on Jan. 9, but USC has held 15 of 22 opponents to 42.6 percent shooting or less this season.
