No. 10 Seed USC Men's Basketball Opens Against No. 7 Seed Michigan State In NCAA East Region Friday

The No. 10 seed USC Trojans (22-10, 14-6) will face the No. 7 seed Michigan State Spartans (19-12, 11-8) in a first-round game of the 2023 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on March 17 at 9:15 a.m. (PT). The game will air on CBS with Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas calling the action, and Jamie Erdahl providing sideline reports. USC finished tied for second in the Pac-12 regular season, the only conference team to finish in the top 3 of the standings in each of the last 4 seasons.

USC'S STELLAR STRETCH -- USC has won a school-record 95 games over the last four seasons (22 in 2020, 25 in 2021, 26 in 2022 and 22 in 2023). The four consecutive seasons of 20+ wins sets a school record for most consecutive 20-win seasons, breaking the mark of three consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins from 2016-18.

WINNING WAYS -- USC's 95 total wins the last four seasons are sixth-most among all Power 6 basketball programs, trailing only the last two NCAA champions Kansas (110) and Baylor (103), as well as Pac-12 Conference foes Arizona (99) and UCLA (97) and Duke (96). Also, USC's 182 wins the last eight seasons ranks 13th among all Power 6 conference teams.

ENFIELD WINS 200TH AS HEAD OF THE USC PROGRAM -- USC head coach Andy Enfield is in his 10th season at USC and has compiled an 205-128 record. He picked up his 200th win on Feb. 4 vs. Washington. Enfield's win total ranks fourth on USC's all-time wins list, trailing only Sam Barry (260), Forrest Twogood (251) and Bob Boyd (216). Including his two seasons as the head coach at FGCU (2012-13), Enfield has compiled a 246-156 record.

USC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT -- USC is in its 21st NCAA Tournament and fifth under Andy Enfield, the most in school history. USC owns a 17-21* record in the NCAA Tournament (1 loss vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 17-22). USC is 5-4 under Andy Enfield in the NCAA Tournament, losing its first-round game to Miami as a No. 7 seed in 2022 after reaching the Elite Eight as a No. 6 seed in 2021.

FACING MICHIGAN STATE -- The No. 7 seed Michigan State Spartan (19-2, 11-8) finished fourth in the Big Ten and lost in the conference tournament quarterfinal, 68-58, to Ohio State on March 10. Second-team All-Big Ten senior guard Tyson Walker leads Michigan State in scoring with a 14.6 per game average. Graduate student forward Joey Hauser (14.2) and junior guard A.J. Hoggard (12.5) were named Big Ten honorable mention. USC is 3-3 all-time against Michigan State, losing the last meeting 74-69 on March 22, 2009 in the second-round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament held in Minneapolis, Minn. In that game, No. 10 seed USC and No. 2 seed Michigan State battled down to the wire in a game which featured 16 ties and 14 lead changes. Dwight Lewis scored 19 and DeMar DeRozan 18 for USC, but Taj Gibson was in foul trouble all game and finished with 3 points before fouling out. Travis Walton scored a career-high 18 points to lead MSU.

MARQUETTE/VERMONT WINNER ON DECK -- The No. 2 seed Marquette (28-6) will face No. 15 seed Vermont (23-10) on March 17 with the winner of that game facing the winner of the USC/Michigan State game on March 19. USC is 0-2 all-time against Marquette and 2-0 all-time against Vermont, including a 59-57 win on Nov. 15 this season at the Galen Center.

IT STARTS WITH DEFENSE -- USC held California to 27.7 shooting on Nov. 30, the lowest by an opponent since holding Stanford to a 25.4 shooting percentage on March 3, 2021. USC allowed Oregon to make 53.8 percent of its shots on Feb. 9 and then Arizona an opponent high of 54.2 percent on March 2, the only two games this season allowing the opposition to shoot 50 percent or higher from the floor. USC has held its opponent to under 40 percent shooting in 19 of its 32 games this season. USC is holding its opponents to a 39.0 shooting percentage this season, 7th in the country. Over the last four seasons, USC's defense has held the opposition to 38.9 FG percentage, second in the country.

PETERSON PROVIDING A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING -- Guard Drew Peterson is one of two players in a Power 6 conference (Jalen Pickett of Penn State) averaging at least 13.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game this season. Peterson is averaging 14.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. He scored a career-high 30 points vs. Cal on Feb. 16 and has 24 games scoring in double figures. He also averages more than a steal a game. Peterson battled back spasms the last three games and was held to a combined 23 points.

WHEN FULLY LOADED... -- USC owns an 8-2 record in games this season it has all of its rotational players available. Included in that stretch is five wins over teams in the top seven in the Pac-12 standings. USC's two loss when the entire rotation of players was available have been to No. 8 Arizona. Forward Vincent Iwuchukwu missed USC's first 16 games this season plus the last two (back) and forward guard Joshua Morgan (right ankle) and Reese Dixon-Waters (left foot) missed 4 games between Feb. 4-16. Both players were injured vs. WSU State on Feb. 2.

USC PAC-12 HONORS -- The Pac-12 announced its yearly honors on March 7 and the following Trojans earned recognition:

Pac-12 FIrst Team: Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson
6th Player of the Year: Reese Dixon-Waters
All-Defensive Team: Kobe Johnson and Joshua Morgan
All-Freshman Team: Tre White

BOOGIE DOWN, BUT NOT FOR LONG - Senior guard Boogie Ellis scored 9 points at Oregon State on Feb. 11, snapping a 14-game streak of scoring in double figures. He then followed up that game with 22 points vs. California on Feb. 16, a then career high 33 points vs. Stanford on Feb. 18 and a new career high of 35 vs. Arizona on March 2. He has averaged 20.1 points the last 21 games (422 total), including scoring a then-career-high 31 points vs. UCLA on Jan. 26. He began his streak by scoring a then career-best 28 points vs. Auburn on Dec. 18. Ellis leads USC with a 18.0 scoring average and leads the team with 83 three-pointers made (Pac-12 leader) and 120 free throws made. He is also second among Trojans with 45 steals. He now has 139 3-pointers made as a Trojan, 15th on USC's all-time list.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY AND USC HOOPS -- USC has a 4-3 record all-time in games played on St. Patrick's Day, the last time being a 66-65 win vs. SMU in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. USC's other wins on St. Patrick's Day were 74-71 vs. Boston College in 2001 (NCAA), 90-74 vs. UNLV in 1993 (NIT) and a 76-73 overtime win vs. Bradley in 1974 (Commissioner's Conference Tournament). USC's losses on St. Patrick's Day were 70-69 vs. Providence in 2016 (NCAA), 69-65 vs. Notre Dame in 1973 (NIT) and 86-71 vs. Arizona State in 1961 (NCAA). The game against Notre Dame is notable as it was played at Madison Square Garden in NYC, the Irish wore shamrocks on their uniforms and were awarded 33 more free throws. USC's head coach Bob Boyd was quoted as saying, "I want to thank the tournament committee for pairing us with Notre Dame on St. Patrick's Day!" One of the officials for the game was Tom Casey. Five of USC's St. Patrick's Day games have been decided by 4 points or less.

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Players Mentioned

Reese Dixon-Waters

Boogie Ellis

Vincent Iwuchukwu

Kobe Johnson

Joshua Morgan

Drew Peterson

Tre White