USC Basketball: Irvine's Surprise Win Over Trojans Was 2 Years In The Making

Let's hope UCI has gotten this out of its system!

Your USC Trojans had plenty of excuses at their disposal when they fell 70-60 to UC Irvine last week.

They were missing some key upperclassman starters in Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson, plus four-star freshman Bronny James of course.

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They were young, playing against a veteran-laden Anteaters squad boasting experienced senior guards.

USC schedulers may have unfairly weighed the actual on-court acumen of the Irvine team.

But most importantly, as Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times writes, this was a game that meant a whole lot more to the opposition than it did to the Trojans, who have since recovered by beating Brown, 81-70, on Sunday night.

In 2021, UCI lost a nail-biter against the Trojans, a moment that has haunted a lot of the club's upperclassmen ever since.

“We played well enough in that game two years ago to win, but we didn’t rebound well enough,” Irvine coach Russell Turner said. “I felt like the fight, the effort and physicality that we showed against a bigger, more athletic team was winning stuff.”

At 3-1, USC seems to have more or less moved on. But it needs to avoid getting too comfortable against inferior competition playing with something to prove.

Long Beach State, boasting a couple future Power Five Conference candidates on its roster, looks like the next sneaky-good club on the Trojans' schedule. That game is set for December 10th. Here's hoping health, and prep, is on USC's side next time.

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