USC Basketball: Seeding, Matchup Determined For Pac-12 Tournament Round 1
After upsetting No. 5 Arizona in their final regular season game of the year, USC men's basketball has sealed their seeding for the Pac-12 Tournament.
The Trojans will officially hold the No. 9 seed in the Pac-12 and will play No. 8 Washington in their first-round matchup on Wednesday, March 13. The winner of this game will take on Arizona, the highest-ranked team in the Pac-12.
The opening round of the tournament will also see No. 5 UCLA take on No. 12 Oregon State, No. 10 Stanford take on No. 7 Cal, and No. 11 Arizona State play No. 6 Utah. Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington State will each have a bye in the first round of the tournament.
The Trojans crawled out of the cellar of the Pac-12 to the ninth seed after winning four out of their last five and creating momentum to close out the regular season. Overall, USC finished the season with a 14-17 record and an 8-12 conference record.
Look for USC to have a shot at making some noise in the Pac-12 Tournament. Though this season as a whole was disappointing for the Trojans, they finally turned the corner when their top player, Isaiah Collier, returned from injury.
Now the Trojans come into this game on a three-game winning streak, which includes wins over Washington and the Pac-12's No. 1 seed Arizona. If USC continues to do what they've done over the past few weeks, they should undoubtedly get past at least the first round of the tournament, with a shot at advancing further.