USC used a strong finish to the conference season to storm its way to second place in the PAC-12. While they’ve had trouble with some of the other schools at the top of the conference (especially UCLA) they’ve been able to handle the rest of the teams pretty well.
USC is hoping a strong performance in the tournament will give them an argument for a higher seed in the NCAA tournament, as a poor start to the season and a weak overall PAC-12 has left them penciled in for 10th or lower seed in many projected brackets.
While losing star forward Bennie Boatwright earlier in the season hasn’t slowed the Trojans down yet, they still need to prove they can compete against stronger teams without him.