USC enters Thursday night’s game against UCLA at the Galen Center in a bit of a role reversal: The Trojans are loose, confident and seven-point favorites.
At the midway of the Pacific-12 Conference season, USC (17-5, 6-3) is a game out of first place. With a victory over UCLA, the Trojans could sweep the series with their crosstown rivals for the first time since 2010.
“It would feel really good (to sweep UCLA), but we’re aiming for more than that,” freshman forward Chimezie Metu said. “We want to win the league.
“I feel like we dropped a couple games we should have won.