It has certainly been an up-and-down season for USC men’s basketball. After three straight victories early in the month of February, the Trojans have now lost consecutive games, including an embarrassing home loss to Illinois Wednesday night.
So where does USC currently sit with regard to the NCAA Tournament bubble? In the latest edition of ESPN’s NCAA Tournament “bubble watch”, Neil Paine discussed the postseason chances Trojans’ chances.
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“A recent three-game win streak had helped pad USC’s bubble case, but losses to Ohio State and Illinois — the latter coming by 36 points at home on Wednesday — have sliced the Trojans’ at-large chances to around 50%,” Paine wrote. “If the season ended today, they might still secure one of the Big Ten’s last entries with the eighth-best résumé ranking in what’s tracking to be a 10-bid conference. But the models are less bullish, because USC is outside the top 50 of the predictive ratings, with a trio of Quadrant 1 games remaining. Those contests also offer opportunity, however, for a team that could use more résumé wins.”
Right now, it feels as though USC’s NCAA Tournament fate is still very much up in the air. The Trojans have five games left in the regular season—including two rivalry matchups with fellow bubble team UCLA—as well as the Big Ten Tournament to prove that they indeed belong in the field.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC men’s basketball is currently an NCAA Tournament bubble team
