No. 13-seed USC Trojans likely reached the end of the road of their 2025-26 college basketball campaign on Wednesday, and they did so in a painful manner.
The Trojans are going home after suffering an 83-79 loss to the No. 12-seed Washington Huskies in the second round of the 2026 Big Ten Tournament.
Despite holding a 13-point lead in the second half, Eric Musselman's Trojans couldn't take care of that big cushion, as the Huskies completed a thrilling come-from-behind win.
The loss to the Huskies means that an autobid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament is out of the picture for the Trojans, whose chances of securing an at-large berth don’t look promising either.
Musselman knows that, as he's already seemingly looking forward to the next season rather than a potential NIT appearance.
“I can't wait to get to work for next year, starting tonight when I get back to the hotel,” the 61-year-old Musselman said after the game, via Ben Bolch of the California Post.
“I haven't had in-depth conversations with admin yet about [NIT], but I would assume we're not going to play, based on number of bodies and how we played the last 8 games.”
The banged-up USC basketball was indeed in bad form long before its debacle against Washington. The Trojans ended their NCAA campaign on an eight-game losing streak, the direct opposite of how they started the season, which was by winning all of their first eight assignments.
USC concludes its second season under Musselman with an 18-14 overall record and a 7-13 slate against Big Ten teams.
