USC will play Wichita St. or Drake in opening round of NCAA Tournament

After a four-year absence, the USC Trojans are finally going back to the dance. The Trojans are the No. 6 seed in the West Region and will play their first-round game on Saturday.

USC will have to wait until Thursday to find out who its opponent is. The Trojans will face the winner of Thursday’s First Four matchup between Wichita State and Drake.

With the pandemic still going on, all of this year’s NCAA Tournament games will be played in Indiana, so there will be no advantage to playing in the West Region. If USC wins its opener, it will take on the winner of Kansas and Eastern Washington for the right to advance to the Sweet 16.

Led by presumptive top-five pick in this year’s NBA Draft Evan Mobley, the Trojans went 22-7 on the season. They went 16-6 in conference play and finished second in the Pac-12 by beating crosstown rival UCLA on the regular season’s final weekend.

In the first round of the Pac-12 tournament, USC beat Utah before losing a 72-70 heartbreaker to Colorado in the semi-finals.

Head coach Andy Enfield has to be happy with how his team performed this season. He was facing pressure to deliver after his squad missed out on the tournament in 2018 and 2019. There was no March Madness event last season due to COVID-19.

What are your expectations for the Trojans in this year’s NCAA Tournament?