After scrambling to find an opponent, USC dominates UC Santa Cruz

The call came Monday morning, just six days before USC was slated to play its final nonconference contest. In light of the deadly shooting on Brown’s campus, its men’s basketball team wouldn’t make the trip west. If coach Eric Musselman hoped to test his Trojans again before the new year, he and his USC staff had less than 24 hours to find a replacement.

Which is how USC found itself facing UC Santa Cruz, a 6-6 Division III team with losses to Chapman, Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, on Sunday. USC had no trouble overwhelming the Banana Slugs in a 102-63 victory. But given the scrambling it took to schedule Santa Cruz, no one was complaining about the seamless victory heading into the Trojans’ winter break.

Musselman, who notched his 250th career win, initially hoped that USC could find a D-1 program to take Brown’s place. But rules limiting the amount of regular-season games a D-1 program can play narrowed that list considerably. It left USC’s coaches counting by hand to decide which teams would fit.

They first considered all the local schools, only to find that none would work. They looked into the teams facing local schools — and couldn’t find any there, either. They even looked at Hawaii’s schedule, since schools that face Hawaii receive an exemption to allow for an extra game.

Only “a select few” schools fit any of the criteria, one person inside the program told The Times. Those teams could make it work because they had faced a D-II or D-III team at some point during the season which didn’t count against its games limit. That also meant, in some cases, buying out their game contract with that school.

“There are some Division I schools, we couldn’t get them to say yes, I don’t know why,” Musselman said. “Because I thought it was a great opportunity for some Division I schools to, you know, get guaranteed money.”

That was hardly the only complicating factor. By playing a Division I team, Musselman said, USC also ran the risk of affecting his team’s strength of schedule come tournament time. Even a smaller margin of victory could mean paying the price.

So why not just cancel the game?

Awaiting USC after a brief holiday break are road trips to No. 2 Michigan and No. 6 Michigan State. Musselman didn’t want to start that gauntlet coming off an extra four days away.

“From a basketball standpoint,” Musselman explained, “we could ill afford tonight to start our break.”

The staff spoke with scheduling experts who agreed that there was one option that made sense for USC: Find a team from the lower ranks of college basketball who was willing to take a beating for the Trojans to fill out their nonconference schedule. That way, the game wouldn’t even register on USC’s tournament resume.

It was with all that criteria in mind that Musselman and his staff settled on Santa Cruz. But the Banana Slugs, who voted as a team to play the Trojans, didn’t just roll over. They came out firing from three-point range, hitting eight in the first half alone. They would hit just eight shots inside the arc the entire game.

With seven minutes remaining in the first half, Santa Cruz was down just three points.

But eventually, USC’s advantage in every other category except outside shooting would catch up to Santa Cruz. The Trojans slammed home one alley-oop, then another, then another in the second half. They hit 18 of 19 to open the second half and dominated the glass, finishing with a 36-rebound advantage.

Musselman made a point to give more minutes to 7-foot-5 center Gabe Dynes, with a three-big lineup coming up against Michigan. Dynes responded with a team-leading 16 points, along with five rebounds and four blocks, which Musselman said was “a huge step in the right direction.”

The game also gave new point guard Kam Woods a chance to get comfortable in the Trojans’ rotation. Woods missed all five of his shots in 21 minutes but was grateful for his first hoops action since March, when he played with Robert Morris.

“I definitely needed this game,” Woods said.

For the Trojans, it was a necessary tuneup heading into the break. Considering what it took to get it on the schedule, their coach was especially thankful.

“Santa Cruz stepped up,” Musselman said, “and I give them a lot of credit. I really do.”