The USC Trojans men's basketball program is a college basketball team that competes in the Big Ten Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, representing the University of Southern California. Following the end of the 2023–2024 academic calendar, Pac-12 schools Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington joined the Big Ten conference.
Eric Musselman is the current head coach of the USC program. He succeeded Andy Enfield, who coached the team from 2013–2024.
History
The USC Trojans have an all-time record of 1,500–1,097 (.578) in intercollegiate basketball games. They boast 25 All-Americans, 14 league championships, one conference tournament title, 16 NCAA tournament appearances, five Sweet Sixteen appearances, four Elite Eight appearances, and two Final Four appearances. Sam Barry and four of his USC players (Jack Gardner, Alex Hannum, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman) have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches. (Sharman was also inducted as a player.)
The early years (1906–28) On December 7, 1906 the Los Angeles Herald reported: "Basketball Is Started At U.S.C." The first official game of USC basketball was an interclass drubbing by the freshman over the sophomores, 25–2. USC would later host its debut intercollegiate basketball game, the first of its kind in Southern California, on January 16, 1907 with an 18–15 win over Occidental College.
After a standout season in 1910, when USC placed second in the league, the Methodists (as they had been known at the time) slowly grew the program under the direction of a series of player-managers and part-time coaches. Several football headmen served as basketball coaches during that time, including Ralph Glaze, Dean Cromwell, Elmer "Gloomy Gus" Henderson, and Leo Calland. In addition, USC's basketball team was often littered with football standouts such as USC Athletic Hall of Famers Morley Drury and Jess Mortensen.
In 1922 USC joined the Pacific Coast Conference. The Trojans then won their first conference title in 1928 under Calland's leadership, edging past the Washington Huskies in the second and final game of the conference championship series. With a see-sawing score for most of the game, Charley Bone buried two shots in the last minute to secure the 27–26 victory and begin a new era of achievement for USC basketball.
The Sam Barry era (1929–50)
When football assistant and basketball head coach Leo Calland left USC in the summer of 1929 to become the football head coach and athletic director of the University of Idaho, legendary USC football coach Howard Jones found himself in need of a new assistant and the university in need of a new basketball head coach. Jones recommended Sam Barry, one of his former assistants at the University of Iowa who had also coached Hawkeye basketball for seven years. Barry agreed to follow Jones west, once more joining his football staff while also taking control of the basketball program.
Building a national power (1929–41)
Barry brought with him an aggressive style of play uncommon outside the Midwest. His strategic innovations would lay the groundwork for the Triangle offense and his campaign to do away with the center jump after each basket would change the game forever. "It is rumored that other conference coaches are eyeing the Trojans with no little anxiety," the Daily Trojan mused in the lead up to Barry's first season. The Trojans finished the 1929–30 season with an overall record of 15–5. USC defeated the Washington Huskies in three games to win the PCC championship for the second time in school history. Guard Johnny Lehners and center Jess Mortensen received All-America honors at the end of the season, becoming the first two All-Americans in program history.
Producing three more All-Americans (Jerry Nemer, Lee Guttero [2-time], Eddie Oram), USC dominated the PCC South Division for much of the 1930s, with five straight division titles from 1932 to 1936 and a title in 1939. In 1935 the Trojans also won the conference title with a victory over Oregon State in Corvallis. After falling to the Beavers in the first game of the series, USC won the second to tie the series. USC won the third contest by a score of 32–31, with All-Southern Division forward Ernie Holbrook making the game-winning shot in the final seconds of the game.
USC won its ninth division title in 12 years in the 1939–40 season after defeating Oregon State in two games at the Shrine Auditorium. Led by All-American Ralph Vaughn, USC received its first invitation to the eight-team NCAA tournament and was considered a favorite to challenge for the national title. The Trojans defeated Colorado, 38–32, in the first round to face Phog Allen's Kansas in the semi-finals. Senior Keith Lambert gave the Trojans the lead with less than a minute remaining in the game, but Howard Engleman scored with 16 seconds remaining to give Kansas the 43–42 win.
World War II and the coaching carousel (1942–45)
In January 1942, Barry, then-head coach of the three major sports at USC, enlisted in the Navy as a lieutenant commander and was appointed athletic director for the Navy's western V-5 physical training school in St. Marys, Georgia. Assistant coach Julie Bescos assumed head-coaching responsibilities in Barry's absence, finishing the season until he too left for service in the Navy later in 1942. Jack Hupp, two-time All-Southern Division forward for USC in 1935 and 1936, was then named head coach in October, but in November he joined the Air Force. Ernie Holbrook, Hupp's former teammate and star of the 1935 PCC champion team, then became head coach after the first game of the season and led the Trojans to a 23–5 record and their tenth PCC South Division title in the 1943–44 season. Gene Rock and Ted Gossard were named All-Americans. The following year, however, Holbrook was called to service in the Army, becoming the fourth USC basketball coach to leave for military service in two years.
Bobby Muth, a former teammate of both Hupp and Holbrook, was chosen to be the newest replacement head coach. Muth struggled to match the performance of his predecessor, with no returning players from 1943's division-winning team due to the war. In his first year as head coach, he managed a disappointing 8–12 record, USC's first losing record in 11 years.
Julie Bescos returned to USC after the war's end in 1945 as an assistant football coach, having earned a Silver Star for overseeing the rescue and evacuation of wounded sailors as a flight deck officer on the kamikaze-damaged USS Saratoga. He was posthumously inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
Former player and coach Ernie Holbrook died during combat in Europe. As a private in the 28th "Keystone" Infantry Division, Holbrook was killed during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. Each year, the Ernie Holbrook Memorial Award is given in his memory to the team's most inspirational basketball player.
Sam Barry returns (1945–50)
With the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945, Sam Barry was discharged from the Navy, receiving a Naval Commendation for his work in the physical and military training of Navy personnel in the South Pacific. He then returned to his pre-war post as head basketball coach. Barry never managed to truly to regain his pre-war success, however. Before the war, Barry compiled a win–loss record of 208–95, winning 68% of his games. In games after the war, his winning percentage fell to 58%, with an overall record of 68–49. Despite this decline in performance, Barry's teams still finished second in the division in all but one season during the final five years of his career.
Barry's 1949–50 USC team produced another All-American in Bill Sharman. On September 23, 1950, while scouting for football at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Barry suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 57. He remains USC's all-time winningest coach, with an overall record of 260–138. In his 17 years as head coach, his teams won eight division titles and three conference titles, and featured eight All-Americans. His 40 consecutive wins over crosstown rival UCLA stand as the longest winning streak by any coach against a single opponent in the history of college basketball.
The Forrest Twogood era (1951–66) In the wake of Sam Barry's sudden death in September 1950, USC turned to assistant coach Forrest Twogood, who had previously been the head coach at the University of Idaho and the University of San Francisco. Mr Twogood had worked as an assistant to Barry, coaching the Trojan freshmen, and had played for Barry at the University of Iowa.
The Final Four (1954)
Two weeks before the 1953–54 season's end and in third place in the PCC, USC won two games against then-second-place California. The Trojans' next and final conference series of the regular season came against the first-place UCLA Bruins. Coming into the series, John Wooden's Bruins—winners of four division titles in five years—were on a 13-game win streak, had not been defeated at home all season, had not lost both games of a series at home in six years, and needed just one win in two games to secure the division title.
USC's third team All-America center, Roy Irvin, scored 29 points in the first game in leading the Trojans past the Bruins, 79–68. In the second contest, another strong performance from Irvin saw the Trojans with the lead late in the game, until UCLA tied the score in the final minute. Trojan substitute Chet Carr made a 10-foot jump-shot in the waning seconds, securing the win and the Trojans' first outright division championship in 11 years.
USC faced the Oregon State Beavers and their 7-foot, 3-inch center, Wade Halbrook in the PCC Championship series to determine which team would represent the PCC in the NCAA Tournament. In the opening game of the series, the Trojans contained Halbrook and came away with a 65–47 victory. In the second game, Halbrook scored 12 points and stifled the USC offense with his rebounding and defense. The Beavers outscored the Trojans 20–6 in the final ten minutes of the first half, and despite a third-quarter comeback attempt, USC was defeated for the first time in six games.
The final game was a close affair throughout. Halbrook and Irvin led their teams' efforts in the final minutes, trading baskets and the lead until Irvin's hook shot gave the Trojans the lead for good with under a minute remaining. Two free throws from captain Dick Welsh with 27 seconds remaining secured the 48–45 win for USC.
USC advanced to the 16-team NCAA Tournament and began tournament play in Corvallis, where the Trojans defeated Idaho State in the first round, 73–59. In the second-round game, the Trojans faced the Santa Clara Broncos, a team that had played in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. The game was closely contested throughout, with 13 lead changes and eight ties. The third quarter saw a forward surge from the Trojans, which the Broncos matched as the quarter closed. Santa Clara entered the final 40 seconds of a low-scoring fourth quarter with a three-point lead. USC's Irvin was fouled as he scored on a lay-in, and his made free throw tied the game at 57–57. The score remained tied at the end of the regulation period. In the final minute of the overtime period, the Trojans again trailed by three points. Welsh scored to bring the Trojans within one point of Santa Clara. Guard Tony Psaltis then tied the score at 65–65 with a free throw, forcing a second overtime period.