USC draws a 7 seed in the NCAA bracket

The USC Trojans are officially part of the 2022 NCAA Tournament as brackets for this year’s edition of The Big Dance were announced Sunday evening.

USC is a No. 7 seed in the Midwest region and will play Miami in its opening game. That game will take place in Greenville, South Carolina. It’s a rough draw in terms of location as the Trojans will assuredly feel like the visiting team despite being higher ranked than Miami. But it’ll be a homecoming for USC’s Chevez Goodwin, who is from Columbia, South Carolina.

The Trojans enter the tournament on a bit of a slide, having lost three its final four games. Two of those came against UCLA, while the third was a blowout loss to Arizona. None of those losses are alarming taken alone. The Wildcats are Bruins are two of the top 16 teams in the country. But the Trojans will need to step their performance up to get into the second weekend of this tournament.

Miami finished the season 23-10. The Hurricanes finished fourth in the ACC after being picked No. 12 in the preseason poll.

Miami guard Kameron McGusty led the Hurricanes with 17.6 points per game and was named First-Team All-ACC this season. Fellow guard Isaiah Wong was a third-team selection, after averaging 15.2 points per game. Miami had four players average double-figures in scoring this season and all four are listed as guards, ranging from 6-foot-7 Jordan Miller to 5-foot-11 Charlie Moore.

A potential third-round matchup against the winner of the No. 2 Auburn – No. 15 Jacksonville State game awaits USC if it can get past Miami. Auburn spent part of the season ranked No. 1 in the country.

The No. 1 seed in the Midwest is Kansas.

The complete seeds in the Midwest region are:

No. 1 – Kansas
No. 2 – Auburn
No. 3 – Wisconsin
No. 4 – Providence
No. 5 – Iowa
No. 6 – LSU
No. 7 – USC
No. 8 – San Diego State
No. 9 – Creighton
No. 10 – Miami
No. 11 – Iowa State
No. 12 – Richmond
No. 13 – South Dakota State
No. 14 – Colgate
No. 15 – Jacksonville State
No. 16 – Play-in game between Texas Southern and Texas A&M – CC

USC’s 2021-2022 season

The Trojans will take a 26-7 record into the NCAA Tournament this year. USC set a school record with 25 regular-season wins this year. The 26 total wins matches the record for overall wins in a season.

USC was led this season by Isaiah Mobley, who led the team with 14.3 points and 8.5 rebounds this season.

Point guard Boogie Ellis was a huge addition as a transfer from Memphis. He averaged 12.8 points per game and is coming off a monster performance against UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament. Ellis scored 27 points and grabbed five rebounds against the Bruins and the Trojans could use that kind of production throughout the tournament.

Drew Peterson has been an X-factor at times for the Trojans. He’s averaging 12.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He needs to shoot well and limit turnovers for the Trojans to advance.

One of the Trojans who might be very important in this tournament is forward Chevez Goodwin. The USC big man is averaging 11 points and 6.5 rebounds this season. But he hasn’t had a significant impact in the past handful of games. Over the past seven games, he’s scored 10 points just once and grabbed more than six rebounds just twice. When he has big games, the Trojans have won this season.

On the injury front, integral reserve Reese Dixon-Waters missed USC’s last game with a groin injury. His return would be big for the Trojans as he’s grown more comfortable on the floor as the season has gone along. USC has also seen little of Isaiah White of late as he deals with a wrist injury. He did get on the court for two minutes against UCLA. He can provide some energy and toughness off the bench if healthy.

USC’s last Tournament run

The Trojans are hoping to follow up last year’s Elite 8 run with another strong post-season showing. USC lacks a dominant player like Evan Mobley this season, so it’ll take multiple players operating at a high level in order to get through multiple rounds this season.

USC was a No. 6 seed in the West region last season. The Trojans easily dispatched Drake in their first game and then obliterated Kansas, 85-51, in the next round. USC beat Oregon 82-68 in the Sweet 16 before running up against eventual finalist Gonzaga in the Elite 8. Gonzaga took leads of 25-8 and 36-15 in easily defeating USC. But the run into the Elite 8 was a phenomenal showing for a very talented USC team. This year’s version will have its work cut out for them in trying to match that.