Looking like a changed team, USC celebrates return home with win over Iowa

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USC’s Wesley Yates III drives around Iowa’s Brock Harding during the Trojans’ win over the Hawkeyes on Tuesday at Galen Center. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)

At the end of a long, emotional week, USC’s men’s basketball staff emerged one by one from the Galen Center tunnel just before tip-off Tuesday, relieved as ever to be back home. Days earlier, as wildfires ravaged their city, the team was 2,000 miles away, stuck first in a southern Indiana hotel then in a similar one in Illinois, reduced to periodic updates from assistant Will Conroy, who had downloaded local news apps to his phone.

The uncertainty made for an unnerving few nights. Assistant coach Quincy Pondexter initially wasn’t sure whether his home in Pasadena survived the Eaton fire. Conroy’s family had evacuated, as did the girlfriend of USC’s director of basketball ops, Caleb Cline. Players were on edge too. Guard Clark Slajchert, who grew up in Oak Park, watched the Kenneth Fire warily, worrying about his family. Together, as a team, they talked through the tension, counting down the days until they returned.

“We were super anxious to get back home,” coach Eric Musselman said.

Somehow, with that weight still heavy on their shoulders, the Trojans managed to earn their first road win over a ranked team in 15 years last week at Illinois. They flew home the next day to find their families safe and their homes still intact. And by Tuesday night, as USC’s offense came alive in a 99-89 victory over Iowa, it was clear they’d found more than just emotional respite upon their return to L.A.

Something certainly changed in recent weeks of a season spent trying anything and everything to find the right formula for a roster rebuilt on the fly. The USC that blew past Iowa, shooting a stunning 65% from the floor, looked nothing like the group that put up 36 points against Saint Mary’s six weeks ago. Nor did anyone then expect the Trojans would outrebound any team by a margin of 17, as they did Tuesday.

So much…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/another-big-game-desmond-claude-062130235.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2025-01-15 06:21:00

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