LAS VEGAS — The matchup college basketball purists have been quietly dreading all season will be a reality.
USC knocked off Oregon 74-54 late Friday night in the second semifinal at the Pac-12 Conference tournament, setting up a championship game match against top-seeded and 15th-ranked Arizona on Saturday night (8 p.m. MT, FS1).
Both programs made tabloid-like headlines at the beginning of the preseason as two of the four schools that had assistant coaches arrested in the opening salvo of the FBI college basketball corruption probe that has hovered over the teams all season. Now Arizona will be playing in its fourth Pac-12 title game in five years, while USC seeks its first conference tournament championship since 2009.