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.