USC (26-5) earned a coveted NCAA tournament No. 1 seed, hosting No. 16 Texas A&M Corpus Christi (23-8) at the Galen Center.
If the Trojans advance, they will play the winner of No. 8 Kansas (19-12) versus No. 9 seed Michigan (20-13).
USC’s in the Portland Region and would stay on the West Coast if it advances. Its region could include challenging matchups against No. 2 seed Ohio State (25-5), No. 3 UConn (29-5) and No. 4 Virginia Tech (24-7) as the Trojans push for a run to the Final Four.
Third-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb has spurred a culture shift at USC that transformed the Trojans from a program that hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 2006 into a national conversation contender.