USC announces 2019-20 men’s basketball schedule

The USC men’s basketball program announced its 2019-20 schedule Monday, highlighted by three nonconference games against NCAA tournament teams from last season — Nevada, Temple and Louisiana State — and a Thanksgiving weekend trip to Florida for the eight-team Orlando Invitational.

The Trojans, who went 16-17 last year, have struggled the last two seasons to garner enough quality wins in nonconference play to build a strong postseason resume. Whether the Wolfpack (Nov. 16 at Nevada), Owls (Nov. 22 at Galen Center) and Tigers (Dec. 21 at Staples Center) can provide USC with that opportunity this season remains to be seen.

In Orlando, USC’s first game will be against Fairfield. Presumably, the Trojans would then play the winner between Davidson and Marquette, two consistent winners. The final game would be against Harvard, Texas A&M, Maryland or a rematch against Temple. Getting a chance to play Maryland, projected by many to be a top-10 team, would be the Trojans’ best shot at a resume-building win.

The Pac-12 also announced the conference schedule. USC will face crosstown rival UCLA the week of Jan. 8 at Pauley Pavilion and the week of March 4 at Galen Center in the regular season finale. The dates of the games have yet to be announced.

The Trojans will play each team in the league at home and away except for Stanford and California (only at home) and Oregon and Oregon State (only on the road).