UCLA and USC basketball need to make statement at Big Ten Tournament

CHICAGO — One team wants to change the narrative that it can’t win outside the West Coast.

The other wants to change the narrative that it simply can’t win.

For the UCLA and USC men’s basketball teams, the Big Ten Tournament offers a chance at altering perceptions — and maybe their seasons.

Even though the Bruins (21-10) are surging, with four wins in five games, the one loss during that stretch continued a troublesome trend. UCLA’s setback against Minnesota came outside the Pacific Time Zone, dropping the Bruins to 1-6 in such games this season.

Before the loss to the Golden Gophers, there were ones against Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa. The Central and Eastern time zones might as well have been the Twilight Zone to the Bruins.

That makes the Big Ten Tournament a welcome shot at redemption, especially given the likelihood that UCLA will open the NCAA Tournament east of the Rocky Mountains.

The sixth-seeded Bruins’ first game at the United Center will come Thursday night against the winner of a preliminary round game between 11th-seeded Minnesota and 14th-seeded Rutgers. If UCLA faces the Gophers, it will offer an opportunity for another kind of vindication.

The Bruins’ defense has been horrendous away from Pauley Pavilion, their recent lockdown efforts against USC notwithstanding. Why, it seemed as if UCLA was trying to spawn the Legend of Bobby Durkin after allowing the Minnesota forward to make seven 3-pointers against the Bruins in their last meeting in Minneapolis.

“If we were to play Minnesota,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin told reporters Tuesday, “that would eliminate me having to motivate my team, right? That would wake them up pretty quick.”

It was hardly the only time the Bruins have struggled on defense. In its road games, UCLA has given up an average of 76.2 points per game. At home? A relatively sterling 67.6.

Of course, things could always be worse. Just consider what’s happening across town.

A strong contender to make the NCAA Tournament as recently as a month ago, USC (18-13) has dropped seven straight games. The Trojans also shed Chad Baker-Mazara late last month in a stunning dismissal, leaving them without their two leading scorers after Rodney Rice was lost to a shoulder injury only six games into the season.

Add Alijah Arenas’ significantly delayed start to the season after suffering a knee injury, not to mention a season-ending hip injury to reserve guard Amarion Dickerson in December, and maybe there’s some credence to coach Eric Musselman’s lament that this is “the most injured team in college basketball.”

At least a sliver of salvation could come Wednesday when the 13th-seeded Trojans face 12th-seeded Washington (15-16) – the same team that ran away from them last week over the final 20 minutes in Seattle.

The Huskies bludgeoned USC with 51 points in the second half, easily wiping out a three-point halftime deficit. It was a sad, similar story given the Trojans had given up 51 points against Nebraska after halftime during another recent defeat and 47 against Illinois.

Maybe it’s just symbolic of a team that has faded after so much promise.

“We feel this is an NCAA tournament team if we were healthy,” Musselman said last weekend. “We have no doubt that it was — or would be.”

It still could be. All it would take is the Trojans changing the narrative in the coming days.

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