USC received the 10th seed in the East Region in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Sunday and will face seventh-seeded Michigan State in a first-round game Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
Oddsmakers have made the Trojans (22-10) a 1 1/2-2-point underdog. The ABC News-owned data prediction website FiveThirtyEight.com gives USC a 36% chance of winning.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the 10th seeds have a 52-75 record against the seventh seeds in the first round. One of the victories by 10th seeds occurred last year when Miami defeated the seventh-seeded Trojans, 68-66.
USC is the overall 39th seed in the 68-team tournament, while the Spartans (19-12) are seeded 26th.
The Trojans are among four Pac-12 Conference teams in the tournament. Michigan State is among eight teams from the 14-team Big Ten Conference in the tournament.
Tyson Walker, a 6-foot, 1-inch senior guard averaged 14.6 points to lead the Spartans while graduate student Joey Hauser, a 6-foot, 9-inch forward, is second, averaging 14.2 points per game.
This is the third consecutive tournament USC has participated in and 20th all-time. Michigan State will be participating in its 25th consecutive tournament, the third longest streak behind Kansas’ 33 from 1990 to the present and North Carolina’s 27 from 1975-2001.
The tournament was not played in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Spartans coach Tom Izzo will be coaching in his record 25th consecutive tournament. He had shared the record with Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Duke to the tournament 24 consecutive times from 1996-2019.
The 9:15 a.m. game will be televised by CBS. The winner will advance to play the winner of the game between second-seeded Marquette and 15th-seeded Vermont Sunday.