The USC Trojans have the date and opponent set for their men’s basketball 2025-2026 season opener. Coach Eric Musselman’s squad will start this season against the Cal Poly Mustangs on November 3 at the Galen Center. 

This will tip-off Eric Musselman’s second season as coach of the Trojans. USC went 17-18 last year and will look to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2023. 

The USC Trojans will host Cal Poly to get their season underway. The Mustangs went 16-19 overall in 2024-2025 and finished tied for seventh place in the Big West with a conference record off 8-12. 

The last time these two teams faced off was in 2015. USC beat Cal Poly by a final score of 101-82. USC leads the all-time series between the two with a head-to-head record of 2-1. 

As of now, the game against Cal Poly is the only game that is officially on the Trojans schedule. The other non-conference games will be announced at later dates. As for conference play, USC knows who their opponents are and where they will play them, but not the exact time and dates. They will have a total of 20 Big Ten conference games. Here are USC’s opponents in Big Ten conference play.

Illinois Fighting Illini, Northwestern Wildcats, Indiana Hoosiers, Purdue Boilermakers, Maryland Terrapins, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Nebraska Cornhuskers 

Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions, Iowa Hawkeyes, Wisconsin Badgers, Minnesota Golden Gophers 

UCLA Bruins, Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies 

USC has failed to make the past two NCAA Tournaments in 2024 and 2025. Prior to this, the Trojans made the tournament three consecutive times, including an Elite Eight run in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Much has changed since. 

Former USC coach Andy Enfield is now coaching the SMU Mustangs and Eric Musselman has made the move from the Arkansas Razorbacks to USC. While last season was Musselman’s first in Los Angeles, he also has not made the tournament since 2023 when he was coaching Arkansas. In his final season in 2023-2024, Arkansas missed the tournament.

Prior to that, Musselman and the Razorbacks made the tournament in 2021, 2022, and 2023. They made it all the way to the Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022 and then the Sweet 16 in 2023. 

Now with one season under his belt as USC coach, Eric Musselman will try to get the Trojans back in the NCAA tournament. USC made a big splash in recruiting this past offseason when the signed five-star recruit Alijah Arenas. Alijah Arenas is the son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas. Arenas is ranked as the top shooting guard and the No. 7 overall recruit in the class of 2025 according to 247Sports Composite rankings.