USC falls to Michigan in back-and-forth Big Ten home opener

LOS ANGELES — For a week, for all intents and purposes, 6-foot-9 USC graduate assistant Elston Jones was Michigan’s Danny Wolf.

He had to be. There was nobody else who could. Wolf stood 7-foot-0, and USC already had to contend with scheming against Michigan’s other 7-foot-big Vladislav Goldin. Eric Musselman’s first-year Trojans roster was loaded with a bevy of long wings, his tallest player 6-foot-10 starting center Josh Cohen. And so Jones became “vital” for the defensive week of preparation, as USC wing Kevin Patton Jr. said Saturday night, before a mighty USC Big Ten home opener.

But there was no real way to truly prepare, as USC found out in an 85-74 loss to Michigan Saturday night, for two seven-footers that could somehow run pick-and-roll with each other.

“We tried as best we could, putting our tallest guys that we had in their position,” freshman guard Wesley Yates III said postgame, speaking on the preparation for Wolf and Goldin.

They tried, yes. The entire roster tried, in a valiant effort in front of a rocking Galen Center Saturday night, a crowd brought to life by a large Michigan contingent and the buzz of a home opener in a new conference. The youthful Yates III was electric, helping pull USC back from a 15-point second-half deficit, dropping 19 points with a couple of dazzling and-one finishes. Point guard Desmond Claude continued a steady scoring stretch, also finishing with 19. Patton Jr., a 6-foot-8 forward, was a catalyst of effective small-ball lineups, finishing with 14 points and a couple of blocks.

A layup from Patton Jr., a three-pointer from Chibuzo Agbo and a free throw from Claude, and USC suddenly sat down just 73-71 with 3:23 left. But Claude was whistled for a devastating fifth foul on the next possession, USC’s offense going cold. And Wolf simply put the Trojans away, a player Musselman called a “flat-out” NBA talent postgame, zipping a pass inside to Goldin and then dropping in a layup of his own with a little over a minute left for a 10-point lead.

The fiery Musselman tossed a hand in dismissal at one of the referees after the postgame buzzer sounded, USC playing much of the second half with multiple players in foul trouble. He was frustrated, Musselman acknowledged postgame, with the way the game was called. But there wasn’t an excuse, the head coach added. Michigan won.

And they won, ultimately, on the back of Wolf, who finished with a dominant 21 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. USC contained Goldin well enough, finishing with just two first-half points and 11 on the night. But his frontcourt partner simply took over in the second half, the Wolverines building that 15-point lead in large part on the back of four Wolf layups in the first four minutes after the break, as Michigan largely played Cohen off the floor.

Patton Jr. fought admirably in the second half, and Agbo and Thomas all bumped above their heights with Wolf and Goldin. It wasn’t a surprise, as Musselman remarked postgame, that his Trojans (9-5, 1-2 Big Ten) hadn’t gotten “killed” throughout the season by opposing bigs, his teams in his tenure at Nevada and Arkansas built on their ability to play small-ball. But USC’s head coach also lamented the injury absences of 6-foot-6 Matt Knowling and 6-foot-7 Terrance Williams II, both forwards integral to the Trojans’ ability to switch, pointing to a clear need for differing roster construction in years to come.

“I mean, we don’t want to play every year without a true center,” Musselman said postgame.

Saturday marked another night against a solid opponent, too – take Nov. 17’s loss to Cal, or early December’s loss to Oregon – where USC simply failed to close offensively down the stretch. Claude, before he fouled out, committed two turnovers in the span of 40 seconds with the score knotted at 65-65. Yates III started 7-of-7 from the floor, only to miss his final five shots. And USC went cold as Wolf feasted in the waning minutes, small-ball only going so far as USC’s guard play could take it.