Following the end of the 2023-2024 academic calendar, Pac-12 schools Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington joined the Big Ten conference.

Sam Barry and four of his USC players (Jack Gardner, Alex Hannum, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman) have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches.

USC would later host its debut intercollegiate basketball game, the first of its kind in Southern California, on January 16, 1907 with an 18–15 win over Occidental College.

[5] After a standout season in 1910, when USC placed second in the league, the Methodists (as they had been known at the time) slowly grew the program under the direction of a series of player-managers and part-time coaches.

Several football headmen served as basketball coaches during that time, including Ralph Glaze, Dean Cromwell, Elmer "Gloomy Gus" Henderson, and Leo Calland.

With a see-sawing score for most of the game, Charley Bone buried two shots in the last minute to secure the 27–26 victory and begin a new era of achievement for USC basketball.

[citation needed] His strategic innovations would lay the groundwork for the Triangle offense and his campaign to do away with the center jump after each basket would change the game forever.

Guard Johnny Lehners and center Jess Mortensen received All-America honors at the end of the season, becoming the first two All-Americans in program history.

USC won the third contest by a score of 32–31, with All-Southern Division forward Ernie Holbrook making the game-winning shot in the final seconds of the game.

[8] USC won its ninth division title in 12 years in the 1939–40 season after defeating Oregon State in two games at the Shrine Auditorium.

Led by All-American Ralph Vaughn, USC received its first invitation to the eight-team NCAA tournament and was considered a favorite to challenge for the national title.

Assistant coach Julie Bescos assumed head-coaching responsibilities in Barry's absence, finishing the season until he too left for service in the Navy later in 1942.

Jack Hupp, two-time All-Southern Division forward for USC in 1935 and 1936, was then named head coach in October, but in November he joined the Air Force.

Julie Bescos returned to USC after the war's end in 1945 as an assistant football coach, having earned a Silver Star for overseeing the rescue and evacuation of wounded sailors as a flight deck officer on the kamikaze-damaged USS Saratoga.

On September 23, 1950, while scouting for football at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Barry suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 57.

—Jack McCurdy in the Daily Trojan, March 9, 1954 [13] Two weeks before the 1953–54 season's end and in third place in the PCC, USC won two games against then-second-place California.

USC's third team All-America center, Roy Irvin, scored 29 points in the first game in leading the Trojans past the Bruins, 79–68.

In the second contest, another strong performance from Irvin saw the Trojans with the lead late in the game, until UCLA tied the score in the final minute.

The Beavers outscored the Trojans 20–6 in the final ten minutes of the first half, and despite a third-quarter comeback attempt, USC was defeated for the first time in six games.

In the second-round game, the Trojans faced the Santa Clara Broncos, a team that had played in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

In the same year the NBA introduced the 24-second shot clock, Santa Clara held the ball to stall the game for four minutes and seven seconds.

USC advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, led by future NBA players Nick Young, Taj Gibson, and Gabe Pruitt, with Tim Floyd as their head coach.

This team defeated Kevin Durant and the Texas Longhorns before facing Tyler Hansbrough and the UNC Tar Heels in the Sweet Sixteen.

USC had built a sizable lead in the first half against UNC before multiple questionable foul calls against Taj Gibson forced USC to sit Taj Gibson for an extended period of time in the second half, whereby the Tar Heels were able to take the lead and win the game.

However, on January 3, 2010, the University concluded its internal investigation over allegations that Mayo received improper benefits during his stay at USC in 2007–08.

[15] Building upon the success of previous years, the Trojans defeated Arizona State in the Pac-10 Championship Game and clinched their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Enfield's first two assistant hires were Tony Bland from SDSU with a reported contract of $300,000 per year, and Jason Hart from Pepperdine University.

[17] On September 26, 2017, federal prosecutors announced bribery, soliciting a bribe and wire fraud charges against assistant coach Tony Bland.

[19] Beginning in 1949 the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in the Fairfax District hosted USC basketball until 1959 at which point the Trojans moved into the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where they would remain for close to the next 50 years.

USC had talked about building an on-campus arena for the better part of a century and that dream finally came to fruition when Louis Galen, successful banker and long-time Trojan fan, donated a total $50 million to ensure the facility was built.