Riding 8-game winning streak, No. 4 Purdue visits USC
No. 4 Purdue takes its eight-game winning streak into the first of four road games over the next five outings on Saturday, facing Southern California in Los Angeles.
The Boilermakers (16-1, 6-0 Big Ten) are visiting the Galen Center for the first time in program history, and at USC for the first time since December 1972. The two squared off twice in the Trojans' inaugural Big Ten campaign a season ago, with Purdue winning both in West Lafayette, Ind., and Indianapolis for the conference tournament.
The 2025-26 Boilers visit Los Angeles for a two-game road swing, meeting UCLA on Tuesday. First, Purdue looks to extend its perfect start in conference play following a 79-72 home victory over Iowa on Wednesday.
Braden Smith scored 16 points and added eight more assists to the Big Ten career record he set earlier in the month. The Boilermakers' point guard is averaging a nation-leading 9.6 assists per game, and with 922 in his career, sits within striking distance of Bobby Hurley's all-time NCAA mark of 1,076.
"Even if we are having a rough night (scoring), everybody's still expected to do what they normally do," Smith said following the win over Iowa. Purdue's 79 points against the Hawkeyes were seven fewer than the Boilermakers' season average.
Although Purdue's scoring was below its usual level, its 52.9% shooting improved the season average to 51.8%, which is good enough for a No. 11 national ranking through games played on Thursday.
Behind Smith, Purdue is also second nationally with 20.9 assists per game as a team. The Trojans are coming off a win in which they surpassed that assist total, distributing 23 on Tuesday to offset mounting roster fluctuations.
USC (14-3, 3-3) endured limitations for standout wing Chad Baker-Mazara in an 88-71 win over visiting Maryland, the latest entry in a long list of injury-related issues plaguing the Trojans this season.
Baker-Mazara, averaging a team-leading 19.1 points per game, played just nine minutes due to an unspecified neck injury. His availability for Saturday remains unknown.
USC already lost Rodney Rice for the season due to a shoulder injury sustained in November, when he was averaging 20.3 points and 6 assists per game. Blue-chip freshman prospect Alijah Arenas has yet to appear due to a knee injury suffered over the summer, and forward Amarion Dickerson last played Dec. 2 in a win over Oregon due to a hip injury.
Trojans coach Eric Musselman said before Tuesday's contest that Arenas was close to debuting. In the meantime, USC saw significant contributions off the bench from Jordan Marsh and Jerry Easter II in the win over Maryland.
Marsh scored a season-high 20 points and dished four of USC's 23 assists -- the team's most in regulation against a Div. I opponent since the first week of the campaign -- while Easter added 10 points.
"My confidence has grown a lot," Marsh said. "The coaches told me I was shooting 48 percent from three and I didn't know that. They just kept telling me to shoot the ball, shoot the ball, shoot the ball, and that's what gave me confidence."