USC and Mercer Tip-Off at the Galen Center @ 1PM

It’s hard to live your life in the shadow of an older sibling. But that’s just the nature of the beast when your older brother is the USC football team. Yes, the Trojans basketball team has long lacked the luster of its champion caliber football brother. But in the last couple years that’s all started to change. Throw in a new coach, a not-too-shabby $147 million dollar new home court, a sweet-sixteen finish and one of the top recruits in the country, and the USC Trojans basketball team is starting to come into its own.

Still if it wasn’t for the giant wooden sandwich boards on either side of Trousdale, the main campus drag, USC students might not know that the Trojans tip off against Mercer at 1pm at the Galen Center. And freshman Guard OJ Mayo is likely to be front and center during the opener. He’s going to have to be if Tim Floyd wants to make up for the 43.8 points per game that left the team with the loss of Nick Young, Lodrick Stewart and Gabe Pruitt.