By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
In cross-country road trips in the Big Ten this season, the teams traveling two-plus time zones for a conference game have gone 8-9, including 4-5 last week.
West Coast schools will host four cross-country opponents in the next five games through January 22. Will the trend continue?
One of those contests involves Purdue continuing their trip through the Pacific Northwest with a stop at Matthew Knight Arena for a matchup of ranked conference contenders.
Counter to the narrative, the Ducks are coming off a pair of wins at Ohio State and Penn State in a cross-country sweep.
Neither came easy, though, with Oregon needing dramatic comebacks in both games to escape by two and one points, respectively.
Here’s a quick look at the two Los Angeles schools, trending in vastly different directions.
USC’s Surprisingly Productive Week
Perhaps no team in the Big Ten had a more productive week than USC. The Trojans looked stellar in a home-court win over Iowa, scoring a season-high 99 points.
Desmond Claude had a hand in 48.4% of USC’s points, scoring 25 while contributing nine assists accounting for another 23 points.
The victory came after defeating Illinois on Saturday, marking the first road win over a ranked opponent for Southern Cal since 2010.
Getting a road dub over one of the best teams in the conference will go a long way toward establishing the culture Eric Musselman is looking to build in L.A.
USC was the more physical team in the contest, outrebounding Illinois 37-34.
A plus-three advantage on the glass may not sound like much, but it can be the deciding factor against a team averaging an NCAA-leading +12.4 rebounds per game.
UCLA’s Disasterous Four-Game Skid
While the Trojans enjoyed a successful week, their crosstown rivals were far less fortunate.
The Bruins find themselves losers of four in a row with a 2-4 record in the Big Ten, tied with Rutgers and Penn State for spots 13-15 in the standings.
As a reminder, with the West Coast expansion, only the top 15 teams will make the Big Ten Conference tournament.
The thought that Mick Cronin’s squad would be on that bubble at any point this season would have been unthinkable last month.
With visits from high-scoring Iowa and the always-dangerous Wisconsin looming this week, this suddenly becomes a pivotal midseason home stand for the Bruins.
The bottom three in the conference standings as of this writing include Washington—who played Purdue tough on Wednesday night—along with Northwestern and still-winless Minnesota.
SuperWest Big Ten Player of the Week: Vladislav Goldin, C, Michigan
The 7-1 Russian followed Dusty May from FAU to Michigan and has helped reward his coach with a 5-0 start to conference play.
In the two most recent wins the big fella averaged 27.5 points and 7.0 rebounds while knocking down 78.9% of his shots from the floor.
SuperWest Big Ten Freshman of the Week: Wesley Yates III, G, USC
In the two wins over Illinois and Iowa, the redshirt freshman averaged 18.0 points, 3.0 assists, and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 78.9% from the floor.
Perhaps the most telling stat for the two games was his 40 minutes played vs. Iowa without a single turnover.
writes about various topics for SuperWest sports, including stats and records, college sports, and motorsports. He also founded and runs the Sports and Entertainment Research Center (SERC).
