The USC men’s basketball team is losing one of its most key players at one of the most critical points of the season.
Chad Baker-Mazara, a sixth-year graduate student, is no longer with the program, the team announced in a statement Sunday afternoon.
No further details were provided by the team, but Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times reported that ‘it wasn’t any one incident, but an accumulation of issues that led to Baker-Mazara’s departure.’
Baker-Mazara put up 14 first-half points in USC’s 82-67 loss to Nebraska on Saturday but exited the game just three minutes into the second half after he fell hard on the baseline while trying to chase down Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort. He briefly went into the locker room and did not re-enter the game.
‘He said he couldn’t go,’ head coach Eric Musselman told reporters after the game.
USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth team in six years. He began his college career at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State a year later and earning Mountain West sixth man of the year honors. From there, Baker-Mazara spent a year in junior college at Northwest Florida State before landing at Auburn, where he played two seasons and had a prominent role in their Final Four run in the 2024-25 season. He re-entered the portal shortly thereafter and ended up at USC.
Baker-Mazara started 22 of 26 games for the Trojans this season and has been their leading scorer after Rice went down with a season-ending right shoulder injury just six games into the season. He averaged 18.6 points on 44.4% shooting (38.3% from three), 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists — all career-highs.
The Trojans have been one of the teams on bubble watch for March. They’re currently one of the first four out in USA TODAY Sports’ latest bracketology, but they’ve lost five straight games, including a critical Quad 1 matchup against rival UCLA last Tuesday.
They’ll finish out the regular season this week with a road game against Washington on Wednesday before returning home for one more clash against the Bruins on Saturday.
