{"id":498599,"date":"2026-03-02T03:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/498599\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T03:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:30:07","slug":"top-scorer-chad-baker-mazara-dismissed-by-usc-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/498599\/","title":{"rendered":"Top scorer Chad Baker-Mazara dismissed by USC basketball team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the doorstep of a pivotal, final week and with its season in serious danger of unraveling, USC<\/a> basketball\u2019s leading scorer has been dismissed from the program.<\/p>\n

The school announced Sunday that sixth-year senior guard Chad Baker-Mazara<\/a> was no longer a member of the team. USC didn\u2019t immediately offer a reason for his departure, but a person familiar with the situation not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that it was not one incident but an accumulation of issues that led to his exit.<\/p>\n

Baker-Mazara left Saturday\u2019s loss to Nebraska<\/a> a few minutes into the second half after he chased down a lay-in and fell hard on the court. USC coach Eric Musselman<\/a> said after the game that Baker-Mazara told coaches he was unable to return. He spent the rest of the game in a folding chair on the baseline.<\/p>\n

Less than a day later, Baker-Mazara was on his way out, leaving the Trojans without one of their most dynamic scorers as they enter a do-or-die stretch of their schedule.<\/p>\n

Losers of their last five games, USC has just more games left in the regular season to improve its tournament resume. And the Trojans still need plenty of help to find a place in the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

That pursuit didn\u2019t get any easier in light of Sunday\u2019s news. Baker-Mazara was both the Trojans\u2019 top scorer (18.5 points per game), most reliable at the free-throw line and their best three-point shooter (38%). His energy, when properly harnessed, was capable of giving USC\u2019s offense a jolt when it needed it most.<\/p>\n

Those skills, along with his Final Four experience at Auburn last year, were primary reasons why Musselman made Baker-Mazara one of his top targets in the transfer portal. He lauded his \u201ccharisma\u201d and his \u201cit factor\u201d as much as his scoring ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will never be a dull moment,\u201d Musselman said in May. \u201cMight be that I\u2019ve got a little more on my plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

After lead guard Rodney Rice was lost for the season in November, it was Baker-Mazara who stepped into the void as the Trojans\u2019 most consistent scorer. He averaged 26 points per game over the remaining seven games of USC\u2019s non-conference slate and looked well on his way to his best collegiate season to date.<\/p>\n

Baker-Mazara became less reliable through Big Ten play. Five times during USC\u2019s conference schedule, he has played fewer than 20 minutes in a game, for one reason or another. At times, Baker-Mazara was limited because of his health. Other times, it was less clear.<\/p>\n

His exit on the doorstep of March is just another ominous sign for the Trojans, who are running out of time \u2014 and players \u2014 to help find their way back to the NCAA tournament bubble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the doorstep of a pivotal, final week and with its season in serious danger of unraveling, USC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[402,227669,151769,5460,8229,2806,13544,3858,227668,5190,99,2384,227667,7813,227666,2002],"class_list":["post-498599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-doorstep","tag-few-minute","tag-game","tag-loss","tag-nebraska","tag-point","tag-school","tag-scorer-chad-baker-mazara","tag-season","tag-sports","tag-time","tag-trojans-top-scorer","tag-usc","tag-usc-man","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}