1953–54 USC Trojans men's basketball team

{{short description|American college basketball season}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox college sports team season

|year=1953–54

|team=USC Trojans

|sport=Basketball

|image= 1954_USC_basketball.jpg

|image_size=260

|conference=Pacific Coast Conference

|division=

|short_conf=PCC

|CoachRank=

|APRank= 11

|record= 19–14

|conf_record= 8–4

|head_coach=Forrest Twogood

|hc_year=4th

|asst_coach1=

|asst_coach2=

|asst_coach3=

|stadium=Pan-Pacific Auditorium

|champion=PCC Champions

|tourney=NCAA tournament

|tourney_result= Final Four

}}

{{1953–54 Pacific Coast Conference men's basketball standings}}

The 1953–54 USC Trojans men's basketball team represented the University of Southern California during the 1953–54 NCAA college basketball season. Members of the Pacific Coast Conference, the Trojans were led by fourth-year head coach Forrest Twogood and played their home games off campus at Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

The Trojans were {{nowrap|15–11}} overall in the regular season and {{nowrap|8–4}} in conference play. They won the Southern Division for the first time since 1940 and met Northern Division champion Oregon State in the best-of-three PCC playoff series at Long Beach City College. USC won the first and third games and advanced to the 24-team NCAA tournament.

At the West Regional at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon, the Trojans defeated Idaho State and Santa Clara (in double overtime). At the Final Four in Kansas City, Missouri, the Trojans dropped both games, to Bradley in the semifinals and Penn State in the consolation game.

NCAA tournament

Seeding in brackets

:{{small|Source:}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1954|title = RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More}}

Rankings

{{main|1953–54 NCAA men's basketball rankings}}

NBA draft

One Trojan was selected in the 1954 NBA draft

class="wikitable"
align="center"

! style="background:#800019;color:#ffc322;" | Round

! style="background:#800019;color:#ffc322;" | Pick

! style="background:#800019;color:#ffc322;" | Player

! style="background:#800019;color:#ffc322;" | NBA Club

align="center" bgcolor=""

| 9

78Roy IrvinRochester Royals
align="center" bgcolor=""

:{{small|Source:}}{{cite web|url=http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=1954&lg=N |title=1954 NBA Draft on databaseBasketball.com |accessdate=2013-01-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105193838/http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=1954&lg=N |archivedate=2013-01-05 }}

References

{{reflist}}