If you're a USC Trojan basketball fan, definitely circle the date Friday, Nov. 29 on your calendar.
For a single ticket, you can see both the USC men's and women's teams play at the same location when they lace it up as part of the Acrisure Series held at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert.
On that day, the USC women will play St. Louis at 3:30 p.m. and the men's team will either play in the championship game (8:30 p.m.) or the third-place game (6 p.m.) against either Arizona State or New Mexico.
It's all part of a college hoops feast that features 21 teams playing 19 games over four days on Thanksgiving week. Both USC teams will play two games during the event. And the Trojans coaches are excited about the opportunity.
"We knew with the move to the Big Ten we wanted to be very strategic about when we travel and how we travel in the non-conference, so the chance to play in such a great event and not too far away, but still create a holiday atmosphere at a big-time tournament was great for us," said Lindsay Gottlieb, head coach of a USC women's basketball that is all but certain to be a top-5 team next year anchored by superstar JuJu Watkins. "There are so many positive things about it, that we knew we wanted to take part, and to go to a tournament where our men are going to be as well is great, too."
The USC women will be playing two single games as opposed to being part of a tournament. Along with the Friday game against St. Louis, they will play Seton Hall at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
The Trojan men, conversely, are part of four-team tournament. They will open with a toughie against Saint Mary's at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday and then will be either in the third-place game or the championship game against New Mexico or Arizona State on Friday.
Tickets for the event go on sale at 10 a.m. (PST) on Friday, June 7.
More: Acrisure Thanksgiving college basketball field set; 21 teams to play 19 games over four days
While the USC women have sky-high expectations, the men's team is in a transitional period and breaking in a new coach.
Eric Musselman who's had success at his previous two college hoops stints at Nevada and most recently Arkansas, has been brought in to rejuvenate a Trojans team that went 15-18 last year and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years.
It will be a fresh start for the Trojans who will also be without their three leading scorers from last year in Boogie Ellis (NBA), Isaiah Collier (NBA) and Kobe Johnson (transfer).
Musselman said he's going to learn a lot about his new team in the desert, and that's why he's looking forward to it.
"Any time you can play in an event with both games being challenging, you're going to find some areas that surprise you in a positive way, and then any areas of concern or areas of weakness will be exposed early," Musselman said. "To be able to play a multi-team event against such quality opponents. Three great coaches in (Randy) Bennett, (Bobby) Hurley and (Richard) Pitino. It makes sense. They're all going to be difficult, high-quality games. Whoever wins it's going to help their résumé come March."
Musselman echoed Gottlieb's sentiments about not wanting too much travel in the non-conference schedule now that the team is in the Big Ten and will have road games at Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Rutgers during the conference slate.
He added that he's excited for his team to be at the same event as the USC women's team, which will create a unique buzz for all fans of Trojan hoops.
"I think that was really smart on the promoter's part, because obviously the USC women's team is a must-watch," Musselman said. "Anytime JuJu is involved in a game it's going to draw interest. She has that star power. She's arguably the top player in the women's game and has a vibrant personality to go along with the superstar game. Her name recognition is as big as anyone in college basketball men or women. I'm sure the USC fan section will be well-represented."
The Trojan women's team, which along with Watkins added two high-end transfers in Talia Von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen and boasts a top freshman class, will enter the season as the hunted, not the hunters this year.
This will be Gottlieb's fourth year at the helm of the Trojans' squad and she's done an impressive job building the program. In her first year, they went 12-16. In her second year they went 21-10 and made the NCAA Tournament. Last year they surprised everyone and went 29-6 and made the Elite Eight.
This year they won't surprise anyone and Gottlieb said she's been working this offseason on helping her team accept the mental challenge that comes with high expectations.
"Last year our mantra was like 'don't pick us now, you didn't pick us before' and it was a year that no one expected much from us and we had something to prove," Gottlieb said. "So a lot of my time this offseason has been studying the nuances of the right buttons to push for a group that is new and is going to have a lot of expectations placed on us. How do we embrace that and raise the bar and perform to that standard without losing our joy? We'll dive into that mental side of things just as much as the physical."
She said the Acrisure Series set-up for her team with two games in three days with a day off in between will also be a good reminder or test-run for how the NCAA Tournament schedule works.
Both Gottlieb and Musselman said they've been to the Coachella Valley before on various vacations and weekend getaways.
Musselman said he remembers a few golf trips to the desert when he was head coach at Nevada, but he also had a very distinct memory from when he was 12 years old in 1976, which was, of course, tied to basketball.
"I remember that famous Celtics vs. Suns triple overtime game when Gar Heard made that shot," Musselman said. "I'm pretty sure I was in Palm Springs with my mom and dad on vacation. That's just stuck in my head."
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: How to get tickets for Thanksgiving basketball series at Acrisure
