Neither Arizona State nor USC is in a position to threaten for the Pac-12 regular season title at this point in the season, but Sunday’s meeting between the two teams in Tempe will impact seeding for next month’s conference tournament. Just over an hour before tipoff USC announced that three players, most notably their starting shooting guard, were sent home and will not play.
Katin Reinhardt, Chass Bryan and Devon Pflueger were all sent home for what was termed as a violation of team rules. While Bryan and Pflueger, a walk-on, don’t play all too often Reinhardt is the team’s starting shooting guard.
USC SG Katin Reinhardt, PG Chass Bryan and walk-on Devon Pflueger were sent home from the road trip for "violating team rules."
— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) February 23, 2015
Averaging 12.0 points per game, Reinhardt is third on the team in scoring behind forward Nikola Jovanovic and freshman point guard Jordan McLaughlin. In the Trojans’ 87-57 loss at No. 7 Arizona Thursday night, Reinhardt shot 1-for-7 from the field and scored two points in 23 minutes of action.
Both Bryan and Pflueger saw minutes in the blowout defeat, with Bryan playing nine minutes and Pflueger three. 2-12 in Pac-12 play, USC has lost ten of its last 11 games.