“It doesn’t feel real,” one player said after the loss to Oregon on Saturday.

Well, it better.

Staring down the No. 12 team in the country, Nebraska, and two bouts with rival UCLA, who just beat a team you lost to by almost 40 points less than a week ago, I’d be feeling down too. À la Mick Cronin after getting thumped by No. 13 Michigan State, not annoyed because I didn’t have coffee before my way-too-early 11 a.m. class.

After the Oregon (10-17, 3-13) loss, even barely-0.500 Washington (14-14, 6-11), which is well out of the playoff picture, might not be able to escape the curse of beating USC (18-9, 7-9) men’s basketball this season.

I’m not optimistic, if you couldn’t tell.

The issues for the then-still-Alijah-Arenas-less Trojans started off with a late, embarrassing collapse to a former Pac-12 opponent residing in the Pacific Northwest early in Big Ten play. After that 8-point loss to the Huskies, the Trojans felt like they deserved to return to the Associated Press’ Top 25 with a win or two and were going to fight for the honor back.

Then, they were 10-1. Before heading to Michigan — where it appears USC basketball goes to die — for a two-game set, they were 14-1. Now, they’re 18-9.

Top 25, not a chance, I’m sorry. Last team in … maaaaaybe. That’s where they are currently projected. For context, the NCAA Tournament is a 68-team field, and USC is currently projected to need to play into the true 64-team gauntlet as an 11 seed — typically the last at-large bids.

To maintain that spot, assuming a loss to Nebraska (23-4, 12-4) — which has only lost to three top-10 teams, and also Iowa — and a win over the Huskies, USC has got to at least take one from the surging Bruins (18-9, 10-6), probably two. Or the Trojans could make a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament and earn their stripes that way.

Neither seem likely. And that’s not OK.

This isn’t to say losing to UCLA men’s basketball is an undefendable embarrassment. It’s not. The Trojan women lost by 34 and are all but locked for March Madness. And the Bruins are known for men’s basketball!

But it is to say that the idea that USC men’s basketball, with a well-promised former NBA head coach in his second year in Eric Musselman, shouldn’t be in the NCAA Tournament every year, is ridiculous.

Sure, USC is not a powerhouse school in men’s basketball like it has historically been in football, water polo, soccer or, well, pretty much anything else. That doesn’t mean that shouldn’t change.

Bringing in Arenas, who may be the most talented basketball player to don Cardinal and Gold in years, is a win in and of itself and proves it can be done.

It’s Los Angeles. We’ve got the facilities. We’ve got the academics. And, most importantly, if I were 6-foot-8 and athletic, we’ve got beaches! 

Money, too. 

To address the herd of elephants in the room, let’s talk about the injuries.

Junior point guard extraordinaire Rodney Rice is out for the season, senior sixth man Amarion Dickerson is all but the same and Arenas hopped on the Muss Bus very late. Though star graduate guard Chad Baker-Mazara has mostly been able to hold down about 30 minutes a game, he missed multiple contests in the lead-up to the critical Oregon loss over the weekend, which he fouled out of with 21 points in 23 minutes.

With all those guys in the lineup, this team would look a lot different. Probably a lot better. But that isn’t the case right now.

Yes, the Trojans have been crushed by injuries, as they were the year before. But this can’t be the story every year. At some point, something’s gotta give. If the talent is there, the results have gotta come.

It’s not enough to be competitive, especially when it looks like some of the top teams in the country are playing a whole different sport. A close loss to Purdue (22-5, 12-4) was a massive outlier to said trend.

“I’ve never had a season like this,” Musselman said Saturday.

It’s giving Lincoln Riley. And not his good side.

This team, and dare I say coach — though I admire a lot of what Musselman has done for USC’s outward-facing brand — lacks discipline and accountability. 

It cannot be the referees’ fault every game. Nor the injuries.

Senior forward Ezra Ausar, probably the third- or fourth-best Trojan currently healthy, cannot foul out in four of seven games during the most important part of the season. Arenas can’t be taking mid-to-high double-digit shots if he’s gonna shoot below 0.300 and miss wide-open 3-pointers. Musselman can’t blame guys like graduate guard Ryan Cornish for underperforming when they sit on the bench for 35 minutes or more, then come into the game during the most crucial stage.

That’s not what winners do. Winners win. 

More specifically, winners win when it counts. And for this team, I’m not counting on it.

Sean Campbell is a sophomore writing about all facets of USC sports in a voice- and reference-heavy style in his column, “A Wannabe Sports Writer,” which typically runs every other Friday. He is also an associate managing editor at the Daily Trojan.