While the University Park campus emptied out for Thanksgiving break, the Muss Bus was parked in Palm Springs for the Acrisure Classic, an early-season holiday tournament. USC was scheduled to face Saint Mary’s College in the semifinal, with a possible championship duel with Arizona State or The University of New Mexico to follow.

And then things went south.

As the Trojans prepare for their first-ever Big Ten conference game against the Oregon Ducks (8-0) on Wednesday, the team is still trying to figure out where things went wrong in the desert. On Thanksgiving, USC (5-3) suffered a humiliating 71-36 loss to Saint Mary’s (7-1), the program’s largest margin of defeat in six years, and followed it up with an 83-73 defeat to New Mexico (6-2) on Black Friday.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

The matchup against Saint Mary’s was marked by a total offensive collapse by Head Coach Eric Musselman’s squad. The Gaels narrowly led the Trojans 23-21 with five minutes left to play in the first half. They proceeded to outscore USC by a 48-15 margin over the final 25 minutes of the game. Through the full game, the Gaels held the Trojans to zero made shots on 12 3-point attempts and an abysmally low field goal percentage of 26%.

Musselman was visibly irate on the sidelines and was assessed a technical foul in the middle of the second half for stepping onto the court during play.

USC had more technical fouls than made 3-pointers Thursday.

The game against New Mexico was cleaner from a statistical standpoint. Four USC players scored in double digits, including graduate forward Josh Cohen — who reached the mark for the third straight game. Still, the Trojans couldn’t close the gap on the Lobos, leaving the desert as the tournament’s only winless competitor.

The same defensive issues that plagued Musselman’s squad in non-conference tilts against various mid-major schools came back to haunt the team in Palm Springs. Once again, the Trojans could not stop their opponents from running wild in the backcourt; the Gaels’ starting guards scored 26 points, and the Lobos scored 37.

And yet, the road only gets tougher from here.

Galen Center will now play host to a surging Oregon, who put the entire country on notice last week during the Players Era Festival, an 8-team holiday tournament in Las Vegas that featured numerous championship contenders.

The Ducks ran through the field, knocking off Texas A&M, San Diego State and — in dramatic fashion — Alabama in the title game. All three of those teams are ranked in this week’s AP Top 25 poll. Oregon, for their efforts, rocketed to No. 12 in the poll with 806 points after only receiving 10 last week.

The Ducks snuck into the NCAA Tournament last year as an 11 seed after winning the final Pacific-12 Conference men’s basketball tournament. They’re equipped to reach higher heights this year, in part due to the return of senior center Nate Bittle. The 7-foot-tall big man only played in five games last season due to a wrist injury and an illness, but he’s been the strongest contributor for the Ducks this season, averaging roughly 15 points and nine rebounds a game.

Successful transfers have also played a role in Oregon’s strong start to the season. Starting senior guard TJ Bamba is averaging 13 points per game after arriving from Villanova University, while senior forward Supreme Cook, who made the move to Eugene from Georgetown University, scored 11 points in 14 minutes in the Ducks’ win over Alabama on Saturday night.

USC will need to play a near-perfect defensive game to keep up with Oregon’s legion of offensive weaponry. The Trojans are 1-3 in games where their opponent scores 70 or more points but 4-0 otherwise.

There’s just one issue: Oregon has scored more than 70 points in every game this season.

While the Ducks’ offense isn’t necessarily an unstoppable force just yet, the Trojans’ defense is a moveable object, which could spell doom for the home team Wednesday. A strong performance in this matchup could fuel the Muss Bus going into conference play, but a loss would put any hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid in serious jeopardy well before Christmas.

USC and Oregon will tip off at Galen Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night, with the game airing on the Big Ten Network.