USC men’s basketball can’t close with no-center lineup in loss to Cal

LOS ANGELES — They didn’t have much rim protection. They couldn’t stop interior penetration. They fought an uphill battle, every free-wheeling transition bucket matched by a Golden Bears onslaught on their rim at the Galen Center, a game slowly slipping away from Eric Musselman and USC basketball.
So with time waning in the second half, on Sunday, Musselman stuck to the very guns of how he’d built USC’s roster — and closed a basketball game without a center.&n