{"id":486155,"date":"2026-03-02T08:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=486155"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:36:19","slug":"usc-parts-ways-with-chad-baker-mazara-trojans-leading-scorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/usc-parts-ways-with-chad-baker-mazara-trojans-leading-scorer\/","title":{"rendered":"USC parts ways with Chad Baker-Mazara, Trojans\u2019 leading scorer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"1343\" data-end=\"1568\">USC confirmed that <strong data-start=\"1362\" data-end=\"1383\">Chad Baker-Mazara<\/strong>, the Trojans\u2019 top scorer, <strong data-start=\"1410\" data-end=\"1467\">is no longer a member of the men\u2019s basketball program<\/strong>. The statement, relayed through team spokesperson Kristen Keller, offered no additional explanation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">What a bizarre ending to one of the wildest careers in recent college basketball history.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday against Nebraska, Chad Baker-Mazara left with an injury and returned only to sit courtside instead of on the bench with his squad.<\/p>\n<p>Today, USC officially moved on from him. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7frqGI903n\">pic.twitter.com\/7frqGI903n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zach Schumaker (@ZachSchumaker) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZachSchumaker\/status\/2028276950796812731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1570\" data-end=\"1857\">The move follows Saturday\u2019s home loss to <strong data-start=\"1611\" data-end=\"1630\">No. 12 Nebraska<\/strong>, when Baker-Mazara exited early in the second half after a hard fall on a blocked shot. Head coach <strong data-start=\"1730\" data-end=\"1748\">Eric Musselman<\/strong> said the player told him he \u201ccouldn\u2019t go\u201d back in, and later sat in an area with fans rather than the bench.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1859\" data-end=\"2152\">A 26-year-old graduate transfer with multiple stops before finding stability at Auburn, Baker-Mazara was averaging a career-best <strong data-start=\"1988\" data-end=\"2015\">18.5 points in 26 games<\/strong> for USC. The Trojans (18-11, 7-11 Big Ten) have dropped five straight and finish the regular season against <strong data-start=\"2124\" data-end=\"2138\">Washington<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"2143\" data-end=\"2151\">UCLA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2154\" data-end=\"2228\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The school announced Sunday he is no longer with the men\u2019s basketball program. No reasons or further details were provided<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":486154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[401],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-486155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-02-alle-08.32.15.png","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486155"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=486155"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=486155"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=486155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}