{"id":636198,"date":"2026-03-03T08:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636198\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:15:47","slug":"why-did-chad-baker-mazara-leave-usc-basketball-what-to-know-of-trojans-stars-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636198\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Chad Baker-Mazara leave USC basketball? What to know of Trojans’ star’s exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chad Baker-Mazara’s<\/a> collegiate career appears to have come to an unceremonious end on Sunday, March 1.<\/p>\n

Southern California<\/a> announced that the sixth-year and graduate transfer is no longer with the program, following his decision to not re-enter Saturday’s 82-67 loss against Nebraska.<\/p>\n

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REQUIRED READING: Ranking top 10 players in college basketball for conference tournaments<\/a><\/p>\n

Baker-Mazara’s exit from the team comes at an interesting time for the Trojans. The team had been on the first four out in\u00a0USA TODAY Sports’ latest bracketology<\/a>, but have lost five games in a row.<\/p>\n

Here’s what you need to know about why Baker-Mazara left USC:<\/p>\n

Why did Chad Baker-Mazara leave USC?<\/p>\n

In his first year with USC \u2015and his sixth collegiate season \u2015Baker-Mazara led the Trojans with 18.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. All of his averages were career highs, as he started 22 of 26 games he appeared in for USC.<\/p>\n

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However, against Nebraska after scoring 14-first half points, Baker-Mazara exited the game three minutes into the second half after falling hard on the baseline while trying to chase down Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort. He went to the locker room and never re-entered the game.<\/p>\n

“He said he couldn\u2019t go,” head coach Eric Musselman told reporters after the game.<\/p>\n

According to a report from the Los Angeles Times’ Ryan Kartje<\/a>, “it wasn\u2019t any one incident, but an accumulation of issues that led to Baker-Mazara\u2019s departure.”<\/p>\n

Does Chad Baker-Mazara have any eligibility left?<\/p>\n

After playing six collegiate seasons, Baker-Mazara is out of eligibility, effectively ending his college career.<\/p>\n

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How old is Chad Baker-Mazara?<\/p>\n

Baker-Mazara was born on Jan. 27, 2000. That made him 26 years old during the 2025-26 college basketball season.<\/p>\n

Chad Baker-Mazara stats<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at Baker-Mazara’s stats in his six collegiate basketball seasons:<\/p>\n

2020-21 (Duquesne): 9.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks per game on 43.8% shooting, 41.7% 3-point shooting in 24.4 minutes per game (15 games, 13 starts)<\/p>\n

2021-22 (San Diego State): 6.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks per game on 42% shooting, 39.3% 3-point shooting in 12.8 minutes per game (31 games, 0 starts)<\/p>\n

2022-23 (Northwest Florida State): Did not play<\/p>\n

2023-24 (Auburn): 10 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks per game on 45.2% shooting, 41.8% 3-point shooting in 21.7 minutes per game (35 games, 9 starts)<\/p>\n

2024-25 (Auburn): 12.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks per game on 44.8% shooting, 38.1% 3-point shooting in 25.6 minutes per game (38 games, 34 starts)<\/p>\n

2025-26 (USC): 18.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game on 44.4% shooting, 38.1% 3-point shooting in 29.6 minutes per game (26 games, 22 starts)<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why did Chad Baker-Mazara depart USC basketball?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chad Baker-Mazara’s collegiate career appears to have come to an unceremonious end on Sunday, March 1. Southern California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[83134,7,2419,217,231,772,1544,571],"class_list":["post-636198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-baker-mazara","tag-basketball","tag-chad-baker-mazara","tag-college-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-usc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116164256276450640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}