The USC basketball team was surging with six wins in seven games, pushing toward the top of the Pac-12 standings and seemingly firming up its spot in the NCAA tournament field.

And then it went to the state of Oregon last week, losing by 18 to the Ducks and then by 3 points to Oregon State, the second to worst team in the conference standings.

Now, the Trojans (17-8, 9-5 Pac-12) are projected among the first four teams to miss the cut for the NCAA tournament, by ESPN's Joe Lunardi.

USC has six games remaining, starting with the next two at home against Cal (3-22, 2-12), the conference's worst team, and Stanford (11-14, 5-9), which is third worst in the standings.

"There's so many games to be played, it's hard to speculate," Trojans coach Andy Enfield said of his team's postseason hopes. "We just have to keep improving. We have two of our key guys have been out. We finally got Vince [Iwuchukwu] back after all that time, went 6-1 and were playing really well and then Josh [Morgan] and Reese [Dixon-Waters] were injured and [we] stumbled on the road this week. It's not an excuse because we have other guys on the team, but we felt great about our team, we finally had a full complement of players with Vince being back and we were on that winning streak. So it is disappointing to have those guys out."

That should change at some point this week, as Enfield said both Morgan and Dixon-Waters will be game-time decisions Thursday night vs. Cal. Morgan, the team's best frontcourt defender who averages 7.6 points per game, 4.8 rebounds and has a team-high 52 blocks, has missed three games with a significant ankle sprain. Dixon-Waters, who has started 7 games and come off the bench in 15 others while averaging 9.1 PPG, has also missed three games after taking a hard fall to the court.

"Josh is a tough young man and has worked very hard to get back. We assume he'll be back this weekend, but it will be a game-time decision Thursday night for both players," Enfield said.

Iwuchukwu, the 7-foot-1 freshman who was out for more than six months while recovering after going into cardiac arrest during a July workout, played his best game yet vs. Oregon State, with 19 points (9 of 9 on free throws), 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in 26 minutes. He's coming along offensively but still has his struggles on the defensive end, underscoring how important Morgan is to this team.

"His timing is much better on both ends. He's getting in better conditioned shape, being able to play a little longer stretches. He played the most minutes he ever has, 25 minutes -- which is about the max for now. I thought he played well offensively. He still is picking up the defensive calls and defensive timing and ball screen reads and ball screen coverage," Enfield said of Iwuchukwu. "But he missed all of summer, all of training camp, he missed the preseason, all those games, so the game is moving fast for him, but he's adjusting to it and working very hard at it."

The schedule is now moving fast for a Trojans team that needs to boost its resume before NCAA tournament selection time.

USC gets four of its final six games at home, including a big opportunity against No. 8-ranked Arizona on March 2.

"Our players know what's at stake, they know they have to keep improving," Enfield said.