Tag: Eric Musselman

Eric Musselman loses first game as USC basketball coach

USC shot over 55 percent in the first half and under 34 percent in the second half. USC was inconsistent at both ends of the floor and paid the price.

The USC men’s basketball season finally encountered a moment of real adversity on Sunday night in the Galen Center. Eric Musselman lost his first game as the Trojans’ bench boss. USC fell 71-66 to California in a weird game which took a drastic turn in the last six and a half minutes.

The score of the Cal game was 43-42 USC at halftime. The Trojans played a racehorse game against UT Arlington last week in which defense was optional. USC led 51-42 at halftime of that game and then continued to play ineffective defense in the second half. USC’s offense was able to overcome its lack of defense in a 98-95 win. The Cal game looked like another shootout after one half, and USC’s defense was plainly ineffective for most of the night. USC’s guards were beaten on the dribble. They couldn’t keep Cal’s guards out of the paint, which created all sorts of opportunities for the Golden Bears.

However, midway through the second half, the game began to take on different dimensions. USC began to dig in on defense. The faucet of points for Cal got shut off. USC gained a 64-63 lead with just under seven minutes left in regulation and was showing signs of steering this game in a different direction.

If you were watching the game, you would have assumed that if USC could get stops and hold Cal to a modest point total in the second half, the Trojans would have won. After all, they shot over 55 percent from the field in the first half. They were on pace to score 86 points at halftime. If USC held Cal to 29 second-half points, 71 for the full game, that pointed to a USC win.

Except it didn’t.

The Trojans’ offense, which flowed so well in the first 30 minutes, came to a grinding halt in the last 6:30. USC scored exactly two points in that span of time. Leading scorer Desmond Claude missed two huge free throws with a little over two minutes left. Terrance Williams had a wide-open 3-pointer in the last minute to give USC the lead, but it wasn’t even close. The Trojans went stone cold, dying at the 3-point line and not getting enough free throw opportunities to collect cheap points. A night which started with bad defense ended with bad offense, and USC fell short against its former Pac-12 neighbor.

Eric Musselman didn’t have time to recruit his first USC roster. Remember, this roster was almost completely created from the transfer portal. We are seeing the limitations of that roster. Musselman has to find a way to get everyone to contribute more at both ends of the floor.

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USC men’s basketball needs to quit playing with its food

USC is going to get burned one of these days if it keeps playing with fire. The Trojans have to set the bar higher and not let inferior teams hang around.

For the second consecutive game, USC men’s basketball narrowly scraped by an inferior opponent. On Wednesday night, the Trojans held off UT Arlington 98-95 to improve to 3-0 on the 2024-2025 season. This comes less than a week after the USC struggled against Idaho State, prevailing by a score of 75-69 in a game which was neck and neck with two minutes left.

The good news for the Trojans is that they continue to win games. But given the level of competition, their play is not exactly inspiring a lot of confidence right now.

Plain and simple, Idaho State and UT Arlington are teams the Trojans should be blowing out. (Maybe not by the same margin that the women’s team destroyed Cal State Northridge, but they should still be winning handily.) The fact that these games have been as close as they have is definitely a cause for concern.

Right now, the Trojans are playing with their food. If they continue to do so, they will eventually choke.

USC still has five more games against mid-major opponents. If the Trojans continue to play like they have in the past two, losing at least one of them feels inevitable, and that will put a dent in their March Madness aspirations.

Given the difficulty of playing a Big Ten schedule, it is crucial that the Trojans beat the teams they are supposed to in these early-season buy games if they want to be a serious NCAA Tournament contender. If USC continues to mess around as it ha the past two games, that will not happen.

We saw this under Andy Enfield. The Trojans could get by on sheer talent at times, but that was not sustainable. Eric Musselman has to get his players to defend a lot better than they have. Winning can’t lead to overconfidence; these close shaves must translate into more urgency and greater attention to detail.

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USC overcomes weak defense to survive UT Arlington, stay undefeated

The Golden State Warriors and USC basketball have both beaten the Mavericks this week. USC beat the UT Arlington Mavericks in the Galen Center.

In November, there is no time to worry about style points. This is the month of the college basketball season when teams play smaller conference opponents in an attempt to gain confidence and rhythm. Losing one of these “buy games” can be devastating for a team’s NCAA Tournament chances. The main thing is to win, no matter how ugly or shaky the performance might be. USC basketball and Eric Musselman have managed to stay unbeaten despite two very unsteady performances. Concerns exist, but as long as the wins keep coming, the season is on schedule. USC did stay on schedule with a 98-95 win over UT Arlington on Wednesday night in the Galen Center.

USC had a nine-point halftime lead, 51-42. The Trojans did not play good defense in the first half but still had a working margin because they shot the ball extremely well. They naturally hoped to build their lead in the second half, but UT Arlington was very “Mavericky.” The Mavs kept tossing in 3-pointers to reduce USC’s lead. UT Arlington finished the game 16 of 24 on 3-pointers, giving the Mavericks a plus-30 margin in points scored from 3-pointes. UTA had 48 points on 16 triples, whereas USC had just 18 points on six long balls.

Arlington led 88-86 late in the game. USC was staring down the barrel of a horrible loss. Fortunately, Desmond Claude stepped up for the Trojans. He scored USC’s next eight points to give the Men of Troy a 94-90 lead with 19 seconds left. Claude finished with 26 points on a night when USC hit over 55 percent of its field goal attempts. Josh Cohen scored 19 points. Terrance Williams made his USC debut and added 18 for the victors, who are 3-0 this season and will try to win with a little less drama the next time they take the court.

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The big loser in USC football’s quarterback change? Eric Musselman

Eric Musselman and USC are 2-0, but the football team was still the big story of the week due to its QB change. It’s a reminder about what gets the headlines.

Monday night at USC basketball was supposed to be all about Eric Musselman. Coaching his first game in charge of the USC men’s basketball program, the “Muss Bus” impressed in his debut. The Trojans dominated UT Chattanooga in a wire-to-wire 77-51 victory. Unfortunately for Musselman, however, he only had the spotlight for barely an hour after the game ended. That was because around 10 p.m. local time on Monday night in Los Angeles, it was reported that the football team was making a change at quarterback, and turning to Jayden Maiava to start against Nebraska.

Suddenly, Musselman and the basketball team were pushed to the back page. With the attention of USC fans naturally turning toward the big football news, they quickly forgot about the impressive performance from Musselman’s team in a game they had just watched.

Oh, and to top it all off, there was an election the next day — that was kind of important.

Fortunately for Musselman, Monday was only the first game of a long season. He and his team will have plenty of other opportunities to play their way back into the spotlight. USC beat Idaho State on Thursday in a game which was not on national television. It’s just as well: USC didn’t play particularly well. Yet, the Trojans are 2-0 and are trying to build something special under Musselman.

For the time being, however, being pushed aside by football in the news cycle must have been at least a little bit frustrating for the new head coach.

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NBA MVP visits USC as Eric Musselman focuses on improving team culture

A brush with stardom occurred for young Trojan hoopers: A 7-time NBA All-Star made an appearance at USC basketball practice this week.

The USC Trojans and Eric Musselman had a surprise visitor during their basketball practice earlier this week. Joel Embiid, a seven-time NBA All-Star for the Philadelphia 76ers, dropped by the Galen Center to watch USC basketball practice on Wednesday.

The 76ers were in Los Angeles on Wednesday to face the Clippers when the former MVP, who is currently sidelined due to a suspension, decided to visit the team.

Embiid comically towered over head coach Eric Musselman in a picture posted to Musselman’s X/Twitter account the same day.

Later that evening, Musselman attended the Clippers versus Sixers matchup and met up with former Trojans Caleb Martin and Ricky Council IV after the game, evidenced by another X/Twitter post.

Musselman is having an immediate impact on USC. He intends to start his tenure with a main focus on changing the culture of the team. Bringing in a former NBA MVP certainly helps to achieve that goal.

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Eric Musselman is already making very good decisions at USC

Eric Musselman’s exhibition win over Gonzaga fed this USC team’s confidence. Going hard in an exo was easy to second-guess, but it was the right move for USC.

Exhibition games shouldn’t be seen as season-defining events. They are, after all, exhibitions. They certainly don’t mean a whole lot in professional sports, other than potentially unearthing some lower-end roster decisions which could carry long-term benefits. Generally, though, we don’t focus on how Patrick Mahomes or LeBron James perform in exhibitions. In college basketball, it is usually the same. These are simply games in which coaches get to coach their players and give them a test drive before the real season begins. However, there can be exceptions to all of this, and Eric Musselman might have created one such exception at USC basketball. Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated told us this about USC’s exhibition win over No. 6 Gonzaga in late October:

“USC didn’t treat this like an exhibition, really pushed its starters to the brink and did everything it could to win the game. Probably a decent move by Muss – try to build some buy-in and confidence inside the locker room while getting a big-name win to build excitement with the fans. Was impressed with how Claude looked as essentially a full-time point guard (a new role for him) and the positional size and shooting they have from 1-4 is impressive,” Sweeney said.

That decision by Musselman to go all-in for an exhibition game certainly seemed to feed USC’s confidence as a team. The Trojans looked very, very good in their 77-51 win over Chattanooga in the regular season opener on Monday. They looked like a cohesive team despite having only one player on the roster who returned from last season’s Andy Enfield team. On defense and offense, USC looked like well-connected team which knew exactly what it was supposed to do and where it was supposed to be on the floor. USC looked like a well-coached team.

Musselman could have soft-pedaled the Gonzaga game. Interestingly enough, it’s obvious Gonzaga did not go hard in that exo versus USC. The Zags just beat No. 9 Baylor by 38 points on Monday night. They took it easy on USC. Yet, USC beating Gonzaga still carried real value for the Trojans, who looked very confident in their win over Chattanooga. Eric Musselman made the right chess move, and it could have a huge effect on USC’s season. Let’s hope it does.

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College basketball analyst shares expectations for USC in 2024-2025

Making the NCAA Tournament is a realistic goal for USC in Year 1 under Eric Musselman, says a prominent basketball analyst. The Chattanooga win backs that up.

Monday night, the USC men’s basketball team kicked off its 2024-2025 campaign. The Trojans beat UT Chattanooga, 77-51, at the Galen Center. The Eric Musselman era got off to a solid start.

Recently, college basketball analyst Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated shared his expectations for USC in 2024-2025. Sweeney believes that the Trojans can push for an NCAA Tournament bid in their first season under Eric Musselman.

“I think making the NCAA tournament in Year 1 is a reasonable median outcome. There’s enough wing talent here that climbing the ladder in a Big Ten where parity should reign supreme is definitely possible, and we’ve seen in the past that Musselman’s teams tend to be playing their best basketball by March. But with this many new faces and questions at arguably the two most important positions in center and point guard, as well as the unknown effect of all the extra travel, things could unravel.”

With essentially an entirely new team from last season, USC truly is a wild card team heading into Year 1 of the Eric Musselman era. With the Trojans also playing their first season in the Big Ten Conference, we will soon find out how equipped this team is to compete with the nation’s best. Monday’s game against Chattanooga offered a lot of positive signs. USC played strong defense in holding Chattanooga to just 51 points. The Trojans received balanced scoring, with seven players scoring at least 8 points. USC did all of this with Michigan transfer — and expected scoring threat — Terrance Williams out due to injury.

It’s only one game, but USC made a good first step against the Mocs.

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Eric Musselman opens USC tenure with rout of Chattanooga

Eric Musselman made his USC basketball debut. Opening night could not have gone any better. The Trojans looked very well-coached throughout.

USC opened up its season with a dominant 77-51 victory over Chattanooga on Monday, beginning the Eric Musselman era with a bang. The Trojans looked like a well-oiled machine and did not play like a team which had just one returning player from Andy Enfield’s last team. This group, comprised almost entirely of transfers, looked sharp and connected at both ends of the floor. Guard Chibuzo Agbo scored a team-high 14 points on 4-of-9 from 3 while forward Matt Knowling added 13 off the bench. It was an all-around successful night for the Trojans, who had seven players score 8 or more points in the win. The Trojans held the Mocs to just 27.8% shooting from the floor including 17.6% beyond the arc.

The win is reflective of this team’s identity that was showcased in its exhibition win over Gonzaga in late October.

Kevin Sweeney, a college basketball writer for Sports Illustrated, put it this way:

“USC didn’t treat this (Gonzaga) like an exhibition, really pushed its starters to the brink and did everything it could to win the game. Probably a decent move by Muss – try to build some buy-in and confidence inside the locker room while getting a big-name win to build excitement with the fans. Was impressed with how Claude looked as essentially a full-time point guard (a new role for him) and the positional size and shooting they have from 1-4 is impressive.”

In his first year with the program, head coach Eric Musselman seems to be putting an emphasis on culture and making his players buy into his plan. While Chattanooga is one of the easier opponents this team will face this season, a big win, with no roadblocks, will make any Trojan fan happy. This was a very strong and positive opening game. Keep in mind that Terrance Williams, the Michigan transfer who is expected to be one of USC’s better scorers this season, did not play due to injury. USC did really well without him. Imagine what could happen when he gets healthy and gets playing time.

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National basketball podcaster offers surprise prediction for Eric Musselman and USC

One national college basketball podcaster is very high on Eric Musselman and USC as the new college hoops season begins. USC plays its opener on Nov. 4.

The college basketball season begins on Monday. USC fans who are disappointed with the football program can turn their attention to the realm of roundball. USC has a women’s team which is a Final Four contender. The Trojans have a men’s team with a new coach, Eric Musselman, who is taking over after 11 years of leadership from Andy Enfield. USC basketball is fresh and new. Hopefully the men’s program can add to the excitement created by Lindsay Gottlieb and the Women of Troy.

Andy Patton, co-host of the national Locked On College Basketball podcast, used to write for Trojans Wire. He was not Andy Enfield’s biggest fan but sees a lot more upside for the Trojans with Musselman aboard. At 13:25 of the video below, Patton identifies USC as a Big Ten contender and a top-tier team in the conference. Where is he picking USC to finish in the 18-team Big Ten? We’ve shared some details from Patton’s predictions, but we won’t reveal all of them. We’ll let you watch the segment to get Patton’s full prediction on USC basketball for the coming season, which starts Nov. 4 (Monday) against Chattanooga:

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Eric Musselman, USC basketball upset No. 6 Gonzaga

USC men’s basketball got off to a flying start in an exhibition game against No. 6-ranked Gonzaga. The Trojans beat the Zags and created a lot of optimism for their season.

The Eric Musselman era at USC basketball has not yet arrived at its first regular-season game, but the Trojans did take the court against another college basketball team on Saturday night. USC faced No. 6 Gonzaga in a charity exhibition game in Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. The Trojans got a good first look at their roster, and Musselman was able to get a sense of what does and doesn’t work for his team.

The results were certainly encouraging. USC defeated Gonzaga, 96-93, in a game which will get plenty of attention from college basketball analysts throughout the country. Terrance Williams, a transfer from Michigan, scored 20 points to lead USC. Desmond Claude, the transfer from Xavier, scored 19 points for USC, which built a solid lead and then withstood a late 8-0 run from the Zags to win. Five USC players scored in double figures, giving the Trojans balance and versatility. There was a lot to like in this game. Now the team needs to build on it as it heads into the regular season.

USC opens the regular season against UT-Chattanooga at the Galen Center on Monday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. local time in Los Angeles.

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