Tag: USC basketball

Former Andy Enfield USC assistant coach hired by new Washington coach

Tony Bland gets a fresh start in Seattle with Danny Sprinkle.

Andy Enfield is starting his tenure at SMU, but some of his former assistant coaches at USC are being hired elsewhere. One is Tony Bland, who has just been hired by new Washington Huskies head coach Danny Sprinkle, who had coached Utah State to the NCAA Tournament this past season. Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 had the story.

Goodman wrote about Bland:

“Bland hasn’t coached since being fired by USC in January 2018 after being one of 10 individuals arrested in September 2017 in connection with the FBI’s investigation into corruption. Bland served a 3-year show-cause, but has been out for nearly 7 years because the investigation moved so slow. Bland was previously the head basketball coach at St. Bernard High School, and also coached AAU basketball and worked with troubled youth in the Los Angeles area in his time out of college basketball.”

Washington is a USC competitor in the Big Ten, so Bland will be competing against USC next season.

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USC, Eric Musselman make a run at elite players in the transfer portal

Eric Musselman is taking big swings in the transfer portal.

The USC basketball roster has just a few players. Eric Musselman knows he needs to collect a lot of transfers to fill out the 2024-2025 roster. He isn’t limiting his options. Reports from Wednesday indicate USC has reached out to elite transfers Aidan Mahaney of Saint Mary’s and Micah Parrish of San Diego State. These are high-end players who are being contacted by elite programs. Mahaney has been contacted by defending back-to-back national champion Connecticut and Dan Hurley, for instance. The big boys are going after these players, and Eric Musselman has thrown his hat into the ring.

USC has missed out on a number of transfer portal battles, but let’s remember there are over 1,000 players in the portal. There are a lot of really, really good players currently available. It’s not as though teams are already scraping at the bottom of the pan for leftovers. No, that’s not remotely accurate. There are high-end players who are thinking about where they want to go, especially in light of coaching changes at Arkansas, Kentucky, BYU, and other notable programs. We will see if Eric Musselman can land a few really big fish. His identity as the portal king in college hoops will be tested at USC.

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College basketball experts think Eric Musselman will succeed at USC

Experts agree that Eric Musselman is a high-quality coach. This does not feel like a gamble by USC.

Commentators on the College Basketball Coast To Coast podcast weighed in on Eric Musselman at USC. People who follow college basketball closely are convinced Musselman can thrive at USC.

Tyler Jones, who hosts his own sports podcast in addition to his work at CBB Coast To Coast, is sold on the USC coach.

“I really like him,” Jones began. “I thought he did a very good job (at Arkansas) — I’m surprised he moved to USC. His offenses have always been fantatsic. That brand of ball should sell well in Southern California. His NBA track record is substantial. If USC is willing to invest, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be an NCAA Tournament team every year.”

T.J. Rives, the host of CBB Coast To Coast, had this more measured view:

“You have to wonder after all the success at Arkansas and only one disappointing sesason, why he would be so anxious to go to a program with so much uncertainty entering the Big Ten, whether it’s L.A. or not. There’s no doubt he can coach, but I’m still not sure about the fit.”

DeShaun Tate of Tate’s Take Hoops said that “It’s gonna help him going back to a market he’s familiar with — he’ll do a great job recruiting. I think he can have more success at USC than Arkansas, and he went to the Elite Eight at Arkansas. It’s (USC) a better destination for recruits. He has a really good balance between being a player’s coach and a coach’s coach. His energy is infectious, and that’s going to help.”

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Eric Musselman adds transfer from Penn as USC roster starts to grow

Eric Musselman has begun the long process of completely remaking the USC basketball roster.

Eric Musselman has a ton of roster spots to fill at USC. Players are leaving for the NBA draft. They are leaving through the transfer portal. They are decommitting from USC after being recruited by Andy Enfield, who has left for SMU. Musselman has the burden — and the opportunity — of having to build his roster from scratch. One by one, he will need to add pieces. He just did bring in one player: Clark Slajchert from the University of Pennsylvania.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound senior considered UCLA, Cal, Utah State, San Francisco, Stanford, Davidson, and Michigan, according to On3’s Joe Tipton. USC, however, won out.

Slajachert was second-team All-Ivy League last season. He averaged 18 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game this past season, shooting 48.7% from the field and 42.2% from 3-point range.

Slajchert played in 27 of 30 games in 2022-23 and finished second in the team in scoring (13.6 ppg), second in steals (28), and fourth in assists (48). He played in 25 of 28 games in 2021-22, averaging 10.7 points per game.

The L.A. native has two seasons of eligibility remaining and was the No. 214 player available, per the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.

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USC among the finalists for mid-major guard in transfer portal

There’s a 20-point-per-game scorer in the portal, and USC is one of five finalists for him.

The USC Trojans are among five finalists for Northern Kentucky senior guard Marques Warrick. This is according to a report a few days ago via X from On3sports’ Joe Tipton. USC, now coached by Eric Musselman, joins a list of finalists which also includes Cincinnati, Missouri, Penn State and Seton Hall.

Last month, Warrick declared for the NBA draft while also maintaining his college eligibility and entering the transfer portal. He has one year of eligibility remaining.

Warrick was named first-team All-Horizon League and is the leading scorer in Northern Kentucky history, averaging 18 points per game in 125 games for the Norse.

Warrick averaged 19.9 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game this season.

Eric Musselman has a lot of roster spots to fill at USC. Some Trojans have either declared for the draft or will soon do so. Others have transferred out of the program. Others were incoming freshmen who have decommitted due to Andy Enfield’s departure. The 2024 roster is in a position to be completely and dramatically remade. This will not be an offseason marked by light tweaks on the edges. This is a full-on roster overhaul.

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USC basketball roster shrinks as Eric Musselman considers options

More USC players are moving out. The influx under Musselman has yet to materialize (and that’s okay).

USC basketball has a roster which is still dwindling to even lower numbers. The roster is not yet expanding. Eric Musselman has another roster spot to fill after freshman center Arrinten Page entered the transfer portal.

Page is from Atlanta’s Wheeler High School. He was a teammate of Isaiah Collier at Wheeler, and he joined Collier at USC under Andy Enfield.

With Enfield leaving USC to take over SMU and Eric Musselman taking over as the Trojans’ head coach, the portal has been wild to say the least for the Men of Troy over the past week.

Page is a former four-star recruit. He appeared in 27 games for the Trojans this past season. He averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game on 49.2 percent shooting from the field.

The 6-foot-11, 245-pound big man will have will have three years of eligibility remaining.

Page and Collier are very close off the court. Page’s transfer makes it even less likely Collier might stay on with Musselman at USC. Collier is a projected lottery pick and is likely to enter the NBA draft, but if he wants a second season of college basketball, it is now more likely he would enter the transfer portal as opposed to remaining at USC.

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USC, Big Ten are poised to collect significant revenue from future Women’s NCAA Tournaments

USC moves into Year 2 of the JuJu Watkins era with revenue on the table in March Madness.

The Women’s NCAA Tournament featured two of the most-watched sporting events of the year. The Friday semifinal between Iowa and UConn was a huge television hit. The Sunday final between Iowa and South Carolina is expected to pull in big numbers. Information on that will be released on Monday, April 8. With the big television figures, the dollars for ESPN are growing. This is why the Women’s NCAA Tournament has arrived at a point where win units and distributed revenues should now be part of the picture for women’s basketball programs and for NCAA member schools.

We have written about this before, citing research from analyst Alex Simon of the San Jose Mercury News:

“A men’s unit in 2022 was $338,211 – around 0.2% of the BPF. If we use the same scale, a women’s basketball unit for 2022 would be worth $43,655.

“For the sake of simplicity, we will not add the 3 percent increase to each season. But even taking that one unit and multiplying it by six seasons, a unit’s full worth is $261,930.

“Remember the numbers up top, about how well the Pac-12 did in the 2021 women’s tournament? That performance would have been good for 18 units.

“So the hypothetical total for the Pac-12 in 2021 would be $4,714,740. Divide that up among the schools evenly and each athletic department would get $392,895. It’s not in the millions. But it’s a whole lot more than zero.”

Guess what? Those win units should be part of next year’s Women’s NCAA Tournaments. Howard Megdal of The Next Hoops has the story.

It’s an exciting time in women’s college basketball. USC and other prominent programs are in position to capitalize on future successes in March Madness.

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UMass forward Josh Cohen goes with Eric Musselman to USC

Josh Cohen had committed to Arkansas but flipped to USC when Eric Musselman left Fayetteville for L.A.

Former UMass forward Josh Cohen announced on March 30 that he was transferring to the Arkansas Razorbacks. However, you might have noticed that Arkansas’ coach left for USC. Cohen flipped his commitment when the USC Trojans announced Eric Musselman as their next head men’s basketball coach.

Cohen spent just one year with the UMass Minutemen after spending his first four years at St. Francis (PA).

The 6-10, 220-pound power forward averaged a team-leading 15.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. He started all 30 games this past season to earn All-Atantic 10 First Team honors.

Eric Musselman knows he has a gutted USC roster to fill out. Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis haven’t made official final decisions, but both men are fully expected to declare for the NBA draft. Kobe Johnson just transferred to UCLA. Kijani Wright and Oziyah Sellers have transferred out of the program. Dramatic, extensive roster changes are occurring, giving Musselman — viewed as college basketball’s portal king — a chance to radically remake the USC roster for the 2024-2025 season as he tries to build upon what Andy Enfield established in Los Angeles.

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Alabama Basketball reaches out to former USC commit, 2024 4-star PG Trent Perry

The Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball program has reportedly reached out to 2024 point guard Trent Perry, who recently de-committed from USC.

The Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team is currently in the thick of March Madness, preparing for the Final Four, however, it has not stopped the coaching staff from expressing interest in prospects on the recruiting trail.

Recently, several schools reached out to 2024 four-star point guard Trent Perry following his decision to de-commit from the USC Trojans. One of the programs that reportedly made contact was head coach Nate Oats the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Perry had been committed to the Trojans since October of 2023. The product of Harvard Westlake High School in Studio City, California de-committed from USC on April 2. Since then, he has re-opened his recruitment and is exploring his options.

He is listed at 6-foot-4 and 175 pounds. Typically, Alabama head coach Nate Oats will utilize players with that stature at multiple positions. With the Crimson Tide likely losing multiple guards in the upcoming offseason, it would make sense to bring in a player of Perry’s caliber.

His recruitment will be one that Roll Tide Wire will continue to monitor for the foreseeable future.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow the latest regarding the Alabama men’s basketball program and its involvement on the recruiting trail.

One Oregon basketball decommit is watching the Eric Musselman drama evolving at USC

One has to wonder if uncommitted recruits might come to USC based on a potential hire of Eric Musselman.

Vyctorius Miller is a 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of Compass Prep High School in Arizona. He has been released from his national letter of intent to Oregon and will reopen his recruitment. The four-star senior committed to the Ducks in November. According to the On3 Industry Rankings, Miller is the No. 53 overall prospect in the 2024 cycle. Eric Musselman is reportedly about to interview at USC for the open head coaching position. One has to wonder if Miller’s new landing spot might depend on the Musselman situation.

It’s unclear where Miller will end up next season to start his college career, but before committing to Oregon, he took official visits with USC, LSU, Cal, Arizona and Arizona State. Gonzaga, Kansas and North Carolina could be in the mix as well.

The 6-foot-5, 170-pound senior averaged 14.3 points 2 steals and four assists last season. Stay with us and also with Razorbacks Wire for more on the Eric Musselman story at USC.

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