Tag: USC men’s basketball

USC men’s basketball wins by 26 points, shows signs of figuring things out

USC men’s basketball drilled Montana State by 26 points. USC has looked a lot better the past two weeks. This team could be rounding into form.

USC men’s basketball had a very rough ride in the month of November. This was to be expected with a roster almost entirely comprised of transfers. Only one player, Harrison Hornery, came back from last season. Coach Eric Musselman was bound to have some problems piecing together lineup combinations and styles of play which fit his assorted puzzle parts. We saw how difficult this process was when USC took its lumps in late November and got run off the floor by multiple opponents.

Now in mid-December, it seems this USC coaching staff and roster are learning how to create a polished product.

USC played Oregon tough, but lost. Then it blasted Washington on the road in an eye-opening display. Sunday night, USC hammered Montana State in a game which was never close. USC jumped to a quick 27-5 lead, then led by 26 at halftime and finished with a 26-point win, 89-63.

USC’s defense, consistency, effort level, and connectedness are miles better than what they were three weeks ago. The in-game lulls, droughts, and periods marked by a lack of focus are being weeded out of this team’s DNA.

It’s not as though Musselman was a bad coach three weeks ago; he simply ran into the limitations of an all-transfer roster he hastily put together after Andy Enfield and a bunch of 2024 players left the program. Given some time, Musselman has been able to drill deeper and improve player habits across the board. The identity of this team is not only better, but more defined. One can see that in these recent December performances. Hopefully USC can carry all of this into the teeth of the Big Ten season in January.

Evan Mobley thrives for Cavaliers, hopes to make a real run at NBA Finals

Evan Mobley is playing like the big dog the Cavaliers need him to be if they want to make a serious run at the Eastern Conference championship in the NBA.

The current USC men’s basketball team might not be doing anything special, but Trojans are continuing to take the NBA by storm. The latest impressive performance came from former USC standout and current Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley. In a recent 116-102 win over the Charlotte Hornets, Mobley scored a career-high 41 points. He also added 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and a steal. Cleveland has gotten off to an excellent start this season, raising hopes in Ohio that the franchise can return to the NBA Finals. It won’t be easy, but the Cavs might have a puncher’s chance. They won’t be favored in a series against the Boston Celtics, but maybe they can at least win a few rounds in the playoffs before meeting the defending champions.

If Mobley keeps playing the way he did against Charlotte, the Cavs will have a higher ceiling. The 41-point game versus the Hornets was exactly the type of performance Cleveland envisioned when it drafted Mobley with the third overall pick out of USC in 2021. Mobley has quietly been one of the league’s better big men over the past 3+ seasons, averaging 15 or more points and eight or more rebounds in each year of his NBA career to date.

One of the highest-rated recruits to ever sign with the Trojans, Mobley lived up to the tremendous expectations in his lone season on campus. In 2020-2021, he averaged 16.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, helping lead USC to its only Elite Eight appearance of the past two decades.

Unfortunately, Mobley’s lone season of college basketball came during the COVID year, so USC fans were never able to watch him play at Galen Center in person. However, they can surely take satisfaction in watching him tear it up for a Cavaliers team that currently holds the best record in the NBA.

Drew Peterson makes the most of his NBA opportunity with the Celtics

Drew Peterson is showing signs of being able to create an enduring pro basketball career. Many people didn’t think he would get this far or last this long.

It has certainly been a wild ride for former USC guard Drew Peterson since his career in Cardinal and Gold came to an end. After playing his final game as a Trojan in March of 2023, Peterson was not selected in that year’s NBA draft. He briefly signed with the Miami Heat, but was quickly waived and assigned to their G-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Peterson impressed during his time in Sioux Falls, enough so that the Boston Celtics signed him to a two-way contract last December.

Peterson spent the majority of last year with the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G-League affiliate. However, he did appear in three games for Boston during their run to the title and received a championship ring in October for his contributions.

With the Celtics dealing with injuries early on this season, Peterson has had the opportunity to get some legitimate minutes for the big league club. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers (in Cleveland) in a recent matchup of the Eastern Conference’s top two teams, Peterson played 25 minutes, by far the most of his NBA career to date. He impressed during his opportunity, scoring eight points while also recording four rebounds.

Two days later against the Miami Heat, Peterson once again saw significant action, logging 26 minutes. Again, he made the most of it, racking up seven points, seven rebounds, and an assist.

When the Celtics get healthy again, Peterson will likely find his way back to the bench, if not Maine. But his performances in recent weeks were an encouraging sign, and showed that he could have a legitimate future in the league.

Eric Musselman offers blunt assessment of USC’s season outlook

Eric Musselman knows he does not have a full plate of options at USC in his first season. The Trojans are fighting an uphill battle all the way.

It has not been the best start to the season for Eric Musselman and the USC men’s basketball team.

On Wednesday night, the Trojans fell 68-60 at home to Oregon in the first Big Ten game for both programs. With the loss, USC fell to 5-4 on the season. With only three more nonconference buy games left before conference play gets into full swing, things are not looking great for the Trojans in Year 1 under Musselman.

Following the loss, Musselman was asked by Luca Evans of the Orange County Register about his outlook for this year’s team, and he gave an extremely honest assessment.

“I don’t know how many Big Ten games we’re gonna win,” Musselman said. “What I do know is, if you put forth that effort—from a culture standpoint, you know—I don’t think any, you walk out of the building, you think the team played hard, you think the team played hard, you think the team gave great effort, and you think the team didn’t close the game. Which we didn’t.

“We were right there. And like I said, if you lead for 30 minutes, it’s the last 10 minutes of play that we’re not used to winning as a unit.

“There’s probably going to be other nights that we play really well, and whether we can walk away with the win or not, I don’t know in year one. But the effort was there, other than defensively, down the stretch.”

Given Musselman’s prior success at Arkansas and Nevada, the Trojans’ program should be in good hands long term. But if early results are any indication, USC fans might need to wait a year or two before the victories start to come in.

Four-star guard commits to USC men’s basketball

Bringing in a quality recruit during the same week in which it endured a blowout loss magnifies the importance of building the next USC basketball roster.

Earlier this week, USC men’s basketball landed a commitment from four-star guard Jerry Easter. This commitment takes on added meaning and significance in light of USC’s 35-point loss to Saint Mary’s on Thursday night. Rosters comprised mostly of transfers will lack early-season continuity and cohesion. Eric Musselman knows he has to build a foundation for the program’s future with quality recruiting, and here’s a really good addition for the Muss Bus.

A 6-4 guard, Easter is from Toledo, Ohio, but attends high school at Link Academy in Stamford, Connecticut. On3 Consensus ranks him as the No. 33 overall player in the class of 2025.

Easter is USC’s first commit of the 2025 class, which will mark the first full recruiting cycle for new head coach Eric Musselman. Musselman took over the program in April after spending the previous five seasons as the head coach at Arkansas.

Given the state of the Trojans’ roster the time of his hiring, Musselman’s 2024-2025 team is made up almost entirely of transfers, as we noted above. Musselman’s 2025 recruiting class will be his first real step towards building the program in his image.

USC currently sits at 5-2 on the 2024-2025 season after the Saint Mary’s on Thanksgiving Night.

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USC men’s basketball endures brutal defeat against Saint Mary’s in Palm Desert

USC men’s basketball has a roster which will simply need time to develop. That might not be satisfying to anyone, but it’s the truth, and people need to know it.

Eric Musselman came to USC basketball and did not inherit a roster. He inherited a situation in which Andy Enfield recruits decommitted from the Trojans and Isaiah Collier left for the NBA. Musselman would have wanted some of Enfield’s recruits and prime players to stay, but that didn’t happen, and there’s no way to hold Muss responsible for any of that. No incoming coach can be held responsible for that kind of situation. Musselman had to throw together his roster from the transfer portal. Saint Mary’s is one of the worst opponents for a transfer-filled team to face in the early weeks of a college basketball season.

That was made apparent on Thanksgiving Night in Palm Desert, Calif.

Do we need to bother to give you any analysis in a game which ends 71-36? Do we need to explain anything about a game in which USC went 0 for 12 on 3-point shots and scored only 15 points in the second half? Do we need to offer a research paper or dissertation on the state of USC basketball when the Trojans scored six points in a span of 11 minutes connecting the last 7:30 of the first half and the first 3:30 of the second half?

We’re done here. This team is a work in progress. Quick fixes won’t happen. This season has become a process of molding a team and learning what works. The idea that USC was an NCAA Tournament-ready team in the first weeks of the season has been blown out of the water.

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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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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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USC men’s basketball will face Saint Mary’s on Thanksgiving Day

USC beefs up its nonconference schedule with a Thanksgiving tournament for the second straight year.

USC men’s basketball has a prime opponent on its nonconference schedule this coming season. The Trojans, whose roster has been filled primarily with arrivals from the transfer portal in a hectic two-month period under new coach Eric Musselman, will face the Saint Mary’s Gaels and coach Randy Bennett on Thanksgiving Day. It’s the second straight year that USC will play a game on Thanksgiving. Last year the Trojans played Seton Hall. The game will be in Palm Desert, California, near the site of the Indian Wells tennis tournament. The game is part of the Acrisure Classic, with USC then facing Arizona State or New Mexico on Friday depending on Thursday’s results.

These two games should give USC a strength of schedule boost. New Mexico was an NCAA Tournament team last season. Saint Mary’s was a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament one year ago. If SMC remains a strong team this coming season, a win over the Gaels would significantly boost USC’s resume.

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USC men’s basketball will be part of 2025 Maui Invitational

Eric Musselman proves he wants USC to be challenged in nonconference play.

The USC men’s basketball team will be part of the prestigious Maui Invitational “Feast Week” Thanksgiving tournament in 2025. The USC Athletic Department produced this release:

“The USC men’s basketball team under the direction of head coach Eric Musselman has been invited to play in the 2025 Maui Invitational, to be held at historic Lahaina Civic Center in Lahaina, Hi., from Nov. 24-26, 2025. The Trojans will be joined by a premier field which includes 156 NCAA Tournament appearances, 19 Final Fours and five national titles. The eight-team field for the 42nd annual Maui Invitational will also include Baylor, Chaminade, North Carolina State, Oregon, Seton Hall, Texas and UNLV.
The Trojans will be playing in their third Maui Invitational, also participating in 1999 and 2012.”

This is a year and a half away, but USC diving into the Maui Invitational is a clear and direct sign that Eric Musselman wants the Trojans to be challenged by the nation’s best teams. He will be aggressive in nonconference scheduling, something Andy Enfield usually refrained from doing at USC (though this past season was an exception).

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