Eric Musselman talks roster rebuild, excitement for his second Trojans
USC basketball coach Eric Musselman surely didn’t expect to have to replace almost his entire roster — again — entering his second season with the program, but then again, little actually surprised him as seven players entered the transfer portal in addition to the six who had exhausted eligibility.
Point guard Desmond Claude’s departure on the final day players could enter the portal in late April was the one Musselman wasn’t expecting, but even in that case he feels the Trojans recovered well — and quickly — in putting those NIL resources toward high-profile Auburn transfer Chad Baker-Mazara.
“I would say that this offseason was much more normal. Really only one surprise, to be honest, with how the roster unfolded, and we recovered, I thought, really good,” Musselman said. “… Our roster turned real quick, and then we circled back and got somebody else real quick.”
Claude, who led the Trojans in scoring with 15.8 points per game, and Wesley Yates III, who was second on the team with 14.1 PPG, were the two biggest transfer departures. Claude remains on the transfer market while Yates returned to his former school, Washington.
“Wes made his decision fairly early, so right around the Crown [postseason tournament] we had a pretty good feel. Desmond’s was much, much later — the last day — and it’s just kind of the landscape of all college sports. It’s not just USC basketball — it’s happening all across the country. That’s their prerogative,” Musselman said.
USC also key role player Rashaun Agee (9.4 PPG) to Texas A&M and young guards Kevin Patton Jr. (to New Mexico), Isaiah Elohim (to FAU) and Jalen Shelley (to Loyola Marymount), who all had minor roles last season, while Saint Thomas (9.5 PPG) also entered the transfer portal but hasn’t been granted his request for extra NCAA eligibility so he wouldn’t have been able to play for the Trojans this year anyway.
Guards Chibuzo Agbo (third on the team in scoring at 11.8 PPG), Clark Slajchert and Bryce Pope, center Josh Cohen and forwards Matt Knowling and Harrison Hornery also exhausted eligibility, while Terrance Williams II (10.6 PPG in just seven games before injury) is the lone returning player.
“We felt like Jalen Shelley, Isaiah Elohim, Kevin Patton, all those young pieces we really liked, it’s just a matter of can you really guarantee minutes and that’s hard to do,” Musselman said. “All three of those guys, great attitudes, I think they’re going to be really great players at their next stops. … Those guys have great careers ahead of them, made good decisions where they’re going, places where they can get major minutes. I think that’s important for young players like those guys. I just think it’s how things roll.”
As for the team he’s built heading into his second season …
The Trojans reloaded with some proven veteran playmakers in Baker-Mazara (who averaged 12.3 PPG on a balanced and deep Auburn team that reached the Final Four this season), guard Rodney Rice (who averaged 13.8 PPG as a sophomore for a Maryland team that reached the Sweet 16), 6-foot-8 forward Ezra Ausar (who averaged 12.5 PPG and 5.0 rebounds per game last season for Utah while shooting 51.8 percent from the field) and 6-foot-10 forward Jacob Cofie (who averaged 7.2 PPG and 4.6 RPG as a true freshman at Virginia while shooting 49.5 percent from the field).
Add to that a bunch of intriguing-upside additions like UNC Asheville guard Jordan Marsh (18.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 3.7 assists per game and 2.0 steals per game as a sophomore), 6-foot-7 Robert Morris guard/forward Amarion Dickerson (the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year who averaged 13.3 PPG and 5.9 RPG), 6-foot-9 Samford forward Jaden Brownell (14 PPG, 4 RPG), 7-foot-3 Youngstown State center Gabe Dynes (6.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG as a sophomore) and Dartmouth guard transfer Ryan Cornish (17.1 PPG, 4.9 RPG).
USC also has two notable incoming freshman in five-star guard Alijah Arenas and four-star-guard Jerry Easter.
“I feel like we got characteristics that some of our past teams have had that had success,” Musselman said. “… We move the ball, we have multiple guys that can play point guard. We have a lot of room to grow for sure, but we’re different from a size factor standpoint as well. I feel like we’ve addressed some athleticism up front and still have great size at the point guard position. … We lacked shot blocking so we went out and got shot blocking, but we needed shot-blocking because of the league that we play in. So I would say as much as anything, it was being able to survey the land of what the Big Ten is like.
“A big part of our thing is we need players that can win on the road because everywhere we go is sold out — everywhere. So for guys like Chad to have had that pressure — because Auburn had pressure every single night, immense pressure to win — so he’s been in some big, big games. Playing in the ACC like Jacob has, he’s played in some big games, and obviously Rodney playing on a NCAA tournament team at Maryland and the crowds not only they had at home but the crowds they had to play on the road, all those things become super important in our recruiting process of what we’re looking for. So we feel we’ve solved some of those issues.”
The Trojans still have a 13th scholarship spot they could use to further add to the roster, and Musselman said that remains a possibility.
“We’ve talked about some different names and stuff, but not a necessity really. If you look across the landscape, there’s a lot of programs that have 11,12. If the right came that fit … we just don’t want to disrupt chemistry,” he said. “We’ve talked about getting a younger player that maybe is a younger player that we’ll try to grow with him. We’ve talked about someone from overseas, but nothing that’s going to happen today.”
Meanwhile, landing Baker-Mazara to replace the surprise departure of Claude was as important as any move the Trojans made. The 6-foot-7 guard shot 38.1 percent from 3-point range for Auburn, which was actually down from a career-high 41.8 percent the previous season, and 88.8 percent from the foul line with high-scoring games of 22 points each against Mississippi and Kentucky, 20 against Mississippi State and 18 in the Final Four loss to Florida.
Beyond the stats, though, Musselman likes the energy and attitude Baker-Mazara brings to the program.
“He wins everywhere he goes. They won at San Diego State, they have won at a high, high level at Auburn. I think the other thing, you always have a unique perspective when you’ve played against a player, and so I’ve competed against Chad and he’s super competitive, second-leading scorer on the team that was ranked No. 1 in the country for most of the year or at least in the top 5,” Musselman said. “So I think anytime you can add a player that’s got experience, versatility, competitiveness, toughness, not afraid of the big moment, all those things, we’re super, super excited about Chad.
“He’s emotional, so am I, so I think he and I are probably a really good fit for each other. I can relate to players like Chad.”
Baker-Mazara seconded that point that he and Musselman feed off each other a bit in that way.
“He challenged me in a way that I wanted to be challenged in my life, and I feel like in other situations I wasn’t going to be challenged how I wanted to. I feel like personally I was being doubted in my life, and he said something to me that was pretty unique that I can’t repeat that stuck with me. He basically just challenged me and said ‘I believe you can do that,'” Baker-Mazara said.
“… Before I got here, he FaceTimed a couple of us, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this guy is like me.’ A lot of people were saying we weren’t going to connect good together, but I’m like [it’s] the complete opposite. … Great personality, we’ve got a lot in common, so I feel that can help me a lot on the court as much as off the court.”
Baker-Mazara is from the Dominican Republic, and Musselman previously served as the head coach of the Dominican Republic National Team from 2010-11, which has provided the two an extra level of connection.
“It helps a lot because sometimes I speak Spanish to him and he’ll try to respond to me in Spanish and it’s pretty cool having a coach that knows a little bit about where I come from,” Baker-Mazara said. “Being there and experienced that and worked with players that worked me out, that’s pretty good he knowing a little bit of my culture. He respects that and helps me embrace that in a way.”
As for Rice, who also left a successful program at Maryland (albeit one undergoing a coaching change) to come to USC, he feels there’s still more growth to be had in his game.
“It’s a new opportunity, a great opportunity for me to be a better basketball player and man off the court. I have a lot of learning to do here,” Rice said. “… I look at myself as a versatile player. I can play on the ball point guard, off the ball, score the ball, make my teammates better — whatever the team needs I’m going to be able to do it.”
Cofie, who will anchor the Trojans’ rebuilt frontcourt along with Ausar, said Musselman was aggressive in recruiting him to transfer across the country from Virginia.
“Muss was very straightforward for me. When he wants a player, he’s going to make it obvious to you and he’s going to go out of his way. Once I saw that type of love from a coaching staff, I knew it was a no-brainer,” Cofie said.
“… I think me and Ezra are traditional type of bigs, I Think that’s what Coach Muss likes so he can put us in situation to handle the ball and put us in like DHOs (dribble hand-offs) and use us not as big men [but] floor spacers. I feel we can use that to our advantage — they’re not used to defending guys like me and Ezra.”
Arenas is working back from his scary car accident in April that left him briefly in a medically-induced coma, but he is around the team for summer workouts althought not yet active.
Williams, meanwhile, remains out while he continues to work back from the wrist injury that sidelined him early last season.
“Terrance still being out, we hadn’t anticipated that. We thought that come the first day of summer [he’d be ready to go], but it’s been a really, really slow healing process. There’s not a lot of blood flow that gets through to where his bone is, but we anticipate by August he’ll be ready so when we come back for the next segment of our work that he’ll be available,” Musselman said. “But we need him out there because without Terrance out there it’s a whole new team so you’re trying to teach a lot of different stuff.”
On that note, Musselman said most important of all this upcoming season is the the Trojans find a way to stay healthy.
“We’ve still got holes — I was pretty honest with you guys last year on where we needed to get better at and areas we had to evolve with. I think the biggest thing is we have to remain healthy,” he said. “If you look at the number of games missed injury-wise … we were very close to a top 10 team in the country in games missed due to injury. And we didnt have necessarily enough talent 1-13 to be a team that had so many missed games. Not having Terrance hurts us big-time for an entire Big Ten season. We gotta try to remain healthier than we did this past year.”