Eric Musselman has put in the work to redefine the culture of USC men’s basketball.
In an effort to bring fans to Galen Center and engage with the community, he’s bought food and drinks for students at Dulce, the USC Village coffee shop. He also often partakes in short, spirited videos elevating other sports on campus and completing different social media trends, essentially cementing his role as the ultimate showman.
In a city overflowing with sports and entertainment, Musselman is fighting to make USC basketball a destination, not an afterthought.
After two nail-biting exhibition games, the regular season is less than a week away. The Trojans will host Cal Poly for their season-opening game at Galen Center on Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Monday’s attendance will serve as a measure of whether his efforts have worked. Even as the clock ticks down, however, the work is nowhere near finished.
“There’s a student group that’s coming to practice today, then another group coming tomorrow,” Musselman said during his first press conference ahead of the season-opener. “We’re gonna try and have a practice on campus after the Cal Poly game for everybody to come and watch and we’re also gonna try to go support other programs.”
It starts with a “think tank” he says, throwing in a bunch of ideas “some good, some bad, some that make it out to the public and a lot that don’t,” but the ideas are thrown around among the coaching staff and then sent for final review by his wife, Danyelle, and daughter, Mariah, who give their own opinions.
In his second year at the helm, Musselman says that last year they did a lot but not enough. In his first season, the average attendance was 5,074, despite Galen Center holding over 10,000 and the team finishing with a 12-7 home record.
This time around, Musselman is trying to get his players more involved. He believes that if the USC community can get to know these guys, their home attendance can increase.
After exhibition games against LMU and most recently Grand Canyon on Saturday, Musselman says there’s a ton to fix before next week.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to score better, we need to shoot fouls better, we need to shoot threes better, we need to score more in transition,” Musselman said.
Perhaps the most glaring from the two games was the lack of offensive firepower, a shortage that can be attributed to the injuries of highly touted freshman five-star guard Alijiah Arenas and graduate guard Rodney Rice, who transferred in from Maryland.
In building the team, Arenas was set to be the point guard and the scoring machine Rice was slated to be a combo guard, so in their absence Musselman has depended on freshman guard Jerry Easter II to take a heavier load.
“Is he a true point guard? No. Is he learning and continuing to evolve as a point guard? Absolutely. Are we super happy with the way that he’s progressed? Yes,” Musselman said. He’s a great rebounder for a point guard and I know it sounds weird but he’s a great shot blocker.”
He continued to compliment Easter’s strength in getting to the paint and absorbing body blows. With the timetable for Arenas’ and Rice’s return unknown, Musselman emphasized that figuring out the team’s second and third offensive options will be crucial.
For a team integrating nine transfers, on-court chemistry remains a work in progress. Their off-court bond, however, could prove the foundation for the cohesion they’ll need when the regular season tips off.
Every day, Monday through Friday, the staff and players eat meals together at Little Galen Center, a dining hall exclusive to USC athletes. There, they learn more about one another and connect with other athletes. Senior forward Ezra Ausar, who transferred from Utah, regularly hosts his teammates at his house.
“There’s farmers markets coming up in November that we plan on going to as well, we’re trying to be as engaged as possible,” Musselman said. “Trying to bring a group of guys together early and in a short amount of time is challenging but we want to just build a little chemistry and camaraderie.”
Musselman even invited his players over to his house to celebrate Halloween this Friday.
The off-court bond is already there—and if it can click on the court Tuesday night could reveal a team hitting its stride.
When asked about three keys to success against Cal Poly he stressed: transition defense, making all three-point shots and shots under duress, and playing with more pace offensively.
“We’ve got to take their three-point attempts away,” Musselman said. “We’ve got to declare the ball early, we can’t allow driving kicks, they’re gonna have to stay a little bit more attached to their man than what human nature would tell you because of [Cal Poly’s] willingness to take so many threes.”
USC faces a tough road ahead. The ultimate X-factor for the Trojans will be whether or not they can gel quickly enough to contend in a loaded Big Ten Conference.
“Our players will probably self-admit that we spend more time on defense than offense and that’s gonna have to change,” he said. “Cal Poly plays a really unique style with all the threes they take so we gotta fix ourselves offensively a bit more.”