LOS ANGELES — They had started from two completely different sects of Los Angeles, one a downtrodden program in need of any sort of recruiting facelift, one a top-tier college basketball power with massive resources and little buzz.
And somehow, Andy Newman and Eric Musselman had ended up, in constructing their rosters, in the exact same place.
Second-year Cal State Northridge coach Newman is a “grinder,” as he once described himself to the Southern California News Group at his introductory press conference in April 2023. First-year USC coach Musselman is, too, a 5-foot-7, 60-year-old man who sprints across hardwood for spittle-spraying conversations with referees. Each local program has been molded in their coach’s image. And cosmetically, the two teams that took the Galen Center court on Wednesday night in cardinal-and-white and red-and-black were built in eerily similar fashion: not a player taller than 6-foot-10, founded on small ball, founded on run-and-gun movement that never slows.
And after a valiant first-half performance, a CSUN team built on Newman’s ideas of pace simply found itself outpaced, as an army of USC shooters buried the Matadors in a 90-69 win.
It was one of the best early showings of Musselman’s first season at USC, his Trojans (8-4 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) playing equal parts free and controlled in burying a scorching 12 of 19 shots from behind the arc and committing just nine turnovers. Chibuzo Agbo Jr., a Boise State transfer known for his love of shooting and dislike of not shooting, had 23 points, including five 3-pointers. Point guard Desmond Claude continued a torrid stretch with 21 points and nine assists. And a year after a stunning, landmark victory over UCLA, CSUN couldn’t get over the hump against the region’s other power program, falling to 7-4 (1-1 Big West) in Newman’s second season.
A back-and-forth first half ended appropriately, in a crowd-igniting moment at the buzzer. As Musselman barked at Claude on his way up the court, the point guard having forced a couple of looks as USC’s offense stalled and CSUN roared to a two-point lead, Claude swung a pass to sophomore guard Kevin Patton Jr. The San Diego transfer took one dribble to his left, stepped back, and uncorked an improbable prayer from an acre behind the top of the arc.
Swish. First-half zeroes rang, with USC back ahead by one. The Trojans, suddenly, had second-half momentum, after previously going without a field goal for their final eight – yes, eight – minutes of the first half.
And in a lightning-quick, physical game, bodies hitting the deck for the basketball on one possession as if football linemen diving for a fumble, an emotional Galen Center became USC forward Saint Thomas’ Coliseum in the second half. The fiery Musselman’s program has thrived, during an up-and-down start, when the fiery Thomas has called his own number. For weeks, though, the Northern Colorado transfer had seemed hesitant, too often focused on running offense for others in a five-game streak of single-digit scoring.
“We need him,“ Claude said, after an early December loss to Oregon in which program leader Thomas finished went scoreless. “And we all recognize that. So we just got to get him going, and yeah, just make him more aggressive.”
Three days later, Thomas scored 19 in a road win against Washington. He scored 17 in a subsequent win against Montana State. And he was every bit the inferno USC needed during a 14-point second half on Wednesday, authoring a late 6-0 swing that bent the home crowd’s energy to his very will.
It started with a Thomas 3-pointer with 13:07 left, extending USC’s lead to 57-49. It continued on the other end, Thomas helping force a CSUN travel. The fury in his lungs uncorked, spewing guttural roars at his own home bench, the momentum only building for what would come next: another catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from Thomas to extend USC’s lead to 11.
He backpedaled downcourt, pounding his chest as if trying to break it, yelling in the face of a CSUN ball handler.
A run ballooned from there, with Agbo burying multiple second-half 3-pointers to extend a 20-point lead.
CSUN’s PJ Fuller II, a Washington transfer, finished with 17 points, and star forward Keonte Jones added 17. But it wasn’t nearly enough as USC shot 32 for 39 (82.1%) from the free-throw line and coasted down the stretch.
More to come on this story.