LOS ANGELES — USC definitely won the press conference Friday morning.
To introduce new men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman, members of the Trojan marching band and spirit squad trooped into the room … and if that weren’t enough, Traveler – the honest to goodness horse, not any sort of costumed mascot or reasonable facsimile – actually was spotted inside Galen Center, too.
That was the easy part. New coach, new enthusiasm, plenty of optimism.
But what will the Trojans look like once they’re up and running next fall? There are plenty of questions now, mainly uncertainty over who will be in the fold when practices actually begin. But the 59-year-old Musselman’s breadth of experience, as a head coach and assistant coach on multiple levels of the sport, should be a major asset in shaping a roster.
“I think you can see that the program will be re-energized,” said Sacramento State head coach David Patrick, who was an assistant coach with Musselman at LSU in 2014-15 (when Musselman was associate head coach), and associate head coach for Musselman at Arkansas in 2020-21.
“He’s obviously got super energy in terms of how he approaches social media, or how he engages with the fans, so you’re getting that from Day One whenever he steps on campus,” Patrick said. “I think the other part is he’s going to be able to put a team together. He’s done that at Nevada. We did that at Arkansas. And he’ll be able to do it in this era of the portal, I think, better than most.”
The high-energy part, we’ve already seen on Day One. Assembling his first Trojan roster will be trickier – and was made even more so by Bronny James’ declaration Friday morning that he’s declaring for the NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility and also entering the transfer portal. Talk about keeping your options open.
Then again, the presence of Isaiah Collier at Friday’s presser – Collier being far more likely to be drafted than James at this point – may have spoken volumes.
But players are out there, in this era of what amounts to college free agency. And having dealt with the real thing as an NBA head coach (the Warriors from 2002-04 and the Kings in 2006-07) and in what is now known as the G-League (six seasons) and the USBL (one season), he knows where to find players and how to win with them.
“I feel like I fit in really well (because of) some of those other places I’ve coached, and some of those places you have changing rosters,” he said. “And with the way the portal is and all, regardless of sport in college athletics right now, it’s constantly evolving. It’s constantly changing.”
Patrick, who left UC Riverside in the summer of 2020 after two successful seasons as head coach to rejoin Musselman in Arkansas for a season, talked of how today’s college landscape requires that building a culture, and assembling a competitive roster, take place in months rather than years.
“The ability to bring in guys in the portal, and retain them, when (NIL) money’s at play is tricky,” Patrick said. “I think the one thing that’s not tricky for Eric is, he did that in the CBA. That’s what he cut his teeth doing, roster building. He did it obviously in the NBA, so it’s not new to him. It’s new to college guys. But he’s used to getting guys in free agency and having a new roster every couple weeks, especially in the CBA.
“This will be right up his alley.”
Musselman talked Friday about “selling a vision,” about discussing how a player’s role might look and how players are best developed, and emphasized that those blueprints would be individualized, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
The only issue he seemed stubborn about? His teams will not play zone defense.
“I think that’s the best way to prepare our players for beyond college on the basketball floor,” Musselman said. “That’s half the game. And, obviously that’s what happens at the NBA level. It’s what happens in the G-League level. And it’s what happens for the most part in Europe. And so if any of our players play beyond college, I want to try to prepare them that I’m best that we can for their career.”
There’s a message there. Currently three of his Arkansas guys are in the NBA: Moses Moody with the Warriors, Nick Smith with the Hornets and Jordan Walsh with the Celtics. That fact would seem to get the attention of any player who has his eyes on the next level.
“I’m guessing the Collier kid goes in the draft,” Patrick said. “But if he was to stay, it’d be a kid that could say, ‘Hey, this guy has been a coach at the highest level.’ He has the menu to get you to the NBA. And I think that’s where Muss differs from anybody, really, in college basketball.”
This is a homecoming of sorts for Musselman, who played at the University of San Diego, and whose first job out of college was in the Clippers’ front office in 1987, as an account executive. Imagine trying to peddle tickets to a team that would finish 17-65, as those Clippers did. That’s some initiation.
His next job in L.A. went more smoothly. He was the coach of the L.A. D-Fenders, the Lakers’ team in what was then known as the D-League, in 2011-12. That team finished 38-12, led the league in defensive field goal percentage and reached the D-League finals before losing to Austin. Musselman was named the league’s Coach of the Year. The next season he was on Arizona State’s staff.
This, presumably, will be a much longer-lasting gig. But in sinking roots back into the community, there will likely be an adjustment that has little to do with hoops.
“He loves the Padres,” Patrick related.
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But Musselman said he’s already heard from Dodgers’ president Stan Kasten – who was general manager of the Atlanta Hawks when Musselman was on Lon Kruger’s Atlanta staff from 2000-02 – and has exchanged texts with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
“I don’t know if I should say it, but I’ll probably end up being a Dodger fan,” Musselman said with a laugh. “It’s pretty safe to say that if Doc (Roberts) and I have been texting, I plan on getting over to Dodger Stadium and wearing blue.”
Hey, when in Rome …
jalexander@scng.com