Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2024 18:52:08 GMT -8
CHANGES
5/20 Kevin Patton Jr. transfers from San Diego
Brandon Gardner transfers to Arizona State
Oziyah Sellers to Stanford
Kijani Wright to Vanderbilt
6/6 Wesley Yates transfers from Washington
====================
Last season USC finished in a three-way tie for 9th place after being picked to finish 2nd in the preseason poll. While the media went on and on about their injuries, there were other teams in the Pac-12 who had bigger injury problems. It wasn't the injuries. The Trojans weren't very good, in spite of the hype about their players.
After the season the mass exit began. 10 players left including their 9 leading scorers. The entire recruiting class hit the road. As if that weren't enough, Coach Andy Enfield joined the rush, heading to SMU. Why he would rather coach in the AAC than in the Big Ten?
SC hired Eric Musselman who has had success in the NCAA tournament, but got out ofDodge Fayetteville after a bad season at Arkansas. He's known for taking his shirt off after big wins, something that John Wooden never did. He's also known for wearing out his welcome, wherever he coaches.
Musselman's father was a head coach in the NBA, the ABA, the CBA, the WBA, college, and high school. He was not a coach for the BSA (Boy Scouts of America). Eric grew up around coaches.
Eric coached two NBA teams for a total of three seasons, without much success. Then he spent 4 years at Nevada, with three NCAA tournaments and a Sweet 16 run. At Arkansas, he took the Razorbacks to two Eilite Eights and a Sweet 16 in his first four seasons, before a bad last season at Arkansas. He is known as a very intense coach and a strong motivator.
After SC's roster and recruiting class said "bu-bye", there were a lot of empy seats on the Muss Bus, which he rushed to fill.
GRADUATING
Boogie Ellis was twice named to the All-Pac-12 Team. He led the team in scoring and was a 42% three-point shooter. He was #8 in scoring in the Pac-12. The last time we saw him, he was scoring 24 points in Pauley.
Joshua Morgan wasn't much of a scorer, but he was a force on defense, leading the league in blocks.
DJ Rodman was as good on the boards as you would expect of the son of Dennis Rodman to be.
IN THE DRAFT OR TURNING PRO
Kobe Johnson withdrew from the draft when he transferred to UCLA.
Isaiah Collier was injured at the start of his freshman year. As he got healthier and more experience he started playing really well. He was on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team and will likely be a lottery pick.
Bronny James stayed in the draft. He has the good and bad fortune to be the son of Lebron. It has led to huge publicity and NIL money, but also unrealistic expectations. He had a nice freshman year, coming off the bench, and he will likely get drafted because of who his father is. He will have a great seat on the bench to watch his father. Poor little rich kid.
Michigan transfer Terrance Williams was in the draft, but withdrew.
TRANSFERRING OUT
This is a big loss of talent. Every one of the 7 players transferring out is going to the NBA or a major-conference team.
Kobe Jonhson was on the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team, and he was SC's second best rebounder and 2nd in assists. His shooting wasn't great. I don't think UCLA recruited him for his shooting. They hope he will be the next Jaylen Clark.
Oziyah Sellers was SC's best three-point shooter, but 5 other players took more threes than he did. I guess Andy Enfield didn't tell his players to feed the best shooters, or maybe they didn't listen. Maybe that's why he want to SMU.
The big mystery remains: Why was Kijani Wright a McDonald's All American? He wasn't an amazing high school player. He has spent two years at SC and never started a game.
Vincent Iwuchukwu is a very athletic, 5-star big man who was still pretty raw, but was starting to play better. He will probably be a star playing for Pitino the Elder.
Redshirt freshman Brandon Gardner was a 4-star PF ranked #93 out of high school.
Arrinten Page was ranked even higher at #48, but he struggled to produce for the Trojans.
Zach Booker is transferring. I don't know if he was on scholarship.
RETURNING
This is by far the least returning prodution of any Big Ten team. I doubt you will find a Division 1 team returning less production than this.
The roster was about as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. In three seasons, Hornery has been a lightly-used sub, who has score in double figures twice. 65% of his shots are threes, and he is a lifetime 31% three-point shooter.
RECRUITS
(#29 class, #5 in B1G)
After Andy Enfield left, all of USC's recruiting class decommitted. Trent Perry moved from the Empire of Evil to the Good Guys across town. Brody Kozlowski is headed to BYU. Liam Campbell will play for St. Mary's.
Coach Musselman went looking for talent and found it at his former school. He signed two players who had previously signed with him at Arkansas.
Isaiah Elohim played for Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, so he will get to play for his chosen coach, but a lot closer to home. One writer wrote: "Elohim is a strong, two-way guard with one of the best mid-range game’s in high school basketball. Can score in a variety of ways and is a committed defender on and off ball." I saw him in high school, and I think he is terrific. I expect him to play a lot.
Jalen Shelley is an excellent athlete with a big upside.
The Trojans are tryiing to recruit Arizona decommit Jamari Phillips, who didn't want to compete with Caleb Love for playing time. So are the Oregon Ducks.
TRANSFERRING IN
(*Evan Miya ranks net transfers, counting both how much the team lost and gained through the portal.)
With 11 incoming transfers, USC now has the most transfers in college basketball. I think this is the largest transfer class in NCAA history. There are a lot of them, but I am not sure about the quality. UCLA has four transfers in the Top 66. USC has two in the Top 75. USC needed bodies. We will have to see if they got quality players.
8 of these 10 transfers are seniors. Coach Musselman will have another major rebuilding job aftter next season. On the other hand, with five 5th-year seniors and eight total seniors, he will have a mature, experienced team.
Also all of them were starters at their respective schools last season. That's a lot of experience, even if none of it is experience playing together.
HOWEVER, only two of them played in Power 6 leagues, Desmond Claude and Terrance Williams. The rest are all jumping up in level of competition. Some will make the leap. Others won't.
Desmond Claude was second in scoring, second in assists, and third in rebounds for the 8th-place team in the Big East.
Saint Thomas was a stat-sheet stuffer in the Big Sky. He led the team in scoring, rebounds, steals, and blocks, and was second on the team in assists. He is not an actual saint.
Josh Cohen isn't a saint, either, but he started at St Francis (PA) before transferring to UMass. (Should someone named "Cohen" go to St Francis?) He led the Minutemen in points, assists, and steals.
Wesley Yates III was the star of last season's Washington Husky recruiting class, but he broke his foot before the season and wasn't able to play. Quincy Pondexter is his cousin and was an assistant at Washington. Pondexter is now an assistant coaches at USC. He will be the highest-rated player coming out of high school, edging out Isaih Elohim.
Here's what On3 had to say about him: “Wesley Yates is a strong framed guard who plays with a lot of confidence. He is efficient on the ball, taking care of possessions. Yates has deep range on his jump shot and is comfortable off the bounce or the catch. His release point is a little low, which leads to some inconsistencies, but the release is clean and repeatable. Yates has a strong handle, his understanding of change of paces gets him to his spots in the half-court. He is an average athlete, vertically and horizontally, but he competes and has toughness. Yates is a noted gamer and wants the ball in his hands.”
Chibuzo Agbo Jr. was the second-leading scorer for the 2nd-place team in the Mountain West.
Terrance Williams was a full-time starter and the 3rd-leading scorer for the worst team in the B1G.
Kevin Patton Jr led the Toreros in blocks as a part-time starter for Steve Lavin. He was 4th in scoring and 2nd in rebounding for the 5th place team in the WCC.
Clark Slajchert had an offer from Washington State out of high school, but apparently he cared about academics and chose to play in the Ivy League. Now he is transferring to the Stanford of the West.
Rashaun Agee was #19 in the nation in rebounds per game. He was also the second-best scorer for the 5th best team in the MAC.
Bryce Pope was the leading scorer for the 2nd-place team in the Big Sky.
Matt Knowling was the 3rd-leading scorer for the second-place team in the Ivy League. His teammate was led by Danny Wolf, who UCLA was interested in, but who is going to to Michigan.
CONCLUSION
Eric Musselman came to a team with one returning scholarship player. In a fairly short time he brought in two 4-star freshmen and 11 transfers. If you are counting, that is 14 players. Someone will need an "NIL scholarship".
It is possible to put together a good team with no returning players? Danny Sprinkel did it at Utah State, taking an entirely new lineup to the NCAA tournament. Can Eric Musselman do it in the Big Ten? Perhaps. He has a very mature bunch of veterans. He also has six 4-star players, so he has talent.
The outlook for this season depends on those 11 incoming transfers. Only two of them had preciously played for Power 5 schools. They need quite a few of the other nine to be ready to contribute a lot at this level.
Will they be able to make the jump? Will Elohim be ready to take on a significant role as a freshman? Who shot JR? Will Martha ever find love? Tune in next season when these and many more questions will be answered.
I think Musselman will do well at SC, but his first season looks like a struggle. I think they will be on the wrong side of the bubble. Then he will lose most of his roster, but he will have more time for his next rebuild.
I hope we don't see a lot of shirtless Musselman.
Torvick projects the Trojans as the #24 team in the country and #5 team in the B1G. He projects a 21-10 record and 13-7 in the B1G.
247 picks the Trojans to finish 15th in the league.
------------------------------------------------------------
Vrooman picks the Trojans to finish 7th in the Big Ten
7. USC Trojans
Projected Adjusted Efficiency Margin: +18.9 (+9.63 last year)
Coaching Info: Eric Musselman -6.66 (74th)
5 Highest Rated Players: 6’6 G Desmond Claude (Xavier- 16.6 pts, 4.2 reb), 6’7 F Chibuzo Agbo (Boise State- 13.7 pts, 40.9% 3pt), 6’7 F Terrence Williams (Michigan- 12.4 pts, 4.5 reb), 6’10 F Josh Cohen (Massachusetts- 15.9 pts, 6.8 reb), 6’7 F Saint Thomas (Northern Colorado- 19.7 pts, 9.8 reb)
My model has been extremely down on Andy Enfield for a long time. USC under Enfield had one fabulous year led by 5-star Evan Mobley when they were top-ten at KenPom and made the Elite Eight. Other than that, it has been consistent underperformance compared to the roster culminating in the disaster of last year finishing 9th in a bad Pac-12 with the #1 recruit in the country. Enfield saw the writing on the wall and moved on to SMU. What a break for USC! Now they can go and get...Eric Musselman (aka flashier Andy Enfield).
Musselman’s last year at Arkansas was one of the few that was worse than USC’s as he earned an appalling -21.18 grade taking a preseason top-15 team to 12th in the SEC. At least everyone knows Musselman’s plan: load up on NIL money and bring in as much transfer talent as possible, then worry about how the pieces fit later. It didn’t work last year and I’m skeptical if it works this year.
If you combined USC and Washington’s rosters and redistributed them into two balanced teams then both might both be in the preseason top-20. UW has almost no wing players while USC has nothing but wings. The Trojans have 11 players on the roster between 6’6 and 6’10. Some of them have guard skills and some are shooters so it’s not like there’s no versatility. Plus they should be able to switch almost everything. But there has to be some diminishing returns, right?
==========================
ERIC MUSSELMAN, USC
Profile: The new Southern Cal coach jumped at the chance to get out of Arkansas after a disastrous season, the 59-year-old, sometimes-shirtless coaching vagabond adding another stop during his well-traveled career, this being his 16th job since 1989 and third head coaching job in less than a decade.
Musselman joins Indiana’s Mike Woodson as the two Big Ten coaches with NBA experience, though Musselman’s came from 1998-2007, a long time ago.
Style of Play: Remains to be seen as Musselman takes on West Coast talent and the sort of big-ticket players USC can draw, but at Arkansas, his teams were pressure-heavy on defense and tried to play fast on offense.
Recruiting Profile: Musselman has always been a transfer guy. That’s how he built Nevada, and it’s presumably a market USC and its NIL funding will really involve themselves in. Otherwise, SC is going to recruit SoCal, but also one-and-dones and five-star-types coast to coast. The likelihood of them recruiting very often in the traditional Big Ten footprint isn’t high. Purdue and SC likely won’t encounter one another much.
5/20 Kevin Patton Jr. transfers from San Diego
Brandon Gardner transfers to Arizona State
Oziyah Sellers to Stanford
Kijani Wright to Vanderbilt
6/6 Wesley Yates transfers from Washington
====================
Last season USC finished in a three-way tie for 9th place after being picked to finish 2nd in the preseason poll. While the media went on and on about their injuries, there were other teams in the Pac-12 who had bigger injury problems. It wasn't the injuries. The Trojans weren't very good, in spite of the hype about their players.
After the season the mass exit began. 10 players left including their 9 leading scorers. The entire recruiting class hit the road. As if that weren't enough, Coach Andy Enfield joined the rush, heading to SMU. Why he would rather coach in the AAC than in the Big Ten?
SC hired Eric Musselman who has had success in the NCAA tournament, but got out of
Musselman's father was a head coach in the NBA, the ABA, the CBA, the WBA, college, and high school. He was not a coach for the BSA (Boy Scouts of America). Eric grew up around coaches.
Eric coached two NBA teams for a total of three seasons, without much success. Then he spent 4 years at Nevada, with three NCAA tournaments and a Sweet 16 run. At Arkansas, he took the Razorbacks to two Eilite Eights and a Sweet 16 in his first four seasons, before a bad last season at Arkansas. He is known as a very intense coach and a strong motivator.
After SC's roster and recruiting class said "bu-bye", there were a lot of empy seats on the Muss Bus, which he rushed to fill.
GRADUATING
| Player | Games | Starts | Minutes | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Notes |
| Boogie Ellis | 29 | 29 | 34 | 17 | 3.5 | 3.0 | Leading scorer |
| Joshua Morgan | 31 | 23 | 21 | 6 | 3.7 | 1.3 | 2.3 blocks per game led the Pac-12. |
| DJ Rodman | 32 | 28 | 27 | 9 | 5.0 | 1.3 | Leading rebounder |
| . |
Boogie Ellis was twice named to the All-Pac-12 Team. He led the team in scoring and was a 42% three-point shooter. He was #8 in scoring in the Pac-12. The last time we saw him, he was scoring 24 points in Pauley.
Joshua Morgan wasn't much of a scorer, but he was a force on defense, leading the league in blocks.
DJ Rodman was as good on the boards as you would expect of the son of Dennis Rodman to be.
IN THE DRAFT OR TURNING PRO
| Player | Games | Starts | Minutes | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Can Return? |
| Bronny James | 25 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 2.8 | 2.1 | Yes, but also in the portal |
| Isaiah Collier | 27 | 26 | 30 | 16 | 2.9 | 4.3 | No |
Kobe Johnson withdrew from the draft when he transferred to UCLA.
Isaiah Collier was injured at the start of his freshman year. As he got healthier and more experience he started playing really well. He was on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team and will likely be a lottery pick.
Bronny James stayed in the draft. He has the good and bad fortune to be the son of Lebron. It has led to huge publicity and NIL money, but also unrealistic expectations. He had a nice freshman year, coming off the bench, and he will likely get drafted because of who his father is. He will have a great seat on the bench to watch his father. Poor little rich kid.
Michigan transfer Terrance Williams was in the draft, but withdrew.
TRANSFERRING OUT
This is a big loss of talent. Every one of the 7 players transferring out is going to the NBA or a major-conference team.
| Player | Games | Starts | Minutes | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Notes | Destination |
| Kobe Johnson | 31 | 28 | 31 | 11 | 4.6 | 3.3 | Also in the NBA draft | UCLA |
| Oziyah Sellers | 33 | 6 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 0.6 | Stanford | |
| Kijani Wright | 28 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 0.4 | Vanderbilt | |
| Bronny James | 25 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 3 | 2.1 | Also in the NBA draft | NBA |
| Vincent Iwuchukwu | 31 | 11 | 16 | 6 | 3.8 | 0.6 | St. Johns | |
| Brandon Gardner | Arizona State | |||||||
| Arrinten Page | 27 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 2.1 | 0.4 | Cincinnati |
Kobe Jonhson was on the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team, and he was SC's second best rebounder and 2nd in assists. His shooting wasn't great. I don't think UCLA recruited him for his shooting. They hope he will be the next Jaylen Clark.
Oziyah Sellers was SC's best three-point shooter, but 5 other players took more threes than he did. I guess Andy Enfield didn't tell his players to feed the best shooters, or maybe they didn't listen. Maybe that's why he want to SMU.
The big mystery remains: Why was Kijani Wright a McDonald's All American? He wasn't an amazing high school player. He has spent two years at SC and never started a game.
Vincent Iwuchukwu is a very athletic, 5-star big man who was still pretty raw, but was starting to play better. He will probably be a star playing for Pitino the Elder.
Redshirt freshman Brandon Gardner was a 4-star PF ranked #93 out of high school.
Arrinten Page was ranked even higher at #48, but he struggled to produce for the Trojans.
Zach Booker is transferring. I don't know if he was on scholarship.
RETURNING
| STAT | RETURNING |
| Starts | 0% |
| Minutes | 3% |
| Points | 2% |
| 3-Pointers Made | 2% |
| Rebounds | 2% |
| Assists | 1% |
| Steals | 3% |
| Blocks | 1% |
This is by far the least returning prodution of any Big Ten team. I doubt you will find a Division 1 team returning less production than this.
| Player | Size | Games | Starts | Minutes | Points | Rebounds | Assists | FG% | 3Pt% | A/TO | Class | Recruiting Stars | Recruiting Rank |
| Harrison Hornery F | 6-10 230 | 26 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 33% | 28% | 1.3 | Sr | 3 | 182 |
The roster was about as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. In three seasons, Hornery has been a lightly-used sub, who has score in double figures twice. 65% of his shots are threes, and he is a lifetime 31% three-point shooter.
RECRUITS
(#29 class, #5 in B1G)
| Player | Size | Position | Recruiting Stars | Recruiting Rank | Offers |
| Isaiah Elohim | 6-5 190 | SF | 4 | 47 | Arkansas, Kansas, Villanova |
| Jalen Shelley | 6-8 190 | SF | 4 | 59 | Arkansas, Louisville, Alabama |
| . |
After Andy Enfield left, all of USC's recruiting class decommitted. Trent Perry moved from the Empire of Evil to the Good Guys across town. Brody Kozlowski is headed to BYU. Liam Campbell will play for St. Mary's.
Coach Musselman went looking for talent and found it at his former school. He signed two players who had previously signed with him at Arkansas.
Isaiah Elohim played for Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, so he will get to play for his chosen coach, but a lot closer to home. One writer wrote: "Elohim is a strong, two-way guard with one of the best mid-range game’s in high school basketball. Can score in a variety of ways and is a committed defender on and off ball." I saw him in high school, and I think he is terrific. I expect him to play a lot.
Jalen Shelley is an excellent athlete with a big upside.
The Trojans are tryiing to recruit Arizona decommit Jamari Phillips, who didn't want to compete with Caleb Love for playing time. So are the Oregon Ducks.
TRANSFERRING IN
| SOURCE | NATIONAL CLASS RANK | BIG TEN CLASS RANK |
| 247 | 19 | 7 |
| Evan Miya* | 18 | 4 |
(*Evan Miya ranks net transfers, counting both how much the team lost and gained through the portal.)
With 11 incoming transfers, USC now has the most transfers in college basketball. I think this is the largest transfer class in NCAA history. There are a lot of them, but I am not sure about the quality. UCLA has four transfers in the Top 66. USC has two in the Top 75. USC needed bodies. We will have to see if they got quality players.
| Player | Size | Games | Starts | Minutes | Points | Rebounds | Assists | FG % | 3-Pt % | A/TO | From | Class | Recruiting Stars | Recruiting Rank | Transfer Rank |
| Desmond Claude | 6-6 207 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 17 | 4.2 | 3.2 | 43% | 24% | 1.5 | Xavier | Jr | 4 | 86 | 31 |
| Saint Thomas | 6-7 200 | 32 | 32 | 35 | 20 | 9.8 | 4.2 | 47% | 33% | 1.4 | Northern Colorado | Sr | 3 | 236 | 75 |
| Wesley Yates III | 6-4 200 | 0 | Washington | Rs Fr | 4 | 46 | 113 | ||||||||
| Josh Cohen | 6-10 220 | 31 | 31 | 29 | 16 | 6.8 | 1.7 | 54% | 34% | 1.3 | UMass | Sr | Unranked | 147 | |
| Chibuzo Agbo Jr. | 6-7 215 | 33 | 33 | 31 | 14 | 5.1 | 0.8 | 45% | 41% | 0.7 | Boise State | Sr 5 | 4 | 127 | 174 |
| Terrance Williams | 6-7 225 | 31 | 31 | 33 | 12 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 43% | 40% | 1.3 | Michigan | Sr 5 | 4 | 101 | 179 |
| Kevin Patton Jr. | 6-6 190 | 32 | 16 | 26 | 10 | 4.4 | 2.4 | 43% | 34% | 1.1 | San Diego | So | 3 | 155 | 188 |
| Clark Slajchert | 6-1 170 | 22 | 22 | 35 | 18 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 49% | 42% | 1.3 | Penn | Sr | Unranked | 241 | |
| Rashaun Agee | 6-8 225 | 33 | 30 | 28 | 13 | 9.9 | 1.6 | 57% | 23% | 0.7 | Bowling Green | Sr 5 | Unranked | 316 | |
| Bryce Pope | 6-3 185 | 33 | 33 | 36 | 18 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 42% | 33% | 1.5 | UC San Diego | Sr 5 | Unranked | 441 | |
| Matt Knowling | 6-6 205 | 28 | 26 | 28 | 12 | 4.9 | 2.6 | 57% | 14% | 2.9 | Yale | Sr 5 | Unranked | Unranked |
8 of these 10 transfers are seniors. Coach Musselman will have another major rebuilding job aftter next season. On the other hand, with five 5th-year seniors and eight total seniors, he will have a mature, experienced team.
Also all of them were starters at their respective schools last season. That's a lot of experience, even if none of it is experience playing together.
HOWEVER, only two of them played in Power 6 leagues, Desmond Claude and Terrance Williams. The rest are all jumping up in level of competition. Some will make the leap. Others won't.
Desmond Claude was second in scoring, second in assists, and third in rebounds for the 8th-place team in the Big East.
Saint Thomas was a stat-sheet stuffer in the Big Sky. He led the team in scoring, rebounds, steals, and blocks, and was second on the team in assists. He is not an actual saint.
Josh Cohen isn't a saint, either, but he started at St Francis (PA) before transferring to UMass. (Should someone named "Cohen" go to St Francis?) He led the Minutemen in points, assists, and steals.
Wesley Yates III was the star of last season's Washington Husky recruiting class, but he broke his foot before the season and wasn't able to play. Quincy Pondexter is his cousin and was an assistant at Washington. Pondexter is now an assistant coaches at USC. He will be the highest-rated player coming out of high school, edging out Isaih Elohim.
Here's what On3 had to say about him: “Wesley Yates is a strong framed guard who plays with a lot of confidence. He is efficient on the ball, taking care of possessions. Yates has deep range on his jump shot and is comfortable off the bounce or the catch. His release point is a little low, which leads to some inconsistencies, but the release is clean and repeatable. Yates has a strong handle, his understanding of change of paces gets him to his spots in the half-court. He is an average athlete, vertically and horizontally, but he competes and has toughness. Yates is a noted gamer and wants the ball in his hands.”
Chibuzo Agbo Jr. was the second-leading scorer for the 2nd-place team in the Mountain West.
Terrance Williams was a full-time starter and the 3rd-leading scorer for the worst team in the B1G.
Kevin Patton Jr led the Toreros in blocks as a part-time starter for Steve Lavin. He was 4th in scoring and 2nd in rebounding for the 5th place team in the WCC.
Clark Slajchert had an offer from Washington State out of high school, but apparently he cared about academics and chose to play in the Ivy League. Now he is transferring to the Stanford of the West.
Rashaun Agee was #19 in the nation in rebounds per game. He was also the second-best scorer for the 5th best team in the MAC.
Bryce Pope was the leading scorer for the 2nd-place team in the Big Sky.
Matt Knowling was the 3rd-leading scorer for the second-place team in the Ivy League. His teammate was led by Danny Wolf, who UCLA was interested in, but who is going to to Michigan.
CONCLUSION
Eric Musselman came to a team with one returning scholarship player. In a fairly short time he brought in two 4-star freshmen and 11 transfers. If you are counting, that is 14 players. Someone will need an "NIL scholarship".
It is possible to put together a good team with no returning players? Danny Sprinkel did it at Utah State, taking an entirely new lineup to the NCAA tournament. Can Eric Musselman do it in the Big Ten? Perhaps. He has a very mature bunch of veterans. He also has six 4-star players, so he has talent.
The outlook for this season depends on those 11 incoming transfers. Only two of them had preciously played for Power 5 schools. They need quite a few of the other nine to be ready to contribute a lot at this level.
Will they be able to make the jump? Will Elohim be ready to take on a significant role as a freshman? Who shot JR? Will Martha ever find love? Tune in next season when these and many more questions will be answered.
I think Musselman will do well at SC, but his first season looks like a struggle. I think they will be on the wrong side of the bubble. Then he will lose most of his roster, but he will have more time for his next rebuild.
I hope we don't see a lot of shirtless Musselman.
Torvick projects the Trojans as the #24 team in the country and #5 team in the B1G. He projects a 21-10 record and 13-7 in the B1G.
247 picks the Trojans to finish 15th in the league.
------------------------------------------------------------
Vrooman picks the Trojans to finish 7th in the Big Ten
7. USC Trojans
Projected Adjusted Efficiency Margin: +18.9 (+9.63 last year)
Coaching Info: Eric Musselman -6.66 (74th)
5 Highest Rated Players: 6’6 G Desmond Claude (Xavier- 16.6 pts, 4.2 reb), 6’7 F Chibuzo Agbo (Boise State- 13.7 pts, 40.9% 3pt), 6’7 F Terrence Williams (Michigan- 12.4 pts, 4.5 reb), 6’10 F Josh Cohen (Massachusetts- 15.9 pts, 6.8 reb), 6’7 F Saint Thomas (Northern Colorado- 19.7 pts, 9.8 reb)
My model has been extremely down on Andy Enfield for a long time. USC under Enfield had one fabulous year led by 5-star Evan Mobley when they were top-ten at KenPom and made the Elite Eight. Other than that, it has been consistent underperformance compared to the roster culminating in the disaster of last year finishing 9th in a bad Pac-12 with the #1 recruit in the country. Enfield saw the writing on the wall and moved on to SMU. What a break for USC! Now they can go and get...Eric Musselman (aka flashier Andy Enfield).
Musselman’s last year at Arkansas was one of the few that was worse than USC’s as he earned an appalling -21.18 grade taking a preseason top-15 team to 12th in the SEC. At least everyone knows Musselman’s plan: load up on NIL money and bring in as much transfer talent as possible, then worry about how the pieces fit later. It didn’t work last year and I’m skeptical if it works this year.
If you combined USC and Washington’s rosters and redistributed them into two balanced teams then both might both be in the preseason top-20. UW has almost no wing players while USC has nothing but wings. The Trojans have 11 players on the roster between 6’6 and 6’10. Some of them have guard skills and some are shooters so it’s not like there’s no versatility. Plus they should be able to switch almost everything. But there has to be some diminishing returns, right?
==========================
ERIC MUSSELMAN, USC
Profile: The new Southern Cal coach jumped at the chance to get out of Arkansas after a disastrous season, the 59-year-old, sometimes-shirtless coaching vagabond adding another stop during his well-traveled career, this being his 16th job since 1989 and third head coaching job in less than a decade.
Musselman joins Indiana’s Mike Woodson as the two Big Ten coaches with NBA experience, though Musselman’s came from 1998-2007, a long time ago.
Style of Play: Remains to be seen as Musselman takes on West Coast talent and the sort of big-ticket players USC can draw, but at Arkansas, his teams were pressure-heavy on defense and tried to play fast on offense.
Recruiting Profile: Musselman has always been a transfer guy. That’s how he built Nevada, and it’s presumably a market USC and its NIL funding will really involve themselves in. Otherwise, SC is going to recruit SoCal, but also one-and-dones and five-star-types coast to coast. The likelihood of them recruiting very often in the traditional Big Ten footprint isn’t high. Purdue and SC likely won’t encounter one another much.