Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter. I'm Ryan Kartje, your USC beat writer at The Times, coming to you from the last gasps of USC's men's basketball season, where Eric Musselman stood in a back hallway of Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night, wondering just how his first season in L.A. had landed here, with a dismal defense, a record below .500 and the same number of wins USC had last season, under Andy Enfield.
That wasn't what Musselman had in mind when he was hired last April. But at USC, confidence in the coach is as high now as it was then. Around the program, there's a sense that Musselman has made real, tangible progress, even if it might not look that way on paper.
It's a reasonable case to make: Musselman faced an uphill climb from his first day at USC, with a roster to rebuild and only a month to make it happen. But he built it. And from the start, he was honest about its imperfections. He knew the lack of a big man would be a problem. He understood that USC was probably asking too much of Desmond Claude. He wondered about whether the Trojans could execute his defense and knew that injuries could sink them.
All of those concerns came to frustrating fruition over the month of February. But had Claude not bruised his knee against Michigan State, that month might also have gone differently. At Northwestern, USC lost without Claude on a last-second shot. An inadvertent whistle cost them a win over Minnesota. Games against UCLA and Ohio State were well within their grasp.
By then, USC was already worn down by a brutal Big Ten slate that would only accentuate the roster's issues. The Trojans haven't won away from L.A. since Jan. 22. Even the players were acknowledging by the end the toll their travel took.
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"I feel terrible today," guard Wesley Yates III said after USC's loss to Ohio State. "You just have to find a way to fight through it."
There's no sense in blaming the schedule or the travel slate, even if it was a real disadvantage to USC. Which it was. But that, as Don Draper would tell you, is what the money's for.
It was over that stretch, for what it's worth, that USC's defense took a total nosedive. Its opponents shot a whopping 50% from the field from Feb. 7 on, a stretch of nine games. USC lost seven of them.
It was also during that nightmarish stretch that redshirt freshman Yates emerged as a future star. And no player on the roster this season is more of a testament to the progress that's happening behind the scenes in Year 1.
Yates was a bit of a mess in the brief stretches of practice we watched into the fall. Musselman was constantly on his case, frustrated with his shot selection. But in December, with injuries piling up, he put Yates into the lineup. He soared from there.
Now he heads into next season as one of the most exciting young scorers in the Big Ten, and he credits Musselman for developing him to that point.
"The belief he has in me, from the start of the season to now, you can see the switch," Yates said. "He let me play through mistakes. He's let me play my game."
That belief goes both ways at USC, where the school has willingly let Musselman play through his mistakes this season. But next year, the expectation is that the Trojans will make a major leap. Musselman will have a top-10 recruit in Alijah Arenas to work with. Yates and Claude could both be returning. And with an entire offseason to attack the transfer portal, USC can be more deliberate in its approach.
Which is to say there are no excuses for Musselman next season. But count me as someone betting that Year 2 winds up in a far more hopeful place than his debut.
The USC women lost to UCLA …
could that be a good thing in the long run?
I don't usually subscribe to logic that suggests losing is better for any team than winning. But hear me out here: Of course, USC would have rather won the Big Ten tournament title, to couple with its regular season conference crown. But a horrendous second-half shooting slump — 22% — did them in Sunday. Beating any team three times in one season is tremendously difficult, and USC's luck simply ran out in the rivals' third meeting.
But this team has responded well this season when dealt a wake-up call. After losing to Notre Dame earlier this season, USC obliterated everything in its path, including No. 3 Connecticut, over the next two months. When the Trojans then lost to Iowa in early February, they quickly figured out what had been ailing them and tallied three top-10 wins. Two of which came over UCLA.
USC, at its best, is essentially unbeatable. The combination of JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen is next to none when it's clicking. But USC is still prone to lulls in which it seems to forget that potential. Maybe Sunday will be the reminder it needed.
The Trojans should still be a No. 1 seed when the field is announced Sunday. They might've been the No. 1 overall seed with a third win over UCLA. But if the loss can give them that added push on the way to the Final Four, something tells me they'll get over falling short in the Big Ten tournament.
USC football general manager Chad Bowden speaks during a news conference. (USC Athletics)
—Chad Bowden knows what USC fans want to hear, and that's a good thing. When USC's general manager sat down with reporters last week, he knew precisely the right notes to hit. He hammered home the fact that USC is refocusing on local recruiting, something fans have railed about in recent years. And he projected a position of power with NIL — "[USC will be] as aggressive as anyone" — and with revenue — USC "would not be slowed down in any way." His messaging, coupled with what athletic director Jennifer Cohen told me a couple of weeks earlier, was intentional. And it worked. Fans were thrilled with most of what Bowden had to say. Whether he'll actually deliver on his enthusiasm, I have no idea. But he's got a ton of confidence and he clearly understands his circumstances. Now is the time for building good PR. Sitting courtside at the final USC men's basketball game of the season, I'm pretty sure he shook every single hand in his vicinity.
—The USC men averaged just over 5,000 fans per game in Musselman's debut season, 1,200 fewer per game than last year under Enfield. That's not ideal. But there's some important context required. USC had its highest per-game attendance in a decade during the 2023-24 season. This year's average of 5,074 per game is actually the second-highest attendance rate of the last decade. Musselman lamented not doing enough to engage fans, and I do think more can be done. But the most important step is finding a star to build around and winning games. Then, fans will come. Just look at the women's program: The year before JuJu Watkins arrived, USC had an average attendance of 1,037. In Watkins' first season, USC quadrupled that attendance number (4,421). And this season, 5,932 fans on average came to watch Watkins and Co., nearly 900 more per game than the men.
—Could Saint Thomas and/or Rashaun Agee play another season with USC? They're both at least "exploring" the idea, according to Musselman. I won't venture to say I understand how the NCAA applies its eligibility rules these days. But I would imagine that Agee has a better case here than Thomas, by virtue of his single season at a junior college in Wyoming and recent rulings surrounding such situations. Thomas would presumably try to appeal to the NCAA that he left Loyola because of his mental health and would warrant a medical redshirt. Honestly, I have no idea how the NCAA might rule in either case, but I'd imagine both would probably be welcomed back. Whether they'd have the same roles is another question.
—USC is hiring a director of football strategy to help with clock management and situational decisions. But before your mind runs away with that sentence, this is not a new role, per se, on Lincoln Riley's staff. Before, there was an analyst on staff whose job responsibilities included helping with those decisions. Now that responsibility is being shifted to a new role filled by Joe D'Orazio, who worked as a quality control coach at Baylor last season. Before that, he was offensive coordinator at Columbia. Whomever is doing the job, hopefully someone can get a handle on time management this upcoming season.
In case you missed it
UCLA women surge in second half to defeat USC for Big Ten tournament championship
Inside life on the Muss Buss: Eric Musselman's drive to transform USC basketball
Eric Musselman gives brutal assessment of USC's defense after blowout loss to UCLA
USC guard JuJu Watkins, coach Lindsay Gottlieb earn top Big Ten awards
USC's new GM convinced Trojans are 'sleeping giant' of college football
What I'm Watching This Week
James Marsden in "Paradise." (Brian Roedel / Disney)
To be totally honest, I knew before even watching the pilot that Hulu's newest hit show, "Paradise," was probably in my wheelhouse. A mysterious dystopian thriller with James Marsden as the president? Say no more. It's hard to really say much about the plot without giving away the first episode's many reveals, but I bet you'll know after those 45 minutes if "Paradise" is your thing.
Until next time...
That concludes today's newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you'd like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
