Eric Musselman prepares for challenge of leading USC to Big Ten glory with aggressive transfer portal strategy

LOS ANGELES -- Around this time four months ago Eric Musselman was contemplating his future. The USC job had just opened unexpectedly after Andy Enfield was poached away by SMU, leaving the 59-year-old with a perplexing decision: Remain in the SEC with Arkansas or return to a familiar spot in Southern California to take on a new challenge.

Musselman went with the latter. USC officially becomes a member of the Big Ten on Friday, and Musselman will be the one to lead the Trojans into a new era in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.

"I had a great job at Arkansas, it's one of the best basketball jobs in the country," Musselman told CBS Sports. "We recognized we were leaving a great job with a great conference and commissioner. If we were going to leave the SEC, the only spot that made sense was the Big Ten. The landscape in where USC was headed, it made a lot of sense from a conference standpoint and the USC national brand, the academic piece, the uniqueness of being in L.A., there really aren't many college campuses in big cities, metropolitan cities. ... all of that stuff was super attractive when the job came open."

Musselman's ties to The Golden State run deep. He played college basketball at the University of San Diego in the mid-1980s and was also the head coach of the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings. Before Musselman jumped back into college coaching as an assistant at Arizona State in 2012, he was the head coach of the South Bay Lakers — formerly known as the Los Angeles D-Fenders — the G League affiliate of the Los Angeles Lakers.

It's not every day that a coach leaves his job for one coveted job for another, but if there was any offseason to do it, this was it. SMU firing Rob Lanier in mid-March set off a chain reaction in the sport. Musselman leaving opened the door for the program to poach away John Calipari from Kentucky, which led to Mark Pope getting his dream job at his alma mater to fill the massive void one of the most accomplished coaches in the sport left.

USC quickly zeroed in on Musselman as its top target because the Trojans needed a proven winner, an elite recruiter and someone with the charisma to succeed in a high-profile market like Los Angeles. It wasn't that long ago that USC's athletic department went big-game hunting to fill a head coaching vacancy under then-AD Mike Bohn to pluck Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma to take over a program that had been up-and-down under Clay Helton.

After finishing last season with a disappointing 15-18 record and missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, Musselman will be tasked with helping a program that's been to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament only three times this century over the hump.

It certainly won't be easy — especially when you look at USC's Big Ten schedule. USC's inaugural season as a member of the Big Ten includes road games against Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Rutgers, which racks up to over 13,000 miles one-way. And that's not counting any non-conference games or showdowns with former Pac-12 foes Oregon, Washington and UCLA.

"It's going to be challenging, not just a little bit, but a lot," Musselman said. "For all sports, probably football a little bit less because just like the NFL, their travel is not quite as difficult. ... Quite frankly, UCLA, Washington, USC and Oregon, we're all probably lose a game or two based solely on travel. It's just how it is in the NBA."

Ahead of the curve using the transfer portal

Dating back to his time as the head man at Nevada, Musselman utilized the transfer portal — before it became mainstream — to build a roster capable of competing with the heavyweights of the college basketball world. Most notably, Musselman landed Cody and Caleb Martin from NC State in 2016, who both spearheaded Nevada's unsung run to the Sweet 16 in 2018.

"Our philosophy (at Nevada) was to be ahead of the game in building the roster through transfers," Musselman said. "Although we felt like we were at the forefront of the transfer stuff, we were really proud of having two one-and-done lottery picks (at Arkansas) in Moses Moody and Anthony Black. ... you want to make sure the freshmen you get can have an impact or you have to be under the realization that they will transfer because there's just not as much patience in college basketball or football right now."

During his time as a college coach, Musselman has used a blend of high school recruiting and transfers to build out his rosters. In his final year at Nevada, Musselman landed five-star center and McDonald's All-American Jordan Brown — the highest-ranked recruit in program history. Musselman landed Arkansas' three-highest-ranked recruits in the 247Sports modern era (Moody, Black and Jordan Walsh) all in the same 2022 recruiting class. 

Musselman convinced four-star recruits Isaiah Elohim and Jalen Shelley - who previously signed with Arkansas to play for Musselman - to enroll at USC. The Trojans 2024-25 roster will be extremely transfer-heavy with 11 new faces entering the program. Forward Harrison Hornery (13.9 minutes per game) and JD Plough (0.6 minutes) are the only two returners from last year's roster who appeared in a game.

With Bronny James, Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis entering the draft and star wing Kobe Johnson transferring to cross-town rival UCLA, Musselman had to get creative in a time crunch to build a competitive roster.

Two names that have emerged as players expected to contribute include Northern Colorado's Saint Thomas and Xavier's Desmond Claude. Thomas averaged 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists in the Big Sky last season playing at the same school Dalton Knecht did before transferring to Tennessee for his final season. 

"Saint is a guy who's had a great summer," Musselman said. "Desmond Claude, based on film and the little he has been able to integrate himself back. ... Those guys have done a really good job for us."

Familiar faces on the sidelines

When you get a glimpse of the USC bench this season, you'll notice Musselman won't be the only member of his family on it. His oldest son, Michael Musselman, is an assistant coach on the USC staff and has been part of his father's coaching staff in various roles since 2018. Matthew Musselman, Musselman's youngest son, is a graduate assistant at USC and started his coaching career last season at Arkansas in the same role.

In a sense, coaching is a staple of the Musselman family tree. His father, Bill Musselman, was a longtime college and NBA coach who helped his son land a job as an assistant coach on his staff with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1990. Musselman followed suit by creating a path to help his sons land jobs on his coaching staff.

"It's super cool," Musselman said. "I had a chance to work for my dad. You reflect back on that. Michael has done an incredible job of while he was in college being super committed at the University of San Diego to be a manager even though he had a hard academic load. ... he did things people don't want to do. He learned how to do graphics for recruiting, every time a recruit plays, he sends our group who played well and he watches a ton of tape. He's earned the right to be in the position that he's in."

There's a sense of continuity on Musselman's coaching staff at USC outside of having his sons on the bench. Musselman hired Anthony Ruta in 2014 as his Director of Operations at Nevada and was with him for the past five seasons at Arkansas. Todd Lee, another assistant coach, was on Musselman's coaching staff in the early 1990s when he was in charge of the Rapid City Thrillers — a semi-professional basketball team based in South Dakota.

The other two assistant coaches on his staff at USC (Will Conroy and former NBA veteran Quincy Pondexter) have West Coast roots — like Musselman — and will be part of his coaching staff for the first time this upcoming season.

In his coaching career, Musselman has won over 200 games, reached the Sweet 16 four times, the Elite Eight twice and taken two different programs to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. His next task will be his most difficult one to date, but he will get to do it in a place he once called home with some of his closest confidants by his side.