Speaker 1: 0:27

Welcome back to another edition of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. We have another fantastic show for you today. New USC assistant coach and former Washington Huskies standout point guard, will Conroy, joins us a little bit later, and we'll also get the latest practice update from Galen Center from our reporter, jabari Jelks. As usual, I'm joined by co-host Mark Backstrom. How you doing, mark?

Speaker 2: 0:52

all is good here in Newport Beach. Beautiful weather, it's the summer out here, um, but we are kind of in the mid in full throat of all the off-season banter.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Yes, yeah, there's all kinds of exciting things happening uh around USC. All kinds of little news items. It's like everything is new again, right, so we get to experience the newness of all the players and coaches happening all at once. Literally all. Okay. A few news items before we get to the rest of our show. We are recording this as the NBA draft is getting underway. Usc Trojan Isaiah Collier was a 29th pick overall to Utah. Congrats to Isaiah and congrats to Bronny James for being the 55th overall pick for the Los Angeles Lakers. Two draft picks for USC, one of the few schools this cycle to have at least two draft picks.

Speaker 1: 1:41

With Summer League underway, coach Eric Musselman has been busy evaluating prospects for 2026 and 2027. The staff recently offered the following players for 2026 forward brandon martinson out of modern day christian collins, a 68 200 pound power forward out of westchester. By the way, martinson is a 67 190 forward. Um jalen montanati he's a 6'7" 170-pound small forward from Owasso, oklahoma. Katrell Harmon, 6'4", 180,. Combo guard, mount Pleasant, utah. Jackson Richardson, who is the son of former NBA Michigan State star Jason Richardson, 6'6", 180, small forward out of Miami. And Baba Aladotun, 6'8", 160, small forward out of Silver Spring, maryland. In addition, a new offer for 2025 went out to Lino Mark, who is a 6'2" point guard out of Sherman Oaks, notre Dame.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Speaking of 2025, the Trojans hosted local product Tunde Yasufu for an official visit this week. His family's originally from Benin. He's an undersized forward at 6'5" 211, but this guy is a fantastic athlete. Can jump out of the gym really strong, just you know, very versatile, rated the 13th best player in the nation by 247 Sports, and a five-star would obviously be a great get and as we record this, I'm hearing that the visit is going pretty well and I'll save the rest of the news for the practice report. Your reminder that the Dunk City podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom is the only podcast and uscbasketballcom is the only website dedicated to Trojan basketball and only to Trojan basketball.

Speaker 2: 3:15

Our efforts here are a labor of love. So if you could show us a little bit of love and go over to Spotify or Apple Music wherever you listen to your podcasts and give us a like, a follow, five stars, a quality review. It helps boost us in the search engines and lets other Trojan basketball fans know that they're not alone.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Jabari Jelks is our man on campus. He attended his second USC basketball practice of the season on Thursday, june 26th. He's joining us on this week's podcast to give us his impressions of how the Trojans are doing so far under new head coach, eric Musselman. Thanks for joining us, jabari.

Speaker 3: 3:49

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So you've now been to two practices. You were there a couple weeks ago. I can imagine with all these new players there's still some things that are kind of working out. What are your impressions so far on the practice and then reflect a little bit on the difference between the first practice and the second practice that you saw?

Speaker 3: 4:12

Yeah, definitely. I think the main thing that I've noticed so far is just definitely the maturity of the players. There's so many transfers, so many upperclassmen, guys who are stars at mid-majors that are ready to assume a different role on this team. I thought the team really responded to Coach Musk the first couple of practices, particularly the first one, you know he was more so establishing the tone on his play style and what he demanded on them in terms of how he's, you know, even giving out directions for the drills and what he, what he expects of them, even executing the drills. There's multiple times where he stopped practice when things didn't go, you know, according to plan in terms of making the right decision or, you know, maybe there's something they glossed over or just to hammer home a point. He's very meticulous about the details and I think he's somebody that you know his style is going to rub off in the right way, because once talking to a couple of the players after practice the first one they were just saying how Coach Mussel's style is. You know, that's kind of what brought them to USC, a couple of the transfers. Terrence Williams said that today he's been very impressed with Mussel's leadership and just you know just how he's bringing guys together in such a short time span.

Speaker 3: 5:18

And I think from the first practice to the second one, you definitely saw them responding a lot better to the drills.

Speaker 3: 5:30

Like first practice, the second one, you definitely saw them responding a lot better to the drills. Like I said, uh, in the first one they they were still adapting, like I said to you know what, what he wanted them to do or what he demanded of them, and I think they kind of met the demands. In second practice they they kind of demanded more of themselves because of, uh, what they had gone through earlier. But there's a lot of uh excitement for the team because I think one thing that's going to be a big key for USC this year is the versatility and guys learning how to play multiple roles. And you see a lot of guys now in scrimmages, especially the second day, that they were playing different positions or just trying to, you know, do different things in the court rather than what they might be pitching, hold as or what they were known for in the past. So coach must is definitely bringing out a lot, of, a lot of different traits and a lot of the guys too.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Jabari, when you're there at practice, can you actually hear like everything that coaches say and instruction Is it? Is it kind of a intimate environment where we're we're kind of you know, there's no, you know you can feel the intensity of what's going on.

Speaker 3: 6:25

Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, I think this one's a little bit harder to hear because we were in a bigger arena, bigger practice facility, but his message was still getting across because he's pretty, I would say more on the animated side in terms of he's going to be, you know, very active in the drills, or very demonstrative in terms of how he's trying to direct the players to do something or do something in particular. So I think, even if you can't hear every single word they're saying, you can definitely tell that they're picking up on his instructions and they're definitely responding to everything he's saying. And I think that's the most important thing and most important thing I've noticed over the last couple of practices.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Who are some of the players that stood out to you in the second practice.

Speaker 3: 7:07

In the second practice, definitely Jalen Shelley. He played a lot of. He's a freshman coming in, 6'8" left-hander, he can shoot pretty well on the wing and he played a lot of point guard today, which is something that Coach Muss also was talking about in terms of guys stepping in. Desmond Claude right now he's out with an elbow injury so a lot of guys were taking turns at different positions and Jalen Shelly was somebody who was coming up and initiating. He wasn't really playing more of a classic role as a point guard in terms of maybe the traditional setup guy, but just having that alternate playmaker on the wing I think is going to help USC a lot and a lot of those lineups they're going to have to mix and match and have a lot of different players in different spots. So he's one guy that I definitely saw stand out today.

Speaker 3: 7:55

Isaiah Elohim was another guy that I definitely saw from both practices, particularly today. He had a really nice driving two-handed slam with contact, hit a couple shots on the wing, really nice driving two-handed slam with contact, hit a couple shots in the wing. I think his three-point game is still a work in progress and then just his overall feel just needs a little tightening up, but he's somebody I can, I think, come in and contribute, especially on the offensive end as a freshman and Coach Musselman said it before just how physical he is as a freshman you don't have to teach that. And especially going to the Big Ten, physicality is going to be such a big thing and having a couple ready-made freshmen, I think that's going to pay dividends for USC if they're both ready to join the rotation next year.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Kind of curious how Shelly's handles looked. Was he able? You know he's 6'8". Was he keeping his dribble pretty low?

Speaker 3: 8:42

Yeah, he was, and I think he's more of one of those guys that, like I said before, he's more so just bringing the ball up right now, just kind of pass cover plays, like he's just kind of more so doing basic things, because I don't think he played the position at all in high school but Coach Must did say that they envisioned him playing anything from the one to the four this year, but I think right now he's still getting a feel for it and just getting used to bringing the ball up. But he did have a pretty nice low handle. That I think is translatable in terms of once teams start to pressure, once the games actually start, I think he'll be somebody who can actually break traps and be able to move the ball and make a pretty quick decision before the defense converges.

Speaker 1: 9:26

I know it's still pretty early, but just two practices, two practices in. Who do you sense is sort of emerging as kind of like a go-to guy on the court, or the guy that maybe seems like he's going to take charge, uh, when the team uh needs a real uh kick in the pants that's a great question.

Speaker 3: 9:44

I think there's two guys actually I think the main one is Chibuzo Agbo and then St Thomas as well. Both of them just have that it factor. If you were to pinpoint a couple of guys, not only would it have pro potential, but that just seemed like. Once you watch them and just the types of moves they make, they seem like both their games are going to translate very well to the Big Ten and those probably will be. I think that's probably my prediction for the two leading scorers in the team next year, or at least two of the top three.

Speaker 3: 10:16

Agbo already looks super physical, same with St Thomas. They both look very physical. They're tall, tall wings, 6'7". And they're tall, tall wings six, seven. And they're versatile. They're looking to, you know, not only hit long range shots but attack closeouts, make the extra pass, like once they're in the lane, and they both do have that sort of maturity level that comes, that's associated with being a star in a different scenario, and I think that's going to be an underrated part of usc. Once they're able to blend together and these roles end up shaking out and the hierarchy is determined in terms of shot distribution and defined roles, that's going to really help them, because the mentality is you have a lot of guys who are really talented or were talented in other places that would be able to come together as a team, and I think Agbo and St Thomas are definitely going to lead the way.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Well, very good. Are there any other injury updates that we need to know about after the second practice?

Speaker 3: 11:11

Yeah, so Coach Musselman did mention that Matt Nolan is going to be out for a while. He's going to be out for about eight to 12 weeks. He's scheduled to have surgery for a sports hernia. And then Desmond Claude also hasn't practiced but they believe he's definitely ready for the season. But he still has a little bit of ways to go in terms of practicing. But aside from them two, everybody else looked pretty healthy.

Speaker 1: 11:36

So I heard a rumor that there were some prominent NBA players coming by to USC practice afterward. Of that assistant coach, will Conroy, who will be a guest on the podcast later on this very podcast, I heard he was actually working these guys out.

Speaker 3: 11:52

Yeah, he was, he was, he was working them out after the practice had ended. And yeah, there were a few prominent NBA players, like you said Kevin Durant, james Harden, chet Holmgren and Daylon Terry of the Chicago Bulls and it was really cool just seeing them enter the gym and just taking a little bit of USC's practice Coach Musselman was talking about after practice. We were asking a little bit about some of the NBA guys that came in attendance and she was basically saying that goes along with the perks of being in LA, but then it just also highlights the program just being as a great hotbed of not only USC having pro talent usually producing great pro talent but just being known as one of the premier basketball destinations just in Los Angeles area anyway. So I thought that was really cool just to see, you know, all the guys just come in and take in practice. And, yeah, it seemed to all the players seemed to really like it too.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Jabari Jelks, uscbasketballcom's reporter on campus, our eyes and ears on the ground in Los Angeles at Galen Center. Thanks for coming on the Dunk City Podcast, appreciate the practice report and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 3: 12:56

Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me Appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 13:05

All right. Today we have an incredible guest joining us. He is a former standout point guard from the University of Washington, where he was the school's all-time assist leader, who went on to play professionally in the NBA and overseas. After hanging up his jersey, he transitioned into coaching, bringing his wealth of experience and knowledge to the next generation of players. Now he joins us as a newly appointed assistant coach at the University of Southern California. Please welcome to the Dunk City podcast, Will Conroy. Will, it's an honor to have you here. How are you doing?

Speaker 4: 13:33

It's an honor to be here. Thanks for those superlatives.

Speaker 1: 13:37

You know, I was just telling Mark before we came on is, you know, I used to be the basketball SID at usc. I was actually in the position that, um, that dave tuttle is in now, who you probably just met, and uh, he actually replaced me back in your senior year, just after your senior year, yeah, and so I remember, uh, usc going up to seattle and you guys won by 30, I think it was like 99 69 and I checked this, I checked the, the box recently. You had, you had 10 assists and no turnovers.

Speaker 4: 14:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young's team, huh.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Yep Gabe Pruitt, Nick Young they were just freshmen then.

Speaker 4: 14:17

Yeah, I remember that game we we actually had Rome. Rome is burning was following me that whole week. Wow, I was like I'm going to put on a show today.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Well, that was definitely kind of a USC team. That was pretty much I think had packed in at that point. They had an interim head coach and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4: 14:41

But we knew and I remember leaving college, man I knew going out I said, man, that team, them guys, are gonna be good like once, those freshmen, because they're getting a ton of experience, they're getting to learn, they're getting to play through mistakes, they're going to be good and and lo and behold, two years later. I mean I think they did. They go to sweet 16. Yeah, yeah, they did yep, yeah, um.

Speaker 1: 15:03

so I guess maybe our listeners want to know what it's like for someone who, who is a Pacific Northwest guy, garfield high university of Washington player and coach. What's it like to then kind of come down to a to a new school and have to immerse yourself in new culture and new institutions? What's, what's that like as a coach?

Speaker 4: 15:24

Well, I can tell you that I'm blessed. I mean, I could have easily been in the middle of Omaha somewhere, being here in Los Angeles where I've played here. My wife is actually from here and so we have a ton of family here on her side. I'm familiar with Los Angeles. I have a lot of friends here Guys that I've played ball with are here. And then just a familiarity with the program. Obviously, I played against these guys for four years and then I've coached against them for the last 10 years, so there's some familiarity here. And obviously I still have to learn the lay of the land as far as who to know, who to talk to and all of that stuff.

Speaker 4: 16:06

So the transition has been hard because you've been in a certain place your whole life. Even when you come back from playing, it's always Seattle. Now when I'm getting on an airplane, leaving recruiting, I'm coming back to Los Angeles. So that piece is a little different. Got to get used to it. Angeles, so that that piece is a little different. Got to get used to it. And then you know, as I'm explaining to kids, you know what I'm doing here. Or or our school. Sometimes I got to slap my wrist before I say at the university of what are you at university?

Speaker 1: 16:40

But love the colors, love being back in Nike Nice when you were playing at UW, what was the perception of USC? I know USC was in a different place. They had gone to the elite eight just a few years maybe, I think, maybe your freshman year, maybe the year before your freshman year. So they had had some little bit of success here and there. But what was kind of the difference in perception between between USC then as a player and then now USC where the program is, now that you've become an assistant coach?

Speaker 4: 17:12

Well, I think you don't really understand how big the brand of USC is until you're in it, and I told one of my buddies who played here, roydale Smiley, who I think his career wasn't as great here because he had an injury.

Speaker 1: 17:27

Yeah, I remember him.

Speaker 4: 17:29

Yeah. And so we went to the same high school together, really close friends, and I and I text him about maybe a month ago and I said, do like, when I went to Heritage Hall, then I went to a donor dinner and you start seeing some of the people that went here, and so it's just, you know knowledge that you're not really privy to when you're in Seattle. Not only are you not privy to it, you don't really want to dig into anybody else's school, and so you're so engulfed in your little cocoon at your school you don't know. And then when I got down here, I'm starting to learn like wow, the brand of SC is so big, like everybody knows what this means, and everybody, like you drive through LA, you see a ton of SC support. You don't really see UCLA a lot, you see SC, yeah. And so that's what I see.

Speaker 4: 18:29

And it was kind of eye-opening for me. And I haven't even been to a football game yet, and so when I used to think about it as a player, especially when we got good at Washington on the basketball side, I was like you know, usc is just kind of known for football. You know Reggie Bush, matt Leiner, mike Williams, lindell, palomaro, know you start going through the talent that they had on the football field and then you don't even think about, you know, some of the great players that they've had on the basketball program. So that's kind of what I thought, but now that I'm here I kind of see it way different now and it's been eye opening.

Speaker 1: 19:12

So how does someone you were at Washington for seven years. I'm sure you had your choice of places to go Like, how did you end up at USC? What was part of that process of getting you over here?

Speaker 4: 19:25

So it was. It was actually one of the most stressful month in my life. I'll say that, uh, not being serious, but you know, when you're employed for nine straight years at a at a power five school and then all of a sudden, you know, you know it comes to an end, which comes to an end for all coaches in this, in this business, um, you're like okay, what's next? And it's like, wow, do you really have to? You're going to have to get up and move your family, like that's a serious thing. And so you start making phone calls, you start calling around, your agent starts calling around, and obviously I interviewed for Washington, I interviewed for a couple other schools, and so it's just the waiting game. And I sent Coach Muss a text the day after he got the job and he responded thank you, thank you for reaching out. I think I'm pretty far along with my staff, but thank you for reaching out and I was like damn, like there went that and so fun. So, uh, one little story maybe. Like two weeks later, um, uh, I called coach Larry Brown, the legend Larry Brown with us last year, and uh, and I said, coach, man, it's, you know, cause I was talking to a few other schools, just kind of playing a waiting game. And I said coach, uh, man, it's tough, man, you gotta.

Speaker 4: 20:54

I actually called coach Brown and started calling some of his NBA friends and like man, I think I want to get back to the NBA or go back into the NBA. And he says I think you're a college coach. So he starts naming all these coaches. Have I called? And he says, have you called Eric? And I'm like Coach Muss. He says yeah, have you called him? And I said yeah, I reached out to him, uh early, early on. And he uh says he was down in line with his staff and he said, well, let me call him. He said send me his number. Uh, like I coached with his dad or I coached his dad, or something. And then he, and so coach Brown calls him.

Speaker 4: 21:30

This was like a Monday morning, if I'm correct. It was like a Monday morning because I was actually going to work out. I called him in the morning before I went to work out and by the time I was done with my work I had two calls from Coach Brown. So I was like you know what?

Speaker 4: 21:45

Coach Brown, I actually forgot that he was reaching out to Coach Muss. So he calls me and he says Coach Muss is looking for a coach. He said I just told him. So he calls me and he says Coach Musks is looking for a coach. He said I just told him you're the guy to hire. I told him why. I told him, like don't look no further than this guy. So before I even got off the phone with Coach Brown, coach Musks calls me and he says hey, coach, this is Eric Musselman. Just want to know what your status is right now, what would be your interest in coaching at USC. Just kind of ask some pretty general questions and kind of like okay, you'll hear from me again. And so I reached out to like three people that I knew that were really close to me, and then I called my former boss, mike Hopkins, and I said Coach, call him, but don't call him tonight, because I know how this works If you bother somebody, you ain't going to get hired.

Speaker 1: 22:48

It's like trying to date a girl.

Speaker 4: 22:49

Yeah, you don't want to bother them and look thirsty, wait three days, you just don't want to. So I said Coach, don't bother him. And Coach said I know how to do it because obviously he's been a head coach. He said I'm going to send him a text and LeBron just went to the Lakers.

Speaker 1: 23:06

Oh did he.

Speaker 4: 23:08

He did.

Speaker 1: 23:08

That's right. You heard it right here, folks.

Speaker 4: 23:17

USCbasketballcom reports, by way of Will Conroy, that Brawny has been drafted by the Lakers. They took him 55, which they said they were right.

Speaker 1: 23:24

They believed him.

Speaker 4: 23:25

Yeah, they did it. But anyways, back to my journey. And so Coach Hopp calls him. I mean, he sends him a text saying hey, eric, because I guess Coach Hopp and him played in the CBA together. He says you know, I know you reached out to Will Conroy, my former associate head coach. He said it's a no-brainer, you know, he gives him all these, tells him all these things. He was like if you have any questions about him, call me. And then Coach Musk sends him a text back and says thank you, if you're in Los Angeles, come to practice. So Coach Hopp calls me and tells me that and I'm like, oh, I have no chance.

Speaker 4: 24:06

And so two days later, it's Thursday, I'm in my daughter's track practice and Coach Musk calls me and he's he asked me a little bit more questions. And he says have you talked to your wife about it? And I'm like I don't need to talk to my wife about it. If you, if you offer me a job, we're taking it. And so, um, he called me to. Uh, he called me friday morning. He was actually and this is so coach must, now that I've been with him and got to learn him a little bit he called me in the middle of a Zoom call.

Speaker 4: 24:37

He was in a Zoom recruiting call and he called me like in the middle of it and said, hey, we're offering you the job. Don't know if you want to take it, but I'm in the middle of this Zoom, let me know. I'm like Coach, I'll be there. He's like OK, he was like coach, I'll be there. He's like okay. He was like okay, I'm going to put somebody, make somebody call you. How fast can you get down there? I was like how fast do you want me there? He was like well, you can take the weekend, you know, get your stuff together. And I said something. He said, well, can you get here tomorrow? And I said, yeah, I'm going back to finish this recruiting call.

Speaker 1: 25:11

Sounds like a tremendous multitasker.

Speaker 4: 25:14

Oh, he's phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 25:16

You know it's interesting. You brought up the styles and stuff and I was curious. You played under Lorenzo Romar and you coached with Mike Hopkins. Are you a Lorenzo Romar-style coach? Are you a Mike Hopkins-style coach? Are you a Lorenzo Romar-style coach? Are you a Mike Hopkins-style coach? Other people you played with in the NBA and the pros did you pick up anything there? I guess I'm saying what kind of style coach are you if you had to look at your influences?

Speaker 4: 25:48

I think I do a lot of inspiring. I'm really big on feel. I'm really big on how you make people feel, because if people know you're genuine and authentic, it's real. I mean I coach with love, I coach with honesty and I put my heart into it. So I think all those things, those traits that I just mentioned, I think my players to a man would tell you, you know, coach loves me. Or coach would tell me the truth, but it comes out of love. When you do that, you know they run through walls for you. That's always been my philosophy Never want to get too far removed from how it feels of being a player and not having a relationship with a coach. And so I kind of, you know, I kind of stay in that realm a little bit where you know I ask them about their girlfriends, I may go knock on their door see what they're doing. You know I like to really really be involved in their lives um, going from Washington USC.

Speaker 1: 26:53

That's the first time you've had to sort of live the coach's life. You know a lot of coaches are going to different places all the time, so so you haven't had to do that. But what? What made you decide to become a coach in the first place? Was it something that you wanted to do for a long time?

Speaker 4: 27:08

it's a crazy story, man. Um no, it wasn't. I really wanted. If I didn't, if I didn't play professional basketball, I wanted to be an actor. I actually have my degree in drama, so I'm a. I'm a thespian, so I always thought it was going to be one or the other right place now. But yeah, I am, but I got to concentrate. Too many players here and too and too and too many distractions. We used to have an athletic about three athletic directors ago.

Speaker 1: 27:33

We used to have an athletic about three athletic directors ago. He used to encourage players and coaches to go like uh, take part in plays and stuff like that. So you would have fit right in back 10 years ago, oh that would have been awesome.

Speaker 4: 27:46

Um, that's how you really get the brand out there, right? So, as a player, I remember we were playing UCLA and it was mid-game and I'm coming out, coach subbed me out and I'm like leading from the bench, I'm like talking. I'm talking to the guys on the bench, I'm talking to the guys in the game while I'm being subbed out and it was like one of their season ticket holders who had been there for forever. And he says, conroy, come here. And I'm like getting water. And he says you're going to make a hell of a coach one day. And when you're a player, that's like you don't want to hear that. As a player, you want to hear you're going to be a hell of an NBA player one day, right. And so when he said that to me and I always like a brain tattoo for me I was like this guy's crazy, like this guy don't see, now I got 12 points it's like a code, right?

Speaker 1: 28:43

if someone said you'd be a great coach, that's like saying you know. Or like saying, yeah, you work really hard, you know, or something like that.

Speaker 4: 28:48

You know it's like saying, yeah, you're okay at this, but you're going to be way better at that. And so I go on and play. You know I go on my journey and play, and you know I'm making all these stops. But every time I would come home to Seattle I would put the best basketball runs together and so I would gather all the talent in Seattle and I'd get them under one roof and then we would play. But then what I would do was I would train all the pros. I would train all the pros before or after, and here I am trying to make it to the league same age as these guys. And these guys are here listening to me as I'm training them.

Speaker 4: 29:37

And so I start calling Coach Romer like man, what does this mean? He was like you know, you just have a natural gift to coach. And then he didn't want to hire me because he told me what he said was. He said play the game as long as you can, because you can never go back to playing. And he knew that I was a goal driven person and and I told him, like playing in Europe has never been my goal, and if it was, if I couldn't be steady in the league. I was like man, I think I'm going to call it. And so I called him.

Speaker 4: 30:14

I was like I just got cut by the timberwolves, like maybe 10 games in, and uh, they hired me to do um scouting. I was their advanced scout and so after the year they fired the whole staff. I think, uh, flip saunders came through and fired the whole staff, so I was was part of that. And so then here I was again, like man do I have to go back and play? And TJ Olsenberger, who is Iowa State's head coach now he was the assistant coach at Washington. He left and took a job at Iowa State assistant job at Iowa State. So Coach Rowe had a vacancy. And so Coach Rowe called me and he said would you be interested in filling in or, you know, taking this job? And then one thing led to the next and I ended up getting the job.

Speaker 1: 31:07

You know that guy telling you you would make a great coach. When I saw you play at Washington, I remember you just you were like a floor, I mean you were the floor general out there, right. So you you were like a coach on on the court and you carried, you had that thing, you carried about yourself. You know you had you carried yourself a certain way uh on the court. Um. So yeah, that definitely made a lot of sense for you to go into coaching.

Speaker 2: 31:30

And uh mark is going to ask you a few questions here about uh coming up through seattle and garfield high yeah I I gotta say um, just to contradict that guy at ucla um long time usc fan and I absolutely hated facing you that's about as high compliment as I can get, give give to somebody that I had to face, um, but before Washington, when you were at high school.

Speaker 2: 31:55

Garfield High is, for those listening it is kind of a hidden gem, I guess, if you're not from Seattle. I want to just share a little bit of knowledge about it and just your role in it. So you played at Garfield High School class of 2001, if I'm correct, classmates with Trey Simmons, who was an excellent player at Washington, 16 points per game as a senior, long professional career overseas. You were one year behind Brandon Roy, two-time NBA All-Star, I think, fair to say, might be in the Hall of Fame discussion if he wasn't derailed by injuries. That was just so unfortunate. And you mentioned Roydale Smiley. You were a year ahead of him and his son now plays for Garfield. He does. This is an insane, especially you might see it more now in some of the prep schools, but back then 25 years ago, this is a crazy concentration of talent. Did you guys ever lose a game? And if a team ever played you tough, were you just like my gosh? Were you surprised?

Speaker 4: 33:01

We lost. I remember we played a game against a coach who's been coaching for 30 years and he said to our coach after the game. He said this was the most talent that I've ever seen on a floor in Seattle. I mean, every day we would be up. There was no shot clock. Now, every game we'd be up 30 by the third quarter and teams would stall. So we didn't win by 50.

Speaker 4: 33:24

It would be like 15 pass rule against us. So we didn't win by 50. And we would. We, like I always said this we didn't win a state championship my senior year and this is one of the reasons why now that I'm a coach we never had any reps playing into the fourth quarter. We were like he was on the fourth quarter because we'd be winning by so much. So the first team that took us into the fourth quarter, like three of us fouled out it was like six minutes ago like three of our best players fouled out the game and so we just didn't have any reps being in the game that late in a serious game. And so my opinion that's one of the reasons.

Speaker 4: 34:05

But a lot, a lot of talent on that team and just Garfield period Tony Roden Jr went to Garfield. Jalen Noel, garfield High School Obviously Roydale Smiley's son is in there now. I mean it's a plethora of talent that's been through that school. I mean Marjahn Buchamp was in the NBA, went to Garfield for three years. So I mean Tari Eason in the NBA, he's Garfield High School. So I mean.

Speaker 2: 34:35

Tari Eason in the NBA. He's Garfield High School. Yeah, one of the things I always say is I want to see somebody get punched in the nose and see how they react. And it sounds like you all didn't get punched in the nose until it was a little too late. Right, Correct, Correct, All right. So just about 30 minutes down. What we here would call the five probably up Seattle, you called I-5 was a high school named Rainier Beach. Did you all face Nate Robinson?

Speaker 4: 34:59

I started my career at Rainier Beach. I went to Rainier Beach my first, my freshman year. My freshman year I won a state championship with Rainier Beach. I played with Jamal Crawford, who's my best friend wow.

Speaker 2: 35:11

So I remember the first time I saw Nate Robinson play. Wasn't familiar with him as a high school player at all. I know he was a big recruit in football and basketball. That's how I was aware of him. First time I saw him was in a pack 12 game. He I don't remember if it was against usc. He tried to follow slam. He was just a little long and I was at the same time amazed, shocked, scared and delighted. What did you think the first time you saw Nate play?

Speaker 4: 35:41

Nate was a ball of energy. Nate was his namesake, he was Nate the Great. I mean, there was nothing the kid couldn't do. He won Junior Olympics as a middle school kid in track hurdles, 100 and 200. He won the junior Olympics. Um, I mean, he was just. If you say he couldn't do it, he was going to do it.

Speaker 4: 36:04

Um, and so playing with him, playing against him, he's a nightmare. Playing with him, he go. You know he's a. He's a guy that I would want to go in any alley with and so, because I know we're coming out of the alley together with a win, and so that part of it was was it was a level of security for me. I remember, you know, we were in college together. Our hallway used to be adjacent before we came out for warm-ups to the opponents, and so they can see our pregame warm-up in the hallway. Like you know our chants and I would act like I was like his dog owner and I had him on a leash and like crawling down the hallway, like he was like a possessed dog going towards the other team and they're like this is an all-pack 12 player, like acting like he's a dog coming down from the bottom of our legs.

Speaker 1: 37:04

I love it.

Speaker 4: 37:05

No, it was hilarious, I actually saw him on his recruiting visit.

Speaker 1: 37:08

He actually visited USC, nate did, and he looked like he was off five foot four and I was like that can't be the guy who's on the visit. And then he was just hitting all these half court shots during the break.

Speaker 4: 37:24

He wanted to go to USC. Bad the reason why he did not come to USC? It was his dream school. The reason why he did not come to USC is because they told him he couldn't play basketball and football. That's typical.

Speaker 1: 37:37

I had a quick question before taking it back to Mark about Garfield and your son, who is going to be a freshman next year, right, no, he's only going in eighth.

Speaker 1: 37:47

He's only going in eighth. Okay, so he's class of 29, 2029. For those of you who don't know, he's a sensational, uh, point guard prospect already. Uh, he's already got a lot of buzz. He's got, if you guys happen to go check out YouTube, uh, google, uh, will Conroy Jr, pretty amazing stuff. I was just curious if, if you were going to try to make it work where you could still go to Garfield assuming you're, you know still at USC when the time comes.

Speaker 4: 38:16

Uh or do you plan on having to come down to LA. They've already moved down. They've moved down. I've been fielding calls since we got here AAU programs and high school programs Just trying to feel like I said. That's the part for me, just trying to figure out the lay of the land. We kind of knew everything we were going to do in Seattle. Now it's about figuring out the best spot, what makes more sense, and then whatever is in conjunction to where I live. You can want to go here, but the Los Angeles freeways is no joke Right, mark?

Speaker 1: 38:52

Yeah, very fair to that, the Los.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Angeles freeways is no joke, right, mark? Yeah, very fair that All right. So after high school you go to Washington. You started out pretty well right away. But the team first couple of years, first year your freshman year was Bob Bender's last year, if I have that correctly, and then your sophomore season was Romar's first year. Kind of rough those first two years. Y'all made the tournament in your junior season, what's interesting then you made the Sweet 16 in your senior season. I'm just curious. First of all, do you know or can you guess your record against USC as a player?

Speaker 4: 39:33

I know I lost my first two years Sophomore year. I'm not sure I lost to them after my freshman year, maybe once.

Speaker 2: 39:48

That's exactly five and three. Yeah, you split your sophomore year and then it was just all gravy after that. So, yeah, 5-3. One distinct memory I have that 2005 team that made the Sweet 16 was so good and, as we talked about, usc was struggling at that point. One thing I remember I was actually please accept my apologies. I was really hard on you because I was frustrated. You all beat us by like about 20, 25 in our own house, not just that, somehow I think it was just a sign of the effort that the USC team was playing on. I'm curious if you remember this, your team was in the bonus before you had been called for a single foul in the second half. Oh, my God, you know what.

Speaker 4: 40:35

You know what. You know what. We had so many of those nights. I promise you, I promise you, mark, that I would see guys when I was off in my pro career and they would say, literally, guys that I played against in college, like man, you guys cheated so bad in college. They would say, like the referees, just let you guys get away with fouling. And you guys, especially in our building, like, because our thought process on it was you can't call all of them, so we're just going to rough you up and eventually the rest of them are like this is. And then teams that are crying they're going and I'm like stop crying and just play more physical.

Speaker 1: 41:16

It's like this is what we do every day and there was some crusty pack 10 refs back then.

Speaker 4: 41:22

I remember those guys I mean we would literally, and I you know and to and to you know it was some truth behind it. I mean we really got after you. Um, you know, step on your shoe, cheap shots you, elbow you when you weren't paying attention Like we. We got after you and we knew we, we knew we were. And not only did we do it like that, we were pretty cocky about it too. So it was easy for you know someone to form an opinion about our team. I remember Lute Olsen walking through. This was funny, lute Olsen. We got to the Pac-10 tournament and all the teams were in the same hallway. All the teams were in the same area. We had our forum room, the door was open, we were getting ready to have a team meeting and Coach Olsen walks by and you know he was such a legend Like we all respected who he was?

Speaker 1: 42:23

He was like God walking by, yeah.

Speaker 4: 42:26

And so he walks by and we're all just in there just shooting the crap, acting crazy, like we knew we were going to win it, like no one could tell us we weren't. And he walks by and Nate Robinson screams out Luke, luke. And so Coach walks in the door Now, mind you, we're getting ready to have a pregame meeting about who we're playing and Coach walks in the door and says boy, you guys are one confident group. In other words, y'all some arrogant SOBs.

Speaker 1: 43:04

Oh, that's great. Those are some great days.

Speaker 2: 43:09

Yeah, so your senior season. I just remember you being so good. But when I did a little deeper dive, this surprised me. Your shots per game and your points actually went down your senior season. The assists went up. That surprised. What's crazy about that team was talk about a balanced team. Brandon Roy was the third leading scorer on that team. That just blew my mind. So when you take a step back from that in terms of just number of shots, I'm thinking about this current team right now, I mentioned to coach lee we have nine incoming upperclassmen. They played a total of 279 minutes or 279 games. They started 272 of those 279 games. There needs to be a little bit of stepping back. I'm wondering how much have you discussed that change that you made in your senior season to these players on this team? Are you planning to discuss? You know your experience and what's going to be needed from them.

Speaker 4: 44:08

When the time is needed, I definitely will. I remember having to do that and having that conversation with my coach at the time, Coach Romar, and it was twofold. One he said there was nobody else on the team that's seen the game like me. And then, number two, he said that you know you will get everything that you think that you deserve scoring the ball. You will get it even more if we win and you average less but more here and we win at a high level. And he was right. And so our team now is more constructed like a pro team. And I say that in regards to when you get to a pro team.

Speaker 4: 44:54

Everybody on your team was good last year Everybody was the star the year before. When you become a pro, especially when you're in the minor league, everybody on the minor league team averaged 18, 19 points the year before, and so our team now is a lot like that. And so, luckily, coach has a lot of experience in that regard. You know he's coached in the minor leagues so long coached in the league. He's coached guys who's been stars, who's had to readjust their careers or reestablish a role or find a niche, and we're going to have some guys have to make some sacrifices. Guys who started last year aren't going to start this year. Guys who led their team in scoring probably won't lead this team in scoring, and so a lot's to be determined and we have to find out a lot and that comes through practice.

Speaker 4: 45:43

And then that's one piece. And then another piece is some guys are gamers, and so some guys may test awful, be awful or awful quizzers or awful homework guys and just great at taking the test. Some guys get test shy but great practice players but can't play the game. So we'll see how it works. But I will tell you this we have a great group of kids, easy to coach, show up early, work hard, very, very coachable. Work ethic is very high. You know, it takes a certain level of kid where you in my opinion you can bring the Los Angeles and they can have success with all the distractions and staying locked in. And I think the coaches have done a really good job and Coach Muss and the rest of the guys have done a really good job of pinpointing guys who are good players but also good enough young men that they can come here and stay focused.

Speaker 1: 46:48

I know it hasn't been very long Coach, but what are your impressions of Coach Musselman? What have you learned from him so far? Obviously, it's only been very long coach, but what are your impressions of coach Musselman? What have you learned from him so far? Obviously, it's only been, you know, a few weeks, but yeah, what? What did you? What do you think about it? About about being on a staff?

Speaker 4: 47:04

To be honest with you, I love it. I love it. He, I've learned so much in this two months that I've been here. The guy is always on go. You never see him tired. He knows that he controls the climate in the room and he is really aware of that. He doesn't miss anything, he sees it all. He's not afraid of confrontation or he's not afraid to call guys out and he's got a level of authenticity to him which guys can get behind. You know, because you could be with somebody who says something and he's full of crap and the guy's like man, that dude's full of crap. I mean when he says something there's nothing but buy-in. And that's what I see and it's real.

Speaker 4: 47:55

And you know there's a lot of people that say a ton of stuff about coach musk, but since I've been here we've had at least five arkansas players come in town and come through our offices to see him like from wherever they're from, and so I I have it like I'm blown away and just me personally like his organization is high level, his work ethic is high level.

Speaker 4: 48:21

His ability to know who to call, his recruiting style is high level, his competitiveness to win, and to me that's where we're like a marriage because you know you have to be willing to put it all on the line and win every game. And he is I mean he? I mean give you an example, and this is a funny example there's a kid we had in on a visit this is just his competitive side of it, and it's a third day here and the kid was basically you know, coach must have had a ton of success in college already and the kid was kind of like going at him a little bit, but I won't say going at him. But he kind of made a slick comment like you know, you guys didn't have a lot of success like last year. What made you, uh, so sure that you'll have success this year, coach Musk? Just like the flip switch. He was like this he says hold on, you guys didn't have a ton of success either.

Speaker 1: 49:24

You had a ton of success since you've been in college.

Speaker 4: 49:27

Your team's had a ton of success since you've been in college. And so the kid was like no, no, I didn't mean it like that. He was like no, no, no, no, it was a big deal. And so the kid was like no, no, I didn't mean it like that. He was like no, no, no.

Speaker 4: 49:36

But it's like certain little stuff like that I pick up on, I'm like yeah, that's that competitive side, it'll come out, you can't hide it. Um, but he's been great, um, his, his son, michael muscleman, has been uh really accommodating uh, anthony ruda, his staff, his former staff, the guys that he brought, great dudes, they've been so welcoming. Usually when you Coach Todd Lee, usually when you have a new guy coming in, you know there can be a little bit of animosity, a little jealousy a little. There's none of that. You know we are really on the same accord. We talk all the time, uh, pick each other's brains all the time, ideas very open to each other's uh, um, I won't say criticism, but each other's, you know, ideas it seems like you guys are really um bouncing a lot of ideas out there.

Speaker 1: 50:31

Coach lee was on the previous episode of the podcast and he was like hey, what are some ideas? You have to help Phil Galen. And it seems like this is the atmosphere that Coach Must has created, where it's like hey, let's all be creative in this process.

Speaker 4: 50:48

Yeah well, we're in the best in our opinion, the best media market of the world, and we have the biggest brand, and so how can we maximize that with keeping basketball first, and every player, every superstar in the NBA, lives here in the summertime.

Speaker 1: 51:09

It's the basketball capital of the world. Not everybody is from here, but everybody plays here.

Speaker 4: 51:16

And everybody comes here in the summer, everybody vacations here. There's so much media and so much entertainment here. How do we involve that with our program? And you have to win. We know that you have to win, but we have to somehow tie the worlds together and that's what Coach Muss is brilliant. Yeah, I mean his mind is steadily racing on. How can we maximize being in Los Angeles, in the center of LA, 10 minutes away from Crypto Arena, and and make our keep our players first, but also give our players an experience to where they're like.

Speaker 4: 51:56

You know they're recruiting great players for us. Recruiting great players for us? Yeah, because, like man, coach's staff is like so dope, so nice. Their player development is off the hook. You're going to get better every single day. Coach Buster's going to treat you. He's going to squeeze every ounce out you. He's going to make sure you're a great player and then he's going to prepare you for the league. And then he hired two former NBA players with me and Coach Quincy, guys who's played in the pros. And then Coach Musk had pro ties. And then we hired a pro strength coach, an NBA strength coach who was with Golden State. And so we're going to surround our kids with people who've been where they want to go.

Speaker 1: 52:41

We want to go to the pros. Well, I certainly think that this idea of trying to attract there's a lot of basketball fans in LA right, that aren't necessarily USC fans yet, but they like basketball and certainly I think that's always been a fertile ground the city right, the people in the city who love basketball, who go to the Drew League and who go to all these leagues and it's like they're really into basketball. But, but I don't think there's ever been a great outreach toward that crew and and then, of course, I think you know, just getting the students more excited about it is going to go a long way. I'm curious, coach, what's your actual responsibility on the team right now, like, who, what? What areas do you coach and and and and also, what do you do as far as recruiting?

Speaker 4: 53:24

We don't. I mean the way Coach Musk kind of. You know, from what I've gathered and he said, as he was hiring me, we coach everything. There's not an offensive coach, there's not a defensive coach, we're all coaches, and so you know, obviously he's got the main voice. We all bounce ideas off. He's kind of got a good grasp on you know. He's got a good ecosystem of how he's running things and how it needs to be working.

Speaker 4: 53:55

It's like a plug and play Coach. I want you to overlook this. Whatever you see on this, let's come back and talk to it. Maybe it's not even talk to him. He'd like talk to coach Lee or talk to Michael Musselman and you guys come up with something on on that, and so that part of it's kind of been really refreshing. You know, been an associate head coach the last four years, um, but you know, once you start doing this long enough, you know, when you're a young coach like I want to be an associate head coach, I want to be this those titles don't mean anything, you know, and when you win, everyone gets seen the same as you were a player. When you win, you know everybody on the staff gets to look at it. It doesn't matter what your title is.

Speaker 1: 54:36

Well, that's great to hear. I was going to ask you about the team in general, but I wanted to ask you a few questions from our, our audience on the message board, and one of the questions kind of tied in with what I was going to ask you anyway, kind of about the team. Everyone's asking you about how the practices are going and one of our members wants to know who's the strongest and who's surprisingly strong.

Speaker 4: 54:59

Strongest player on our team? I would probably say I would probably say Chibuzo. He's probably the strongest guy on our team, pound for pound. I think that Josh Cohen has a level of strength to him. I just think he has a natural strength. He has a huge lower half of his body which allows him to move you. I think that Isaiah Elohim has the ability to be the strongest guy though His body he's a brick, but he's still kind of a baby. But once he learns how to use his weight and the kid works his tail off, so I can see his future. And then I think that Wesley Yates has a chance to be one of the stronger guys.

Speaker 1: 55:55

Yeah, he definitely looks like a pretty strong kid.

Speaker 4: 55:58

Who has the best?

Speaker 1: 55:58

hops.

Speaker 4: 56:02

Vertical-wise, Elohim is in the 40s vertical, and I think that Desmond Claude is in the 40s as well.

Speaker 1: 56:12

Who's the quickest and or fastest player?

Speaker 4: 56:20

Fastest guy on our team? I would probably say probably Desmond Claude. And who else did you say was the other one? Probably Desmond. Desmond is smooth, but he's cat quick.

Speaker 1: 56:40

You know as a point guard yourself. What do you think about? He didn't play point guard last year, I think, but he's going to play point guard this year. What do you think he brings to that position and what do you think he needs to work on, especially to kind of get to that level that he needs to be?

Speaker 4: 56:58

I think that Desmond is really good. I coached against him when he was with Xavier. We played them like the third game of the season last year and it was my scout and then I popped the film on I was like holy crap, this guy's still in college. I mean he can do a little bit of everything. We're kind of going to obviously give him a role this year and I think that's his NBA position. Obviously give him a role this year and I think that's his NBA position.

Speaker 4: 57:29

Like, if he played the two-guard, yeah, he's a good player and he still may be a pro, but if he's a point guard at 6'5" I mean, his chances of being a first-round pick just skyrocketed and he's the game he's very smooth. Just skyrocketed and he's the game. He's very smooth. And obviously, being with two former point guards and me and Coach Muss who played the position, he's going to get a lot of tutelage in that and him and Clark guys who were kind of like play a little bit of combo, they'll both get a little tutelage of being a straight one.

Speaker 1: 58:02

Okay.

Speaker 2: 58:04

You did not mention, among the strongest players, rashawn Agee. Yeah, so I'm more of a numbers guy than a video or film guy. His rebounds for 40 are off the charts. The guy must have just a motive. That's beyond belief, then, am I correct, not fake.

Speaker 4: 58:22

Our stats to this date from practice. He's leading us in rebounding by a mile.

Speaker 1: 58:27

Wow.

Speaker 4: 58:28

It's not fake. I mean some people just have a nose for the basketball and I mean it's like a magnet, like his hands are around the ball whenever it's put on the rim.

Speaker 2: 58:40

Hmm, it seems to me again just doing my kind of scouting by metrics, if you will, I'll put it nicely it seemed like he wasn't in the best situation in Bowling Green last year. That offense seemed to struggle from a metric standpoint a little bit and it seemed like a lot was asked of him. I think with that kind of motor if he's not he seemed to be he had the second highest usage on that team. If he's like a fourth or fifth guy again, like I said, you were a nightmare that I didn't want to face that's a tough team. If that, because he can finish, and if he's just around just to get whatever else is there and it's not being asked to be the second guy every night, that to me seems like a tough team to face.

Speaker 4: 59:25

I totally agree with you. He's one of those guys that you do not want to play against. He's just one of those guys that are going to. When you pop on a film the next day and you were his opponent, he got you in trouble. You knew you had to. About the one time you decided to to look down, he tip-dunked and it was the final two points that won the game. He's that guy. He's going. He's going to get you extra possessions. And what surprised me about him, um, is he little. He's a little bit better offensively than you would think. Um knows what he's doing. Um has a good feel. He's an old school. He's a throwback player. He's not you know, he's not one of those new guys who you know a big guy that thinks he's got to put the ball on the floor 10 times.

Speaker 1: 1:00:16

Yeah, he knows what he is yeah he knows what he is all right, coach, I'm just gonna ask you you one or two more so we can get you out of here. You can try to beat that traffic potentially. What player are you coaching on this team that you see the most of yourself in? You know, you look at, you see him. You say he kind of does things how I would do it, or he does things how I used to do, that he has my approach.

Speaker 4: 1:00:45

I would say, as far as, like, I think Isaiah Elohim's got a level of not being denied, I think I don't see how the kid can fail. I mean, he's just got, he's going to do whatever the coaches say and he, he's going to do it 100 miles per hour and he's not going to bark back if the coach says and he has ability. So if the coach says, run through that wall which I would have done If anything that would accelerate my chances of making pro that my coach asked me to do, I wouldn't even question it and I think Isaiah has that in him.

Speaker 1: 1:01:22

Well, that's great to hear. Will Conroy, assistant coach, University of Southern California. Thanks so much for coming on the Dunk City podcast. We really appreciate you taking the time. It was awesome catching up with you and we look forward to seeing you out there this year and at practice.

Speaker 4: 1:01:38

Thank you guys for having me. It was fun. Thank you, coach, appreciate it, fight on thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:01:43

It was fun. Thank you, coach, appreciate it. It's good to hear the words fight on coming from will conroy's lips. Thanks to everyone for listening out there. We hope you enjoyed uh, this week's podcast. We're going to keep trying to get more and more of the assistance, more and more of the players. These are definitely some exciting times here at usc, at uscbasketballcom and the Dunk City Podcast. We appreciate you listening. Hope you join us next time and if you want to talk USC basketball, be sure to go to uscbasketballcom, follow us on Twitter, follow us on our new YouTube channel or at TikTok All the socials. Thanks to everyone who got this podcast done, thanks to Jabari Jelks, thanks to Will Conroy Jr, thanks to Dave Tuttle and everyone over at USC Basketball, and we will see you next time. On behalf of Mark Baxter and myself fight on.