Speaker 2: 0:06

Welcome to the Dunk City Podcast. Trojan country USC is out of the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Well, welcome back to another episode of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. I'm Chris Houston and I'm Mark Backstrom. And today we are in for a special treat as Trojans assistant basketball coach, michael Musselman, joins us. Mark, how's it going?

Speaker 2: 0:42

Very well here in Newport Beach. Lovely weather, as always, and, um, I don't know, apparently my last name's kind of funny to you, chris um, did I, did, I laugh, did I laugh. I think I was I think I was, I think I was laughing at our little format that we did.

Speaker 1: 0:59

which was it reminded me a little bit of the npr morning edition thing where they're like I'm Corey Flintoff, Excuse the snickering.

Speaker 2: 1:06

You are forgiven.

Speaker 1: 1:08

There's not a whole lot of USC basketball news these days. It is the middle of summer and there are some basketball practices going on over at Galen, but just a little short one hour affairs, just a little short one hour affairs. And uh, one thing that is happening I want to mention to everybody right now is, uh, the elite camp from USC men's basketball, which is on Saturday, august 3rd, from nine to 4 PM at Galen center. Uh, for rising ninth to 12th graders. Uh, be sure to sign up on their website If you're interested USC men's basketballtotalcampscom. Or you can email Michael Ruett, who's a USC basketball director of operations at ruett at uscedu that's R-E-U-T-T at uscedu for questions or more information. 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: 2:08

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 in the search engines and lets other Trojan basketball fans know that they're not alone.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Okay, we welcome now to the pod USC assistant basketball coach, michael Musselman. Michael's in his second season as an assistant, first with USC. He was initially hired at Arkansas as director of recruiting before the 2019-2020 season and he added the title of assistant director of basketball operations for the 2020-2021 season and was promoted to director of basketball operations for the following season, or I should say for the 2022-23 season, and then he was elevated to an assistant coach position prior to last year. Throughout his tenure, musselman spearheaded the Arkansas men's basketball recruiting efforts, which, frankly, were pretty awesome. So, michael, thanks for coming on the Dunk City Pod. How are you enjoying being back in Southern California?

Speaker 3: 3:09

Mark and Chris, thanks so much for having me on. I'm enjoying being back in California, graduated from University of San Diego in 2018. So being back in Southern California, being around friends and family and trying to help Coach Muss and his squad get going to start year one off Super excited about the opportunity.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Fantastic. So when the opportunity arose for your father to come to USC, what kind of conversations did you guys have about what USC had to offer as far as basketball, what your goals might be and what you saw as the program's longer term potential?

Speaker 3: 3:44

I mean the conversation went pretty much like when are we moving? So that part was pretty easy and pretty smooth. I think USC from a national perspective, in terms of brand academics, alumni base, alumni support, which is extremely important in today's new era of basketball and then just the history of the program, I think doesn't get talked. You know enough about a few final fours, a few elite eights, like they have had success, and so it's just more of a how do we rejuvenate it and get it back to where it's? You know where it belongs.

Speaker 1: 4:20

It sounds like you've spent some time getting up to speed on USC's history. Is something like that important when you're making the switch, coming over from another program and trying to acclimate?

Speaker 3: 4:29

pretty quick and you know there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes in terms of, okay, we got to let every recruit you know every high school kid that we've been recruiting for the last two years Now they got to know that we're.

Speaker 3: 4:50

You know this is coming up, but you can't do it before it happens. But you got to be ready, um, so there's a lot of steps that take place and then, oh, by the way, you got to figure, go with how you're going to get your car there. Are you going to drive, fly, what day are you going? Um, and so there's a lot of little things like that that go on behind the scenes in our personal lives that make it, you know, a lot bigger of a deal than it, than it is, uh, just in our little work sphere, um, but, yeah, yeah, there was definitely some background research that got done. But but, coach muscleman, you know our family, we've been around California. You know he's multiple stops. I think this is his third stop in LA alone. So, familiar with the brand, have a lot of friends who have gone here, know some of the players that have played here, so we're pretty familiar for the most part.

Speaker 1: 5:38

You've got a great lineage of basketball your grandfather, your father. Was it kind of a fait accompli that this would be your profession, or were there other things you wanted to get into? What made you decide to become a college basketball coach?

Speaker 3: 5:53

I think it comes really natural right. If you're, you know, if your dad's a real estate agent, you tend to be around real estate more and you kind of know some of the language, some of the terminology, how the profession works, and so there was a little bit of comfortability. And then you also factor in you know that I played my whole life. I was in a gym my whole life. It's where I'm the most comfortable A lot of connections that are just made naturally through my grandpa, my dad and then me playing myself.

Speaker 3: 6:21

So it was just kind of a comfortable transition and it's a difficult profession but it's really rewarding and you can see the hard work pay off and I think that's one of the coolest things and one of the biggest differences of, instead of just going and sitting behind a desk, I get to really work with guys day in and day out. You get to build strong bonds, strong relationships. You get to compete and there's a lot know a lot of different factors, especially at the college level, but you get to have your hands in marketing and you get to have your hands in social media and academics and different things like that. That kind of make it you know a really well-rounded job and you learn quite a bit.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Yeah, absolutely. I was going to ask you did you know, coming from the administrative side of things, doing recruiting operations, does that make you sort of a better overall coach, in the sense that you kind of understand what other people are doing, where things are coming from, scheduling, you know your time with players and also sort of like seeing the big picture?

Speaker 3: 7:19

Yeah, I think all that experience definitely helps.

Speaker 3: 7:21

Being a student manager for four years at University of San Diego, going through three different head coaches and three different staffs, I got a really quick, expedited, you know learning experience in terms of how different staffs work and how different head coaches run their programs.

Speaker 3: 7:35

And I was very fortunate for my time, to you know, at University of San Diego working for the program and then, obviously, transitioning and working for my father at, you know, university of Nevada for a year, and then University of Arkansas and now USC. I have filled a lot of different positions and I've, you know, got my hands in a lot of different things, whether it be social media, operational stuff. So, yeah, I have a, you know, I feel like I have a pretty well-rounded background and I like the fact that Coach Musk can kind of throw anything at me, whether it be, hey, I need you to go see this recruit this weekend, or hey, I need you to do this recruiting graphic or edit this video, or, you know, get with our SID on a press release, different things like that. I think it kind of, you know, makes me a unique candidate for a young assistant spot.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Yeah, you kind of have like one foot in each of those worlds that you, that you reside at these to reside in Right.

Speaker 3: 8:28

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:29

So, as a relatively new coach, how much of your style, would you say, is influenced by being around your dad? I assume that's a lot and how much of it is you striking out in your own, looking for new influences and approaches and just trying to kind of craft your own um, your own brand as a as a basketball coach?

Speaker 3: 8:45

Yeah, I definitely learned a lot from him. Like I said, you know, really enjoyed my time at University of San Diego, learned a lot there. Like I said, different head coaches, different staff, so I was able to kind of absorb a lot of information. I was there every day working with the staff in the office and at practice every day, so I got to learn a lot under the coaches there which I really I really kind of tried to bring it into maybe some new, fresh ideas for coach, which you know he does a great job of coming in with an open mind and kind of listening to everyone on staff, whether it be a grad assistant who saw a play on Twitter or, you know, his top assistant bringing a new name for recruiting. He's really open to things and I think that's you know, his top assistant bringing a new name for recruiting. He's he's really open to things and I think that's, you know, kind of something that makes him special.

Speaker 3: 9:29

But, um, yeah, I mean, I think anytime you grow up around something right my, you know my perception, the way I think about things, the way I make decisions. All that's been molded, you know, based on my grandpa being in the profession, my dad being in the profession, uh, and so I think the way I go about things is similar. Obviously, we all have our own styles, but but yeah, some of that, you know, I is derived from them, for sure.

Speaker 1: 9:51

You've cut your teeth on the recruiting side of things and now you're out there on the trail checking out prospects in general. What are you looking for in a player when you go evaluate? How do you weigh athleticism versus basketball, intelligence versus trying to project them out? Um, what is your, your sort of like, your priorities, when you're out there?

Speaker 3: 10:10

I think the number one thing and this is with any assistant, at any spot in any staff but what players fit the head coach? The best coach Muslim likes you know size, length, versatility, guys that he can play. You know one through three, bigs that play small and smalls that play big. So he likes guys that can do a lot of different things high skill level, pass, dribble and shoot. And then every league calls for something different.

Speaker 3: 10:37

So our recruiting you know the type of player we were recruiting in the SEC, the type of you know recruiting we were doing in the Mountain West, and the type of player we're recruiting now in the Big Ten is a different type of player and we try to obviously bring our own style to the league.

Speaker 3: 10:53

But you also have to know the opponents that you're going against, know what type of players you're going to have to defend night in and night out, and then you got to try to sort of match that with your own style.

Speaker 3: 11:03

So I think it starts with who's going to be you know the best player for that specific head coach, and then your league, and then you start to get into. You know what are some of our DNA staples. We've been a high free throw attempt team. We've been top five in the country in free throw attempts the last five years. So, okay, I need to go find guys who draw fouls, because that's what we do, and if that's what a player does, then it's going to be a nice match. Uh, it's not always about just going and getting the highest rated guy or going and get, you know, the highest score, um, but we really start to break it down into what is our DNA as a program, offensively and defensively. And then, uh, how do I find players? Or how do we as a staff find players that kind of fit, that dna?

Speaker 1: 11:44

right? Um, one of the things I've I've I've learned from talking to evaluators over the years is it's not necessarily, uh, what a player does, but how he does it. Is that something you subscribe to?

Speaker 3: 11:57

yeah, for sure, and we talk about it with our guys throughout the recruitment process. But we know it's about student athletes, but at at the same time, we want guys who strive to be professionals in basketball. If you just want to go be a good, four-year, solid college player, this might not be the best spot for you, because we treat our guys like pros. Coach Muslin has a pro background. We have a lot of guys on staff who have NBA experience, whether that be in the front office, in the G League, as an assistant coach, some summer league experience, and then guys like Quincy and Will who have played in it. So we bring up, you know, a real NBA style to the floor and we want guys that strive to push themselves to be professionals in not just basketball, but every walk of life.

Speaker 1: 12:42

professionals in not just basketball but every walk of life, yeah, and it sounds like it's been going great in that regard. Um, when you are, uh, out there on the trail and you find, say you find a player, you're out there at one of those tournaments and maybe you're on a court by yourself and you say, are you kind of like filtering the player yourself based on on what you know a coach wants, or do you ever find yourself in a situation where you find a player and you say you know, maybe he doesn't guard one through three or whatever, but he's amazing at this. Is that something where you would pass on on a player like that, or would you have to convince a coach to go with him?

Speaker 3: 13:21

No, Chris, I think that's a great point of if someone has a knack and does one thing really well, they're going to find time on the floor with us. We want guys who are versatile and can do multiple things. But if you do one thing really well, you take a guy like we had at Arkansas in JD Notte. He was not the highest rated guy, he was a transfer from Jacksonville, no-transcript University of Jacksonville, and so that's an example where I know it's a transfer, not a high school kid, but that's an example where you know someone does one thing really really well. They have one definable skill and that's, you know. That in our eyes, really is kind of what makes pros pros is everyone in the NBA does one thing really really well. Maybe they're a good defender, you know, maybe they can play multiple positions and guard multiple positions, but just kind of one definable skill is definitely something that we don't. We don't pass on. You know, just because we want versatility, we want a little bit of both little bit of both.

Speaker 1: 14:45

So there's thousands of prospects every year and it's physically impossible to look at every player, evaluate every player, to go on home visits, to go visit their school. At some point there's going to be some players that you just have to pass up on or you just never get around to checking out, and so my question to you is can it be very important to understand which staffs out there are also good at evaluating prospects, so that you can kind of keep an eye on them and enable kind of a crowdsourcing aspect to make your overall identification of talent more efficient and more time sensitive? Is that something that happens when you go out on the trail?

Speaker 3: 15:25

Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of that. I mean our staff and myself, particularly like, I think, just growing up in it I have really really high level respect for anyone in the coaching profession. So I, you know, if a coach thinks the guy's a good player, I mean we're going to take a look at him. We don't necessarily like look at another staff and say, oh, they're recruiting and we need to recruit them. I think there are staffs that do that, which when we, when you start to look at our transfer recruiting, we kind of cast a wide net and then we narrow it down. Some of those guys that are putting out that we've contacted them. They might not be on our top list, but we know if we go after a few guys, okay, now there's some other staffs that are going to start to go gung-ho after them. Well, now that opens up the door for some of these other guys that we might want more. So there are definitely staffs that do that.

Speaker 3: 16:17

I think, especially with coach. You know, coach Muslim and his not coming into college, I think, was, oh, can he recruit, can he evaluate? Well, his whole background in the minor leagues was he had to evaluate successfully in order to survive. He had to go get players who were under the market players. He had to go get guys who were developing, and so I think he does a great job of that and so he obviously heads up the recruiting and then we kind of follow lead. But yeah, you know, like I said, great, great respect for other coaches in the coaching profession, but we don't particularly, you know, go after someone just because another staff is looking at him. But you do have, you know, there is a mutual respect where if there's a ton of you know coaches talking about someone who's up and coming, they're probably worth a look.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Well, that's very interesting. All right, I'm going to throw it over to Mark. He's got a few questions, including one, I think, which pertains to what we've covered, but it as how it relates to the incoming class. Take it away, mark.

Speaker 2: 17:09

Yeah, yeah, coach, before we get to that, you hit on something that's been, I guess I'd say, a spot of interest for fans and curious how surprised that's. A free throws and you said mentioned want to be top five and free throws attempted been a little bit of an issue here for this program. How surprised have you been by the number of questions from fans and those close to the program about free throws?

Speaker 3: 17:35

Yeah, I think when you do have a program that does something specifically like we do and maybe other teams have struggled with it in the past, but that's just kind of our DNA, we want to be a high free throw attempt team. Now, when you're in year one and I think you guys would know this it kind of goes without saying. But when you're in year one, it becomes a little harder to draw fouls in certain leagues. So you know, there's always a possibility that it's not going to be exactly what you think it's going to be. Or maybe some of the guys that we recruited that were high free throw attempt guys just don't have the free throw attempt year that we were projecting out, which happens as well.

Speaker 3: 18:10

But we tend to get guys who we think fit our system and we want our system to be a good fit for them as well. Like a lot of schools talk about well, does this guy fit our system? Well, does our system fit this player, right? I mean, that's really how you produce pros, is you have guys who you know? It's a two-way street. It goes both ways. It's a good fit for the player and a good fit for the program.

Speaker 2: 18:37

That's when you get in a, in an ideal situation, and then that's when guys really get to develop. Yeah, fair, now I appreciate that you you hit on this a lot in, in, in in Chris's questions. One thing that I'm I'm a metrics guy. I kind of do with my scouting by by numbers, if you will. You hit on something that really struck me is that every single player upperclassman that came in had one thing that did really well. It just stood out. You have, you know, agbo Slackert and Terrence Williams as exceptional three-point shooters. Ag, just from a metrics standpoint, stands out from a rebounds per 40 minutes. So it's interesting to hear that.

Speaker 2: 19:15

You said you, we want at least one identifiable exception, exception, exceptional skill, pardon me. So I'm going to I'm going to change this around a little bit the one person. I didn't see that and he's not an upperclassman, so it's kind of an unfair question. Patton, now you know, from a number standpoint it's always tough to look at freshmen, because freshmen are freshmen and you have ups and downs. I can't tell what his exceptional skill is from a number standpoint. Can you help me out here? What should we look out for in terms of what he does exceptionally well?

Speaker 3: 19:46

I think the biggest thing with KP, with Pattonon, is go back and look at statistically where he ranked in the WCC and blocks and steals top five player in the WCC and blocks and steals Right. So, uh, that was kind of our thing of you know, skilled on the offensive end, okay, but he does all these other things on the defensive end, um, in terms of being able to get blocks, being able to get steals at a super high rate, and it's very, very uncommon for a guy to have a block rate and a block total like he does at his position, because he played a little bit of three at San Diego, but he really he can go one, two and three. So when you start to talk about a guard who blocks shots the way he blocks, that's a really really rare stat and that's something that stood out to us right off the bat.

Speaker 2: 20:35

I love those kind of players. Now I've definitely got my eye out for him. I love those kind of guys that do that kind of work. Interesting One thing too when you've got Agbo Slackert and William Suplik, who we said are exceptional outside shooters, aside from end of game, we need a three-pointer. Likert and Williams, who we said are exceptional outside shooters, aside from you know, end of game, we need a three-pointer what kind of situations would we see?

Speaker 3: 21:00

or should we expect to see them on the court at the same time? I mean, I think, really any situation I mean it's very rarely, is there ever a situation where you have too many shooters on the floor I think it starts to get into, you know, a thought of okay, well, now we have great shooters, but what are we lacking? And with every lineup you're going to give some and you're going to get some, and so I think it just depends on flow of the game what we need in the situation. Which coach does a great job of creating mismatches. So maybe with that many shooters, now we're at a mismatch because now, mismatches. So maybe with that many shooters, you know, now we're at a mismatch because now, uh, say, maybe there's got to be a bigger foreman that's got to guard shibuzo agbo. Well, that's going to be a problem for them. Um, you got shibuzo agbo, you know, coming off a double screen, which we call a red screen, and you got a you know a bigger, oversized foreman chasing him. Well, you know we might be at a disadvantage, uh, rebounding, but we're at a, you know, a great advantage on the offensive side of the ball. Uh, so I think you know it's just going to be what kind of what the doctor orders, uh, you know, based on who's in at what at what time.

Speaker 3: 22:00

But I think what you know, what we kind of shot for this year was how many? You know, how do we get six, four, six, five to six, eight guys, uh, that can play multiple positions. Maybe there's going to be times where you know there's guys who have played some five who can also play some one. I mean a guy like St. When you start looking at a guy like St Thomas, like he could play a small ball five and he could handle at the one, I mean that's versatility and so we're going to, you know, run some unique lineups. There's going to be some unique positioning and there's going to be. You run some unique lineups. There's going to be some unique positioning and there's going to be, you know, like what's going on out there. But hopefully, at the end of the day, everything makes sense.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Yeah, that, that, that, that that one to five is it's. I'll be interested to see how that translates to a conference like the big 10 as well. That's going to be fascinating to watch. You mentioned rebounding One thing. If I'm just again scouting via the numbers, the only two players that I see that seem to be exceptional rebounders are AG and St Thomas. They have very high rebounds per 40 minutes. I'm curious to see again how that rebounding translates from the Big Sky to the big 10. For thomas um, how concerned, how much concern is there about finding um, another rebounder and, if it's, if it's, what might be your most talented score? Um, what kind of concerns are there about those issues?

Speaker 3: 23:29

yeah, I think you know, traditionally when people think about rebounding they look at fours and fives. But we kind of went with a kind of an interesting approach of when we started recruiting we started to look at, okay, what guards are good rebounding guards? So you start to talk about a guy like Desmond Claude. So 17 points a game at Xavier as a sophomore obviously pops off the page. But now you get into 4.3 rebounds. So if des is playing the one for us, all we need him to do is out rebound that one position, right. So if he's out rebounding the other point guard by two rebounds, okay, now that makes up a deficit that we might have at the five.

Speaker 3: 24:02

So how did we get got? You know, we kind of aimed a little bit for, uh, we knew we might not have the strongest centers in the country, you know, you know statistically in terms of rebounds per game or or height, um. But but how you get your one, two, three and four then to out rebound their positions to make up for that deficit, um. And then when you talk about size, and you got six, six guys, you know a six, six at the one and you got six, seven at the two and six, seven at the three. Well, hopefully we make up for you know, if there is a deficit at the five, hopefully you do make up for some of that rebounding deficit at the one through four or one through three.

Speaker 2: 24:35

That makes sense, and I guess that goes back to the athleticism length and strength that you mentioned earlier. You mentioned Desmond Claude. Does he seem the most likely to emerge or do you just use him as an example because he's so strong and he just seems like a natural example to use?

Speaker 3: 24:51

use him as an example because he's so strong and he just seems like a natural example to use, Just a natural example to use when you think about you know, we do expect Dez to out-rebound his position every single night. We expect that 4.2 rebounds that he averaged last year to jump. We expect to jump from a guy's sophomore year to junior year. And especially he's played high level competition right. So he's played in big games, he's played in the postseason. He's, you know, got good size, put up good stats. Now how does he do it in our league, on a different program, in a different program, and then, just you know, how does maybe he make up for some of that rebounding deficit that we may lack?

Speaker 2: 25:28

I appreciate that. That's good info. Clearly there has just been so much thought put into just the assemblage of this roster and the skills that these players have. I'm fascinated to how you're going to answer this. Which player has surprised?

Speaker 3: 25:55

you the most with a skill that they bring that you didn't anticipate or catch during the recruiting and assessment process. I think one of the biggest things has just been Sean Rashaun Agee. Just his ability to pass the ball. He plays under control, he just knows what to do with the ball. He makes good decisions. Obviously, you know, coming from Bowling Green we talked about it today but he's going to be playing in a lot different environments than he was, you know, in his league with Bowling Green. Now we're going to Assembly Hall. It's a different type of situation. It's a different type of pressure. It's a different type of, you know, environment for guys to adjust to, and and that adjustment happens differently for everybody.

Speaker 3: 26:33

But you look at a guy like him. He averaged 1.5 assists per game, which is solid for his position. But he's done a great job passing the ball. He's played under control and then just all around, a guy like St Thomas, just experienced, knows how to play. It feels like the game slows down for him a little bit when he makes his decisions. So I think when you look across the board with our threes, fours and fives, you can kind of see that they are pretty high assist guys for their position. So that was another thing, with guards playing a little bit bigger in terms of rebounding and bigs playing a little bit smaller in terms of being high assist guys. So we have a lot of guys who aren't natural point guards who are high assist guys, and that was kind of something we focused on throughout the transfer process.

Speaker 2: 27:23

That. That is fascinating. And, to your point, the 1.5 assists per game I would not have. I would not have guessed that at all about something to look at for AG. So I'm very excited about that. Two thoughts on that. First of all, it just seemed like he was in a I guess I'd say challenging situation where there was just a lot of it appears like there was a lot of ask of him offensively in terms of volume. I'm thinking that if he's asked less in terms of volume he will be way, way more efficient. It just seems like when he's asked less in terms of volume he will be way, way more efficient. It just seems like he should be in better spots when there's less opportunities asked of him this year. Is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 3: 28:01

Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment when you look at it. I mean, we're the most experienced team in the country in terms of minutes played last year. So we've got guys who played really, really big roles Maybe it's at a lower level, Maybe it's at a lower level, Maybe, you know, it's at a similar level, but a lot of guys who have played bigger roles. So now there's a lot of adjustment that's going on right. Guys who maybe scored a bunch of points last year, they don't need to score as many points this year. There's some guys, obviously, who are going to need to, you know, carry a bigger role, but not everyone's going to carry the same exact role that they had last year. And that adjustment process takes, you know, it kind of takes shape across the country.

Speaker 3: 28:35

But when you bring in, you know, you got to think about the fact that we only had one guy, Harry Hornery, on scholarship by the time we kind of started to dive into this thing and that's just the way it worked out. No big deal, you know. But we're all still really learning how each other plays and we're not, you know, you're only allowed four hours a week on the floor, so we're not going live a whole bunch, because we also got to put in every single drill. We got to put in every single baseline out of bounds and sideline out of bounds and jump ball play and what we do off free throws and late game situation. So there's a lot of learning that's going on, a lot of installing.

Speaker 3: 29:09

So we're we're still, you know, trying to piece everything together, which kind of happens across the country over summer and it's it's what it's for. But, um, yeah, there's definitely going to be shifts in roles and, yeah, you would think anytime a guy's um, you know, maybe his efficiency jumps when there's not so much to ask of him, Now there's a big jump in leads for him specifically. Uh, you know, so sometimes that hurts efficiency. So we'll have to see. But he's been busting his butt working really hard. So, um, you know, I think all these guys have, so we'll, we'll kind of see how it all plays out.

Speaker 1: 29:41

Yeah, and it's obviously having so many experienced guys probably pays off as far as, like you know, getting knowing how guys practice and them knowing what kind of effort to give. But is there also kind of a flip side where when you're in your fourth or fifth year, you, whatever bad habits you have, you're probably not going to break them at that point? Is that something where where you guys kind of set out to identify those quickly so you can sort of minimize them?

Speaker 3: 30:06

Yeah, I think that's definitely a part of the process and not everybody comes from a winning program. Not everybody comes from a program where it's run like a pro program in terms of expectations on the floor, expectations off the floor, how hard we go, efficiency when you're in the gym handling your business off the floor. You know, there's some guys who maybe at their last school they walked in to the gym five minutes before practice with their shoes untied. We don't do that here. Our guys are in the gym, you know, 30, 40, sometimes even an hour with the graduate assistants, you know, in the summer, just because of the of the requirements, so the graduate assistants are in there before we can even get in there as a staff getting the guys ready and everyone is, you know, pretty much for the most part drenched in sweat by the time we step on the floor for practice. Uh, and that's a big difference for some of these guys than than their last schools.

Speaker 1: 30:55

The the warmups are harder than the practices, which are harder than the games.

Speaker 3: 31:01

That's what you'd like. I mean, that's the, that's the goal right there.

Speaker 1: 31:05

Um, I'm sure by now it's what been uh four or five months. Uh, you've been uh over at SC. It's what been uh four or five months. Uh, you've been uh over at sc. I think, and I'm sure by now you've heard a lot about uh, just the emphasis on getting fans into galen, trying to sell galen out. We've talked a lot with coach lee and coach conroy about that stuff and some of the other staffers. Now that you guys have had a few months to look at things and discuss these things, do you have you guys come up with any sort of changes or any sort of ideas of things you might want to look at with regards to just sort of how the program markets itself, brands itself, that kind of thing?

Speaker 3: 31:42

Yeah, I mean, I think it starts with everyone, right, everyone on campus. In terms of marketing. How do we, you know, we've already had full staff meetings with marketing, with every single player that's going to or every single, sorry, every single of it's going to get jump-started once students get back to campus. Obviously, we want to start on campus, we want to get the student body excited, we want to get them coming to games, and then, obviously, you want alumni and fans and kind of build it from there, but it's definitely been discussed.

Speaker 3: 32:19

There's things in the works already in terms of marketing and how to get butts in seats, and and you know, I think our administration and our staff has has come up with, you know, some, some good ideas, but I think the biggest thing that it starts with, though, is just visibility, right? How does coach Musselman get visible on campus? And it starts with. Every single day we walk to lunch, we're on campus, he's visible taking pictures with, you know, with students who are on campus for summer school, talking to professors, talking to anyone that he might bump into, and so I think the biggest thing is just visibility. How do you slowly create, you know, or rejuvenate, I should say a fan base, that's, you know, right by your building. And then how do you build it out from there?

Speaker 1: 33:00

Yeah, that's exactly right. You have all those dorms that are basically right across the street from Galen. There, a bunch of freshman dorms going in there. Get them when they're in their orientation, tell them that, hey, thursday nights, or whatever night the games start, that's where you're going to be here and we love that. We're definitely 100% behind that here at the Dunk City Podcast and I think, speaking for Mark and a lot of other fans, I think there's been a long wait for someone to come in and really take the bull by the horns when it comes to the marketing aspect of the program, and we really hope that, whatever it is you guys do, it's sort of a bold endeavor versus trimming at the margins. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 33:48

Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, anytime you, you know you really want to, really want to make a change, you got to go big or go home.

Speaker 1: 33:54

Yeah, if there's ever going to be any major changes, it has to happen in one fell swoop. In general, that usually is how it turns out to be yeah, all right, we're going to get you out of here pretty soon. I yeah, all right, we're going to get you out of here pretty soon. I just have a couple of questions from the message board over at USC basketball dot com. Troy Wonder has a question and he says have you been to Chano's yet? I have not, do I need to go? Yes, chano's is a fantastic Mexican food place, kind of a hole in the wall up on figueroa, and uh, it's, it's, um, you know, a great usc tradition within walking distance of galen, for sure. So definitely, uh, get out to get out to chanos, and uh and uh, maybe report back on a future episode point of clarification on.

Speaker 2: 34:39

Sorry, just to interject, interject here. It's now known as el juero oh right name change a ago. But yeah, on the right side is you're heading north on Fig.

Speaker 3: 34:50

I'm going to go check it out. I'll go. Well, I'm recruiting tomorrow, this weekend, but on Monday I'll be there.

Speaker 1: 34:56

You're going to love it, coach, I promise. And then one more question no-transcript.

Speaker 3: 35:14

And so we do represent and we do love the staff over there so we will. If anyone sends shirts we will wear them. Muscleman's are big free shirt, big free shirt family. So not particularly 49er fans. We were diehard Chargers fans but it hurt, hurt our heart when they moved up here. But I think we might have to to rejoin.

Speaker 1: 35:34

How about a? How about a um uscbasketballcom shirt? Would you wear one of those?

Speaker 3: 35:39

Oh, send them over. I'll get. I'll get coach Mus and one. We'll put it up on the Instagram story immediately.

Speaker 1: 35:44

Oh, that'd be awesome. I'm going to, I'm going to get, I'm going to get some new orders right and then have them sent out for the staff. Sounds great. Most of the staff is. I think. Most of the staff is slated to be on the show at some point anyway, so you might as well um, might as well wear the gear, um so I think, mark, do you have anything else to ask?

Speaker 2: 36:11

uh coach muss, uh, no, just just to chime in, um, to use your phrase chris, um coach muss does not strike me as a trim at the margins, kind of uh, head coach. Is that fair assessment?

Speaker 3: 36:16

I would say that was a fair assessment, to say the least, is it okay if we call you coach muss?

Speaker 1: 36:19

I mean, is that too confusing? Are you? Are you like? Do they have? Is there a nickname for you? That are an easier way to sort of uh, kind of demarcate between you and your dad?

Speaker 3: 36:29

I'm pretty easygoing. I get a lot of Mike Muss, I get a lot of Michael Muss, I get a lot of Muss Jr Young Muss. So I'm kind of all over the map. I'm not picky about it. So Coach Muss is fine, whatever you want to call me.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Okay, well, maybe Young Muss. I'm thinking for now young, yeah, young muss is good and real quick question like um, what's your not the schedule for the team, but looking out forward, uh, before uh fall camp starts up, what is the schedule as far as? Uh, I know you guys have a camp, an elite camp. I actually actually want to give you a chance to tout that. And then also, you know, just as far as just between now and the first game of the season what do you guys have on tap?

Speaker 3: 37:16

Yeah, so elite camp August 3rd, 9th through 12th graders we're super excited about it, kind of bringing it back it's.

Speaker 3: 37:25

You know, we didn't do it a whole lot at Arkansas. Obviously there's a ton of homegrown talent in LA and beyond locally we should say and, and so we're super excited to get that camp going year one and then hopefully obviously carry it on throughout our time here at USC and kind of slows down a little bit in August in terms of recruiting and our players able to go home, take a break and kind of just step away, uh, you know, from school and see family and friends and everything. So it'll slow down a little bit in august. We'll end, you know, somewhere around that, that august one date and then they'll report back for uh student athlete orientation, um, towards the end of august. So they'll get, you know, a week, two weeks off to kind of just decompress and get their minds and bodies right for uh, for training camp and for the season and you don't even have to do vacation you're already at one of the prime spots in the world guys, I'm in manhattan beach and I got no complaints in the world wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker 1: 38:21

well, hey, michael musselman, young muss, thanks for coming on the dunk city podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. We really appreciate you taking the time. We are pulling for you and pulling for the program and can't wait to see you guys over at Galen in the fall.

Speaker 3: 38:36

Thanks so much for having me on. We'll see you guys soon.

Speaker 1: 38:38

Thank you.

Speaker 3: 38:39

Thank you, Coach.

Speaker 1: 38:47

Well, I got to say, Mark, it's nice to get the intergenerational perspective from young muss, don't you think?

Speaker 2: 38:56

Yeah, also thank you for making me feel old, because I know which side of the intergenerational spread I sit on that one and I think you do as well.

Speaker 1: 39:03

Yeah, I feel like we're weighted heavily in, weighted heavily uh in in in that direction, uh, away from from young Mus's, uh, age cohort. But yeah, this is really nice to have a coach must on and I'm looking forward to who we're going to have on in the future. Um, any more thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 39:20

You know, two things that stand out to me. Um, number one it's been made apparent that, literally, you know, the coaching staff led by the architect, eric Musselman, is taking a look literally at everything, everything surrounding touching, facing the program, which is encouraging. And having said that, on a more micro level, what's really interesting to me is these metrics, observations that I've made pretty much everyone has been confirmed by the coaching staff, which is comforting in that, um, you know, they seem to be of like mind and really, digging into the numbers, Well, I think that just proves that we know our stuff over here at the dunk city podcast.

Speaker 1: 40:01

Um, because so far we haven't asked him any questions that they didn't really understand or thought were too silly to address properly, you know.

Speaker 1: 40:13

Yeah, yeah, and not like I need to try hard or anything in doing that, yeah, and just overall, very exciting to hear about some of these players, in particular, some of these new skills that were revealed AG with his passing, in particular, some of these new skills that were revealed AG with his passing and some of the plans they have as far as to make up for the deficiency in the rebounding. It's a really interesting aspect to that conversation, don't you think?

Speaker 2: 40:39

Yeah, it's a thought process that I really, you know, hadn't occurred to me as a numbers guy, and I feel a little at the same. I guess this is the shame and joy of learning, as they would put it.

Speaker 1: 40:49

Who should we have on next? Do you think we should have on a? Just keep going through the assistance and and then work our way down to the to admins? I was actually thinking of bringing on Michael Ruitt, who is the director of basketball operations, and keeping with our tradition of having the ops guys on. I think he should come on our next episode. What do you think?

Speaker 2: 41:10

Yeah, if he would do it absolutely.

Speaker 1: 41:11

I think he will. Michael, if you hear this, get ready. Okay. So I guess that'll do it for this episode, and I'll probably be back in two or three weeks, depending on when we get things nailed down. This is obviously a very slow time period around USC men's basketball. As Coach Young-Mus said, things really won't start heating up again until the end of August. So, on behalf of Mark Backstrom, I am Chris Houston. Be sure to go to all the various social streams to follow us Twitter, instagram, uh. Youtube, um, uh. What's the other ones? Tiktok have I missed a? I don't, we don't have Facebook.

Speaker 2: 41:55

I referenced it on my LinkedIn profile, but I don't think we're going to go there. We don't need that.

Speaker 1: 41:58

We don't need that unless you put uh, you know, uh, you know, open to hiring on there or something I don't know. If you like the pod, please go to Spotify or Apple music, write a review, give us five stars that really help us move up in the search rankings. Follow us on all the various platforms, Like I mentioned, and please follow us whether it's at Spotify or or at the dunk City podcast website, dunkcitypodcom. So, on behalf of uscbasketballcom and Mark Backstrom, I'm Chris Houston. Mark, I'll let you take it out.

Speaker 2: 42:36

As always, fight on everyone, Bye.