Speaker 1: 0:27

Welcome back to another episode of the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by USCBasketballcom. I'm Chris Houston. Hi, I'm Mark.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Baxter from Inupiaq Beach, California. It's very humid. My air conditioning is broken.

Speaker 1: 0:39

All right. Well, folks, we have a special treat for you today USC basketball coach head basketball coach Eric Musselman will be on our show, and we had a great conversation. We talked to him late last week. We recorded it as he was off to probably, you know find some recruit or go enjoy a nice game of beach volleyball Probably all of those things all at once. So thanks for joining us and let's get right to it. We're here with USC head basketball coach Eric Musselman. Coach, welcome to the Dunk City Podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:13

Thanks, I appreciate joining you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Back on April 4th you were named USC's head basketball coach. Can you walk us through what the process was like on your end and what it was about USC that attracted you?

Speaker 3: 1:26

Yeah, well, I think there's so many things, once the job came open, that attracted not only you know myself, but that attracted my you know my daughter, both my sons, you know my wife and then some of the staff members that were going to be possibly joining us.

Speaker 3: 1:44

And then some of the staff members that were going to be possibly joining us. There was a lot of real positive factors the brand of the university, the academic prestige of the university, location being in LA, being in a market like this, going to the Big Ten All those things made the job super attractive. I had a great job at Arkansas, loved our five years there, arkansas one of the premier basketball jobs in the country but we felt this was a perfect time for our family. And then, throughout the interview process, the more I got an opportunity to talk with Jen Cohen, the more excited I became, the more I felt like her vision kind of aligned with the vision that we would have as well. So I think all those factors you put them into that equation and as a family, our entire family, is super, super excited about this opportunity.

Speaker 1: 2:36

It seems like you're the kind of guy who just loves a challenge and, in a sense, usc has improved a lot over the years and they're in a pretty good spot to start out with as far as from a baseline. But now that you've had a chance to get settled and look under the hood a bit, what are some of the things about this program that stands out to you, both from a positive standpoint that you can build off of and from the standpoint of yeah, this needs some improvement.

Speaker 3: 2:59

Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing, know you look at some of the great coaches that have coached at USC George Raveling and the Tim Floyds and Henry Bibby there's been a lot of guys that in their tenure that have coached here, that have had great success at some point during the time that they've been here, coach Boyd, you can go on and on, and so you know, to me it can be done.

Speaker 3: 3:26

You know the high school recruiting landscape in Los Angeles for many, many years is always going to produce players that can play at the next level. It's going to produce, you know, potential first round draft picks. And so I think that all that stuff coming in and studying during the interview process was super important for us. And you know, now that we've been here, I mean I would say the most challenging thing you know was just you know the one returning player and then you know from a walk-on standpoint, when you take over a new team, you know the walk-ons don't know what we're doing either. So there's been a lot of demonstration that you kind of take for granted. When you have some returning players who can jump to the front of the line every time you add something, you know things that make it challenging. Just a new landscape with name-and-name, with the transfer portal, things that everybody is dealing with, regardless of sport, all across the country. So those add another layer to this whole landscape.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Right now, as a collegiate coach, Well, getting fans to come out to watch a sport that has often been overshadowed by football has sort of been the holy grail for USC basketball coaches for the decades. No one's ever been able to pull it off on a consistent basis and, as a result, you know there's a lot of diehard fans that are probably a bit cynical about it. Usc fans are for basketball, are super diehard, like our website, USC basketballcom. These are ride or die fans and they're super excited. But it hasn't been just about having good teams. There's something else that seems that it needs to be fixed. So what's your plan for filling up Galen?

Speaker 3: 5:18

Well, you know I'm going to go kind of way back into my background. You know, when I was super young, my dad was coaching at Ashland College and they were sold out every game at Ashland standing room. Only Then, as I got a little bit older, he was at the University of Minnesota. Not only was Williams Arena sold out, but they put games on closed-circuit TV in the hockey arena and filled that up as well, and so I've watched my dad.

Speaker 3: 5:49

Marketing was always something that was really important in our family. My mom's family comes from the Pepsi business, which obviously you have to market when you own Pepsi plants. You have to market when you own Pepsi plants, and so for me, a big part of my job is to try to generate interest, to try to generate conversation pieces, to try to get fans into the Galen Center Certainly what Coach Lindsey did last year. Coach Lindsey Gottlieb did an incredible job with her team, not only winning but having great crowds.

Speaker 3: 6:28

When you get a star in Los Angeles like Juju Watkins, you can draw and fill the building up, and so today I had the opportunity to go watch a two-hour practice with Coach Riley, and we want to support other athletic programs on campus. We feel that that's another way to get people to come to our games If we support them or if fans of the football team see the men's basketball program supporting the football team. So we talked before our eight-week segment ended about we're going to have off from basketball the weekend of the LSU game in Vegas. I know most of our team is planning on trying to get to the game some way, shape or form, to support the football team. We'll be going to the first volleyball game and it's important for us to get out there and to be seen and to be active participants in the community on campus as well.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Well, that's a breath of fresh air, I think, to a lot of USC basketball fans, because getting out there in the community, I mean just the constant messaging, I think is going to be very effective. As far as basketball goes, you have, you know, nba-style schemes and concepts, but there's also a ton of intensity and energy. That seems to be a reflection of how you approach things in general. You know, I see your social media accounts you're seemingly everywhere, uh, all at once, always on the go. Uh, who lit that fire in you? When did that start?

Speaker 3: 7:55

you know, I, when I um, when I was growing up, um, I kind of remember, like third and fourth grade, when my mom would pack my brown paper bag to go to lunch, my dad always pulled out a pen and wrote energy, effort, enthusiasm, and then underneath it he put the three E's and I got, you know, when you walk to school with that bag and you're looking at that thing, like you know, that's just part of the DNA of how I grew up in a super competitive household. My dad was my idol. He was my best friend. He was super competitive household. My dad was my idol. He was my best friend. He was super competitive. He had great, you know, grit, toughness, but he was super, super energetic and really, really enthusiastic. So I think I tried to, you know, follow in his footsteps and bring some of those characteristics that he had not only to the sport of basketball but also kind of to life as well.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Yeah, I think I'm going to put those on my son's paper bag when he goes to school. I think it worked out pretty good. I think You're coming in as USC makes a move to the Big Ten. You brought in a whole new roster to go with that unique style. We've seen in sports like football, where coaches like Urban Meyer come to the SEC, a situation where there's concepts that maybe move against the established grain of the conference and this can result in some pretty outstanding outcomes. Is this the same for basketball and, if so, what will Big Ten teams have to do to adjust to what USC is bringing to the table this season and beyond?

Speaker 3: 9:23

Yeah, that's a great question. It's been a lot of our conversations as a staff like what is our identity going to look like? Obviously, in the SEC, that's arguably the most athletic conference in college basketball over the last 10 years. And then you think about the Big Ten and you would talk about physicality. Obviously, teams like Michigan State just pound the backboards. You talk about teams that are very, very disciplined defensively. And then there's some characteristics in the Big Ten maybe more size than what we have seen in the SEC, bigger bodies, harder screen-setting teams.

Speaker 3: 10:11

So some of the things that we're working on schematically is how can we chase screens and fight through screens and what is our technique Because the Big Ten does set great screening actions and how are we going to combat the size of teams like Purdue that year after year seem to find seven-footers and then they play through the post? So defending the three is really important too, and there are certain programs like Iowa that do a great job of moving shooters around. So we've talked about these identities. When the players come back and we're back into another month of four hours per week, what we're going to do is we're going to pick the different Big Ten team and go through their schemes and how we would defend them, regardless of personnel, but just some core identities that each coach in that conference has kind of exhibited over the last couple of years. And then how we'll attack it, both offensively and defensively.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Outstanding. Well, you know, a big part of all this is scheduling and setting up your schedules. What's your philosophy with that, and do you use advanced analytics to help inform what games you schedule? I think there's been some studies showing that you don't want to schedule somebody sort of who's in the middle of the analytics. You either want somebody who's really high up or really low. What's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 3: 11:37

Yeah, I mean we want to challenge our team, our team. First of all, I hope that we have two good exhibition games. I don't believe in the secret scrimmages. We don't want to do a secret scrimmage. Last year we played Purdue in a charity exhibition game. We raised a lot of money for tornado victims in Arkansas. It was an unbelievable test for a team in an exhibition game. So we hope to do something like that.

Speaker 3: 12:05

If we can't get a game like that, we'll probably end up, because of the way the rules are set up, playing a Division II game, kind of as a dress rehearsal for us. So I think scheduling that's the first piece to it, and then the rest of the non-conference. You know we're in a tournament in Palm Springs that we're excited about, st Mary's is in it, arizona State, new Mexico. So really good competition with really good coaches. And then the non-conference. I kind of put that on the plate of of Anthony Ruta. You know, when I look back at the the last three years at Nevada, you know we were a tournament team and a lot of it had to do with our non-conference schedule. Then we go to Arkansas and I thought where we got seeded and stuff was super fair by the NCAA tournament based on the way that we had scheduled.

Speaker 3: 12:57

And you know, rather than me try to dissect every team roster coach with Coach Ruda, I just kind of prefer to trust him in putting together the schedule because he's done that now for us for nine years and it's worked out really, really well, and so I will find out the schedule basically the same time that you guys find out the schedule. But analytics is a big part of that. And then also we try to figure out like, all right, we'd like to play at least one team that's a really good zone defensive team, so that our team has been tested against a zone team. Then we want to play one team that's a real fast running team. We want to play a team that's got great ball movement and plays the Princeton type style, so we have to guard a bunch of different actions within one shot clock segment. So there is some parameters that we sit down and discuss and talk about and then try to find teams that fit into those categories.

Speaker 1: 14:03

If you're listening to this podcast, you probably also like college football, and if you like college football and you're a USC fan, you probably also like the Heisman Trophy, so you're going to probably love my other show, the official heisman trophy podcast, of which I am the host. Last year we talked to some of the biggest names in sports jayden daniels, barry sanders, mike trushevsky, ricky williams and more. We even had zachariah branch on one episode, and this year is going to be even better. The second second season debuts Wednesday, august 21st, so I hope you give it a listen. You can find it on all streaming platforms YouTube and at Heismancom. Now back on the must bus.

Speaker 2: 14:47

That is. That is awesome, coach. This is Mark, by the way. Um, thanks for being with us. Let let me just get something that, uh, just maybe only for me, but something that's a little awkward out of the way. Before you were hired, I did a column on the website about possible coaching candidates. I made a very strong case for you I appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Well, I'm not done yet. You might want to take that back. I made a strong case for another gentleman and I would like nothing more. For you to just use that as you need for motivation this year and to come back at some point and just put that right in my face. I would be delighted for you to do that if you could All right.

Speaker 3: 15:24

Well, who was the other guy? No, I don't need to know, I'm just kidding. Okay.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I'll tell you when you come back and you put it in my face. Is that fair?

Speaker 3: 15:31

That's fair, that's career. But I feel super excited and fortunate because I do know the competition when a job like this comes open. Fortunate because I do know the competition when a job like this comes open and then you're in a unique position when you have a job and you have a really good job not to just jump at anything. So I feel really good that we had the patience and waited and a job like this came open that fits us as a family really well.

Speaker 2: 16:18

Awesome. Following up on an earlier point that you said, too, about you know how important football is here, I can just tell you that on this podcast and this community, there's no person more important than yourself, for what that's worth Absolutely. You've got seven players that are transferring in from other programs from smaller conferences on this team. How concerned are you about that many players acclimating to the Big Ten this season?

Speaker 3: 16:48

Yeah, no, I mean, I think that there you know, certainly, if you, if you sit back and you think about, you know, analytics, analytics. You'd certainly love to have Power 5 transfers that are proven and have played it at the level or the conference that you're in. There's no doubt about that. Having said that, jd Notte played at Jacksonville, came to Arkansas and turned himself into a third team All-Americans and got a great career and led us to an Elite Eight. Stanley Amude was on an Elite Eight team as one of our go-to scorers in late shot clock situations, and Stanley came from the University of South Dakota.

Speaker 3: 17:32

So are we concerned? Yes, and we talk as a staff and I've talked publicly about where we think we might have some holes in this roster. We really don't have a natural true point guard. We don't have the same size at the five spot as other teams in the Big Ten. But we also know that we're in year one. We didn't have a full high school recruiting cycle while we were the coaching staff at USC. There's going to be holes in year one.

Speaker 3: 18:05

What we tried to do is we tried to go out and get high character people. We tried to get players that had played for really good coaches. That was extremely important in year one because we wanted players to be able to pick up schemes Extremely important in year one because we wanted players to be able to pick up schemes. We've got to figure out a way to get the Big Ten to respect us. We've got to figure out a way to get the referees to respect our style of play and then, obviously, most importantly, our own fan base. We recognize all that. We talk about it.

Speaker 3: 18:35

As a team we're experimenting. I never thought that we would be St Thomas at point guard, but because Desmond Claude had both elbow surgery, because Clark Slackert had a severely sprained ankle, st Thomas got a lot of reps this summer as a point guard and so if we try to play a big lineup, st Thomas might get thrown out at the end are forced to go small ball, st Thomas might have to play the five. So all these things we're still trying to figure out and I hope the team we put out in November evolves and becomes better and better each month so that we're playing at our peak basketball come March, which for the most part, we've been able to do that over the last nine years, and we hope to continue that trend here as well.

Speaker 2: 19:27

You actually hit on one of the things I wanted to ask you about too the incoming transfers. They as a group seem to me to take very good care of the ball. They turn the ball over by myometrics 21% less than the USC team did last year. Just for reference for people that you know are listening and have seen the team last year. Just for reference for people that are listening and have seen the team last year. You mentioned playing for good coaches. How much of a consideration was what do I just call it hoops IQ or basketball IQ a consideration in the evaluation process as well?

Speaker 3: 20:00

It was huge because our pool of recruiting is when we got the job here where our holes are. But we certainly felt like, if you look at historically the way our teams played, we've been a pretty low turnover team for the pace that we play at. And so certainly basketball, iq, playing for good coaches, understanding schemes, understanding scouting reports and taking care of the basketball were all things that we discussed internally in our portal house when we were thinking about how to build this thing and what it might look like at the end of the transfer season.

Speaker 2: 20:59

One of the things that I'm sure I've read was the topic of discussion in the transfer house. It stood out to me when I was looking over the the incoming players, and coach lee held on this too. It seems like every, every transfer had like one or two exceptional skills, like you know. Just for example don't want to leave anybody out, you know, agba was a three-point shooter uh cohen's ability to handle the ball as a big man and ag's rebounding um, I've helped me allay my concerns here. If I see a group of guys that just has, you know, such easily identifiable skills, what do you do to become, you know, or to prevent uh being a team that's easy to scout and prepare for?

Speaker 3: 21:39

yeah, well, I I think, um, as we look at like one ident skill we talk about it a lot Does a player have one skill set that can set them apart to get himself on the floor?

Speaker 3: 21:52

And that's a big NBA concept. When you look at NBA rosters usually those guys, especially the role players there's one thing they can do well. You take a guy like let's use Steve Kerr as an example he was an exceptional spot-up shooter and you look at a guy maybe and I'm going to go back and show my age but Bo Outlaw was a great rebounder and found his way into having a good NBA career and started many, many games. So what we've tried to do is identify. You know, if we need rebounding, you know then Rashawn's probably going to be a guy on the floor for us. If we need shooting, you know we have two or three guys in particular that we could say, all right, these are proven three-point shooters at the collegiate level. They should help space the floor. So all those things certainly come into our conversations. They're a big piece to the way that we use and talk about our roster management.

Speaker 2: 22:55

Fair, very fair. Hey, you mentioned some concerns and I'm interested in how you would complete this sentence.

Speaker 3: 23:01

And I'm interested in how you would complete this sentence as of today my biggest concern about this team is its ability to yeah, I would say score the ball in late shot clock once plays break down. How many guys do we have that have creativity off the bounce in isolation situations? I would say defensive rebounding Are we going to be able to defensive rebound in a physical Big Ten league? And then I would just say, natural, true point guard. I mean Desmond Claude's going to play a lot of point guard for us and he's got a lot of things in his game that are going to make him super effective, because he's a great scorer at his position. He's a great rebounder at his position, he's crafty, he plays on skates. He does have the ability to get a shot when the shot clock's winding down. So he's got some great qualities.

Speaker 3: 24:00

But he really hasn't been a full-time point guard. He's been a combo guard. So now we're going to slide him over and ask him to direct our offense and be the true quarterback of the team. So that's a little bit different role maybe than he's had on a full-time basis, because that's the only position probably that Desmond will play for us. I guess if Clark checks into the game we could slide Des over to a little bit of two, but those would be the three concerns off the top of my head that we've talked about.

Speaker 3: 24:32

You know, we're doing drills that I haven't done in the past, like late shot clock drills. What are we doing when the shot clock's up under seven seconds? Well, some of the teams we've had at Arkansas when we've had Anthony Black and Nick Smith in the same backcourt two first round draft picks, those two guys together I really wasn't worried about late shot clock. So these are some of the things that we're trying to get better at and work on and improve, identify our weaknesses and then try to turn them you know deficiencies into things that maybe won't hurt us once we get started in November.

Speaker 2: 25:07

Yeah, it seems like those kind of things you actually need to get real-time on the court game time experience to really sort that stuff out too.

Speaker 3: 25:16

Yeah, Well, yeah, I mean, yes, that's true, but we only play 30 games games. So it's our job as a staff to identify things and then try to come up with the creative drills, to call coaches in europe and ask them hey, do you have any unique outside the box drills for late shot? Clock it. But that's our job is to try to identify the holes that we see now that the roster is complete and then try to figure out how we can help them prior to a game and then, certainly, once real, true game competition comes, then we're really going to be able to use video to back up some of the things that we've talked about and they'll get real game experience. And then you get better through the game experience as well.

Speaker 2: 26:03

I love it. I love it it not taking a single game for granted. Um, all right, I asked this question of will conroy. This is kind of my my uh patented go-to move my skyhook, if you will. Um, his answer was tom or roshan agey passing the ball, so you cannot use that. What is the one skill of one of the I transfers?

Speaker 3: 26:22

I wouldn't use that anyhow. Ah, okay, wow, duly noted. I love Will, but I wouldn't use that one.

Speaker 2: 26:31

All right. What is one skill of incoming transfers that has shown up that you did not expect during the evaluation process?

Speaker 3: 26:47

Yeah, I would say St Thomas' not only ability to pass but his willingness to pass. I would say that's the because he can really score. He's a really good one-on-one player. He can go get a bucket in the post. He could get a bucket from three. He can draw FTAs, free throws attempted. But I knew he was a good passer and a willing passer based on his numbers. But I didn't know. He gets frustrated in a scrimmage or a practice if somebody doesn't make what we call one more, meaning taking a good shot, making an extra pass to take a great shot. And he's got really good basketball IQ. So I would say that. And then Desmond Claude really hasn't gone live, but he's like a cosmetically pleasing player to watch because he, like I said, he plays on skates. He's like a ballet dancer with the basketball. So it's been fun to watch him. But the surprise has been the willingness and the creativity off the pass of St Thomas.

Speaker 2: 27:46

It's interesting you mentioned that Number one. When you say that, my first reaction is that just makes a team so much more difficult to defend and by my metrics I was shocked. I looked at the team individually that he was on last year. He had four teammates that were very, very efficient in scoring and assists and what you just said really lines up with it and I think really probably illustrates that just the willingness because he was a volume guy, but just the willingness to share the ball makes such a huge difference and you can see it in basically his teammates production last year.

Speaker 3: 28:19

Yeah, I mean, I think if you're a go-to scorer, those guys are usually wired to maybe take ill-advised shots or quick shots or shots that are out of the context of the offense. He does a really good job of having patience, reading, trusting his teammates. That's a big thing is, if you're an offensively talented player, do you really trust the other four guys on the floor? And he does a really great job of showing trust, even maybe with guys that you know haven't earned the trust, but he innately does that.

Speaker 1: 28:51

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: 29:02

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Speaker 1: 29:24

Coach, you've been around uh socal a lot and and you know you've come, you've played in games at galen before. Uh, what's what's been the made the biggest impression on you coming to usc, being around campus, what, what is something you didn't know about before but but now you know about.

Speaker 3: 29:42

The quality of the student athlete on campus. This is a very easy. You know we share a building with volleyball and women's basketball and I actually just got done lifting with the women's volleyball team. They were in there and I was in there lifting as well after football practice. They're so cool, they're so nice, they have a personality trait. You know I eat in the Little Galen almost every day. You know, maybe not a lot of coaches do, but our whole staff goes there five days a week Nice burgers and to be around, be around other student athletes on campus, super high IQ people and they carry themselves with great class. It's really been cool to be a part of.

Speaker 1: 30:39

To show you how far back I go. I was there at USC when Little Galen was first built, so it's good to see it's still hanging in there. Coach, I know you're a busy guy and probably on the go. Just curious, you've been watching the Olympics. What's some of the stuff you've been watching in this great sporting event?

Speaker 3: 30:59

No, without a question, our whole household. My wife is a diehard sports fan, so we've been watching, obviously, men whole household. My wife is a diehard sports fan and so we've been watching, obviously, men's basketball, any game. Doesn't matter if the US is playing or not. We have. We always have water polo going because you know, Maddie Musselman is not related to us, who plays on the water polo team. She's one of their leading goal scorers. She has two goals actually today already by halftime. But we've kind of connected on social media and my wife and daughter actually went to Disney World with Maddie and her mom in Orlando. They met there and did the rides and the whole day together. So we're big Maddie Musselman fans. And then my wife takes a special interest in in track and field and gymnastics, so that's always on in our house as well when when those events are going on for the olympics do you, as a coach, look at some of the things that happen in the olympics and some of the event, some of the moments, teachable moments?

Speaker 1: 31:57

do you file these away in your head to to share with your team later, or does it do these things just pop out kind of naturally?

Speaker 3: 32:03

no, we definitely. I mean, we have a group text. I don't think everybody likes it all the time, but, um, I I text the staff whenever I see something. Hey, let's clip this thing. It just happened at the x amount, you know. Like, here's the time that it happened, here's the score, whatever. Let's clip this thing and then eventually save it to show our team. And I might even put the month hey, let's show our team this in December. Let's show our team this at the end of February.

Speaker 3: 32:30

You know, depending on what type of theme you're trying to get across to your team and what that video clip could be, it could be a coach talking to a player on the sideline, anything that we think can give us a little bit of edge. We do a thing called VC, voices and Choices before every practice, once we get into our 20 hours, where we get kind of life skills type things, and we do use a lot of. It could be some things from the Olympics, somebody that's overcome something or a background that's unique, that's overcome something in their sport or something in their life that we want to talk about and discuss.

Speaker 1: 33:07

Yeah, you know, when Pete Carroll was hired at USC back in 2001, I was right there, right at his elbow for a lot of things and I got to say that a lot of the stuff I see you doing reminds me of like an updated for this time version of what he did, which was going out and for this time version of what he did which was going out and enlisting everybody's support. Did you talk to him at all about what a special place USC is and kind of how you can get people?

Speaker 3: 33:32

going here. I haven't talked to Coach Carroll. I would love to. He's a guy that I really look up to. He's someone that I study. I've read books. I listen to any podcast. I think he was a great marketer. I love how he got stars Hollywood involved in his program, and winning has a lot to do with that. I like how he had themes of the day. I love how, when he went to the pros, he didn't change his enthusiasm. I like the fact that he's Throwing passes to people pre-practice and in-practice and post-practice. So as much as I can from afar, I've studied him. I actually went to a USC practice when he was coaching here. I probably went to four or five actually, went to four or five actually, um, and just you know the people that were on the sidelines I, you know I I was like wow, like they're snooped, I mean I. I mean it was pretty impressive, uh, what he did, um.

Speaker 1: 34:34

So certainly from afar, nobody could study somebody more than I have him yeah, the very first day he showed up the team he he played a video of Dream On from Aerosmith and it showed the whole ESPN Sports Century. They just had the first 100 years highlights and showed it to the team and it was funny. I think the team kind of didn't know what to make of it, but they soon did.

Speaker 3: 34:59

Yeah, no, I think sometimes when you do stuff like that, the players might not understand what's happening at the moment, but then they get in the locker room and they start talking about it and then some of your core things that you're trying to show them. It kind of goes from non-reality and then it ends up happening and it's kind of unique how that works. But certainly his creativity in motivating his team. He's one of a kind.

Speaker 1: 35:25

Coach Eric Musselman, usc basketball. We can't thank you enough for coming on the Dunk City podcast. Just know that, uscbasketballcom, we are fully, fully behind you every step of the way. We're the only USC website that is solely dedicated to basketball. We don't talk football on our website. It's all basketball, all USC, same with the podcast. So we appreciate you coming on and we're here for you whenever you need us and we look forward to seeing you this fall and seeing your team.

Speaker 3: 35:54

Well. So I appreciate you guys having me on and I appreciate you having some other staff members on. It's super important for us to try to get out and do things like this with you guys, and so, anytime you need anybody on our staff or any of our players, we'd certainly like to try to facilitate and keep spreading the word on the USC.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Trojans. We love it. Coach, Thanks so much and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Speaker 3: 36:17

Thanks, you guys Appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 36:20

Fight on, fight on. Coach. We hope you enjoyed this interview with USC head basketball coach, eric Musselman. Mark had to run so I'm going to close things out. We're going to have Sam Clancy on an upcoming show. Anthony Ruta is on tap. Also, director of Bass Populations and Men's Basketball Assistant Athletic Director Michael Ruitt is coming up on one of the next shows.

Speaker 1: 36:42

We're going to have some players coming up as Coach Musselman shows. Uh, we're going to have some players coming up, as a coach muscleman referred to, and we're going to start taking deeper dives into recruiting. We have pretty good insight now into the players USC has looked at over the summer and who they have on their priorities lists. So we're going to go over some of those recruits and we're also going to be calling those recruits and, uh, posting some of those stories on our new premium message board and posting some of those stories on our new premium message board, which we are tentatively calling the Must Buzz. So keep an eye out for the Must Buzz and, as Coach Must said on the show we got to spread the word about USC basketball. Let's get out there and talk Trojan hoops. I hope everyone's enjoying their summer. Please go to the streaming platforms. Give us five-star a like, good review, a follow. That'd be really appreciated and we'll see you on the next show and fight on. I'm out.