This serves as a sort of companion piece to today's breakdown of the 2026-27 USC Trojans, who we've ranked #16 in our Top 50 countdown and who I (Will) believe could have one of the 10 best defenses in the sport. Jim will have provided his rationale already, but I thought it could be useful to offer up a separate article showing three key impacts:
- Eric Musselman's defensive history, and how he can lean on his good days at Arkansas (and Nevada) while making tweaks to his system for this roster;
- How USC (and Musselman) should plan on using their overwhelming amount of pure length, along with how fellow P5s with lots of length have used theirs in the part;
- The use of a good Can reference. (Yes, I am aware South Central is 14 or so miles from Pasadena. Sue me.)
Eric Musselman's long and tangled web, woven through an unbelievable 20 different stops in 37 years (not counting his four-year playing career at San Diego), has given him the opportunity to develop a 'whatever works best' style with tons of different influences. I would wager this is generally how it goes when you've coached for everything from the Rapid City Thrillers (a defunct semi-pro team in South Dakota), the Golden State Warriors, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela's national basketball teams, Arizona State, LSU, Nevada, Arkansas, and USC.
Musselman's inability to stay anywhere long (his longest continuous stop at a place was Rapid City, where he stayed for about six years) means said influence list is hilariously deep. The guy has coached with, or under, the list of the following: Elgin Baylor, Doc Rivers, Lon Kruger, Mike Fratello, Rick Adelman, Herb Sendek, David Fizdale, and a connection I've seen very few make, Todd Golden, who was an assistant under Musselman on the (defunct) Reno Bighorns. What I'm getting at here is simple: Musselman can and will evolve however he needs to, and has done so throughout his career.
