{"id":210465,"date":"2026-03-08T15:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210465\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:33:24","slug":"eric-musselman-out-of-excuses-after-uscs-blowout-loss-to-ucla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210465\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Musselman out of excuses after USC’s blowout loss to UCLA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eric Musselman<\/a> sat behind a microphone at the bitter end of a bitter regular season for USC<\/a>, armed only with the same explanations for how a once-hopeful season could come so undone.<\/p>\n

There were unfortunate injuries to point to, he said, and continuity issues to contend with. Then there was the pesky problem of Big Ten travel. And at home, well … \u201cOur home court has not been much of a home-court advantage,\u201d Musselman said, after UCLA<\/a> chants rang out through Galen Center all night.<\/p>\n

But none of that rationale, as true or convenient as it might sound, could adequately explain how the Trojans ended up here at their season\u2019s nadir, with seven straight losses heading into the Big Ten tournament, the latest an 89-68 rout<\/a> at the hands of their crosstown rival.<\/p>\n

The seventh of those losses looked strikingly similar to the other six. Once again, USC\u2019s defense collapsed in the second half, as UCLA shot better than 60%. And once again, the Trojans\u2019 streaky shooting and lack of presence on the glass made it impossible for them to keep up.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously our struggling down the stretch has not been characteristic of our past programs,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually been the exact opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet at USC, it\u2019s all we\u2019ve seen through two seasons with Musselman at the helm. The Trojans lost eight of 10 to finish out the regular season a year ago, and at the time, the coach also blamed injuries to their top two guards, Desmond Claude<\/a> and Wesley Yates<\/a>, for the collapse.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC guard Alijah Arenas, right, drives past UCLA guard Skyy Clark during the Trojans\u2019 loss Saturday night at Galen Center.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Injuries proved even more devastating this season. USC was without five-star freshman Alijah Arenas until late January and lost Rodney Rice, its starting point guard, to an injury in November. He referred to his Trojans as \u201cthe most injured team in college basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there were inexcusable losses along the way, losses that didn\u2019t hinge on one player\u2019s absence \u2014 and might\u2019ve singlehandedly changed the conversation over USC\u2019s season. Among them: A second-half collapse at home to Washington<\/a>, a blown lead in the final minute to Oregon<\/a> and an unraveling at the hands of Northwestern<\/a>, who was winless in conference at the time.<\/p>\n

Even still, the Trojans might have salvaged their tournament hopes if they found something down the stretch. Instead, the team\u2019s top scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara<\/a>, was dismissed last weekend<\/a>. Musselman wouldn\u2019t offer any further comment on that decision. But by Saturday night, USC looked as lost as ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to stay together,\u201d said senior Terrance Williams. \u201cI feel like when adversity hits, sometimes we tend to go our separate ways. We\u2019ve got to just stick together, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looked, for a brief time, like USC might manage that against UCLA. Even as busloads of Bruins fans descended on Galen Center, turning USC\u2019s arena into hostile territory, the Trojans showed signs of life early on. Midway through the first half, the Trojans had played their crosstown rivals to a tie, 21-21.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Any hope stitched together during that stretch came apart just a few minutes later, though. USC hit just four shots the rest of the half, while UCLA hit 10 of 12 at one point. For the final 4:40 before halftime, the Trojans didn\u2019t pull down a single rebound.<\/p>\n

Arenas would do his best to drag USC back from the brink. He scored 13 in the second half and 20 overall. During one spurt, the freshman put up eight points in less than four minutes, cutting UCLA\u2019s lead to 11.<\/p>\n

But the spark was brief. The Bruins came firing back, led by Dent, who basically took a blowtorch to the Trojans\u2019 defensive plans. After scoring a season-high 30 points against USC in their last meeting, Dent dropped 25 in the rematch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a problem staying in front of Dent,\u201d said forward Jacob Cofie. \u201cEleven for 15, that\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was just the start of USC\u2019s issues. But as its season continues to descend further into disaster, Musselman assured that things were still moving in the right direction ahead of Wednesday\u2019s game against Washington in the conference tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel this is an NCAA tournament team if we were healthy,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cWe have no doubt that it was \u2014 or would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except now, we\u2019ll never know for sure. And after a seventh-straight loss and a second straight season left spiraling, hypotheticals could only carry USC and its coach so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eric Musselman sat behind a microphone at the bitter end of a bitter regular season for USC, armed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96852,25945,70945,96851,1073,48,52,51,47,50,49,96849,1417,777,79758,55234,315,23138,1092,96850,3533],"class_list":["post-210465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-blown-lead","tag-dent","tag-eric-musselman","tag-excuse","tag-home","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-once-hopeful-season","tag-point","tag-second-half","tag-straight-loss","tag-stretch","tag-time","tag-trojans","tag-ucla","tag-unfortunate-injury","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}