{"id":87543,"date":"2025-12-09T12:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/87543\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:23:12","slug":"usc-coach-eric-musselman-treasures-bonds-formed-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/87543\/","title":{"rendered":"USC coach Eric Musselman treasures bonds formed in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When they first met more than four decades ago now, the four freshmen on the University of San Diego\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team in 1983 didn\u2019t need long to figure out who would lead them. Eric Musselman<\/a> had all but elected himself within moments of moving into their dorm room.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I could even drop my bag on the bed, Eric goes, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to the gym,\u2019\u201d recalled Scott Thompson, San Diego\u2019s 7-foot center. \u201cHe\u2019d barely said hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"San <\/p>\n

San Diego players, from left to right, Nils Madden, Scott Thompson, Eric Musselman and Steve Krallman wear their jerseys while posing for a photo at the beach.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Steve Krallman)<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter that, at 5-foot-7, Musselman \u2014 the future USC<\/a> men\u2019s basketball coach \u2014 was more than a foot shorter than his freshman counterparts, with the other two checking in at 6-foot-11 and 6-foot-9. Or that Musselman carried himself with a swagger and confidence more befitting, even then, of a coach than a college freshman. He was so sure of himself, he actually pitched himself for the head coaching job as a sophomore.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather [Pat] Cahill was our athletic director,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cSo before they named our new coach [in 1984], I went in there and told him, \u2018Hey I think I can coach these guys and be a student athlete and a coach, and it\u2019d be great publicity, the first time ever and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Father Cahill told me to get back to class.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, Musselman will finally get the chance to walk the San Diego sideline as coach \u2014 albeit for the opposing team, when his Trojans take on the Toreros Tuesday. But in the 40 years since they left San Diego, Musselman has never strayed far from the teammates who spent almost every waking moment with him in college. They still communicate most every day via group text messages, in part to keep tabs on Musselman and the Trojans. They\u2019ve traveled to watch him coach in West Palm Beach, Fla., in Reno, Nev., in Fayetteville, Ark. \u2014 even bought season tickets for the team he was coaching, whether they lived in the city or not.<\/p>\n

Many of those friends will reunite Tuesday in San Diego to celebrate Musselman and the team responsible for two of the Toreros\u2019 four NCAA tournament berths in program history. That stretch has remained the program\u2019s heyday, as San Diego returned to the tournament just twice since its 1987 trip.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Musselman built a career as an NBA coach, lost it, and then built it back coaching college ball, taking two programs of his own to the NCAA tournament \u2014 with a third potentially on the way this season at USC.<\/p>\n

Along the way he has kept his San Diego teammates close. And he tells his teams to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys on that team, I could call them for anything to this day,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cYou play with someone in 1987, and you\u2019re still in contact and people are flying to Fayetteville, Arkansas to watch a game a year, it\u2019s unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unique how much winning brought us together. Or did we win because of that? I guess you never really know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musselman was the smallest in his class, and he played the least of the four, averaging just 1.3 points per game during his four years in San Diego. But he usually managed to make an impression on opposing teams anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might\u2019ve been the guy with the loudest mouth,\u201d San Diego teammate Nils Madden says with a laugh. \u201cWe were always backing him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, they usually followed his lead. It\u2019d been that way from the beginning at San Diego. Musselman arranged their regular pick-up games. He kept the dorm room spotless. He was even the one rallying the group to go out after games. Any spare time outside of basketball was usually spent at the beach, working on his tan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the rest of us were floundering around,\u201d Thompson says, \u201che kind of knew what to do with his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eric <\/p>\n

Eric Musselman, who was then the Sacramento Kings head coach, yells instructions to his players on Oct. 17, 2006.<\/p>\n

(Ethan Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One day, during Musselman\u2019s freshman season, then-Clipper forward Bill Walton<\/a> walked into San Diego\u2019s gym for an impromptu pick-up game. In picking teams, he left out Musselman, who didn\u2019t appreciate the snub.<\/p>\n

So Musselman grabbed the gym\u2019s keys, turned the lights out and locked the doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Bill Walton, \u2018Hey man, I\u2019m either in the first game, or we\u2019re not playing,\u201d Musselman said.<\/p>\n

Right away, Musselman was \u201claser-focused,\u201d his friends say, on following in his father\u2019s footsteps in basketball. So San Diego\u2019s staff held him to a higher standard as a result. When Thompson, a future NBA draft pick, broke his toe playing a game of barefoot football in the middle of their freshman season, it was Musselman who got the brunt of the blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric got called out,\u201d says Steve Krallman, another teammate, \u201cbecause they thought he should have known better.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego still won the Western Coast Athletic Conference title for the first time that season, earning the school\u2019s first NCAA tournament bid. But the 12th-seed Toreros lost to fifth-seeded Princeton. Musselman played one minute \u2014 and still took two shots.<\/p>\n

That offseason, their coach, Jim Brovelli, left to restart the hoops program at his alma mater, San Francisco. That\u2019s when Musselman so generously offered to take the reins.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC coach Eric Musselman yells instructions to his team playing defense against Oregon at Galen Center last season.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

San Diego ultimately went with Hank Egan.<\/p>\n

But Egan came to rely on Musselman right away. Every game day, Musselman said, Egan would ask him if the team was ready. One day, early on, Musselman told him that he wasn\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n

Egan screamed at him, \u201cWell that\u2019s your job!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Toreros didn\u2019t return to the NCAA tournament until Musselman\u2019s senior year. This time, they were a No. 9 seed, with Thompson and Madden patrolling the frontcourt.<\/p>\n

Auburn roared out to a lead early, only for San Diego to climb its way back. Musselman knocked down a three pointer during a brief stint off the bench, then threw another up soon after. Egan took him out.<\/p>\n

Trailing by two, with six seconds remaining, the Toreros missed a free throw. When Auburn missed a free throw of its own, guard Paul Leonard drove the length of the floor, lifted up for a game-winning lay-in \u2026 and was called for double dribbling.<\/p>\n

It was a devastating conclusion to the best four-year stretch Torero hoops has ever had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were robbed,\u201d says Marty Munn, a guard on that team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Auburn would\u2019ve had that, it wouldn\u2019t have been called,\u201d Musselman says. \u201cI\u2019ll put it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t help but think about what might\u2019ve been, with the eventual national champion, Indiana, waiting in the next round. But 40 years later, it\u2019s not the heartbreak that sticks with him from that run.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC men\u2019s basketball coach Eric Musselman spins a basketball while posing for a portrait at the Galen Center on July 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

(Dania Maxwell\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

When any of his old teammates happen to be in town, wherever he is, Musselman likes to have them speak to his team. He wants them to know how lasting the moment they\u2019re in can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always have them talk to the team about relationships,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cTo think, the team that I played with in 1987, so many of them will be at this game or they\u2019ll come to a USC game. \u2026 That just doesn\u2019t happen very often.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his teammates will tell you that\u2019s a credit to the Toreros\u2019 5-foot-7 backup point guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric has always been the bond, frankly,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n

He still texts his San Diego teammates right after most USC games with updates. Assuming, of course, that the Trojans win. (The group text was left noticeably dormant Saturday night after USC fell apart in the second half of a loss to Washington<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all Trojan fans now by proxy. Though, Tuesday\u2019s matchup \u2014 and all the memories it\u2019s sure to conjure \u2014 could complicate those allegiances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are like my brothers,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cAnd that really was the greatest example of what your college experience can be like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When they first met more than four decades ago now, the four freshmen on the University of San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10658,48966,4690,217,423,48968,48965,48969,74,76,75,48967,278,3425,48970,8843,72],"class_list":["post-87543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-basketball-coach","tag-basketball-team","tag-coach","tag-day","tag-game","tag-hank-egan","tag-musselman","tag-ncaa-tournament-berth","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-scott-thompson","tag-season","tag-toreros","tag-toreros-tuesday","tag-way","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87543","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=87543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}