2024-25 ITH Season Preview: USC Trojans

  • 09/10/2024 8:35 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with USC.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota

A new era of USC basketball begins this winter with a new coach and a new conference to navigate. After Andy Enfield departed USC for SMU after 11 seasons, the Trojans hired Eric Musselman from Arkansas.

The 59-year-old Musselman built successful programs in Nevada and Arkansas and brings his transfer portal-heavy approach to Los Angeles and the Big Ten.

While Musselman has historically been one of the most aggressive coaches in pursuing transfers, he had no choice but to prioritize the portal when constructing his first USC roster.

With just one returning player – 6-foot-10 senior Harrison Hornery – Musselman and his staff landed 11 transfers and two freshmen.

The Trojans will have plenty of experience with eight graduate students on the 2024-25 roster.

Desmond Claude, a 6-foot-6 Xavier transfer, is one of the likely backcourt starters. Claude averaged 16.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 33.8 minutes last season for the Musketeers. He started all 34 games and earned Big East most improved player honors.

Penn transfer Clark Slajchert had no shortage of suitors in the portal because of his shooting prowess but opted to return home to Los Angeles to finish his eligibility. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 18 points and shot close to 40 percent from deep last season for the Quakers.

Bryce Pope, a 6-foot-5 transfer from UC San Diego, is wired to score. Pope averaged 18.3 points in more than 35 minutes per game last season and shot just over 33 percent on 3s. He should provide a scoring punch off the bench for USC.

Freshman Isaiah Elohim, a Northridge, California native, was the No. 51 player nationally in the final 247Composite rankings for the 2024 class. Elohim originally signed with Musselman at Arkansas and then opted to follow him to USC after the coaching change. Elohim has a college-ready body and could be ready to contribute right away to the Trojan backcourt.

As with most of Musselman’s teams, this roster has several players between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8 who can play and guard multiple positions.

The headliner from the group is Saint Thomas, a transfer from Northern Colorado. Thomas averaged 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 steals last season and should be USC’s go-to scorer. Thomas shot close to 57 percent on 2s and 86.5 percent on free throws.

After playing four seasons at Michigan, Terrence Williams II has plenty of Big Ten experience. Williams can play both forward spots and had a solid season last year for the Wolverines despite the program bottoming out under Juwan Howard. Williams averaged 12.4 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting close to 40 percent on 3s.

Chibuzo Agbo arrives from Boise State, where he shot close to 41 percent on 3s and averaged 13.7 points and 5.1 rebounds on an NCAA tournament team. At 6-foot-7, he fits the mold of the type of wing Musselman likes to build his team around.

Sophomore Kevin Patton Jr. arrives from San Diego and could be a building block for the program’s future. An All-freshman selection last season in the West Coast Conference, Patton Jr. is 6-foot-8 but can play the guard spots or on the wing. He averaged 9.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting close to 34 percent from distance.

Two other forwards who could figure into the rotation are Yale transfer Matt Knowling and freshman Jalen Shelley, who originally signed with Arkansas but is following Musselman to LA after the coaching change.

Knowling is a 6-foot-6 forward who started in the Ivy League and played a key role in the program’s NCAA tournament upset of Auburn last season. Knowing isn’t a shooter but averaged a solid 11.6 points and 4.9 rebounds in just over 28 minutes last season.

Shelley is a 6-foot-8 wing who was ranked as the No. 62 player in the 247Composite. He may be a season away from significant minutes, but like Patton Jr. and Elohim, he is a key to USC’s future.

The minutes at the five are likely to go to 6-foot-10 Josh Cohen, a transfer from UMass, Rashaun Agee, a transfer from Bowling Green, and Hornery, the lone returnee.

Cohen isn’t a traditional big man and likes to shoot from the perimeter, but he is also a solid rebounder and finisher at the rim. He averaged 15.9 points and 6.8 rebounds last season for the Minutemen. Agee is just 6-foot-8, but he was one of the best offensive rebounders in the country last season and nearly averaged a double-double (13.3 points and 9.9 rebounds per game). Hornery gives Musselman another player with size and experience in the frontcourt. In limited time last season, he averaged 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds.

Despite the roster turnover, USC is currently ranked 50th in Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 season preseason projections. The NCAA tournament isn’t expected in year one of the Musselman era, but it wouldn’t be a surprise given the talent and versatility assembled.

Bottom line: After failing last season at Arkansas with a transfer-heavy roster, Musselman will be motivated to succeed quickly in Los Angeles. The roster he assembled is heavy on experience and production and a soft non-conference schedule should give the Trojans a chance for early-season success. Post-play could be a problem against some of the Big Ten’s bigger and more physical teams, but USC has a solid rotation of guards and wings that should be competitive right away.

Quotable: “We think the potential here is through the roof. Coach Enfield did great things for 11 years here. We want to continue to do things that he’s done and try to build on some of those things as well.” – Musselman in his introductory press conference in early April.

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