Eric Musselman Explains USC Basketball’s Roster-Building Blueprint

It is no secret that college basketball is changing. Between the transfer portal, NIL and the NCAA’s evolving eligibility rules, building a championship-caliber roster has become more challenging than ever. The modern landscape of college athletics has forced coaches to constantly adapt as roster construction becomes more unpredictable each year.

On Monday, USC coach Eric Musselman shared the blueprint he believes programs must follow to build sustained success.

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Musselman believes building a winning roster in today’s college basketball landscape is about identifying the right returning players, supplementing them with high-upside freshmen and using the transfer portal to address remaining needs.

The idea isn’t anything new. For decades, successful college basketball programs were built around veteran players who stayed in the program, developed over multiple seasons and grew within the same system. What has changed is how difficult that model has become to maintain in an era where players can transfer freely and rosters can turn over every offseason.

“I think, regardless of sport, regardless of university, regardless of college, everybody understands retention is important,” said Musselman. “You retain the right guys and incoming freshmen that are either super talented or that you can build through, and then the portal. I think all three of those are just going to be factors.”

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Retaining the right pieces

At first glance, USC’s roster somewhat appears to contradict Musselman’s claims about retention. The Trojans return just three scholarship players from last season alongside three incoming freshmen and seven transfers.

However, it is worth noting that Musselman never said a coach has to retain as many players as possible, he spoke about retaining the “right guys.” In today’s world of NIL and revenue sharing, retaining a whole starting five is nearly impossible. Elite programs can no longer afford to spread financial resources evenly across a 15-man roster just for the sake of continuity.

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So when Musselman talks about retention, it means identifying a small, elite core of players worth building around, then constructing everything else through recruiting and the transfer portal.

This offseason, that reality unfortunately meant letting notable names walk away. Guard Jerry Easter II entered the portal and left for Oregon, while big man Gabe Dynes transferred to Louisville. They were joined in the portal by Jordan Marsh, Amarion Dickerson and E.J. Neal Jr.

USC prioritized a specific, foundational trio in Alijah Arenas, Rodney Rice and Jacob Cofie.

Arenas gives the Trojans a true scorer and immediate offensive threat. Arenas averaged 16.4 points and 3.2 assists per game across 32 starts last season. Rice adds another layer of scoring, coming off a season where he averaged nearly 13 points a game. Lastly, Cofie anchors the glass and gives the Trojans a physical versatile presence.

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Together, Arenas, Rice and Cofie give the Trojans a balanced mix of scoring, playmaking and physicality that everything else can be built around.

High-upside freshmen

The second pillar of Musselman’s blueprint focuses on high-upside freshmen. This year, the Trojans brought in a top-10 national recruiting class featuring five-star forward Christian Collins and the Ratliff twins. Musselman’s vision is to develop this group into the next wave of program anchors.

“Christian (Collins) is just so high energy, and then the Ratliffs, they’re different. To lump them together is unfair, other than they’re both seven-footers and have the same last name,” said Musselman. “Adonis has really shot the ball well and has played really well, and then Darius has a different skill set of being more interior player.

“I don’t use the word lightly, but they all three have tremendous upside.”

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The ultimate goal of this freshman blueprint is to somewhat replicate what Ohio State accomplished with Bruce Thornton.

“When his name got called at 31, I was super happy because he went way higher than projected,” Musselman said of Thornton. “You want that for guys who have the mindset to stay at one place for four years.”

Instead of transferring, Thornton stayed at OSU all four years in Columbus, where he became the Buckeyes’ all-time leading scorer with over 2,100 career points. He developed under one roof, grew within the league and was ultimately rewarded by being selected in the NBA Draft.

That is the exact type of trajectory Musselman hopes to build with his incoming freshmen.

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The transfer portal

Lastly, Musselman turns to the transfer portal. With seven transfers, it can easily look like the portal is the actual foundation of the roster. But in Musselman’s blueprint, the portal group is a meticulously designed unit built to solve specific problems.

The group includes Georgetown transfer KJ Lewis, UConn’s Eric Reibe, Lindenwood scorer Jalis Jones, Colgate guard Jalen Cox, South Dakota’s Isaac Bruns, Evansville’s Joshua Hughes and Hawaii guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor.

Reibe and Hughes bring size to match Big Ten frontcourts, Lewis and Jones add perimeter scoring and defensive versatility, and Cox, alongside Hunkin-Claytor, stabilizes the backcourt. Finally, Bruns provides the floor-spacing element USC lacked at times last season, shooting nearly 42 percent from three for his career.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/usc as Eric Musselman Explains USC Basketball’s Roster-Building Blueprint.