When making new staff hires at USC after coming over from Arkansas, Eric Musselman mirrored much of his Razorback staff, but he did have a few points of emphasis when building it out.
At one of his offseason press conferences, Musselman detailed his philosophy on building out this staff to make sure he has the right people to fill the right roles on the Trojan bench. First, he noted two right-hand men that were locked at the hip with him regardless of the new destination.
“I mean, obviously, we brought the group from Arkansas, many of them had been at Nevada with us,” said Musselman. “So, coach (Anthony) Ruta and Michael (Musselman’s son) were coming no matter where we went, because they know our system inside and out.”
He also brought over two more assistants from his time at Arkansas, Quincy Pondexter and Will Conroy.
“And then with Will and and Quincy, it was… how do I get two former NBA players?” Musselman explained on their additions, noting how important that first-hand NBA experience is on a staff, especially from a recent former player.
“All these guys aspire to play at that level and it was kind of a non-negotiable for me,” Muss added of the emphasis on pro experience. Even with that caveat, Musselman said he still looked at a huge pool of candidates.
“But we talked to a lot of people that kind of fell into that background, a lot of hard decisions.”
At the end of the day, though, the vision was clear with the guys he hired in terms of their role on the staff and the value they bring with their experience.
“You know, I wanted a guy that could work with guys above 6’6 and thought Quincy could do that, and wanted somebody that could work with perimeter guys and thought Will could do that. Then, Todd Lee worked with me 25 years ago. So, Coach Ruta has got G-League experience, Todd Lee’s got CBA, which is basically G-League.”
It’s a group of guys that Musselman knows and trusts but also features plenty of experience at the professional level, which was a focus for him.
“So. I thought that pro background was important for our recruiting stuff,” Musselman added.
And we know, he’s always been a terrific recruiter. Whether in the transfer portal or with blue-chip high schoolers, Musselman has never had an issue acquiring top-end talent.
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