Eric Musselman contemplating change to solve USC’s home struggles

The USC Trojans dropped a home game to cross-town rival the UCLA Bruins on Monday night. With the loss, head coach Eric Musselman has shared that he’s now contemplating a change he can make to solve the team’s issues at home.

Musselman shared that, in his mind, the issue isn’t that the crowd hasn’t been good enough. However, there have been issues that he both needs to figure out and address in their routine for home games.

“I don’t know if it’s — tonight’s crowd was great,” Eric Musselman said. “I think some of the other games we’ve walked out there and the environment is what it is when there’s not. But the Wisconsin crowd was really good, this crowd was good. Like I said, I’m searching. I never had a team stay in a hotel the night before a home game — it’s going to be discussed. Just because that’s what we do on the road. So, I’d love to say that I have the answers — I don’t.”

USC is now 9-5 in home games this season. That includes losses in their last two home games to Wisconsin and UCLA respectively. They’re also 3-1 in road games and 0-2 at neutral locations.

“I do think there’s some themes. We brought up the missed foul shots against Wisconsin. Missed foul shots tonight. Desmond [Claude], his play, because we rely on him and no one’s blaming any player. I mean, I would never do that but we needed somebody else to kind of step up tonight because I thought Wesley Yates as a freshman — but there’s some good things happening here too. UCLA is, they’ve got a lot of returning players. We’ve got one,” Musselman said.

“So, when you have [Aday] Mara returning and [Sebastian] Mack and number 10 [Lazar Stefanovic] and Dylan [Andrews]. They’ve got a lot of guys back. We’re searching and clawing and competing, but you know, you can tell we lost. So, it’s not a good feeling. I can tell you that.”

The schedule at home isn’t going to get easier any time soon. On Saturday, the Michigan State Spartans are traveling to Los Angeles for a game where the Trojans are going to try to take down a team that is now 9-0 in Big Ten play this season. For Musselman, who has seen his team fall to 4-5 in conference play, it’s going to be vital to find a way to turn things around before the game.