Eric Musselman furious with inadvertent whistle, officiating late vs. Minnesota

Eric Musselman had quite a bit to say Saturday about an inadvertent whistle that caused confusion late in a loss against Minnesota. The Trojans had the ball and led 66-65 with 23.2 seconds remaining when the referees blew a whistle that stopped play.

Chaos ensued as it was ruled a USC turnover and then a foul was called that gave the Golden Gophers a pair of free throws. The Trojans committed another turnover the next play and Minnesota sealed the game with two more free throws to win 69-66.

Speaking postgame, Musselman called out a Golden Gophers coach for leaving the sideline and stepping onto the court for causing the confusion that led to the inadvertent whistle.

“I don’t want to get fined, but I just watched it,” he said. “We have the ball. We clearly have the ball. It’s inbounded and we dribbled the ball several times. Minnesota’s coach went out on the floor. Wasn’t on the sideline, he was out on the floor, and the guy inadvertently blew a whistle. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then the next sequence is a dribble drive by (Lu’Cye) Patterson and probably hand checked him on the dribble drive before the shot. They got two. Desmond (Claude) had a dribble drive and the ball was clearly off of Desmond. I just watched it. Could’ve been a hand check basically of the same type as Mitchell’s was off the dribble. Been coaching a long time but never seen a sequence like that.

“…I’m not even gonna complain about that part. What I am gonna complain about is someone going out on the court when we have the ball. But look, I want to be perfectly clear, they beat us.”

USC had the lead for the majority of the game but allowed Minnesota to stay within striking distance throughout the second half. That ultimately would be their downfall as the wild sequence at the end allowed the Golden Gophers to pull away.

The loss dropped the Trojans to 14-11 (6-8 Big Ten) in Eric Musselman’s inaugural season. With time running out for them to make a run toward an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, they’ll need to tighten things up across the final three weeks of the regular season.

USC will get an opportunity to bounce back from Saturday’s loss when it hits the road to take on No. 20 Maryland on Thursday.