Eric Musselman reveals how officiating changed gameplan vs. UCLA

The USC Trojans leaned on the three-point shot in their 82-76 loss to the UCLA Bruins. It was a decision that head coach Eric Musselman made for his team for a couple of reasons. The first was their success and the second was the officiating.

Following the game, Musselman discussed his team’s approach on offense, explaining taking 31 three-point shots and relying on the outside game to try and beat UCLA.

“Yeah, I would say that we knew they kept the lane compact,” Eric Musselman said. “To be honest with you, the 31 threes probably kept us in the game in the first half. Without making the threes in the first half, we’re probably down by a much larger margin. Thought in the second half there were probably three to four threes that we shouldn’t have taken. Whatever the percentage is, we end up shooting 36 percent from three. That’s a pretty good number, especially when you take the volume of that. Some of the statistical analysis that we do — like a stat person would probably tell you we don’t take enough threes based on our percentage and some other things, and we weren’t getting free throws attempted.”

The point Musselman made about free throws was also key to USC leaning on three-point shots. That was because, based on how the game was officiated, there weren’t many calls inside. Against UCLA that made things particularly difficult.

Both teams were called for 18 fouls. The Trojans shot just 19 free throws on that compared to 25 for the Bruins. Even in that, Musselman saw his team struggle to make free throws, going 11/19 at the line in a game they lost by six points.

“Our team, not now, not this year, not for like the last 11 years we put pressure on the rim and are one of the highest free throw attempt teams in the country. So, you come into the game, say, ‘Drive the basketball. They’re a high foul team. They’re a really physical team.’ Like I said, all these questions and stuff, and one of the most baffling is how do we only take 19 foul shots? Just look at the physicality. At some point in the game, you have to change. If you’re not getting to the foul line based on dribble penetration, you’re going to have to change on the fly,” Musselman said. “And we thought the three-point line was the next best thing if you’re going in there, getting dislodged.”

There has been some talk among coaches recently in the Big Ten. That includes Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May sharing that his team is adjusting to the official. Despite that, Eric Musselman didn’t want to blame adjusting to officials. Instead, he argued they’d need to be better in their next meeting.

“Look, we lost the game and part of the game was drawing free throws attempted. When you play UCLA that’s what we felt — when we played Coach [Mick] Cronin‘s team at Nevada, part of the thing was drawing free throws because they’re physical. I love his style of play. They’re grimy, dirty, they get after you,” Musselman said. “But with full-court pressure and somebody playing 90 feet, you’d think there’s going to be some early bonus stuff that we must have to do a better job. So, when we play the game at Pauley Pavilion hopefully we do a better job drawing free throws and be more aggressive.”

USC and UCLA will meet again on March 8th to finish up the regular season. That time, the Bruins will host the game.