Eric Musselman shares what he hopes Michigan State win does for USC program

In the midst of an up-and-down start to its first season in the Big Ten, USC picked up undoubtedly its best win Saturday against Michigan State. The Trojans outlasted the No. 7 team in the country by a score of 70-64, snapping a 13-game winning streak for the Spartans.

USC jumped out to a big lead and never trailed in the contest, though Michigan State would stay close throughout the second half. Desmond Claude led the Trojans with 19 points and six rebounds in the win, while Wesley Yates chipped in 15 points in 40 minutes.

The victory improved the Trojans to 13-8 (5-5 Big Ten) and also marked just their second this season against a top 25 opponent. With work still to do to beef up his team’s NCAA Tournament resume, coach Eric Musselman explained the significance of the win.

“That’s a big win for us,” he said. “The student section was phenomenal. When you beat a top 10 team and a team that hasn’t lost since Thanksgiving, a team that was undefeated in the league — it’s our first year in the league. It’s our first year with the program. Huge win at Illinois. Now we’ve had two humongous wins and there’s still a lot of basketball to be played.”

USC was not projected to make the NCAA Tournament in ESPN’s latest bracketology predictions. However, those predictions happened before the win against the Spartans.

One would assume that the Trojans aren’t quite in yet, but Musselman was happy to see the way they responded after losing at home to UCLA on Monday.

“I think our team is a confident team,” he said. “When you lose a hard-fought game against UCLA at home, how are you gonna respond? We all know there’s a rivalry. We all know the history of UCLA. We played hard. Just couldn’t finish the game. How are you gonna respond when you have two road games coming up and you’re playing against Michigan State, who’s coming in here ultra confident?

“But they’re super fun to coach. Our practice the other day was tough. We took off after the UCLA game and then the next day when we came back, I think the guys can tell you. We’re not playing a lot of guys, so if you practice really, really hard, the five guys that are playing the majority of the minutes gotta do all that stuff too. We just wanted to send a message that, ‘Hey, we believe in you.’ We’re not gonna say, ‘Hey, good job. We played UCLA close.’ Let’s get after it and try to figure out how we can beat Michigan State. “

USC next has a matchup coming up against Northwestern on Tuesday and will look to keep the momentum rolling.