Eric Musselman: ‘We’re not on the bubble right now’

It’s been a difficult first season in the Big Ten at times for the USC Trojans. In recent weeks, that’s come in the form of losing four out of six games and now head coach Eric Musselman believes his team has come off the bubble.

Musselman explained that USC is no longer a bubble team following their loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday in a game that saw the Trojans blow a second-half lead. So, from here, USC needs to manage a difficult stretch.

“I mean, we’re not on the bubble right now because of this game,” Eric Musselman said. “So, we’re off the bubble. We have a two-game road trip coming up. Ohio State‘s sitting here, waiting on us. Based on how our schedule was, the importance of this game was monumental because, like I said, I’ve talked to coaches that have made this road trip, and then to think that Ohio State’s waiting, we’re in an overly difficult position.”

Next, USC is making a trip to the East Coast, getting ready to play Maryland and then Rutgers in a cross-country road trip. After that, they’ll return home to play Ohio State. That begins a four-game stretch where while not every game will be at home, all of their final four games of the season will be in the traditional Pac-12 footprint. For Eric Musselman, this type of schedule is similar to that of an NBA team.

“We’re playing two good teams at home, we’re traveling, we’re gonna have to stop when we travel back and probably get back at three in the morning while Ohio State plays a game at like one o’clock and we play at six o’clock. Then we have to travel back and Ohio State’s sitting here. So, but I knew when the schedule came out that some of us were going to have some tough games. This was not one of them. So, there’s no excuse for this game,” Musselman said.

“But I know the next three-game segment is like an NBA team going on a brutal road trip. I do know that. Positive about that, having coached at that level knowing what it’s like to go out on the road for two and then come back when someone’s waiting on you. It’s a brutal segment and we lost tonight. That’s on us, but there’s got to be some accountability on inadvertent whistles in the last segment of the game as well.”

In the latest bracketology, Eric Musselman is correct. USC is off the bubble and not listed as a current NCAA Tournament team.

Now, the hope for the final stretch of the season is twofold. First, Musselman wants his team to play hard. Second, he’d like them to make the Big Ten Tournament.

“Just playing hard and trying to make the Big Ten Tournament. I felt making the Big Ten Tournament before we played a game — you look at the teams in the league and the programs in the league,” Musselman said. “And I told the staff at the beginning of the year that I thought making the Big Ten Tournament was something that one, we don’t want to be left out of it, that’s now in jeopardy, obviously. You win tonight’s game and it’s probably not in jeopardy. So, a lot of things tonight. This 40 minutes is — this game and the Northwestern game when you play 30 games and you can pinpoint two games, it’s devastating.”

In the expanded Big Ten, not every team makes the conference tournament. The bottom three teams in the conference standings in this new format are going to be left out altogether. Right now, USC is 11th in the conference standings and is two games ahead of Northwestern and Washington who are tied for 16th in the Big Ten, but with a difficult schedule ahead that could quickly change.

“But, you’ve got to continue to get better,” Musselman said. “I think when we lose, I think this team does play hard. We led for 36 minutes of the game.”