USC men's basketball lands prized Auburn transfer Chad Baker-Mazara
USC men's basketball lands prized Auburn transfer Chad Baker-Mazara USC, Eric Musselman bring in star transfer who helped Auburn make the 2025 Final Four
It has been an extremely tumultuous offseason thus for USC men's basketball. On Monday, however, the Trojans and Eric Musselman took a massive step in the right direction, landing one of the most sought players in the transfer portal: Auburn's Chad Baker-Mazara.
Eric Musselman came to USC as the portal king in college basketball, the hoops version of what Florida State's Mike Norvell and Ohio State's Ryan Day have become in football. That transfer portal skill needed to lead to elite roster pickups in the offseason, all while the Muss Bus recruits Southern California (Alijah Arenas) and finds top players he can develop from scratch. There was no strong expectation that Musselman would make everything fit in his first year. He was thrown into a chaotic roster situation after Andy Enfield's departure with little time to execute his intended strategy to the fullest possible extent. This second offseason needed to be better, and now, with the addition of Chad Baker-Mazara, it is.
Chad Baker-Mazara is a worker-bee force of nature. Constant energy (high motor, as basketball analysts would say), relentless rebounding, elite defense, and the ability to score when needed mark him as the kind of player USC lacked last season. The Trojans had scoring but not enough defense and rebounding. Baker-Mazara is a massive get who will give this roster a considerable upgrade. Eric Musselman finally lived up to his promise at USC, and not a moment too soon.
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