How CBB on the West Coast changes instantly

Leave it to the West Coast’s most preeminent football school to shake up the basketball movement the region desperately needs.

The “Muss Bus” arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday when USC announced the hiring of Eric Musselman after his stellar five-year run at Arkansas.

The moment the news became official, the sport changed for the better – not only at USC and Southern California, but across time zones across the Pacific and Rockies.

Musselman is the new blood USC needs, the antagonist UCLA needs, the competition Arizona and Gonzaga need, and the amphetamine. everyone needs.

The sport has been in decline for years in the region, lacking star players, interesting coaches and consistent excellence on the field.

West Coast hasn’t won a national title since 1997 (Arizona) and has claimed only a handful of Final Four berths in the last 15 years.

Gonzaga is a great program, but it’s nestled in Spokane and spends most of the season competing against West Coast Conference opponents.

UCLA is rarely the ultimate villain of old and spends little time in the top 10.

Arizona is doing everything it takes to be in a leadership role except winning in March.

And starting next season, the Pac-12 will no longer exist to anchor the sport from Seattle to Los Angeles and the Bay Area to Salt Lake City.

A unifying force is necessary for fans to love, hate, mock, praise, or simply watch in bemusement.

“With the demise of the Pac-12, college sports on the West Coast, and basketball in particular, are becoming very fragmented,” wrote ESPN analyst Sean Farnham, a California native and former UCLA, in a text message following the Musselman news. .

“He needs a face and an energetic personality to stand out from the national noise. Eric Musselman is that for USC.

Certainly, Musselman brings a different vibe to a region where the most successful coaches prefer low-key profiles.

He was using social media to promote his agenda years before it became trendy. He goes shirtless to celebrate big wins. He is so tense that he uses Red Bull as a sedative.

Musselman’s style isn’t for everyone. But he will demand attention, win games and raise the competitive bar for everyone, starting with the program across town.

“He’s an elite recruiter with a proven track record of roster building and success,” Farnham noted. “He did it with an undying passion for the sport and an energy rarely surpassed by anyone.”

The former Warriors and Kings coach left the professional ranks in the early 2010s, learned the college game at Arizona State and LSU (few former NBA coaches are willing to become a college assistant) and took on loads the Nevada program in 2015.

In nine seasons with Nevada and Arkansas, Musselman won at least 20 games eight times, made it to the Sweet 16 four times and reached the Elite Eight twice.

He beat two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed.

He recruited five-star recruits, attracted A-level transfers and produced first-round draft picks.

His presence poses a direct and immediate threat to UCLA, but also to Oregon and Washington as the West Coast quartet enters the Big Ten next season.

It will compete with Arizona and Gonzaga for talent, attention and top seeds in the NCAA.

Musselman is hot and, much like Jim Harbaugh, works best in four- or five-year increments. It’s hard to imagine him replicating Andy Enfield’s 11 seasons at USC.

But athletic director Jen Cohen needed someone with the coaching chops and personality to stand next to her other headliners, football coach Lincoln Riley and women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

A rising star from the Mountain West or West Coast Conference wouldn’t cut it.

A highly regarded assistant coach from one of the sport’s blue blood programs wasn’t going to cut it.

He inherits a program that has reached the NCAA tournament in three of the last four years. This is not a complete reconstruction; it is a modest renovation. USC is a football school that has the resources and recruiting base to win on the field at a high level.

And like UCLA, the Trojans have a path to sustained success in the Big Ten, where the older schools (Indiana and Michigan State) meander and the best program resides in West Lafayette, Indiana — not Ann Arbor or Columbus.