Big Ten Basketball Notebook: Eric Musselman’s Team-Building Tactic

Outside of its four new members, the league has seen plenty of changes, from the departures of star players like Zach Edey and Terrence Shannon Jr. to the arrival of big-name new coaches like Dusty May at Michigan.

Musselman is taking a unique approach to getting to know his new players at USC. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The first 18-team Big Ten men’s basketball media day kicked off “talking season” in college basketball Thursday just outside of Chicago—as central a meeting point as possible for the coast-to-coast league. Even outside its four new members, the league has seen plenty of changes, from the departures of star players like Zach Edey and Terrence Shannon Jr. to the arrival of big-name new coaches like Dusty May at Michigan. A few notes from the proceedings in Rosemont, Ill., as the season inches closer:

USC’s Humorous Get-To-Know-You Technique

New USC head coach Eric Musselman is no stranger to flipping his rosters year over year, but the challenge he inherited when taking over for Andy Enfield in Southern California was significant even by his standards. In all, the Trojans brought in 13 new players, including 11 from the transfer portal. Musselman brought two headliners from that monster portal class in Xavier transfer Desmond Claude and Northern Colorado transfer Saint Thomas with him to the event, and the two mentioned a rather elementary technique Musselman has deployed to ensure his team gets to know one another and the new coaching staff.

“We have a sign-in sheet where every day we have to go into the coaches office, sign our name, say hi to everybody, at least have one conversation with somebody,” Claude says.

“You’re going to hear about it at practice [that day] if you don’t come in and sign up,” Thomas says.

Claude averaged 16.6 points per game at Xavier last season. / Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images

Neither Claude nor Thomas said they had experienced anything like it in their previous basketball stops, but say they’ve enjoyed it thus far.

When asked about the sheet, Musselman said he has deployed it at previous coaching stops, but never on a daily basis. But with 13 new players, he felt he needed to take things to a new extreme.

“It’s an awareness of where they are mentally and a way for us to get to know each other better,” Musselman says. “This is the first time I’ve ever done it every day … and if the players are mentioning it [to you], that’s a good thing.”

Illinois Balances Offensive Firepower With Defensive Concerns

Illinois is undergoing one of the more fascinating roster builds. Head coach Brad Underwood left no stone unturned in revamping the Illini roster after losing several players to graduation and the portal. There are star international prospects Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic, freak athlete freshman Morez Johnson from Chicago, Canadian scoring whiz Will Riley and a group of older transfers in Kylan Boswell (Arizona), Tre White (Louisville) and Ben Humrichous (Evansville).

Underwood has been effusive in his praise of Jakucionis since he first set foot on campus for a few weeks this summer, but poured love on his fellow freshman Riley on Thursday.

“His versatility, he gets in the paint at 6' 9", he’s a tough matchup,” Underwood says. “He’s got really good skills with the ball, especially against size.”

While Riley weighs just 180 pounds and has yet to play a college game, Underwood believes his scoring talents will translate rather seamlessly into the Big Ten after lighting up the EYBL circuit this spring. And combine that with an elite ball screen operator in Jakucionis and high-level floor spacers like Boswell and Humrichous, and you have an offense that will cause opposing coaches plenty of headaches.

For now, though, the headaches are all Underwood’s, as he spoke Thursday about how much the Illini need to improve on the defensive end.

“Defensively right now, a seventh grade middle school team might hang 100 on us,” Underwood said. “We stink. We foul too much. And tonight at 5:30 when I get out of here, we’ll have a really inspired practice.”

Maryland, Michigan Embrace Playing Big 

While the trend in basketball everywhere is playing smaller, a few Big Ten teams plan on turning back the clock with two-big lineups that promise to create some fascinating matchups.

At Michigan, Dusty May brought one 7-footer with him from FAU in hawking rim protector Vlad Goldin and added another via the portal in ultra-skilled Yale transfer Danny Wolf. There shouldn’t be too many concerns offensively in pairing the two together: Wolf has, at times, been compared to Nikola Jokić because of his ability to shoot and pass. But defensively, how Wolf guards smaller power forwards and deals with smaller guards switched onto him is a major question.

For what it’s worth, Wolf believes he’s well-positioned to handle the new challenge, telling reporters the coaching staff believes he’s “way further along than expected” with improving his lateral quickness. Still, it seems almost inevitable that early on, teams will hunt matchups with Wolf and test him. His response: Bring it on.

“Go for it,” Wolf says. “I would love to see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Maryland will pair five-star freshman Derik Queen with an established post presence in Julian Reese. Queen also has a diverse skill set that allows him to impact the game from a number of different areas on the floor, but after Maryland’s offensive woes a year ago, questions are bound to come up about whether playing two more traditional bigs together can produce enough offense. Terrapins coach Kevin Willard believes it can work, even if it’s not the fashionable way to play in 2024. 

Queen was one of the top recruits at his position. / Stu Boyd II-The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK

“They really play well off each other. You’re either going to put your four-man on Julian or put your four-man on Derik. I don’t want to be that four-man,” Willard says. “No one really posts up their four-man in college basketball. We’re going to play some old school, Tim [Duncan] and David Robinson … It’s going to open up the floor for the guys on the perimeter because you’re going to have to double-team, you’re going to have to sink in.”

How these modern takes on old-school lineups pan out could inform a lot of roster decisions across the country, making the Wolverines and Terrapins are worth watching.

Purdue Adjusting to Post-Edey Life

It’s nearly impossible to fill Zach Edey’s shoes … literally and figuratively. But despite losing the two-time National Player of the Year and one of the best players in recent college basketball history, Purdue was picked to top the league in the conference’s unofficial media poll. The Boilermakers believe they have what it takes to remain national contenders even without their star in the middle.

It’s not a like-for-like swap, but Purdue has long believed it had a future All-Big Ten player in Trey Kaufman-Renn, once a highly touted in-state recruit who has been relegated to role player duties the last two years next to, and behind, Edey. Head coach Matt Painter doubled down on that assertion Thursday, saying during a morning panel discussion that he believed Kaufman-Renn will be “one of the best big men in our league.”

Kaufman-Renn doesn’t have the size or overwhelming physicality Edey did, but Purdue believes his quickness and well-rounded scoring ability will cause plenty of problems for opposing defenses. He’s even a potential pick-and-pop threat who can pull opposing bigs away from the rim, a challenge particularly if the Boilermakers play small ball with athletic wing Camden Heide at power forward.

Still, much of Purdue living up to its still-lofty expectations rides on preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith. The Boilermakers put more responsibility in Smith’s hands a year ago, playing more out of ball screens and less through the post, despite Edey’s dominance. Now, he’ll have to adjust to life without teams paying quite the same attention to the Boilermakers’ center.

Smith will be asked to carry much of the load for Purdue this season. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Smith has had quite a whirlwind career. He started as a freshman despite being the No. 198 recruit in his class, turned in a brutal performance against Fairleigh Dickinson in an all-time upset before bouncing back and proving doubters wrong by emerging as one of the best point guards in the country on a team that played for a national title. Questions about whether he can handle life without Edey are just the next step in his journey.

“I feel like I always have something to prove,” Smith says.