Southern California has moved quickly to replace Andy Enfield, hiring Arkansas coach Eric Musselman as its next men’s basketball coach.
Musselman interviewed with USC on Wednesday, just two days after Andy Enfield left USC for the same role at Southern Methodist after 11 seasons, five NCAA tournament appearances, and 220 wins in L.A., the third-most in school history. It didn’t take long for USC and its new coach to decide. By Thursday morning, a plane was bound for Fayetteville from L.A. to pick up USC’s new coach and bring him west.
Musselman, 59, is 221-93 as a head coach, with four Sweet 16s and two Elite 8s. He went 111-59 in five seasons at Arkansas. He previously coached the Warriors and Kings in the NBA.
Musselman was an assistant at Arizona State and Louisiana State before Nevada hired Musselman to turn around its program in 2015. He wasted no time vindicating their decision, leading the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament in three of his five seasons in Reno before heading to Fayetteville and reaching the tournament in three of his four possible seasons.
Musselman, who has never spent more than five years at one stop, was paid accordingly for his prolonged success. His annual salary at Arkansas reached $4.245 million in 2023, the 12th-most among college basketball coaches nationally. Enfield’s last known salary at USC, by comparison, was $3.8 million.
Enfield left after a disappointing season to take over as the new head coach at Southern Methodist, leaving Bronny James having to decide whether to transfer out of USC or head to the NBA to try to play with his father.
Before Enfield steadied the program, USC hoops had toiled for years in relative obscurity, unable to find its footing. Enfield eventually caught his stride, leading the Trojans on an Elite Eight run in 2021. But last season, the wheels came off in what was supposed to be a breakthrough campaign, leaving the program in a particularly vulnerable place, in desperate need of a fresh direction.
Musselman is the latest addition to the Coaching Carousel, following moves at Michigan, Stanford, Washington, Louisville, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State.
