{"id":665911,"date":"2026-03-19T00:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665911\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:51:18","slug":"christian-collins-lands-with-usc-basketball-coach-eric-musselman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665911\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Collins lands with USC basketball, coach Eric Musselman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/12\/sports\/usc-basketball-has-promising-pieces-for-2026-27-and-beyond\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USC basketball coach Eric Musselman<\/a> continues to stockpile star power with his latest high school recruiting class.<\/p>\n<p>His newest McDonald\u2019s All-American, power forward Christian Collins, brings intriguing upside along with a genetic health condition that will make him a rarity in college basketball.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38825520\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26020058046294.jpg\" alt=\"USC commit Christian Collins\" class=\"wp-image-38825520\"  \/>St. John Bosco\u2019s Christian Collins (11) verbally committed to USC on Wednesday. AP<\/p>\n<p>Collins, who told multiple recruiting services Wednesday that he had verbally <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/11\/sports\/uscs-basketball-season-appears-finished-after-loss-to-washington\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">committed to the Trojans<\/a>, has cystic fibrosis, a condition that can cause lung infections, persistent coughing and shortness of breath.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-9 Collins told ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews that he had a mild case of the condition, which can be managed with an inhaler and medication.<\/p>\n<p>Misinformation about the condition is widespread. Collins\u2019 mother, Angel Fennel, told the Los Angeles Sentinel in 2019 that her son\u2019s classmates made insensitive comments about his mortality, leading him to ask her if he was going to die.<\/p>\n<p>There is no cure for the condition, but doctors have said in recent years they are confident they could be on the verge of finding a breakthrough in treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Collins, who stars for St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, picked USC over Kentucky and Louisville, his other finalists.<\/p>\n<p>He joins a 2026 recruiting class that also includes identical twin 7-footers Darius and Adonis Ratliff. <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/11\/sports\/usc-mens-basketball-falls-in-big-ten-tournament-opener\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USC\u2019s three-player class<\/a> is now ranked No. 6 nationally by 247Sports.com.<\/p>\n<p>Collins\u2019 presence on a major college roster will undoubtedly increase awareness of cystic fibrosis and make him an immediate fan favorite among those rooting for him to show that there\u2019s no limitations for people battling the condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USC basketball coach Eric Musselman continues to stockpile star power with his latest high school recruiting class. His&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,7641,160,66,849],"class_list":["post-665911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-big-ten","tag-california","tag-sports","tag-usc-trojans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116253104819409231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}