Before a ball could even be tipped off at the Galen Center, senior guard Rodney Rice has already received recognition for what could be a pivotal season. <\/p>\n
Rice was named to the 2026-27 preseason All-Big Ten Team on Monday, the first player under head coach Eric Musselman, who enters his third year at the helm, to receive preseason conference honors. But this only adds to the growing list of expectations put on the team ahead of the season, which has drawn national attention. <\/p>\n
The Trojans were picked seventh in the Big Ten\u2019s preseason Media Poll<\/a>, right behind last year\u2019s Big Ten tournament champions, the Purdue Boilermakers. USC also appeared in 11 preseason rankings, including ESPN\u2019s Men\u2019s NCAA Basketball 2026-27 Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings<\/a>, where they are projected as No. 12; Fox Sports ranked them No. <\/a>13, and FanDuel ranked them No. 15. <\/p>\n They started last season 12-1 and appeared to be promising before injuries and inconsistency chipped away at their roster. They ended the season on an eight-game losing streak and missed the NCAA tournament for the second time under Musselman\u2019s tenure. <\/p>\n But these rankings tell a different story, one that puts a target on USC\u2019s back. As a program that finished with an 18-14 record, these emerging expectations will either excite or disappoint fans.<\/p>\n Some of the excitement stems from the return of Rice, who could change the trajectory of the team this season. Last season, his year was cut short due to a shoulder injury, but before his absence, Rice was seen in six games as an important contributor. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that we were able to survive a little bit last year right after Rodney\u2019s injury,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cI think as the season progressed, you saw how much we missed, you know, a guy that was averaging 20 and 6.\u201d <\/p>\n He averaged 20.3 points per game, a team-high six assists, all while scoring double digits in every appearance of those six games. He also etched his name into USC history with a triple-double against Illinois State, the second in program history. <\/p>\n Then, there\u2019s the rest of the roster. <\/p>\n Not only is there the return of Rice, but also sophomore guard Alijah Arenas, who missed the first 18 games of his freshman season while recovering from knee surgery, and junior forward Jacob Cofie. During the program\u2019s first NBA Pro Day last week, Musselman talked highly of these three returners. <\/p>\n \u201cI think getting three guys back is crucial on retention, especially when you look at the Big Ten landscape,\u201d Musselman said.<\/p>\n Now add in seven transfers and an impressive freshman class that was ranked No. 5 nationally by ESPN, the second-highest in program history. That\u2019s a lot of program history that has been made within these few years under Musselman\u2019s tenure. <\/p>\n The more notable transfers include senior guards KJ Lewis from Georgetown and Jalen Cox from Colgate and sophomore center Eric Reibe from UConn, bringing talent and experience from other programs. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s [Cox] a guy that gives us something unique and different because he\u2019s, you know, he\u2019s a true point guard. He\u2019s got great speed,\u201d Musselman said. <\/p>\n Then, bring in five-star freshman forward Christian Collins out of Inglewood and the four-star 7\u20321\u2033 Ratliff twins from New York. Freshman forward Adonis Ratliff and center Darius Ratliff may add more intrigue as Musselman has them working through their shooting and position shifts. <\/p>\n \u201cDarius has surprised us with his shooting as well at the five spot,\u201d Musselman said during media availability ahead of the team\u2019s pro day. \u201cYou\u2019ll see today Adonis has predominantly played the small forward spot at 7 \u20181, and he\u2019s shot the ball well, provides spacing, you know? Probably during the course of the season he\u2019ll probably play the 3\/4.\u201d<\/p>\n On paper, this roster is filled with potential, but potential won\u2019t meet these preconceived expectations; the plays will. <\/p>\n USC\u2019s seventh-place projection<\/a> in the Big Ten makes it clear that this lineup is seen as a team capable of making noise. They have the talent, the recognition, and a recruiting class that is turning people\u2019s heads. Now, they have to make it all work together. <\/p>\n As the returners have something to prove this season, they are also stepping into a veteran role for the freshmen, where they\u2019ve spent the summer together getting a feel for each other\u2019s capabilities. <\/p>\n \u201cAdonis, he\u2019s a really good shooter,\u201d Arenas said during Pro Day. <\/p>\n \u201cI would say [Adonis] as well. He can shoot really well for a freshman. I have never seen something like that,\u201d Cofie said.<\/p>\n For Rice, it means turning this preseason honor into production, and for Musselman, it means molding a collection of returners, transfers, and freshmen into a team that can get in the paint and perform to the point where these predictions become reality. <\/p>\n \u201cI would say the length, the versatility, the team chemistry, and the team buy-in. Again, it\u2019s early,\u201d Musselman said. <\/p>\n The Trojans don\u2019t have to wait long to see whether this preseason hype holds any weight, as their first test is this Friday, Oct. 9, at Chapel Hill as they face the University of North Carolina Tar Heels at the Dean E. Smith Center. <\/p>\n Edited by Adriana Brady<\/a> and Lauren Worley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before a ball could even be tipped off at the Galen Center, senior guard Rodney Rice has already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[100542,7,7641,28296,217,100543,11713,2561,231,772,1544,34563,4848,571],"class_list":["post-852782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-adonis-ratliff","tag-basketball","tag-big-ten","tag-big-ten-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-darius-ratliff","tag-eric-musselman","tag-mens-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-rodney-rice","tag-trojans","tag-usc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117397798515929740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852782","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=852782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}