Eric Musselman calls out media for lack of USC coverage: 'Nobody's talking about us at all'

The USC Trojans picked up a big win on Wednesday against the Washington Huskies to snap a five-game losing streak. That helped the Trojans in their push for the Big Ten Tournament and highlighted, for head coach Eric Musselman, just what his team is capable of doing.

Despite the win and the success that USC has had at times this season, Musselman has been frustrated with the media coverage of USC. In particular, he’s frustrated by the lack of it compared to some of their Big Ten peers this season.

“You always look at the season in its totality,” Musselman said. “So, we have one more game to play and then, hopefully, we’re still alive. I watch Big Ten games every night and people are talking about Minnesota winning seven league games and they’re talking about Nebraska winning seven league games. We’re in year one, here we are sitting, and nobody’s talking about us at all.”

USC is now 15-15 for the season overall and 7-12 in Big Ten play. That’s amid a transition season, both with Musselman taking over as head coach. They’re one of five teams who currently have a 7-12 record in Big Ten play this season, though Musselman feels they’re not being talked about as much as those other teams are.

“The Big Ten network’s not talking about us. We have seven wins and when you look at the win-loss column, you know, we’re tied with some programs that have been around for a while in this league,” Musselman said. “And, like I said, Nebraska and Minnesota have been getting a lot of compliments of late with travel and all that. You’ve got to look at the whole league. For this group to get seven and to look at games like Ohio State at home and the Minnesota game at home. You can go back. The Minnesota game, I’ve never seen anything like it, in all the years I’ve been doing it. Every little thing went wrong and there was controversy on stuff. I compliment this team for giving their all, because I think they have.”

This season, the bottom three teams in the Big Ten standings won’t make it to the Big Ten Tournament. As of now, the bottom two slots are decided in the conference standings but the third-worst record is still up in the air. Iowa, at 6-12 with two games left to play, currently sits in that spot. The Trojans are, for their part, currently 14th. Still, there is a worst-case scenario where USC falls out of the Big Ten Tournament.

“Has it been perfect? No, not by any means. We know we want to grow next year,” Musselman said. “But right now we have another game left…and hopefully we throughout the totality of the Big Ten season, hopefully, we’ll be able to play in the Big Ten Tournament.”

USC’s final game of the season is scheduled for Saturday, March 8th. There, they’ll take on rival UCLA looking to finish the regular season with a record over .500 for the season.