Basketball often took a backseat in early conversations between Eric Musselman and prized recruit Alijah Arenas.
On one aspect was a teenage phenom navigating an early leap to school. On one other was a USC males’s basketball coach extra interested by Arenas’ temper, when he awakened and the way he made sense of the individuals and the world round him.
And so when USC’s coach stood in entrance of the Galen Middle’s vibrant new scoreboard Friday morning — two days after it was introduced that Arenas would miss six to eight months with a knee harm — Musselman discovered himself stammering, stitching collectively the phrases to encapsulate what the freshman meant to him.
“I probably feel closer to him than anybody that I’ve coached in a two-month span since he’s been on campus,” Musselman mentioned.
The bond has already weathered greater than most would in 4 years.
First got here the reclassification — Arenas skipped his senior yr of highschool to affix USC. Then got here the frenzy course into collegiate basketball as he ready spring apply. Then, on April 25, Arenas was in a critical automobile crash that led to him being positioned right into a coma.
After recovering from his accidents, Arenas was barely two weeks again from being medically cleared to apply when he sustained a slight meniscus tear and bone bruise.
However even in these 14 days — and only one full apply with Musselman current — Arenas proved sufficient to be the centerpiece of his coach’s imaginative and prescient for USC.
“We built the roster around some of the stuff that he could do, and knowing that he could play the one and the two, and when he played the one, would have great length,” Musselman mentioned. “And I told people from the beginning of the recruiting process what a great passer he was.”
At 6 ft 7 , Arenas averaged 30.9 factors and seven.8 rebounds per sport at Chatsworth Excessive earlier than touchdown thirteenth in ESPN’s Class of 2025.
In Arenas’ absence, Musselman mentioned he has weighed including a 14th participant to the roster, however would accomplish that provided that it “could help us.” The larger hurdle, the coach added, can be revenue-sharing limits.
Arenas will nonetheless be touring, studying and rehabbing alongside USC. And he’ll proceed to shadow Musselman in a job the coach by no means needed to clarify to him.
“To some people during the recruiting process, you call them and you can’t wait to get off the phone, and you’re just kind of calling them to try to develop a relationship,” Musselman mentioned. “The reason that Alijah and I are in such a good spot is because he picked up the phone when I called him.
He added: “We already had a built-in trust before he got here.”
And so on.
Musselman mentioned Friday that Terrance Williams II (wrist), whose harm he known as “one of the weirdest injuries I’ve seen,” will return Aug. 25 when the Trojans report for apply on the primary day of the educational yr. … Musselman famous that Jordan Marsh has been the crew’s “biggest surprise” of the summer season, whereas Rodney Rice will take over because the Trojans’ major ball handler.
