Eric Musselman is frustrated with the result of Wednesday’s college basketball game between USC and Indiana for a lot of reasons. His team failed to rebound, officiating was questionable, and Mike Woodson apparently did something to set him off.
The head coach of the Trojans refused to acknowledge the head coach of the Hoosiers after the final buzzer.
Musselman and his college basketball team traveled to Bloomington for a Big Ten Conference game, which is going to take some getting used to. It was the first matchup between the two teams since 1974. Indiana beat USC 82-69 behind 23 points from star center Oumar Ballo. The Hoosiers also finished with seven more rebounds than the Trojans and the visitors accrued 20 fouls to the home team’s 13.
The lack of rebounding at one point led Musselman to drop to the ground in frustration.
Eric Musselman *literally* just fell to his hands and knees after Indiana grabbed an offensive rebound.
— Jared Kelly (@Jared_Kelly7) January 9, 2025
I wish I got a picture of that. #iubb
He also refused to shake the hand of Woodson during the handshake line.
Eric Musselman just did a blow-by past Mike Woodson in the handshake line. Woodson turned around for a moment and looked at Musselman. #iubb
— Jared Kelly (@Jared_Kelly7) January 9, 2025
Part of the blow-by stemmed from a dislike toward Indiana’s head coach. Part of it stemmed from USC’s frustration with the officials. Its head coach also skipped over his opponent because he was trying to get to a nearby referee to give him a piece of his mind.
Although the incident was two-fold, Musselman made his thoughts on Woodson abundantly clear during his press conference. The love is not lost.
I got no comment on that guy.
— Eric Musselman
It is unclear as to why there is beef between the two coaches. There is no singular incident at which to point and there is no prior history between them, unless they at one point crossed over in the NBA.
The same cannot be said for the officiating. Eric Musselman is new to the Big Ten. He does not like how games have been called down the stretch but prefers to keep his off-the-court complaints to a minimum.
I mean, there [is frustration with the referees], but I’m not gonna say it. I’m a first-year coach in the league, you know […] it’s not worth talking about, to be honest.
— Eric Musselman after a loss to Michigan on Jan. 4
The first-year head coach at USC was just as docile toward the Big Ten crew after the loss to Indiana. He would rather focus on what his team did not do, rather than how it was impacted by the whistle.
Unfortunately, there will not be a rematch between the Hoosiers and Trojans during the regular season. They would next play in the Big Ten Tournament if they get there.