LOS ANGELES — From the minute Eric Musselman took the introductory stage inside USC’s Galen Center in early April, it was clear his hire was the primary vision of athletic director Jen Cohen.
“Jen, who is fantastic, identified Eric right away,” USC President Carol Folt said then, in opening remarks announcing Musselman as USC’s head men’s basketball coach.
And Cohen’s influence has only become more apparent in the month and a half since, as USC’s brought in trusted coaches from her longtime days at Washington to fill out Musselman’s armada of assistants.
On Thursday, former Washington assistant Quincy Pondexter announced he’d been hired at USC as part of Musselman’s staff. A former seven-year NBA veteran, Pondexter returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach under former head coach Mike Hopkins in 2021, who’d been hired by Cohen in 2017 in her time as Washington’s athletic director. Pondexter also played four years for the Huskies, from 2006-2010, while Cohen was working in development offices at Washington.
It’s Musselman and Cohen’s second hire out of Washington, as they’ve also plucked longtime assistant Will Conroy away from Hopkins’ staff after his two seasons as the Huskies’ associate head coach. Conroy, similar to Pondexter, played at Washington in the 2000s while Cohen was a department employee, and Pondexter cited Conroy as a mentor in his previous bio at Washington.
It’ll likely complete major hires on Musselman’s staff, as the program tries to put the finishing touches on a transfer-portal haul predicated on veteran talent. In addition to Pondexter and Conroy, Musselman has brought longtime Arkansas staffers Anthony Ruta, Todd Lee and son Michael Musselman with him to USC.
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