Gophers men’s basketball falls 70-69 in overtime to Southern California

Bill Musselman came to Minnesota to coach the Gophers basketball team at age 30, already having authored a small book called “33.9” in honor of the defense he had his team play at Ashland University in Ohio.

That was December 1971 and a strong indication that Musselman had no fear of ugly games. In fact, it often seemed the uglier the better.

Yet, what happened Friday night, Jan. 9, in a marathon of unseemly play by two teams — it might even have caused Bill to turn his eyes away before they started bleeding.

In the end, the winning coach was Bill’s son, Eric Musselman, and Southern California, rather than the Gophers, coming away with a 70-69 overtime victory.

“I’ll say this: You know, down 13 there in the second half, guys kind of running on fumes, I thought they really dug deep to find a way to come back and give themselves a chance, in both regulation and overtime,” Gophers coach Niko Medved said. “Man, we just needed to make one more play, and we couldn’t find a way to get the job done.”

This was Medved’s first loss in Williams Arena, and dropped the Gophers to 3-2 in the Big Ten. And what must be suggested, if the Gophers had survived this mess for a sixth consecutive victory, it would have been more a product of the visitors’ shabbiness than the home team’s valor.

Leading by 13 after an early burst in the second half, the Trojans spent the final 10 minutes and then overtime yo-yoing with the ball above the key and then mostly throwing up contested shots as the shot clock ran down.

Those five minutes were as much of a mess as the stretch drive in regulation, with the teams going a combined 4-for-15 from the field in OT and USC getting the win on Chad Baker-Mazara’s two free throws with 10 seconds left.

The Gophers had a late chance, but Cade Tyson’s midrange attempt from the baseline was contested and not close. The announced crowd of 9,404 bellowed its lack of appreciation for the referees one last time and headed out.

The fans didn’t approve of the foul on Langston Reynolds that put Baker-Mazera at the line for the decisive points, and they certainly didn’t like the last couple of fouls that put ever-improving guard Isaac Asuma out of the game with 3½ minutes left in regulation.

“I thought Isaac fouling out at the end really hurt us,” Medved said.

The key at the finish might have been this: USC’s unhurried, clumsy ball-handling contributed to 16 turnovers, and the Gophers managed only six points from those opportunities.

Tyson led the Gophers with 20 points. Bobby Durkin added 13, Reynolds 12 and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson 10, but Crocker-Johnson continued his recent trend of hitting big three-pointers, with his three with 27 seconds left in OT putting the Gophers ahead 69-68.

He also hit the go-ahead three in the final minute of the Jan. 6 victory over No. 19 Iowa, and he also hit a big three in a victory at Northwestern on Jan. 3.

This was the end of a three-game road trip for the Trojans that started with two batterings at Michigan and Michigan State. So, a road win is a good win, but this one was ugly … even by Musselman standards.

BOXSCORE: Southern California 70, Gophers 69 (OT)

Big Ten standings

Musselman had been an NBA coach with Golden State and Sacramento, also with various minor league pro teams. He started in the college game as an Arizona State assistant in 2012, landed the Nevada job in Reno (where had been a minor league coach) and had spectacular results in the Mountain West, going 86-20 with a Sweet 16 appearance.

“We played ‘em twice in Eric’s last season at Nevada and they blew us out,” Medved said. “That team was really good but they got knocked in the first round by Florida.”

Musselman’s team was 29-4 through the conference tournament and yet wound up with only a No. 7 seed. That record included a 100-60 home victory over Medved’s team and 98-82 at Colorado State, with Jordan Carolina scoring 40 points.

The secret? Transfers, back when players still had to sit out a season at a new school before being eligible to play.

“That’s what we did — took talented players that were leaving another program for one reason or another, and had them sit out for a season with us,“ Musselman said this week. “Other coaches didn’t have the patience to do that with multiple players.

“Marcus Marshall from St. Paul … he was one of our all-time best transfers."

Musselman was hired at Arkansas to replace Mike Anderson in 2019. He coached the Razorbacks for for five seasons, with trips to a regional finals in 2021 and ’22 and the Sweet 16 in 2024.

He had a losing season (16-17) in 2023-24, the job at USC was open and Musselman was hired. “I was turning 60, as a family we wanted to wind up back in Southern California — my mother is there, others … and if we were going to get there, it was the right time," he said.