Eric Musselman evaluates early performances by Alijah Arenas

The USC Trojans were excited to recently get star freshman Alijah Arenas back from injury. Now, through just three games in his career, head coach Eric Musselman has broken down what he’s seen from Arenas in that brief time, even as he’s battled some inconsistency.

“I think it was the Iowa game,” Eric Musselman said. “He hit back-to-back buckets but then he picked up his second foul in the first half. We do take guys out in the first half if they have two fouls. Not that everybody has to agree with it, but that’s what we do.”

Alijah Arenas is the son of former NBA star Gilbert Arenas and was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2025. To become a member of the Class of 2025, he had to reclassify from the Class of 2026. He was the 12th-ranked prospect overall in that recruiting cycle.

Over the summer, Arenas suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss the early part of the season. He’d eventually make his debut against Northwestern on January 21st.

In the four games since then, Arenas has made four starts and averaged 23.3 minutes of action. He’s putting up 7.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game. That’s on 28.6 percent shooting from the field and 14.3 percent shooting from three-point range. In his most recent game, a win against Rutgers, Arenas would put up a career high of nine points. That included a pair of made three-point shots, as he has seemingly been getting more confident shooting the ball recently.

“I think this is expected when a player has to reclassify,” Musselman said. “You can see the talent, and his ability to go get a shot whenever he basically wants. It’s a difficult thing for coaches to work him in and it’s a difficult thing for a player to work his way in too, as a younger player, but you can see the incredible potential. The potential that he’s going to have a great career at the next level.”

USC holds a 2-2 record since Arenas has returned. Three of those were one-score games. With that, Musselman has seen his team slip to 16-6 on the season and 5-6 in Big Ten play.

“It’s whatever, his fourth game back,” Musselman said. “I’m hopeful that with each game he gets more and more comfortable with everything.”

USC will be back in action on Tuesday, February 3rd. That’s when the Trojans are set to play host to Indiana. What kind of impact Arenas can have in that game remains to be seen.