Eric Musselman on playing Purdue: ‘We’re not going to get a call against them’

The USC Trojans had the Purdue Boilermakers on the ropes at one point on Saturday. In the end, head coach Eric Musselman saw his team drop a game that could’ve gone down as a major upset.

After the game, Musselman had some clear frustration. That frustration was with his own team, for missed opportunities, but it also seemed to extend to the officials. Musselman’s frustration with the officiating seems to date back to last season, making him feel as though Purdue is getting a favorable whistle.

“We’re five of 14 from the foul line,” Eric Musselman said. “Playing the No. 5 team in the country. We outrebound them, we couldn’t have a better defensive scheme. We held them to 41 percent from the field. That’s one of the efficient offensive teams in the league. We’re not going to get a call against them, we found that out in the conference tournament [last season], and we found it out again tonight. I don’t know how you inbound the ball, and then they get a timeout. The ball has already been inbounded.”

Purdue shot 22 free throws in the game compared to just 14 shots by USC. It didn’t help that the Trojans were only able to shoot 35.7 percent from the charity stripe. On top of that, there were moments, like granting a timeout on the inbounds that Musselman felt shouldn’t have been granted, which frustrated him.

Shooting, in general, was an issue for USC. The Trojans were just 3/20 from beyond the three-point line. Turnovers became an issue on top of that, with five more than the Boilermakers. That was countered by rebounding, where USC had eight more rebounds than Purdue.

“We led for 21 minutes in the game against the No. 5 team in the country. We made an adjustment at halftime on Braden Smith. He had 18 points. He had four the second half. We’re running out of bodies. There’s no excuse. I know we lost the game,” Musselman said. “But you take four players off any team in this league. The fight, the scrappiness, the toughness, it was there. You don’t outrebound Purdue if you’re not playing with toughness with their size. So, I don’t know what to say. Jerry Easter is the guy that was gonna guard Smith. So, you deal with the hand you’re dealt. I don’t know how else to say it.”

Eric Musselman would stop himself from going any further on the officials. Still, the sentiment that he wanted to avoid a fine said plenty about what he thought of the job they did.

“I don’t really want to talk about anything having to do with the referees. I don’t want to get fined or anything,” Musselman said. “So, I’m not going to talk about them. You guys can [talk about them]. Feel free. Be great if you did.”

USC will be back in action on Wednesday, January 21st at 11:00 p.m. EST or 8:00 p.m. PST. There, the Trojans will hope to bounce back from their loss against Northwestern.