Some things happen occasionally in college sports, but not with great frequency. Consider the story of Quincy Pondexter, the former Washington Husky and UW assistant coach whom Eric Musselman hired as a USC basketball assistant coach.
Pondexter spent one year at USC. He then left to go to Washington. Two USC players, Wesley Yates and Desmond Claude, have since gone to Seattle to play for the Huskies with Pondexter. The parties involved can claim they made these moves independent of each other, but when one coach and two players all go from one team to another in the same offseason, a lot of people will naturally be skeptical of that set of changes.
We pointed out that “Claude is not the first Trojan transfer to depart for the Huskies this offseason. In May, Washington hired away USC assistant coach Quincy Pondexter. Shortly following that move, another high-profile Trojan transfer, Wesley Yates III, also announced his commitment to the Huskies.”
It is a brutal piece of bad luck for Eric Musselman to make what he thought was a forward-moving hire, only to see that hire translate into two transfer portal losses of valuable, talented scorers. It’s not as though Musselman should have been able to see this coming — not at all — but this might make him more cognizant of the need to hire assistants who aren’t as likely to pull players away. Hiring mid-major coaches might prevent those coaches from jumping to high-major schools and taking portal prospects with them.
At any rate, this is a bitter pill for USC to swallow. Quincy Pondexter will be met by Trojan basketball fans with a simple response: “Et tu, Quincy?”
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Quincy Pondexter did not treat Eric Musselman fairly at USC
Reporting by Matt Zemek / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
