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USA Today
an hour ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Eric Musselman, USC hoops host Sacarmento Kings group for workout at Galen Center
During his time as the head coach of USC men's basketball, Eric Musselman has loved bringing in NBA players and coaches to Galen Center for workouts. On Tuesday, Musselman welcomed a contingent from the Sacramento Kings: DeMar DeRozan, Zach Levine, Mason Jones and head coach Doug Christie. "Awesome having @DeMar_DeRozan, @ZachLaVine, @TheDougChristie, and @masonjones2 at the Galen Center this morning," USC's head coach wrote on social media. DeRozan, of course, is quite familiar with Galen Center, having played for the Trojans for a season in 2008-2009. That year, he led USC to a Pac-10 Tournament championship and the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to national runner-up Michigan State. Jones, meanwhile, played for Musselman when he was the head coach at Arkansas from 2018-2020. Musselman is also familiar with Sacramento, having coached the Kings during the 2006-2007 season. After posting a 33-49 record, he was let go by the team after just one year. Fortunately for Musselman, he has found far more success at the college coaching level than he did in the NBA. USC fans are certainly hoping that Musselman will continue the success that he had at Nevada and Arkansas with the Trojans.
USA Today
14 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Everything Texas A&M HC Bucky McMillan said during his first Coach's Night appearance
Everything Texas A&M HC Bucky McMillan said during his first Coach's Night appearance Heading into his first season at the helm for the Texas A&M men's basketball program, head coach Bucky McMillan previewed the season ahead in his first appearance at the Dallas A&M Club for Coach's Night on Wednesday. McMillan was hired as the Aggies' new head coach on April 4 on a five-year deal worth $16 million. Before he arrived in Bryan-College Station, Texas, he led the Samford Bulldogs to the school's first NCAA Tournament since 2000, while also racking up three Southern Conference Coach of the Year awards during his tenure. The opportunity to coach at the highest level against the best competition is something that every coach clamors for, and that is exactly what McMillan will be granted when he steps on the court for the first Southeastern Conference matchup in January. Here is everything McMillan had to say when discussing the upcoming season and his experiences so far in Aggieland. How has it been having the opportunity to visit with the Dallas Aggies Club and the Texas A&M community across the state of Texas? "It's great. You can feel the passion from all of these fans and it's great, the people in College Station and now here in Dallas, and all across all the Aggies have such passion," McMillan said. How is McMillan's relationship with Texas A&M's head football coach Mike Elko? "(Mike Elko) has been great, showing me the ropes since I've been here. I'm a football fan. I'm a big, big football fan, so I appreciate you, Coach," McMillan said. What is the importance of adding Spanish guard Rubén Domínguez and what does he bring to the table? "What he brings is three-point shooting from the time he steps on the floor," McMillan said. "He can shoot it from half-court, he's one of the best shooters in the world. What's going on with international game right now, with the way college basketball is with NIL (name, image and likeness) opportunties, is that a lot of the players that would have played professionally overseas are now coming acorss the pond. We want the good ones who can make threes to come to Texas A&M. He's one of those guys." How plug-and-play ready is Domínguez going from playing overseas to the SEC? "He's played against elite competition, professional basketball. He knows how to play, (which) I think is just as important as his skill set," McMillan said. "When you get to this level, a lot of it is your mental ability to process things quickly. If you played professionally, you're able to process faster. That's what he brings. He'll probably have an adjustment to make with the physicallity and the defense that's in the SEC, but I like what he's about and I like his skill set." How have summer workouts progressed for the Aggies? "We just want to get better. We got a lot of guys out. We got three that won't be here until later in the summer, so we don't have 10 yet. We're not playing a lot of five-on-five," McMillan said. "We're just trying to get the players acclamated to our pace of play and the skill set it takes to play at that pace and the volume of three-point shooting is obviously something we've been working on to make sure our guys understand how we like to space the floor and the skillset neccessary to be able to do that. How does the House settlement impact college hoops? "Across college basketball and football, this may be the highest group of athletes in terms of their financial compensation that will ever happen," McMillan said. "The House settlement hasn't come into play yet, NIL opportunties (and) collective opportunties. I think it may come down to earth a little bit next year, but it'll be across the SEC with that $2.73 (million)." How much more comfortable are you now, compared to when you first got hired? "It's a lot more relaxing becuase you actually get to work with players. If you can't work, it's hard to have confidence in the group you have. Now, we're finally getting players there so we can work and build the confidence within the team we're going to need to have to play in the best college basketball league in the country," McMillan said. What does it mean to be able to visit with Aggie fans and see the support from the Maroon and White faithful? "This is incredible. This is the value of athletics, when you think about it. There are not a lot of opportunties and things in life that can tie this many people together," McMillan said. "It's phenomenal because we have something that links us together. We're all Aggies here, and we get to support each other." What are the goals heading into the 2025-2026 campaign? "I expect to win every game that we're going to play. That's the pressure we put on ourselves," McMillan said. What does the future of the program look like moving forward? "There is no reason that A&M can't compete at the highest of the high level with all of the resources that the Aggies have provided," McMillan said. How will this team handle potential obstacles and challenges ahead during this year's campaign? "We want adversity. We want that. When there is true adversity and things aren't going exactly how we want it to go, that's an opportunity for all these Aggies to come together and do something incredible," McMillan said. How did it feel coming to Texas A&M and what's the experience in College Station been like so far? "Trev Alberts, who is not here tonight, I have to thank him for this great opportunity to be your basketball coach," McMillan said. "Everything has been great since we've been here. I have loved College Station. It has been phenomenal. I certainly feel the passion for the fans." What can fans expect from "Bucky Ball"? "My job is to bring you a product and a program that you all can be so proud of because they play so hard, so unselfish and have such a swagger when they step on that floor," McMillan said. "We want to play a style of basketball that's successful and that you enjoy watching. We want to bring both to you: We want to bring a winning culture that you all deserve, and we want to have an entertaining style that you can all enjoy." What kind of aspects will this program be built on moving forward? "Our basketball program is pretty much built on this: We've got to get great personnel. We've got to get great recruits. We've got to get great coaches, and we've got to get great supporters. No one is going to outdo the support of the Aggies. That much I know." What is the focus of this team and what are the expectations heading into this year? "We try to narrow the focus to a driver, a pitching wedge and a putter. That's our plan. We're going to keep it simple analytically, and hopefully, we can be one of the highest scoring teams in the country this year," McMillan said. "We take free-throws, layups and threes, and we get really good at it." How has the recruiting process been at Texas A&M this offseason? "There are not too many places that you could be, that at that time of year, that you could have that kind of support," McMillan said. "We brought 12 players on recruiting visits, and all 12 committed. That says a lot about Texas A&M." What is the vision for the program's future? "I do think that this place is destined to compete for championships. I want to do that here. We will compete for championships when we don't focus so much on what we're going to do and instead focus on how we're going to do it," McMillan said. "I'm looking forward to building something truly special here with everyone here." Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
USA Today
15 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Ohio State basketball head coach Jake Diebler provides summer program update
Ohio State basketball head coach Jake Diebler provides summer program update The Ohio State basketball team has started its offseason workouts as it prepares to put the pieces in place for the 2025-2026 season. It welcomed in some former players the last few days for "Vet Week," has done a lot of five-on-five scrimmaging, gone through conditioning, and worked through many drills and skill development already. The hope is that this year is going to be much, much better than what we've seen over the last three years when the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament. It'll be head coach Jake Diebler's second year, and he sorely needs to build some momentum to turn this program around and get it where everyone believes it should be. Diebler met with the media this week to provide an update on summer workouts, where the team stands, how the House Settlement impacts the program, and much more. We are sharing the entire video of the press conference thanks to the Columbus Dispatch, so you can get Diebler's full comments. Dielber and his staff have a good mix of returning scorers and new blood that will need to mix together and find the chemistry and identity to make a big leap forward. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but we're all here putting the optimism out in the universe hoping it all comes to fruition this season. Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
Fox Sports
21 hours ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Coastal Carolina is in CWS finals, and retired coach Gary Gilmore is happy to watch from afar
Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Considering the run Coastal Carolina's baseball team is on — 26 straight wins on the way to the College World Series finals — it would be understandable if Gary Gilmore had second thoughts about retiring after last season. Not a one, he said by phone Thursday as he pulled out of the driveway of his home in North Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, to head to his grandson's travel team tournament. The 67-year-old Gilmore attended no Coastal Carolina games this season until the Chanticleers' first two in the CWS last weekend. He sat in the stands at Charles Schwab Field, uncomfortable as it was for the man who spent 29 years at the helm, led the 2016 Chanticleers to the national championship and is regarded as the godfather of program. Gilmore said he and his family would be back for the best-of-three finals against LSU starting Saturday night. 'Is there a piece of my DNA in this thing? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it,' Gilmore said, 'and I hope it will be for all time.' But the 2025 Chanticleers are first-year coach Kevin Schnall's team, and Gilmore said he wanted to make a clean break and not give the impression he was looking over Schnall's shoulder. Schnall was Gilmore's assistant for more than two decades. The grind of building Coastal Carolina into a perennial NCAA Tournament team and CWS contender caused Gilmore to sacrifice time with his wife and two children to chase championships, as coaches are wont to do. When he was hired as head coach in 1996, his office was in a trailer with no plumbing behind a weed-filled outfield. Twenty years later, the Chanticleers were national champions. Gilmore could have said his work was done at that point, but he wasn't ready quite yet. In January 2020, he got a devastating reality check when he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. It had spread to his liver, but it was a type that tends to be more manageable than the more common variety that invariably carries a grim prognosis. He went through chemotherapy and traveled regularly first to Houston, and now Denver, for treatments. In 2023, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and had surgery to remove the gland. Gilmore tolerated his treatments for both cancers better than expected. He missed only three games and rarely a practice. All he went through, though, made him realize the pull to dedicate more of himself to his family was getting stronger. He wanted to reconnect with his wife and children and build strong bonds with his four grandchildren. 'I feel awesome,' he said. 'I have what I have. I've got the best doctor in the world. His goal is to manage all this stuff. At some point I'm going to have a life-changing surgery where they can get everything in my liver completely stabilized, and they have confidence that's going to last me a long time. I'll hopefully rid myself of some of this.' Doctors initially told him the worst-case scenario was that he would live two more years; the 'dream' was to make it 10. Now the outlook is better. 'How things have gone, God willing, they can keep me with a good quality of life and hopefully something else will get me before that,' he said. Gilmore acknowledges the game isn't the same now with name, image and likeness opportunities and, soon, direct payments to athletes becoming larger factors in putting together and keeping together a team. 'The NIL, the analytics, the portal,' he said. "I honestly think this is a younger guy's game, to be honest with you. Guys like me, we coached the game with our eyes. We didn't coach with analytics and this and that. We recruited with our eyes. We didn't recruit over the internet to a large degree. We went out and saw guys play, evaluated people. 'That's not the reason I got out of it, ultimately. I've got two stage-4 cancers is my body. I feel healthy as I can, and I'm lucky and blessed I have the health I do. All that played out in my mind. You're 67 years old, you got four grandkids. What are the choices you want to make here?' Right now, his choice is to be with his family while he enjoys watching the team he helped build chase a second national championship and see all that is possible for the 10,000-student school in the Myrtle Beach area that had no national athletic identity before 2016. 'Just because of the size of school, people want to label you Cinderella,' Gilmore said. 'We were a Cinderella in '16, absolutely, no doubt about it. We left Omaha still explaining what our mascot was, and Kevin's still doing it today.' Indeed, Schnall gave a stern pronunciation lesson to the media after his team beat Oregon State on Sunday, opening his news conference: 'Everybody say it with me: SHON-tuh-cleers! SHON-tuh-cleers! Not SHAN-tuh-cleers! SHON-tuh-cleers!' However you say it, the Chanticleers are well-suited to the cavernous CWS ballpark. They don't hit many home runs, but they get on base, get timely hits, have strong pitching and play outstanding defense. They're also hot. 'I've never seen anything like this,' Gilmore said. 'Crazy.' ___ AP college sports: recommended in this topic
Hamilton Spectator
21 hours ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Coastal Carolina is in CWS finals, and retired coach Gary Gilmore is happy to watch from afar
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Considering the run Coastal Carolina's baseball team is on — 26 straight wins on the way to the College World Series finals — it would be understandable if Gary Gilmore had second thoughts about retiring after last season. Not a one, he said by phone Thursday as he pulled out of the driveway of his home in North Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, to head to his grandson's travel team tournament. The 67-year-old Gilmore attended no Coastal Carolina games this season until the Chanticleers' first two in the CWS last weekend. He sat in the stands at Charles Schwab Field, uncomfortable as it was for the man who spent 29 years at the helm, led the 2016 Chanticleers to the national championship and is regarded as the godfather of program. Gilmore said he and his family would be back for the best-of-three finals against LSU starting Saturday night. 'Is there a piece of my DNA in this thing? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it,' Gilmore said, 'and I hope it will be for all time.' But the 2025 Chanticleers are first-year coach Kevin Schnall's team, and Gilmore said he wanted to make a clean break and not give the impression he was looking over Schnall's shoulder. Schnall was Gilmore's assistant for more than two decades. The grind of building Coastal Carolina into a perennial NCAA Tournament team and CWS contender caused Gilmore to sacrifice time with his wife and two children to chase championships, as coaches are wont to do. When he was hired as head coach in 1996, his office was in a trailer with no plumbing behind a weed-filled outfield. Twenty years later, the Chanticleers were national champions. Gilmore could have said his work was done at that point, but he wasn't ready quite yet. In January 2020, he got a devastating reality check when he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. It had spread to his liver, but it was a type that tends to be more manageable than the more common variety that invariably carries a grim prognosis. He went through chemotherapy and traveled regularly first to Houston, and now Denver, for treatments. In 2023, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and had surgery to remove the gland. Gilmore tolerated his treatments for both cancers better than expected. He missed only three games and rarely a practice. All he went through, though, made him realize the pull to dedicate more of himself to his family was getting stronger. He wanted to reconnect with his wife and children and build strong bonds with his four grandchildren. 'I feel awesome,' he said. 'I have what I have. I've got the best doctor in the world. His goal is to manage all this stuff. At some point I'm going to have a life-changing surgery where they can get everything in my liver completely stabilized, and they have confidence that's going to last me a long time. I'll hopefully rid myself of some of this.' Doctors initially told him the worst-case scenario was that he would live two more years; the 'dream' was to make it 10. Now the outlook is better. 'How things have gone, God willing, they can keep me with a good quality of life and hopefully something else will get me before that,' he said. Gilmore acknowledges the game isn't the same now with name, image and likeness opportunities and, soon, direct payments to athletes becoming larger factors in putting together and keeping together a team. 'The NIL, the analytics, the portal,' he said. 'I honestly think this is a younger guy's game, to be honest with you. Guys like me, we coached the game with our eyes. We didn't coach with analytics and this and that. We recruited with our eyes. We didn't recruit over the internet to a large degree. We went out and saw guys play, evaluated people. 'That's not the reason I got out of it, ultimately. I've got two stage-4 cancers is my body. I feel healthy as I can, and I'm lucky and blessed I have the health I do. All that played out in my mind. You're 67 years old, you got four grandkids. What are the choices you want to make here?' Right now, his choice is to be with his family while he enjoys watching the team he helped build chase a second national championship and see all that is possible for the 10,000-student school in the Myrtle Beach area that had no national athletic identity before 2016. 'Just because of the size of school, people want to label you Cinderella,' Gilmore said. 'We were a Cinderella in '16, absolutely, no doubt about it. We left Omaha still explaining what our mascot was, and Kevin's still doing it today.' Indeed, Schnall gave a stern pronunciation lesson to the media after his team beat Oregon State on Sunday, opening his news conference: 'Everybody say it with me: SHON-tuh-cleers! SHON-tuh-cleers! Not SHAN-tuh-cleers! SHON-tuh-cleers!' However you say it, the Chanticleers are well-suited to the cavernous CWS ballpark. They don't hit many home runs, but they get on base, get timely hits, have strong pitching and play outstanding defense. They're also hot. 'I've never seen anything like this,' Gilmore said. 'Crazy.' ___ AP college sports:
