SOUTHWEST MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 24, 2025

Eric Musselman

Rodney Rice

Terrance Williams, II

Lahaina Civic Center

USC Trojans

Postgame Press Conference

USC 70, Boise State 67

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought it was kind of a breakout game for us from three. Obviously making 11 of 23, a little disappointed that we didn't get to the foul line more. We need to put more pressure on the defense from a dribble drive standpoint, but Boise State is well-coached. They've got a lot of guys that are returners, so they're a tough team to play.

Before we got on the plane to come here, we talked about how many close games there are usually over here, and another close one today.

Q. Terrance, you played a lot more minutes today. How did you feel out there?

TERRANCE WILLIAMS II: I don't think I got tired, but I definitely sweated a lot. That's probably the only big difference. But it just felt good being out there. Coach trusted me all throughout these games and he's going to win the game. This time he just had me out on the court, and we got the win.

Q. For both players, could you guys talk about what you know about the Maui Invitational before coming here? Did you watch it as kids or growing up? What's the experience been like here so far?

RODNEY RICE: Years prior I definitely seen it on TV, YouTube TV, whatever it may be. The competitiveness, I always noticed that, and just to be in it, it's real, close games every game. You've got to bring it.

TERRANCE WILLIAMS II: I know for me, it was definitely a dream just watching it growing up, seeing the performances like Ant Edwards and all those type things you seen on TV a lot. It felt good playing in it and we just focus and we're going to try to win this next game.

Q. For both players, Boise was obviously a physical team. They early on were pounding the paint. You seemed to make an adjustment with about seven minutes left. What did Coach say? What did you do defensively to start resisting a little bit?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Don't tell them what I said.

TERRANCE WILLIAMS II: We got you. I know from the standpoint of prep, Coach made a big emphasis on physicality and rebounding, and I feel like we weren't doing that in the early stages, even in the first half.

But I think we picked up a little bit in the second half, but we've still got to improve for sure. We can be more physical, we can box out more, pursue loose balls more. So we're just going to keep working on that.

Q. Coach, it seems like Terrance and also

Jordan Marsh are much more part of the rotation, at least they were today. Can you speak to that?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought Jordan came in, and when he banged the two threes, situations that we needed, both of them. We felt like T Will was due to make a three or two, and then I thought to start the game, a big focal point of our scouting report was Andrew Meadow, and I thought T Will's physicality on Meadow -- I'm going to say like the first eight minutes of the game was phenomenal, and we just felt like we needed a steady, solid, disciplined defender with experience against Meadow, and that's kind of the thought process coming into the game because T Will didn't start the last game and then we put him back in the starting lineup and assigned him to Boise State's leading scorer.

Q. What did you think of that offensive foul call with six seconds left? And knowing Leon Rice the way you do, seeing them play today, what do you think of their prospects of the rest of the season?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think Boise State is a really good team. I like the makeup of the team. Coach Rice is a great coach. We've competed against each other so much.

But I like that Buchanan can back people down and he's physical, and in the Mountain West he's a matchup problem because he can play out on the floor. Dylan Andrews was a great pickup for them, experienced player, starter at UCLA, and he's got good length and can put defensive pressure on the basketball.

Then I thought their role guys were better in person than maybe what we saw on film. I thought that Keene, he plays so hard, his rebounding on the offensive glass hurt us. I thought Meadow did a good job with pace of play, and then I thought Carmichael was one of their best players today.

So those guys coming off the bench, I thought Leon did a good job utilizing his bench.

Q. You mentioned you guys hitting 11 threes. They went 5 of 25. What did you guys do defensively to not give them a ton of open looks?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah, we came into the game and felt like if we held them under six threes there's no way we were going to lose. But we held them to five and still almost lost.

Defending the three was certainly the priority in the two days leading up to this game. I thought we did a phenomenal job there. I thought we did a great job on Fielder, just kind of walling him up and keeping him off the glass.

Q. Can you speak to the importance of the Maui Invitational on the college basketball landscape, especially after today's announcement about the Big 12 and players era announcement $50 million. Does the Maui Invitational have a permanent spot in the college basketball landscape?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Well, this is the second time I've been here. Obviously being at Arkansas a few years ago. I think this environment can prepare you for the NCAA Tournament with the way that the field is set up, with the intimacy of the gym and loud, and it's pressure filled. Got a great TV network that covers it.

So from a national exposure, you don't have to go through 25 TV stations; we know what it's on, which makes it easy on my mom to know what TV station we're on.

But no, I think that we love it. We got here and our guys got to experience a little bit of Maui, and then yesterday afternoon it was all about basketball, which is all it'll be about from here until we go back home.

But just the experience. We had players that have never been in the ocean before out surfing, and we've kind of approached this thing much like we do for an NCAA Tournament where we don't put our guys on lockdown. They're not in the hotel 24/7. We want them to experience stuff and have some looseness to them and not be too uptight.

It's a great life experience for all of our players, and it's incredible for families. It's incredible for boosters and alumni that want to come and get a vacation over a holiday and see great basketball.

To me, I think it's awesome.

Q. You've been here before, so that turnaround is important. What are some of the things you want to try to work on between today and tomorrow to try to get a little bit of improvement?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah, I think the biggest thing in an environment like this, the gym is hot, so the amount of calories that you burn, being hydrated is super, super important.

As a coaching staff, you have to balance how much you prep with each game that goes by, Game 3, Game 2 -- we're not going to have the same prep because of the amount of time.

I'm just a big believer that fresh mind, fresh body is more important than me going up on a board and trying to diagram. It's important that the guys that played a lot of minutes tonight get off their legs, relax.

We will prep but it'll all be mental. There won't be any physical prep. We're not using shootaround time; we're not walking through in a ballroom. It'll be through film study and paper scout.