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The Dunk City Podcast
USCBasketball.com's Chris Huston, Mark Backstrom and Sky Liam co-host the Dunk City Podcast, the only podcast devoted solely to USC Trojans basketball. Weekly during the season, intermittent during the offseason, the DCP is the "podcast of record" for Trojan hoops, featuring inside information, special guests and expert analysis.
The Dunk City Podcast
Practice Pod: USC basketball dials up the intensity
USCBasketball.com beat reporter Sky Liam gives his report from the June 24, 2025, summer practice held at Galen Center. Sky provides Chris his impressions of the new players, including Rodney Rice, Chad Baker-Mazara, Ezra Ausar, Gabe Dynes, Jerry Easter and more! Also, Alijah Arenas makes an appearance just a few months after his scary, serious car crash. Check out the great insight and analysis...for die-hard Trojan basketball fans only.
The Dunk City Podcast is the podcast of record for the USC basketball community. You can find all episodes at DunkCityPod.com, USCBasketball.com or on Apple Music, Spotify and wherever you stream podcasts. Look for clips on YouTube and TikTok as well. Please like, follow, listen and review. Contact us at USCBasketball.com@gmail.com.
Welcome to the Dunk City Podcast.
Speaker 1:All right, welcome back to the Dunk City Podcast brought to you by uscbasketballcom. I'm your host, chris Houston, and I'm here with our beat reporter, sky Liam, who was at Galen Center today to witness USC's second open team practice of the summer. This one was notable because Elijah Arenas, who just a few months ago had a car accident, he was there today. He wasn't practicing because they still have to get some academic stuff in order, but he was there and he did speak to the media afterwards. But Sky was Johnny on the spot and his trained eye is going to give us some feedback on what he saw. And Sky, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks, chris, good to be here, and a very exciting practice today, very lively and intense. These guys were going 100% full tilt in every drill, running a lot of the same drills as we saw last season in practice, with a few tweaks. It's also earlier in the preseason schedule than I observed last year, so it was really exciting and very encouraging what I saw today.
Speaker 1:One thing I noticed right away looking at the videos that you took from the practice and for those of you listening, this is just going to be a relatively quick podcast, but we will have videos up on our YouTube channels and over at TikTok and we'll also link those videos on the message board at uscbasketballcom. A few things just kind of jumped sort of out at me right away, and one is Gabe Dines. Just like his being there, just the height and the length that he has, he is a factor in these scrimmages. The team is having to get used to playing against a guy who can swat their shots at any moment. He's getting rebounds. I thought he moved pretty well. But to me, just like overall the tenor of these practices, when I compared them to last year's videos that I saw, to me it just sort of was a whole different look and feel. What do you think?
Speaker 2:There's no hesitation with these guys and we'll go through the roster one by one. But regarding Dines, one thing I had seen on Reddit when he committed was someone from Youngstown in some way or another, supposedly said he and maybe his family were, you know, a little bit demanding or hard to coach. He was bought in 100%, every single possession. He was working as hard or harder than anybody on the floor and it was really impressive to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the only drawback I saw was during the three-point shooting drills. He struggled a bit, but I don't think we're going to need him to come through in that category.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to counter you on that, because I didn't imagine he'd be a three-point shooter any way and he, you know, buried several. I didn't obviously film, that was just a shoot around at the end, so we watched that for a few minutes and then everybody else had already left.
Speaker 2:I was kind of picking apart everybody's shot. He was much better than I imagined he would be, and I think that's a part of his game. He's probably looking to grow. He was at least as good as Kofi, who is supposed to be a little more of an experienced three-point shooter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing that also jumped out at me was the quickness of Jordan Marsh. So again, the shortest guy on the team and the tallest guy on the team immediately stood out to me and I think maybe that's just normal because typically Musselman's team have homogeneity when it comes to size and height and all that, and for the most part the team still kind of follows that template, except for these two guys. So Jordan Marsh really stuck out to me with his quickness. What did you think?
Speaker 2:If you were playing a game tomorrow, marsh would be the starting point guard. I don't know how that's going to change, we have a lot of time before the season, but he was kind of the the starting point guard. I don't know how that's going to change, we have a lot of time before the season, but he was kind of the number one point guard.
Speaker 1:So that's, like you know, assuming Elijah Arenas isn't available tomorrow in a game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I mean you would think Arenas would slot in at the two or three. It's going to be kind of interesting. Actually, Rice took zero reps at point guard. I don't know if that is representative of any grander scheme or if that was just a slice of life. Today, point guard was 100 marsh first team. There wasn't really a first team and second team. They mixed up the teams, but it was marsh and easter.
Speaker 1:Well, one thing we do every single time, yeah, one thing we do know, based on our experience last year, is that that uh must does like to try out different guys at point guard, different practices. So maybe it's that, but it's maybe, you know. Maybe he likes what he what he saw. What did you think of Marsh handling the point he?
Speaker 2:looked really solid with the ball. The defense was really intense. Today I think I get his pocket pick, maybe once, but he didn't look loose with the ball and you know the decision making overall was good. As far as you can glean from these types of drills A lot of what they were doing today, you know I come from the martial arts world and you know we have sparring, which is essentially the free fighting within rules. We also have something called one step sparring, which is basically someone is on defense, they do an attack or a series of attacks and you counter within a certain set of movements and then you reset. That was what it was like today. So it was like a one step scrimmage, insofar as that there'd be five on defense, five on offense. They go against each other, there's a shot, make or miss, the other team gets their chance and you reverse it and it's like a very limited set of possessions where it was essentially kind of a scrimmage-type environment.
Speaker 1:Now I haven't had a chance to fully go through the videos you sent me, uh, post practice, but I did go through a few. As I mentioned another guy who I thought looked solid just on first glance, jerry easter. I thought he looked comfortable out there, I thought he was not shy. Uh, regarding playing, getting physical playing defense, I thought he played good help defense and, you know, didn't mind switching and even, you know, putting his body into a big on occasion.
Speaker 2:Easter is bigger than I thought and more athletic than I thought. You know. A lot of times you hear guys they're six, four, six, five, they're point guards and maybe they're playing with some big guys on their high school team especially played at a good program, and so you think well, you know, sometimes, as we know, guys who are listed as six four are really like six one and a half, six two.
Speaker 2:Easter looks a solid six, four and a half six two. Right easter looks a solid six, four and a half six, five and um, someone I don't know if it was on our pod, it might have been somewhere else on the internet that compared him to like westbrook. I would not make that comparison because westbrook is in a class by himself, sure but, he is fast.
Speaker 2:he is fast, he is strong, he has good size I mean like his jog is most people's sprint and the challenge for him right now is just learning the system.
Speaker 2:You know, there was one sequence where they were doing kind of a five-man ball rotation, weave, get the best shot type of drill and, uh, at one point actually cornish was easter handed off the ball. Cornish was directing easter where to run and then oser grabbed his jersey and pulled him back and the players themselves reset the drill and then easter ran to the right spot and they went from there. And there was a couple of times too where must was getting on him later in the practice about defensive rotations and I don't know if this was just because it's early in the summer or if must is learning and growing alongside his players. He wasn't going after guys with the same uh level of intensity. You know, if last year sometimes he'd get on guys at a nine, he was at maybe a 6.57. He was still really making his point clear but he wasn't like out and out yelling and I think that helped easter.
Speaker 2:but it showed that clearly just him learning the system and learning the spots he needs to get to is going to be the main adjustment for him right now that and I didn't see a lot from him as a shooter, but in terms of also being solid with the ball and being quick and strong, he looked great yeah, maybe kind of a more mellow must bus this year with some plush interiors.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, the two, three of the guys who are maybe the highlights coming over, who muscleman and the coaching staff are depending on for leadership rodney rice, chad baker, mazara ezra osar give me your impressions on those three guys and what stood out about them to you rice made a really impressive contested three.
Speaker 2:It would have been a four-point play opportunity. At one point he didn't. His shooting didn't pop today. I mean, he looked calm and experienced. He was never in the wrong place. He was always doing the right thing, um, but I I didn't see like that he was going to from this at this practice today. He wasn't necessarily the alpha no one was really because everybody was trying to really work together, which was encouraging, sure and he didn't take any reps at point guard, which was a little bit different from what we've heard. So that'll be interesting to monitor as we go forward. Um cbm looked like the best player on the team just not only offensively, but defensively.
Speaker 2:He has tremendous length. He's maybe a half inch shorter than kofi is. He's really tall, yeah, and he's really long and he's quick with his feet. You know like there was one drill in particular where guys were taking turns rotating to the ball and then simulating a shot, going up and boxing out their man and crashing the boards, and CBM was the most intense physical, the tightest seal. Uh, in that drill it was really impressive to watch him defensively and then offensively his shot looks great. Um, he didn't force anything, but there were a couple times because they were running shot clock in some of these drills where the clock was taken down. Someone had to take a shot and he was the guy Got it.
Speaker 1:And then in terms of Osser.
Speaker 2:You know it's really interesting because he is kind of like essentially the AG replacement position-wise and the staff must have known early that AG was not guaranteed a shot at eligibility because they brought him on fairly early compared to other players. He's like five percent taller than ag, five percent more athletic, um, and ag was no slouch as an athlete. But also just when he jumps he you feel like the explosiveness carrying him into the air and he's really good around the basket. I didn didn't say he, I didn't see him make a single three point shot and he was shooting at the end of practice. But around the basket his touch looks pretty impeccable.
Speaker 1:Of course, Terrence Williams was not available as he recovers from his lingering wrist injury. Jacob Kofi we briefly mentioned him earlier. What are some of the impressions you had of him, our big man, coming over from Virginia?
Speaker 2:He's got a great body. He's not super tall. For his position, I'd say he's about 6'10" he. I feel like he might still be adjusting a little bit. He didn't look out of place but he didn't really pop. I didn't see him put up a lot of shots during the simulated scrimmages and you know he has a. He has good shot form. He had the reputation of being a three point shooter. Didn't translate last year and I think he's still working on integrating that into his game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks like once again, it's probably unlikely that he's going to be someone they depend on on a regular basis to be a scoring option down below. They want him to be efficient and make the most of his opportunities. It seems like he can just focus on that and that's going to bring about the most success for him. Another guy I thought showed some stuff on the video is Ryan Cornish. I thought he showed some good lateral quickness seemed very active. What were your thoughts on the Dartmouth transfer?
Speaker 2:Ryan Cornish. He has a great size for his position because he looks like a two to me and maybe, you know, can play some spot one. But uh, he really showed a lot of experience in leadership. I mentioned how at one point he was grabbing um, you know, easter actually also grabbed Easter, but he was directing Easter where to go in one of the drills and his shot making it wasn't a dead eye, but he looked pretty good, like he can make a lot of his open shots and he just looked like a real kind of utility guard that can be plugged in when you need someone to come in with experience and settle things down. His defense looked good too. He looked, you know, pretty good speed for his position and for his size and everything.
Speaker 1:And then there's Jaden Brownell. What were your impressions of him during the scrimmage?
Speaker 2:Great shooter. I mean when he gets the ball, it's a good chance that he's going to make his shot Very tall, you know, a legitimate, probably 6'10", not super athletic from what I saw.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now we've talked about I think pretty much everyone EJ Neal.
Speaker 2:Of course I don't think he was, he wasn't– he was there actually, I didn't realize it was him until the very end, because he was introducing himself to the dietician. He must have just gotten there because they didn't even tell us he was there. But he was just observing practice. He didn't even have his USC team gear yet, but it was great to see that he was there and watching everything.
Speaker 1:So Neil was watching and then Elijah Arenas makes his, as far as we know, first public appearance at a USC practice scrimmage, whatever you want to call it, just you know, looking at him, looking at him watching practice. What were your impressions, just based on those very limited interactions you might have had?
Speaker 2:uh, arenas, you know he was standing with t will for most of the practice, which was interesting because dickerson was not participating today um, he was walking around, he didn't look like he was in pain or anything but he was in sweats watching and he was on one side of the court. Um, he was. He was pretty plugged into what was happening. And then T Will and Arenas were, um on the sidelines together on the opposite side of the court talking things over. And you know, must said later about Arenas that he knows the offense better than some of the players do who've been practicing, and I don't know if that's maybe he's been breaking down film with his dad, but he's really plugged into the roster, who does what and what he's going to be able to bring to it. So that was exciting, also like super nice guy, super personable.
Speaker 2:I uh walked into the presser a little bit late they hadn't started yet, because I actually walked in with musclemen at the same time but, um, arenas was already sitting at the table and, uh, the other reporters were sitting in the front row. So I walked to the front row. He jumps up, runs over to me, shakes his hand, introduces himself and that's just who he is Awesome.
Speaker 1:That's, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I just want to go back, because I didn't. There's a couple other things about dines that I could have mentioned, which was that he was he's quicker than you'd think he looked quick.
Speaker 1:He looked quicker than I expected.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and he was like he's not, you know, Anthony Davis out there, but he was switching on the ones and twos and he would sprint full court like 100%.
Speaker 1:It was impressive to watch and he knows what he needs to work on too, so it was very encouraging To me you look like a guy who would potentially not just be primarily situational, necessarily, as the season went on, that he actually based on his ability to move around and he seems to be in pretty good shape, that he might be blossoming a bit to the point in his basketball arc, that that he could potentially, you know, start some games he could.
Speaker 2:I think he could definitely be the starter uh like uncontested starter in his senior year, and that's a good point.
Speaker 1:You know it'll be between him and kofi, I think, so whoever um separates themselves yeah, maybe when they go up against purdue or something, when there's a really, a really uh tall guy that they need to body right away yeah, and he's working on his strength.
Speaker 2:He says he's been working on his strength for years now. He he said in the presser I will have video of that but he said that I think it was, you know, a few years ago he was like seven one this is during high school seven, 185 pounds, and now he's seven, three and a half to 35. And that doesn't happen on accident. So he's very intentional, he knows what he needs to work on and he knows what he's 7'3 1⁄2", 235.
Speaker 1:And that doesn't happen on accident.
Speaker 2:So he's very intentional, he knows what he needs to work on and he knows what he's good at.
Speaker 1:He pretty much dunks the ball every time he can. Patrick O'Brien, jonah Gorin, britt Burden three walk-ons. Were they there and did you make any note of what they were contributing?
Speaker 2:I did and I'm glad you brought those guys up. Those guys looked quite impressive and these are guys with legitimate size for their positions. They could start at, or at least play minutes at, like a mid-major. It's a lot different than some of the walk-ons we saw in the infield era where it was clear these were like team morale guys, practice players. I don't know that they're gonna get minutes, probably not with how deep this roster is, but like burden. Actually he's probably the best three-point shooter on the team, which I did not anticipate, and he's a legit six, six, six, seven yeah um he, his defensive intensity was really high.
Speaker 2:I mean watching him and o'brien um, who also has good size. I didn't really see him shooting much. But those are guys who, like, it's not out of the realm of possibility in a year or two for them to earn playing time. I don't know that's going to happen, because Muss seems pretty. You know he really designates lanes for walk-ons, but they were full participants in every drill.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, based on what you've gleaned from this practice, what you maybe some of the chatter going on around there and what you've been able to to extrapolate, who do you think are who's the starting five going into the season? Maybe it's too early, but who would you think are?
Speaker 2:who's the starting five going into the season? Maybe it's too early, but who would you think absolutely like the two locks I see would be chad baker mizarra and ezra oser. Obviously you you'd have to say rodney rice would be a lock. Yeah, but based on today's practice, he didn't play point guard at all, so that would be marsh starting at point guard at all. So that would be marsh starting a point guard, um, and then we have one other player right. So yeah, uh, t will. I think his rehab is still a work in progress. I mean, he's wearing a brace still, um, so I I really don't know what his timeline is in terms of playing five on five. Yeah, presumably arenas, but obviously these guys are getting more practice reps than he is right now. On the other hand, he's super dialed in to what is needed of him. So, potentially arenas, and this is just. I would think Kofi would be starting at the five, and this is just summer.
Speaker 1:This is. These are like one hour practices, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, but you know they maximize those hours. They weren't like taking extra time on conditioning um, like they were pre-season, but they were going 105 intensity. Guys were hitting the deck and um. At one point I I wasn't sure why, but one of the five-man teams had to do push-ups and must jump down there and did push-ups with them. Like everybody was synchronized. The defense is ahead of the offense right now, which is probably a good thing, considering you have proven shot makers already on the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's normal. Yeah, yeah, they were like they didn't waste any reps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ezra Asar is he. I think he's 6'7", he looks 6'7".
Speaker 2:Yeah, the official site lists him lists him at six nine well, those, those heights are with shoes. So he could be six, seven, six, seven and a half maybe you know you kind of have to see guys next to each other to get a true gauge.
Speaker 1:With shoes on, he's probably between six, eight and six nine, I really need to stand next to these guys because, being six five, I'm really good at measuring people, and that'd be really interesting actually, like one of the questions in the presser to Dines was you're listed at 7'5", how tall are you really?
Speaker 2:And he said I'm 7'3 1⁄2 without shoes. So I'm 7'5 with shoes.
Speaker 1:Boy, what are these shoes that add an inch and a half? It's interesting.
Speaker 2:It's a good question but if you think about you know, if you were a size 20, you know presumably the the, the soul is also increasing commensurately.
Speaker 1:I guess, so, I guess, so, um, do you, did you get a sense from talking to people that everyone's going to be ready, uh, when fall camp opens up in, I think, october? I think these guys can't wait.
Speaker 2:Um, the communication was very good, as good or better than last year, and the energy was really high. You know, every time you bring in a whole new roster, like last year and like this year, I think one of the potential concerns is will everybody buy in? Is everybody on the same page? And these guys were, like I said, probably, I would imagine at this stage, more bought in than last year's team. I mean no one, you know. You have guys who they finish a drill or something. They got to run to do the next drill. The coaches call them over. Everybody's running over to the coaches, Nobody's walking.
Speaker 2:Although until the end of practice. Sometimes you're getting kind of gassed, you know, because they're getting so much. And the run slows down a little bit, but they're still putting in the effort. You had a lot of clapping um when a particularly efficient play was made or a good find. It was extra encouragement from everybody. At one point, gabe dines hit the deck. Dick Dickerson stands up shouting help him up, everybody help him up. Like these guys are already working together as a unit to the extent that they can, having just met each other recently.
Speaker 1:And then did you get the impression like your overall impression. Uh, is it? Does it feel? Is it a good vibe around the gym? Is it? Is it everybody's still feeling their way, or does, or does it feel like? I mean, you talked to the other reporters that are there. What are some of their impressions? I guess what is the overall vibe based on people's observations? Great vibe.
Speaker 2:I mean, like me personally, I was just before I went in today, really, I would say probably about a month ago. When you hear that the roster is turning over, you worry about one are they going to be able to capture that kind of chemistry lightning in a bottle? That happened last year. And then two, the other factor being with the inflated NIL market that keeps going up every year, does that influence chemistry? I mean, I didn't see any signs of that, just the energy level.
Speaker 2:The enthusiasm was really high. You know, if we're talking about the three E's, like everybody had the enthusiasm and everybody expected a lot of themselves. Guys were beating themselves up if they missed a shot. That cornish and dines were kind of like how did I miss that? On a few of the possessions, like they really want to win, yeah, and so that was great to watch. Oh, another really fun tidbit um, that happened at the very end of practice. The guys huddled up and uhcleman called on Easter and said, ok, you're from Toledo. Where is Toledo? Tell us where that is. Ok, give us, tell us about your family. Give us three facts about them.
Speaker 2:Tell us something else about yourself. You want to know and I would imagine this is happening every practice that different players introducing themselves. And then they all watched highlights of Easter on a big monitor, like his mixtape or whatever. Nice, and that was awesome. I mean, that's the kind of attention to detail in terms of building chemistry and goodwill that I can't imagine every coach does that. That's really special and this is how you get to know each other as teammates.
Speaker 1:That is really cool. Hopefully they got the link to the video by going to uscbasketballcom's roster page and recruiting page. For those of you listening, the uscbasketballcom website we are filling that up with all kinds of great resources so that you never really have to go anywhere else. By the time the season starts, you'll be able to check out all the players, get all the stats, get all the history, get all the information you need about usc basketball. Um, is there anything else you'd like to add? Uh, sky, actually one thing I want to ask you is super early, but you know you were, really you were pretty good at it last year. Last year, you I think you said very early that Rashawn Agee was a pretty good three-point shooter, or better than people thought, and of course, that eventually bore itself out later in the year. If you were going to make one you know minor prediction or one little observation, you saw that you can project out forward to the rest of the season. What would you do right now with that?
Speaker 2:I think Marsh is going to play a lot. He looked really solid with the ball. In terms of who we saw handling the ball, he looked the best and his three-point shot looked very pure. I didn't expect that he was making a lot of shots to shoot around. The dude can score, that's for sure, and he wasn't forcing anything. He wasn't forcing anything. He wasn't trying to take it to the cup and drive on Dave Dines. He was. He was playing his role, which was very good, very good.
Speaker 1:Well, sky, thanks for going out to practice. It was very early one this this, this Tuesday, june 24th it was. It was a seven, 40 in the morning over at Galen. Never fun to get up that early, but we appreciate you doing that. Great observations, great insight, great analysis and hopefully in a couple weeks there'll be another practice that we can send you out to that one and talk more about it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to go like follow review, do all the things you do with podcasts that you would do if you liked it over on all the streaming services and, of course, for all your USC basketball discussion inside analysis, be sure to go to uscbasketballcom and we'll see you there. Okay, everybody, Bye, Don, Bye, Don Stockholders.
