USC lands highly coveted Rodney Rice but loses Desmond Claude to transfer portal
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Hours after convincing one of the most coveted guards in college basketball to transfer to USC, the Trojans lost their top scorer from last season to the transfer portal.
With just hours remaining in college basketball’s spring transfer window, Desmond Claude decided to enter the portal Tuesday night, a person familiar with the decision told The Times, dealing an especially tough blow to a Trojans backcourt that already had one star guard depart over the last month.
The arrival of Rodney Rice, one of the top guards on the market, should help soften the loss of USC’s two leading scorers from last season. Rice, who played last season at Maryland, chose USC on Tuesday afternoon over more established powers Villanova, Tennessee and Gonzaga, all of whom reportedly were willing to shell out major money to reel in the 6-foot-4 junior combo guard.
Exactly what it cost for the Trojans to win the bidding war for Rice, their top transfer target, was not immediately clear. As name, image and likeness deals for transfers skyrocketed ahead of a House vs. NCAA settlement set to change athlete compensation rules, reports Tuesday suggested USC paid upward of $3 million for the former Maryland standout.
USC coach Eric Musselman has a long history of rebuilding programs. Near the end of a hard first season, Muss is determined to rebuild the Trojans.
It’s unclear where that left Claude in USC’s pecking order for NIL paydays. Claude was believed to be central to the Trojans’ future after a season spent flashing his elite scoring potential. On six occasions Claude scored 25 or more points and he ranked ninth in scoring in the Big Ten (17.3 points).
Never was Claude’s significance more clear than when a knee injury hampered him in early February. USC lost eight of 10 from that point, falling out of the NCAA tournament picture.
Claude still was expected to return after weighing his options in the NBA draft process, according to a person familiar with the decision. But within hours of Rice’s commitment, Claude was on his way out.
A month earlier it was USC’s second-leading scorer who left suddenly, as breakout guard Wesley Yates III transferred back to Washington, the school he’d left to join USC last June.
Another fixture in USC’s starting lineup, forward Saint Thomas, joined Claude in the portal Tuesday night. Though it was not clear if Thomas would be able to secure a medical waiver from the NCAA for another year of eligibility.
Claude and Thomas join four other Trojans from last season — Yates, Kevin Patton Jr., Jalen Shelley and Isaiah Elohim — who already flooded the portal in recent weeks. Just one player from coach Eric Musselman’s first team at USC is slated to return: wing Terrance Williams, who sat out most of last season because of a broken wrist. Like Thomas, power forward Rashaun Agee needs NCAA approval to secure another year of eligibility. Agee’s fifth year of eligibility as a former junior college enrollee is still uncertain.
USC freshman guard Wesley Yates III, who became one of the top young scorers in the Big Ten last season, has entered the transfer portal.
Those departures have left Musselman with another near-total rebuild on his hands, a year after he retooled the Trojans’ roster over a single month. Claude was the crown jewel of that Year 1 haul.
Musselman already managed to remake the Trojans’ now-supersized frontcourt with six new transfer wings and forwards, all of whom are 6-6 or taller. He brought in a high-potential, 6-10 sophomore big man from Virginia in Jacob Cofie, along with a starting-caliber power forward from Utah in Ezra Ausar. Musselman mined the mid-major ranks for rising stars, reeling in the likes of Amarion Dickerson, the Horizon League’s defensive player of the year, from Robert Morris; Keonte Jones, an All-Big West first-team selection from Cal State Northridge; and Jaden Brownell, a stretch forward from Samford. To solve USC’s rim-protection issues, Musselman added the NCAA’s leader in blocks last season, 7-3 center Gabe Dynes from Youngstown State.
Adding Rice is Musselman’s biggest move yet. But losing Claude and Yates means USC will have to count on five-star freshman Alijah Arenas living up to his high billing alongside Rice. Another touted freshman, top-50 prospect Jerry Easter, also should help beef up the backcourt.
As of Tuesday, the final day for players to enter the portal, the Trojans had the No. 11 transfer class in college basketball, according to 247 Sports, while Rice was the 25th-ranked transfer, one spot behind Yates.
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