Rodney Rice hadn’t played much point guard in two years at Maryland when, last spring, Eric Musselman offered him a chance to do just that at USC. The coach had already tried, with mixed results, to convert an off-ball guard into a natural point last season. But he was desperate to find a floor general to lead his Trojan offense. So Musselman took “a leap of faith,” entrusting things would be different with Rice.
It didn’t look like much of a leap Friday, not as the Trojans’ new point guard rolled to just the second-ever triple-double in school history, leading USC past Illinois State with an 87-67 victory at the Intuit Dome.