LAHAINA, Maui — USC coach Eric Musselman had no idea if Chad Baker-Mazara would play Wednesday in the Maui Invitational title game.
Baker-Mazara said he didn’t know until moments before tipoff. He had a tight hamstring.
And then something just flipped. He decided there was no reason he would sit out a game he had been waiting to play in since he committed to USC after helping Johnni Broome and Auburn get to the Final Four in April.
“So I’ve been up since probably like 6 a.m. working on my hamstrings and my legs, just trying to get going, doing moves in the conference room and stuff like that,” Baker-Mazara said with a fresh, green lei around his neck. “And to be honest, I was a no-go to like the last minute. But I said, ‘You know what, Coach? If it snaps on the court, it’ll snap on the court, but I’m not going to not show up.’”
And did he ever show up. The 6-foot-7 Baker-Mazara finished with 23 points, 4 assists, 4 three-pointers, 3 rebounds and plenty of dramatics in an 88-75 win over Arizona State.
He got a technical after burying a three-pointer for making a guns sign with his hands, something he said “I personally didn’t know” was a rule; he noted that he tried to tell the official he was unaware, to no avail.
He came out of the game at one point in the second half, breathing heavily and having the USC athletic trainer go to work with a Theragun on his hamstring. “I was just really tired,” Baker-Mazara said. “But I had to find the last breath and leave it out there.”
He wanted to make history and become the first player to win two Maui titles, something that now can happen in the transfer portal era.
He was determined to be the MVP, especially after 6-foot-5 guard Rodney Rice went down with a shoulder injury (he will have an MRI when USC returns to Los Angeles) in the semifinal win over Seton Hall.
And he did it all.
USC prevailed and Baker-Mazara won the MVP trophy, hardware that he was clutching throughout the postgame festivities as he chanted, “Maui wowee!”
“First and foremost, I got to thank God,” Baker-Mazara said. “But thanks to my boys – man, they were in my ear all week that we’re going to get this done. They put the ball in my hands. And sadly Rodney went down (Tuesday). We had to do it for Rodney. And I just came out and gave it my all.”
When the game ended, he ran over and had a sobbing hug with parents Derrick Baker and Carmen Mazara and close friend Evan Brock. The tears from this Dominican family were raw and real.
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Baker-Mazara always has shown his emotions. He has traveled quite a bit during his career and grown exponentially.
He went to high school in New Jersey, then spent a post-grad year in Ohio. He started his college career with one season at Duquesne. He then spent a season at San Diego State, another at Northwest Florida State junior college and the past two at Auburn. He turns 26 on Jan. 27, and while it may not look at times as if he has matured and mellowed, his family says he’s an evolved young adult.
“He’s passionate,” said his father, wiping away tears.
Landing the MVP came as no surprise to the family.
“It’s because of the amount of behind-the-scenes work he puts in on and off the floor for himself as a person and as a player, and it leads to this,” Brock said. “He’s so excited to be a part of the USC team and under Coach Muss.”
Assistant coach Will Conroy should get some credit, too, for how he has managed Baker-Mazara. Conroy is part coach and part therapist, it appears, always working on Baker-Mazara’s mental game.
“You’ve got to listen to them and they’ve got to know you love them,” Conroy said after the title game. “You spend a lot of time with them in the gym developing them. I’ve always had a good relationship with people who are easier to talk with.”
Baker-Mazara clearly clicked with Bruce Pearl at Auburn, someone who was a players-first coach. Clearly Musselman is cut from the same cloth, especially as a former NBA assistant and coach.
He knows to give Baker-Mazara room.
“He was the MVP in this thing, so he did his thing,” Musselman said.
Baker-Mazara said he has changed.
“It’s growth,” said Baker-Mazara, who looks even older when he puts on his black-rimmed glasses after a game. “I’ve had a lot of growth within my game, outside of my game, and they are seeing it as a parent. … I told them I was going to bring them here once I found out we were coming. I told them I was going to show them in Maui what I could do, so having them here was even more special.”
Now the trick becomes whether he can duplicate this throughout the season and help lead USC to a good finish in the Big Ten and a potential deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
Back to the technical: He said that was not the new Baker-Mazara.
“I was like, ‘Ref, I wasn’t even looking at the dude,’” Baker-Mazara said. “Me last year and me this year is two different people. All of those antics, that’s behind. I’m trying to play clean. All of those antics? I’m leaving that in the past.”
USC’s success, and ultimately Baker-Mazara’s, may rest on Rice’s health. Rice told me after the game that he felt OK and had some movement but not complete range of motion with his right shoulder. There also is a hope that, at some point this season, touted 6-foot-6 freshman Alijah Arenas can come back from a knee injury.
Still, the Trojans proved this week they have more than enough talent remaining with 6-foot-9 senior Ezra Ausar and 6-foot-10 sophomore Jacob Cofie inside, the shooting of 6-foot-10 senior Jaden Brownell and the guard trio of 5-foot-11 junior Jordan Marsh, 6-foot-7 senior Amarion Dickerson and 6-foot-5 freshman Jerry Easter II. All made significant contributions in Maui.
The Trojans should be ranked in the top 25 Monday. The rest of the nonconference slate is soft, with only a Dec. 9 road game at San Diego, Musselman’s alma mater, as a test. Before that, though, there are Big Ten games against Oregon (Tuesday on the road) and Washington (Dec. 6 at home), and the new year opens with a three-game conference road swing to Michigan, Michigan State and what likely will be an emotional return to Minnesota, where Musselman’s late father Bill was coach from 1971-75.
But there is plenty of optimism now. This is a program that feels and looks like it’s on the rise, and getting an NCAA bid in Musselman’s second season would be a natural step.
Baker-Mazara now has two Maui titles. A year ago, Auburn won Maui and reached the Final Four. What could this title mean for USC?
“We’ll see,” Baker-Mazara said. “Time will tell.”
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