USC men’s basketball hires away Hawaii associate head coach Brad Davidson

HONOLULU – It’s always a fun time at college basketball’s offseason circus.

Step right up, step right up, the transfer portal is only one ride that brings movement for the period. Look across the street and you’ll see the coaching carousel spinning at full speed, quickly interchanging names in the uber-connected web of college hoops.

It was announced Wednesday that University of Hawai’i men’s basketball associate head coach Brad Davidson is moving on after five seasons and a Big West title with the program, accepting a role on the USC Trojans’ coaching staff under Eric Musselman.

Musselman and the Trojans saw a significant spot on the bench open up in March after former assistant Todd Lee accepted the men’s basketball head coaching position at Cal State Bakersfield. Lee had spent the previous four seasons as an assistant under Musselman, joining the Arkansas staff ahead of the 2022-23 season and following along in 2024-25 after Musselman accepted the USC head coaching gig.

Lee was the head coach at the University of South Dakota from 2018-2022 before joining the Razorbacks ahead of the ’22-23 season. He finished his time with the Yotes with a 66-52 record.

Davidson spent three seasons working under Lee at South Dakota, crossing over with the veteran head coach from 2018 through 2021 before coming to the islands for the past five campaigns.

While with the Rainbow Warriors, Davidson was tasked with developing the program’s guards while overseeing installation and operation of the offense. In five years with Davidson, Hawai’i racked up three seasons of 20-plus victories while remaining amongst the top half of the Big West in multiple categories such as FG%, free throw rate and points per game.