Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  LOS ANGELES — At the start of the summer, USC forward Harrison Hornery was decompressing back home in Australia when he got a call from one of his new teammates. It was Josh Cohen, a transfer from UMass. He’d forgotten his shoes.

Hornery was with family, a day’s time zone away, 8,000 miles removed from USC. That was intentional. The program he had known for three formative years of his life had crumbled in a matter of weeks, former head coach Andy Enfield and his entire staff heading east to SMU, the entirety of the roster around him either graduating or transferring or leaping to the NBA. Hornery had already talked with new coach Eric Musselman, and he was set on staying. But he needed time to reflect.

Then Cohen rang, Musselman’s first transfer commit. They had never talked before. But Cohen needed some shoes.

There was nobody else, really, for Cohen to call. There was nobody else for anyone to call. Hornery was the last player on scholarship standing, a fourth-year forward who had received sparse playing time suddenly tasked as the last foundation of a program importing transfers by the day. So, eventually, he gave Cohen some shoes.

When he arrived at USC, Boise State transfer Chibuzo Agbo Jr. also – somehow – forgot to bring basketball shoes. Hornery gave him a pair, too.

“That was pretty selfless of him,” Agbo Jr. said Thursday, after a USC summer practice. “I mean, that set the tone of who he is and what this team’s about.”

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Rather improbably, amid USC’s early-month program rebirth under Musselman, their most important piece has been a 6-foot-10 kid from Toowoomba, Australia who has never averaged as much as four points per game in his three-year career. As an entire roster departed and a new roster coalesced around him, Hornery stayed firm, even in the nerve-racking weeks when he had no idea who would fill the lockers next to him. It didn’t even really matter, to Hornery, who the coach was. He had six classes left to graduate.

He hasn’t simply stayed, either. He’s watered, single-handedly, the budding culture of a mishmash program that desperately needs a strong culture for any hope of success in 2024-25. Hornery threw everyone’s phone number – all 11 transfers, eventually – into a group chat, and texted individual players on where to live, and loaned shoes.

When Xavier transfer Desmond Claude discussed his recovery from elbow surgeries in the offseason, a procedure cleaning up some loose debris, he thanked Hornery, unprompted.

“Shoutout to Harry for the rehab,” he said.

Hornery, Michigan transfer Terrence Williams said, had introduced him to USC’s “Little Galen” athlete-specific cafeteria. It is now his favorite spot to eat, anywhere in L.A.

“It’s just little stuff like that, though, you appreciate the sole survivor,” Williams said Thursday, smiling. “And that’s why I love Big Harry, man. He’s just so giving.”

Big Harry, as Williams calls him, acted when asked about it all Thursday as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The Mater Dei High product had come to Southern California from Australia when he was 15 years old, all alone, he explained. Alone. Los Angeles was a big jump, he explained. “Whatever the guys needed,” he added.

He had taken on the challenge, as Claude described, of being the leader of a completely new group, some of whom – by virtue of being upperclassmen transfers – are just the same age as him. But Hornery came back to USC, too, not to simply mentor. These Trojans are built for small ball, importing just two semi-traditional big men in Cohen and Bowling Green transfer Rashaun Agee, and Hornery will be a vital piece of the group as a rebounder and floor-spacer.

“The goal is definitely to take a leap,” Hornery said Thursday. “I’m not just here to be here.”

“I’m here to play.”

His impact, Cohen said, had gone beyond simply showing guys around, Hornery’s versatility standing out in the summer months. It was his “first real chance,” Cohen put it, to truly contribute, a key member of the roster in every possible sense.

“I wouldn’t say Harry’s just loaning shoes,” Cohen said. “I think he’s going to help us out this year a lot more than that.”

ocregister.com

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