USC loses former 4-star Brandon Gardner to transfer portal

LOS ANGELES — The kid from Down Under is the only one left.

The final domino in a monthlong USC program overhaul dropped Tuesday, as redshirt freshman forward Brandon Gardner has submitted paperwork to enter the transfer portal, his mother Tameka Gordon told the Southern California News Group. The former four-star recruit out of New York was the last unknown in the mass exodus that has followed longtime coach Andy Enfield’s departure for SMU, holding out for weeks under new coach Eric Musselman’s regime but ultimately deciding to depart.

It leaves junior forward Harrison Hornery – who played three seasons for Enfield at USC – as the last member of the old guard, along with assistant coach Desmon Farmer, who came onto Enfield’s staff first as a graduate assistant in 2020-21 and is still listed on USC’s staff directory. Hornery hails from Australia, and his mother, Deanne Parslow, told SCNG even before Musselman’s hire that he would stay at USC

“We are 100% committed to USC and Coach Musselman,” Parslow said, when asked if Hornery would still stay at USC even with Gardner’s departure.

In a vacuum, the past month has brought perhaps the most drastic year-to-year shift in USC basketball history, a complete cleaning-house as Musselman has amassed a slew of transfers and recently flipped Sierra Canyon’s Isaiah Elohim from Arkansas. Boogie Ellis, Joshua Morgan, and DJ Rodman are graduating. Isaiah Collier is headed to the NBA draft. Kobe Johnson, Vincent Iwuchukwu, Oziyah Sellers, Bronny James, Arrinten Page, Kijani Wright and now Gardner – named “Mr. Basketball” as a senior in New York – have hit the portal.

And thus, amid a collection of mid-major talent assembled from the portal in what feels somewhat like an offseason rebuild on “NBA 2K,” Hornery will be Musselman’s only holdover.