Amid scandal, CSUB wants to hire USC’s Todd Lee, sources say

Cal State Bakersfield is working toward hiring USC assistant Todd Lee as its next head coach, sources told ESPN.

Lee spent the past four years working under Eric Musselman at USC and Arkansas. The two have a long-standing relationship dating back to when they coached the CBA’s Rapid City Thrillers in the early 1990s.

Lee’s last head coaching experience came at South Dakota from 2018 to ’22, when he went 66-52 over four seasons. He won 20 games in 2019–20 and earned Summit League Coach of the Year honors following the 2020–21 season.

His hire in Bakersfield will mark a return to the Roadrunners for Lee, as he was an assistant coach on the staff at the Division II level from 1994 to ’97. He helped lead the program to a Division II national championship in 1997.

In Bakersfield, Lee will replace Rod Barnes, who resigned amid scandal in September after 14 years at the helm of the program. An assistant coach and former player at Barnes, Kevin Mays, was arrested that month on 11 felony and misdemeanor charges, including pimping. Athletic director Kyle Conder also left his position following Mays’ arrest last September.