Hmmm, perhaps I need to spend some more time in the USB section.

I thought setting UCFG.3 to "External transceiver" would wipe out ...

RB2 - RB2/AN8/INT2/VMO
RB3 - RB3/AN9/CCP2(1)/VPO
RC1 - RC1/T1OSI/CCP2(1)/UOE