Floyd bolts USC

[socaldukie]

What a quitter...

http://www.clarionledger.com/article.../90609034/1287

[burnspbesq]

One step ahead of a NCAA posse, methinks. USC football is too big to sanction, so the basketball program is going to get hammered.

[Tappan Zee Devil]

What a quitter...

You want him to stay?

Hey - When you resign, you never say "I was caught being unethical and have no choice."

You say "I have lost my enthusiasm". or "I have family issues". or "I have health issues". or whatever

If they learn from it, this is good for USC and and certainly is not good for Floyd. It doesn't bail him out.

Jim

[socaldukie]

I think his players leaving had as much of him running away as the scandals. Because you can bet if he had his starters back from last year there is no way he walks (of his own will). That's where I think he quit himself and the team. But, you're right how he suddenly loses the passion when he doesn't have the players and he can't state the obvious.

I guess it's not like the first time he's had controversery in one of his programs.

[roywhite]

One step ahead of a NCAA posse, methinks. USC football is too big to sanction, so the basketball program is going to get hammered.

Wasn't the NCAA looking at both, and using the "lack of institutional control" term?

http://www.latimes.com/sports/colleg...,1313134.story

Doesn't sound like the University is in any hurry to get to the bottom of these problems.

[SMO]

Was 1 year of OJ Mayo really worth it? The lack of long-term thinking in cases like these is amazing.

[miramar]

"He reportedly turned down offers to coach at Arizona and Memphis following the 2008-09 season."

I don't know about Arizona since I think they only have graduation issues, but he would have fit in perfectly at Memphis.

[BlueintheFace]

I believe they call this "pulling a Calipari"

[Carlos]

Does he really think he is fooling anyone with the "lost my enthusiasm" routine? The big question for Floyd is where he goes from here. He bombed out as an NBA coach and I can't see any NCAA school touching him now.

[SoCalDukeFan]

My guess is that Floyd will be an NBA assistant next year.

My wife is a USC alum and we follow their teams and have football season tickets.

I personally think he got as much out of his players as he could. I think he can coach. In my opinion though he never really had a "program." Players left early (some went undrafted) for example so every year was kind of a new deal.

Giving money to Mayo, if Floyd did, was just stupid.

In my opinion, next year USC basketball will be in the pits. Most of the team is gone. There may be NCAA sanctions. As always FOOTBALL will be king at USC and UCLA will be the king of Los Angeles college basketball. The administration as USC has done a great job of improving the academic reputation of the school. The USC alumni though absolutely worship the football team and many value football success over anything else at the school. A basketball arena was built recently and Floyd's job was to fill it and he did that pretty well. I think the administration just looked the other way and let Floyd recruit whomever and however he wanted to fill the arena. Any I think Pete Carroll gets a pretty free rein in football.

If the administration picks the right coach and give him time then there is no reason USC should not have competitive basketball teams composed mostly of student athletes. There is plenty of talent in LA. However there may be a few years with lots of empty seats in Galen.

SoCal

[flyingdutchdevil]

Will this start a trend? Will the NCAA begin investigating other one-and-dones who don't want to be in college in the first place? Is Calipari next?

I really hope that the NCAA starts cracking down on things like this more. It ruins the process of recruiting, wastes time of hundreds of coaches who are playing by the rules, and helps to destroy the game.

We all know there are so many more out there, only they may be smarter than Floyd and haven't gotten caught (yet). That said, it's times like these that you really appreciate the clean, great programs: Duke, UCLA, *sigh* UNC, amongst others.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I believe they call this "pulling a Calipari"

Calipari got out of town while he had his chance, before the allegations were made public. Floyd had his chance to do the same, and stayed. After the allegations about USC and Mayo became public, I think he pretty much knew he wouldn't be coaching at USC next year whether he wanted to or not, so he took the resignation route. It may have even been suggested by the athletic department that he consider it. I'm sure they would like to clean up their image sooner than later, and a year of Floyd coaching while the cloud of investigation hangs over the program is not the way to accomplish that mission.

[DUBlue]

This just shows why the NCAA needs to do a better job of making whatever sanctions they place on programs also follow the Coaches to their next program!!!!

If USC gets sanctioned whatever the penalty they receive needs to be applied to the University that eventually hires Floyd (and you know he will be hired at one time or another).

Same can be said for the Calipari situation...

Wouldn't it be great to see who would hire these clowns if the new school they went to had to accept their previous penalties?

[SoCalDukeFan]

This just shows why the NCAA needs to do a better job of making whatever sanctions they place on programs also follow the Coaches to their next program!!!!

If USC gets sanctioned whatever the penalty they receive needs to be applied to the University that eventually hires Floyd (and you know he will be hired at one time or another).

Same can be said for the Calipari situation...

Wouldn't it be great to see who would hire these clowns if the new school they went to had to accept their previous penalties?

While I agree with you and would love to see Kentucky penalized because of Calipari, Memphis and USC also should be held accountable.

University officials should not just look the other way when basketball recruits have unrealistic jumps in their SAT scores or when top flight recruits just magically appear on campus. For lots of reasons coaches want to win.
Look at Calipari's deal at UK. Those who have not ethics will cheat the system. The schools need to provide some oversight.

SoCal

[JasonEvans]

"He reportedly turned down offers to coach at Arizona and Memphis following the 2008-09 season."

I don't know about Arizona since I think they only have graduation issues, but he would have fit in perfectly at Memphis.

I heard that the reason the Arizona deal fell apart was that Arizona had demanded some fairly stiff ethics clauses in the contract and Floyd was worried that if the scandal at USC got worse (and it has) he could easily have been fired by Zona before he coached a single game.

I doubt Tim Floyd coaches a major college program ever again. I agree that the NBA assistant route will likely be his next stop. If he goes back to college, it would be the small college route -- similar to Isiah and Doh with a long path back to the bigger schools.

--Jason "FWIW, I don't believe Floyd gave $1000 to some dude to secure Mayo... It was either a lot more or nothing at all" Evans

[JasonEvans]

In light of some of the comments about USC football and basketball in this thread, I thought all of ya'll would enjoy this column from FoxSports which contained the following lines:

Jerry Tarkanian, the all-time king of rogue coaches, once summed up the NCAA's hypocrisy by saying "The NCAA got so mad at Kentucky, they put Cleveland State on probation."

To that, we add a 21st-century update:

USC got so upset about its football scandal that it forced out its basketball coach.

Tim Floyd resigned under pressure this week — under the pressure of two NCAA scandals, and under the pressure of being the 13th-most important coach on campus — behind Pete Carroll and his 11 assistants.

--Jason "good stuff" Evans

[Kewlswim]

Hi,

I don't think Tim Floyd paid some guy 1,000 dollars because as Jason says it is just too little. He would have had to pay some serious money or none at all. I partly blame David Stern for this ridiculous system we have for kids--who don't belong in college and not every kid does--to have to wait before they can play in in the NBA. Let's end this silliness now, let kids who are smart enough to know they don't belong in college and athletically talented enough to know they belong in the NBA a chance to just go! One and done, ick.

It is one thing for a kid who belongs in college to go there and a year into it realize he is such a great athlete that maybe the NBA would be a good idea, and quite another to keep a kid out by artificial means. I don't think one can put a price on what one learns in college. I think that if LeBron, for example, had played even one year for Coach K (or Ole Roy, or even Calipari, ick) he would have shaken each of the Magic's hands after losing to them because college would have given him more maturity. I think Kobe, had he of played for Coach K a couple of years, would have blossomed even more because he would have known what leadership was all about earlier in his NBA career. Furthermore, he might be better liked, yes even a Duke guy better liked. :-) Yet, I don't think either Kobe or LeBron should have been made to go to college. I like they had the choice to be wrong and not learn what they could have learned in school.

The point of my post is to thank David Stern for putting into place a system fraught with badness. I have no love for Tim Floyd. I do like SC better than UCLA, but that is really only because I liked Ronny Lott as a boy. I was more into football then.

GO DUKE!

[JasonEvans]

Excellent post Kewlswim. I have often said, I think the basketball system should be like baseball--

If you want to go pro right out of high school, go for it. Perhaps the NBA will pay you, perhaps Europe will, perhaps you can find a spot in the Developmental League. Certainly, those options are no worse than the options for a minor league baseball player. Heck, I bet the Developmental League pays better than a single-A baseball team. With some small modifications, the NBA could even allow teams to protect a player or two on a Developmental League team to give them time to mature, somewhat similar to the process in baseball's minor league.

But, if you choose to go to a 4-year college, you must stick around for 3 years.

A system like that would create a great deal more stability and predictability on college rosters. The problem I have with the current system is that most times when a kid turns pro it is too late for his college coach to recruit a player to replace him. This uncertainty of future hurts programs and hurts players.

Sadly, the NBA and the NCAA seem dead set on continuing a system that is broken and begs for corruption.

-Jason "sigh... if I could run the NCAA for a day I would do more good than Myles Brand has done in his entire term" Evans

[CameronBornAndBred]

I don't think Tim Floyd paid some guy 1,000 dollars because as Jason says it is just too little.

A thousand bucks for a kid who isn't allowed to have a job while he waits for his riches is not chump change. If you got nothing, more than nothing is something. And it's easier to pass a 1000 bucks than 5K or 10K.

[jimsumner]

Jason,

You're comparing apples and oranges here. Professional baseball has had more than a century to refine a system that turns the best high-school baseball players into major-league baseball players over a period of time. Major league teams have player development agreements with a half-dozen or more minor league teams, designed to move players up a chain in a rational manner.

This week hundreds of high school students are being drafted by major league franchises. None of them are expected to play major league baseball for several years. Most will never play in the majors. But those that don't will have had a legit shot to play professional ball under a Darwinian system but a Darwinian system that is designed for teenagers and young adults and does a decent job of not destroying their lives.

Those high-schoolers who don't go to college will start out at the rookie level for the most part, maybe short-season A. But they'll be on a team with their peers and have a support system.

Contrast that with the NBA. High schoolers drafted in the old days were expected to play in the NBA right now. The developmental league is a poor substitute for baseball's minor leagues and lots of basketball players drafted out of high school just fell through the cracks. Europe? Do we really want to send lots of unprepared teenagers to Europe to play with 30-year-olds?


Also, MLB is immune from anti-trust legislation. The NBA is not. This stuff has to be part of a CBA between the NBA and the NBA Player's Association. It can't be just decreed, even by Myles Brand. The NCAA doesn't have much to say in this matter. In fact, it has no say.