VIDEO: Tim Floyd being, well, Tim Floyd

Tim Floyd has lost his damn mind.

For starters, in the presser that you see below, Floyd starts out by taking a shot at ESPN and Andy Katz for this article that he wrote last week after Floyd did this, which is ridiculous in and of itself. He then said that the article was the first thing written by ESPN about Conference USA this season. And while I know that is patently false, I don't have the time and energy to dig up all of those articles. But off the top of my head, I can give you links to features that Dana O'Neil write on Joe Jackson of Memphis and Aaron Johnson of UAB.

Personally, I don't take umbridge with Floyd hyping the thoroughly mediocre C-USA. His job as a basketball coach is to do everything he can to get his school into the NCAA Tournament. UTEP is currently a game behind UAB in the standings of a league that is not currently being predicted by anyone to receive more than one bid this season.

Of course he needs to talk up Conference USA. No one else is doing it.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Here is the video of Floyd:



h/t to the El Paso Times for alerting us to this video
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VIDEO: Tim Floyd ejected, escorted off the court by the police in a loss at East Carolina

In one of the uglier moments we have seen this season, UTEP head coach Tim Floyd and assistant coach Phil Johnson, a former head man at San Jose State, were both tossed from last night's game against East Carolina early in the second half.

Floyd went after the refs and had to be escorted out by a police officer.

Of course we have video. Why would you even ask?:



According to Floyd, he snapped when he was called for a technical for being outside the coaching box.

"My behavior this year has been pretty darned good," Floyd said. "I hadn't had a technical all year long. ... I scurried back to the bench (after getting a warning for being outside the coach's box) and the next thing I knew, I had a technical and I didn't know why I got it. I'd still like to know.

"I guess I reacted to that first technical, not really understanding why it was given. I probably earned the second one."

Whatever the reason, Floyd's behavior was unacceptable. I wouldn't be surprised if he faced a suspension as a result.

East Carolina ended up winning the game 83-76. It was a critical loss for the Miners, who have now lost two straight to fall a game behind the leaders in the Conference USA regular season race.

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George Dohrmann has been on fire

George Dohrmann is single-handedly cleaning up college athletics.

Well, that might be an exaggeration, but if that's his goal he is well on his way.

Yesterday, Dohrmann's article on agents in college football hit the intrawebs and immediately made waves, clogging my twitter feed for a solid two hours. The article (which is required reading, by the way) essentially exposes what the interaction between players and agents is actually like, and how deeply rooted the issue is.

That article came out one week after his book, Play Their Hearts Out, was released. (Ed. Note: We will have more on the book once we finish it. We're currently half way through.) Play Their Hearts Out is the story of Joe Keller, an AAU coach from Southern California, and how he uses his players, specifically Demetrius Walker who was considered the best 12 year old in the country, for profit. Its a sickening and in-depth look into the world of grassroots basketball, but its not what we are here to discuss right now.

Dohrmann got deep into the youth basketball scene in LA, and Walker's story wasn't the only disturbing one he turned up. For starters, he highlighted a potential recruiting violation by Ohio State and CBS's lead color commentator Clark Kellogg:

Ohio State violated an NCAA rule pursuing Roberto [Nelson, now of Oregon State]: Former Ohio State player and CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg called Bruce and lobbied on behalf of his alma mater. (As a former Ohio State player he was forbidden under NCAA guidelines from contacting recruits or their families.) "I heard that the missing piece to the puzzle was a kid in California," Kellogg told Bruce [Roberto's father].

That wasn't the only violation that Dohrmann exposed. He also caught UCLA head coach Ben Howland:

In certain months, coaches are allowed to call a recruit or his family only once. In one of these months, and after a UCLA coach had already spoken to Roberto, Howland called Bruce. "I didn't know it was him until I answered the phone because the number had a Santa Barbara area code," Bruce said. "Ben said he was up in Santa Barbara visiting people, and we talked about maybe getting together while he was in town." Howland had never called Bruce from a Santa Barbara number before. "I guess he knew that if used his UCLA phone, then people could find out he called me."

Neither of those allegations are going to get the NCAA's attention. Even if the NCAA was able to prove them -- which would be quite difficult to do -- they are minor, and potentially innocent, enough that neither would be worth the NCAA's time.

Perhaps the most damning exposure came at the very end of the book. Walker originally committed to USC and Tim Floyd before he wound up at Arizona State. It got so far that Walker was scheduled to sign a Letter of Intent to USC after his junior year. Quoted from the book:

"So what is that I am hearing about ou needing time to make a decison?" [Floyd] said to Demetrius.

"Well, I couldn't sleep last night, Coach, I was tossing and turning, and my gut feeling was that it just wouldn't be right to sign right now. I need some time to think."

"You've been committed to us for months," Floyd said. "Why are you having these feelings now?"

"I don't know, Coach. I don't know why I am having these funny feelings, but it's how I feel."

"I don't really have time for this," Floyd said. "There are other guys out there we can recruit. I don't have time to be waiting around for you."

"Well, that's your choice. I don't want you to sign anyone else right now. I'd like you to wait like two days, just give me some time to think."

Floyd accused Demetrius of wanting to look at other schools. Demetrius denied it, and then the conversation deteriorated.

"I see what kind of person you are," Floyd said. "You are a liar and you are not a man of your word. … I thought you were a player like OJ Mayo and DeMar DeRozan, not afraid of coming in and competing for a spot, but you'd rather be given a position instead of earning one."

"Coach, I'm not afraid of anybody."

"I'll tell you this: If any NBA teams interested in you come talk to me first, I am going to tell them who the real Demetrius Walker is."

Remember, that is Tim Floyd talking to a 17 year old kid. Kinda got a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? Yeah, me too.

Maybe that's why things like this and this and this have been written about Tim Floyd over the years.

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UPDATE: Myron Strong dismissed from UTEP, throws accusations back at Tim Floyd

UPDATE: Miner Rush landed an interview with Strong, and he threw even more gas on the fire. Among the claims he made: Floyd threatened to revoke the scholarships of Arnette Moultrie and Derrick Caracter if they declared for the draft; that Floyd insulted Caracter and Moultrie in front of the team to the point that it was uncomfortable; and that the majority of the UTEP team failed drug tests.

I'm not exactly sure what Strong is trying to do here, but I can guarantee that he is going to get quite a bit of attention for it.


On Thursday, rising senior Myron Strong was kicked off the UTEP basketball team by Tim Floyd. Dan Wolken spoke with Floyd, who said it was the result of a drug policy violation.

Why did Wolken, a beat writer for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, want to talk to Floyd about a reserve getting kicked off the UTEP basketball team? Because Strong went on facebook to respond to his dismissal:

"Yeah I'm not at utep anymore I know a lot of ppl wondering y, but the big question really should be how did tim floyd even get the job there? Wasn't he just under investigation at USC? Well I'm hearing that he had a fake charity event to pay former player OJ Mayo $100,000 to play for him. How did the ncaa let that slide? I'm just saying...."

KVIA in El Paso emailed Strong about his accusations, and Strong responded with the following:

"Basically when barbee was there I had a dorm incident and couldn't live in the dorms this school year which was fine because I wasn't planning on staying in the dorms anyways. So when tim floyd came to utep he tested our team and some ppl failed but for some reason he made it seem like it was all my fault and that I was a bad person. He stereotyped me from day 1. Then a few weeks bck I was in the dorm(just there before class) and the police arrested a gurl in the dorm with weed that I knew. My name came up and she told them I had nothing to do with it which was true. Tim floyd had said even if my name came up in anything that I was out of there so I made sure that they knew I had nun to do wit it. But still he told me I violated by even being in the dorms and I didn't know I couldn't even be in the dorms. Tim floyd had already said that he had a guard he wanted to bring in so that had to be his reason to let me go. Really I don't see how he even got the job when he broke ncaa rules at usc just two years back. He raised a fake charity event to pay a player to come to usc is what I'm hearing from my sources abd I'm sure its true."

Now, I don't need to tell you that those are some pretty hefty accusations, especially when they are being thrown at Floyd, who escaped punishment when the NCAA came down on USC.

A disgruntled and angry ex-player is hardly the most reliable source. But with the NCAA's new found desire to crack down on the corruption in youth basketball, does anyone think the NCAA is going to leave this alone?
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Tim Floyd's "package deal" are not that big of a deal

The NCAA is always trying to clean up college hoops and the sport's recruiting process.

The latest example of this came back in January, when the NCAA announced their intention to close some of the loopholes that had been found. One of those loopholes was the concept of a package deal. Essentially, a package deal is when an adult -- a coach, a trainer, a relative -- latches on to a recruit, and in order for a school to land that recruit, they hire that adult to "work" with the team. There are tons of examples of this -- Kansas hired Mario Chalmers' father, Memphis hired Tyreke Evans' trainer, etc.

Here is the exact text of the new rule, known as Bylaw 13.8.3.2:

Individual Associated with a Prospective Student-Athlete -- Men's Basketball. In men's basketball, during a two-year period before a prospective student-athlete's anticipated enrollment and a two-year period after the prospective student-athlete's actual enrollment, an institution shall not employ (or enter into a contract for future employment with) an individual associated with the prospective student-athlete in any athletics department noncoaching staff position.

Tim Floyd always seems to be skirting the rules.
(photo credit: LA Times)

This rule has come under a bit of scrutiny this week thanks to Tim Floyd. Floyd has never been one to shy away from recruiting's grey areas. We all have heard about OJ Mayo and the envelope stuffed with benjis, but that is far from the only way Floyd has wooed recruits. In fact, package deals seem to be a favorite of Floyd's. Back in 2005 when Floyd first got the USC job, he twice made package deals. He hired Gil Arnold, the head coach at the College of Southern Idaho, and Shaun Davis and Abdoulaye Ndiaye followed. He then hired Rudy Hackett as his strength and conditioning coach. Rudy was joined at USC by his son Daniel Hackett.

This offseason, Floyd landed the head coaching job at UTEP, and he is back up to his old tricks.

For college basketball fans, you may have never heard the name Rashanti Harris before, but its a certainty that recruitniks have. Harris was a top 30 national recruit and the 2008 Mr. Basketball in Mississippi before heading to Georgia State, of all places. But Harris could never get eligible there, and after sitting out the 2009-2010 season, he decided to transfer to UTEP.

Is it any coincidence that William Small, the man that recruited Harris to Georgia State, was also hired by UTEP?

Floyd also landed former HEAT Academy teammates Michael Haynes and Desmond Lee. Haynes, a 6'7" forward, was the real prize, spurning interest from Duke, Texas, and UCLA. Floyd then hired Jason Niblett, the head coach and founder of HEAT Academy (for a good read, check out this Washington Post profile of the school that outsourced education), which has earned Floyd a lot of negative backlash.

Here's the interesting thing, however -- so long as Small and Niblett are named assistant coaches and aren't given an operations position, these are completely legal hires. The rule says that package deals are legal so long as the person hired isn't given "any athletics department noncoaching staff position." Clearly, these hires go against the spirit of the rule put into place, but the spirit of the rule and the letter of the law are two completely different things. We have learned this the hard way.

Part of the problem the NCAA has is that they don't want to completely eliminate a pathway for a high school coach to become a college coach. Take Danny Hurley, for example. Hurley was the head coach at St. Benedict's Prep in New Jersey before making the jump to Wagner College. If he landed some of his higher rated high school players at Wagner, couldn't that technically be considered a package deal?

Ok, that is a bit of a stretch, but my point is that the best high school coaches are going to be coaching the best high school players. If one of these high school coaches were to get a D1 offer, it would be for two reasons -- their ability to coach, and their ability to recruit based on their connections at the high school level. If the NCAA did away with package deals all together, that pathway for high school coaches to college would be eliminated.

My question is whether Floyd actually did anything wrong here.

Sure, it looks sketchy. I can't disagree. But William Small is a talented enough recruiter that he got Harris, a four star recruit, to come to Georgia State along with a nother three-star recruit. If he is landing top 30 players at Georgia State, what kind of recruits can he land at UTEP? While Harris was a nice bonus for Floyd, doesn't it stand to reason that Small wasn't going to be at Georgia State too much longer?

Jason Niblett ran a basketball factory that sent eight guys to the D1 level this year. The WaPo article linked earlier mentions his connections to coaches overseas, specifically Australia, and it stands to reason that he has plenty of connections to high school and AAU coaches stateside if he was landing that kind of talent. He also played D1 basketball himself and spent six years playing professionally in France. Its safe to assume that he has a significant amount of basketball knowledge.

Being a successful college basketball program is based on your ability to recruit. Based on their resumes, one can assume that these two guys are going to be able to recruit for Floyd. Recruiting is based on connections. Kansas State lands a lot of players from teh DC Metro area because of Dalone Hill's connections.

Is that considered dirty or unethical? Truth be told, how much different is what is happening at Kansas State and what happened at UTEP? And keep in mind, Floyd did nothing illegal.

I'm not a Tim Floyd fan by any stretch of the imagination. I think UTEP was moronic for hiring him. I think the way he runs his programs is despicable. I think package deals should be eliminated from college basketball.

But these two hirings are different than your typical package deal.

This isn't the hiring of Mario Chalmers' father or Tyreke Evans' trainer. These are two coaches that got offered better jobs and brought their players with them.

When a head coach gets a better job, and he brings along his players or recruits, is that considered a package deal as well?

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USC finally gets the NCAA's punishment

Remember all that talk about how USC threw their basketball team under the bus to try and avoid the penalties they knew were coming against their football program?

I think the NCAA did, because they absolutely threw the book at USC football, including postseason bans, significant scholarship reductions, and having 13 wins vacated.

OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush will be remembered for all the wrong reasons at USC.
(photo credit: LA Times)

USC's basketball team avoided anymore serious penalties. If you recall, back in January, USC AD Mike Garrett self-imposed the following sanctions against the Trojan basketball program:

• All of USC's wins from the 2007-2008 season will be vacated from the record books.
• They lost a scholarship for both this season and next season.
• One less coach is allowed to recruit off-campus next summer.
• The total number of recruiting days USC is allowed to have for the 2010-2011 academic year was reduced from 130 to 110.
• A one year postseason ban, which cost them the Pac-10 and a potential NCAA bid last year (We were not happy about this).
  

In addition to the self-imposed penalties, the NCAA has levied the following (via Jeff Goodman):

• Four years probation from June 10, 2010 through June 9, 2014. (So don't mess up again -- for at least four years.)
  
• The committee stated that the program must also vacate all postseason wins, and conference tournament wins during the 2007-08 season. (I bet they will really miss that first round Pac-10 tournament victory.)
  
• Disassociation of the former men’s basketball player in question (Mayo) and the representative who provided extra benefits (Rodney Guillory). The disassociation includes the refusal of any financial or recruiting assistance, as well as other conditions. (I mean, this was obvious. They'd be fools to allow Guillory to come back -- again -- and I bet Mayo has forgotten where he even went to school by now.)
• Prohibition of all non-university personnel, including boosters, from traveling on football and men’s basketball charters; attending football and men’s basketball team practices; attending or participating in any way with university football and men’s basketball camps: including donation of funds; and having access to sidelines and locker rooms for football and men’s basketball games.

This last one is a bit tricky. Is the NCAA really going to be able to enforce all of that? What about the legitimate family and friends of the players, will they be allowed to make it down to the sidelines or come by and watch a practice during a visit? Are they really going to track every dollar that comes into the camps USC hosts? I highly doubt the NCAA has a lot of trust in the USC athletic department right now.

So like I said, USC really didn't get much in the way of additional penalties.

But there is another point that needs to be made. From Rush the Court:

Forgotten in all of this are three gentlemen who should be revered by any and all fans of USC basketball: Mike Gerrity, Marcus Johnson, and Dwight Lewis. They were the three seniors who lost their last opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament because of the self-imposed postseason ban last season. Gerrity, who had just transferred in as part of his three-college career and performed beautifully for the basketball team, never got to play in an NCAA Tournament — all because the athletic department was seemingly hoping to reduce the eventual sanctions on the football side. We’re not saying they should have their jerseys retired, or anything, but USC basketball supporters should find a way to remember those fellows for a long, long time.

Its true. I know that the early part of the college basketball season is a distant memory for most people at this point, but USC was the story in college hoops for a good two week stretch. Once Gerrity got eligible, the Trojans won eight straight games, including a a twenty point win over Tennessee and a non-conference win against UNLV.

The Trojans went from one of the worst major conference teams in the country in the preseason to arguably the best team in the Pac-10. Granted, that isn't saying much with last season's Pac-10, but USC looked destined to be a tournament team.

And because of OJ Mayo and Ronald Guillory, they never got the chance.

I hope everyone around and associated with the USC basketball team remembers that.
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UTEP hired Tim Floyd, but the question is why

I have no idea what UTEP is thinking with their hiring of Tim Floyd.

Before I get to the obvious, let me just say this: Floyd embodies what is wrong with college basketball. Remember the "5-8 rule"? The rule that stated a coach could not award more than five scholarships in one season and no more than eight in two seasons? Well, that rule was commonly known as the "Tim Floyd rule" in coaching circles.

Tim Floyd was hired by UTEP today.
(photo credit: ESPN)

How did Floyd earn that distinction?

By over-recruiting. During his four year run at Iowa State that saw the Cyclones win 20 games for three straight seasons and reach the tournament three years in a row, Floyd constantly recruited over players he had already given a scholarship too. He would then run off the excess recruits before the school year began.

He has the player's best interests in mind. Right.

Then there is the whole USC fiasco. I think we are all well aware of the OJ Mayo situation that USC is currently dealing with. Floyd allegedly gave an envelope full of cash to OJ Mayo's handler -- Ronald Guillory -- while Mayo was playing for USC. Guillory is about as unsavory a character as you are going to find in the college basketball world. He got Fresno State's Tito Maddox and USC's Jeff Trepangier in trouble in 2000 for receiving extra benefits. He was the mystery man that showed up in Floyd's office when the Trojans were recruiting Mayo.

Floyd resigned from USC last summer as a result of these allegations. Both Floyd and USC are still awaiting their punishment from the NCAA for those violations.

And this is the guy that UTEP hired.

Remember what happened last time a program hired a coach still under investigation by the NCAA? I think Indiana fans do. Kelvin Sampson got in trouble at Oklahoma for making illegal phone calls to recruits. He then did the same thing at Indiana. The Hoosier's program still hasn't recovered from that.

I don't know Tim Floyd. As far as I know, he could be a changed man. I don't think that there is any debate that the guy can coach, either. He turned around both Iowa State and USC during his tenure at each school.

But at what cost?

USC was on the brink of becoming one of the great stories of the '09-'10 season before they withdrew from all postseason consideration as a result of Floyd's conduct.

This is the guy that UTEP hired.

Can't say that I understand it.
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USC's self-imposed sanctions are a joke

I don't follow college football all that closely. I don't believe in a sport that doesn't allow an undefeated team (or three) a shot at a national title.

Sure, I'll watch the occasional Saturday afternoon game, and will never turn down a ticket to a big time gridiron match-up, but that doesn't mean I know much more about the sport than Tim Tebow's good and Notre Dame isn't.

That also means that I don't know all that much about the Reggie Bush situation. What I do know is that Bush allegedly (with overwhelming evidence supporting those allegations) was given a bunch of money (six figures) and other improper benefits while at USC. I also know that the investigation has dragged on for years despite the overwhelming evidence.

Need I mention Joe McKnight?

Somewhere in that mess is a violation that the USC athletics department can prove. Somewhere in there is evidence of wrong doing by the program that could be enough to cost the football program scholarships, a postseason, or even their head coach.

The USC basketball program hasn't been squeaky clean, either. Everyone knows about the way that OJ Mayo was treated during his recruitment and his time with the Trojans, and Tim Floyd even lost his job because of improper benefits he was alleged to have given a Mayo handler.

The violations involving Tim Floyd and OJ Mayo only hurt the current USC players.
(photo credit: daylife)

Today, USC athletic director Mike Garrett handed down some significant punishments for USC basketball team resulting from the Mayo-Floyd fiasco:

• All of USC's wins from the 2007-2008 season will be vacated from the record books.
  
• They lost a scholarship for both this season and next season.
• One less coach is allowed to recruit off-campus next summer.
• The total number of recruiting days USC is allowed to have for the 2010-2011 academic year was reduced from 130 to 110.

But the most significant punishment was a ban from all postseason play for this season.

No Pac-10 Tournament.

No NCAA Tournament.

Nothing.

If the title didn't give it away, this punishment is an absolute travesty.

It makes no sense to punish this year's players for violations committed by a different coaching regime. OJ Mayo is long gone. So is Tim Floyd, who lost his job as a result of the accusations he gave Guillory money. Three USC players from last season headed to the pros. Four Trojan recruits jumped ship, with three landing at Arizona and one heading to Clemson.

Only four players remain from that 2007-2008 team - Dwight Lewis, Marcus Simmons, Kasey Cunningham, and Ryan Wetherall. Lewis is the only starter. Kevin O'Neill, the current coach of the Trojans, was coaching conference foe Arizona at the time.

What does all that mean?

The kids paying the punishment for OJ Mayo and Tim Floyd breaking the rules are not Mayo or Floyd.

It is Mike Gerrity, the two-time transfer who finally landed on his feet with the Trojans. It is Alex Stephenson, who transferred from UNC the season before they won a national title to be closer to his ailing father and to get more playing time. It is Marcus Johnson, who was very close to leaving school to pursue a professional career along with Taj Gibson, Demar Derozan, and Daniel Hackett. It is Dwight Lewis, Nikola Vucevic, and all the other Trojans who decided to remain with the program despite facing a few seasons that looked to be a lost cause.

This would be much less of an issue if USC's basketball team was, in fact, terrible this year, as many (including myself) predicted they would be.

But they aren't.

In fact, they may actually be the best team in the Pac-10.

Before Oregon's win over Washington on Saturday, they were the only team in the league to notch a win over a ranked opponent, beating both Tennessee and UNLV in non-conference play. After sweeping the Arizona schools this past weekend, they are sitting atop the league at 2-0. Since the addition of Gerrity solidified their point guard position, the Trojans have won eight straight, and are arguably the hottest team in the country.

Mike Gerrity and the rest of the current Trojans are the ones paying the price for Mayo and Floyd.
(photo credit: LA Times)

This is a team that could realistically have won both the Pac-10 regular season and tournament titles.

This is a team that had a great chance of not only making the NCAA Tournament, but also winning a game.

This team was the feel good story of the 2009-2010 basketball season.

And all that is gone because Garrett decided to bring the hammer down on the basketball program and a group of kids that had nothing at all to do with the violations they are being punished for.

Which brings me back to the football team.

Why hasn't that program been punished?

Maybe because they win titles. Maybe because they are the most visible athletics program USC has. Maybe because USC doesn't want to have their BCS bowls and Pac-10 titles vacated. Maybe because the money that the football program brings in is greater than the money that the basketball team does.

Mike Garrett said this in the statement released today announcing the self-imposed sanctions: "When we've done something wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it and that is exactly what we are doing here."

And he's right.

The basketball program does need to face some sanctions.

Which is why I would have no problem with the school vacating the season Mayo played, or the team losing recruiting days, or even having their number of scholarships reduced.

But why hasn't the football team been punished?

And why is it necessary to take away the postseason from this group of kids?

Gary Parrish says it best:

Either way, the whole thing is a laughable mess. And guess who pays the price? The basketball program, that's who. And, so far, it's only the basketball program, which is both shameful and transparent.

I don't think the USC team is laughing.
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Tim Floyd: Hero?

Tim Floyd's coaching career has momentarily come to an end.

But that doesn't mean the good still isn't out there trying to help people!



Yup, that's Tim Floyd breaking up the fight, crazy chair-wielding redheads be damned.

(h/t Herms Perm via Deadspin) Continue reading...

TIM FLOYD DISCUSSES RENARDO SIDNEY: As you should know by know, Renardo Sidney is currently awaiting word from the NCAA on whether or not he will be eligible to play the 2009-2010 basketball season for Mississippi State. One of the main issues the NCAA is looking at (and what seems to currently be the sticking point of the investigation) is how the Sidney's paid for the house they rented in Southern California.

Talentwise, Sidney was one of the most coveted recruits in the country as a senior, but neither UCLA or USC wanted the Fairfax HS product.

Speaking with Kyle Veazey of the Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger, Tim Floyd spoke for the first time about why USC stopped recruiting Sidney:

"Our school was reacting to an article that was going to be written in the L.A. Times," Floyd said. "Given the fact that the institution was involved in an institutional control investigation, they viewed it as preventive management. They could not put their finger on anything."

Probably was a good decision by USC. With the Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo scandals still hanging over them, the last thing they needed was another high-profile recruit carrying baggage.
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This has been one hell of an off-season

The NBA Draft is just 15 days away. The deadline for early entrants that haven't signed with an agent to pull out of the draft is next Monday, all of five days away.

But how much have you read about the Draft - which prospects could go where, potential trades on draft night, who is hurting/helping their stock with workouts - over the last few weeks?

Seriously, go through the archives of your favorite basketball blogs and major media outlets. How much has been written about the Draft?

Not a lot. Why?

A big reason is that this college basketball off-season has turned into a season of the OC. And I'm not talking about the first or second seasons, that were at worst watchable and at best awesome. I'm talking about the fourth season, when Marissa had been killed off and Cohen had become played out and predictable.

All kidding aside, can you remember an off-season with anywhere close to this much drama?

It started while the NCAA Tournament was still going on, when Yahoo! Sports released a report accusing UConn and hall-of-fame head coach Jim Calhoun of pretty serious recruiting violations. The report stated that, among other things, the Huskies had well surpassed the allowed number of phone calls while recruiting Nate Miles and that they knowingly used former student manager and (aspiring?) NBA agent Josh Nochimson as a go-between for Miles and Ater Majok.

A hall of famer that coaches a team that has won two titles in the last decade (and reached this season's Final Four) being accused of major recruiting violations is a big deal, and usually would be enough to keep the college hoops world talking through October.

But this year, we were just getting started.

The next saga to play out was in the state of Kentucky, where Billy Gillispie failed to get the Wildcats into the NCAA Tournament a year after being bounced in the first round. Of course, this was unacceptable in Big Blue Nation. After much speculation, Gillispie was fired by the university, but not before he was infamously chased through the UK basketball offices by a reporter.

That wouldn't be the end of Gillispie, as he sued Kentucky for $6 million for breach of contract. Kentucky counter-sued because, among other reasons, Gillispie never in fact signed a contract.

With arguably the best job in all of college basketball available, rumors began flying as to who would replace Gillispie in Lexington. It was fitting that Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart would choose John Calipari, the very man he passed over for Gillispie two years ago because of the "baggage" that Coach Cal carried (food for thought for you Kentucky fans singing Coach Cal's praises. Say Barnhart gave Cal the job in 2007 instead of Gillispie, and Cal was able to bring Derrick Rose with him to Kentucky. All this talk of NCAA sanctions would be involving your school instead of Memphis. Good decision by Barnhart? But I digress).

Cal's first order of business? Dismantle his loaded recruiting class at Memphis and redirect them to Lexington, where he has managed to put together the most talented team in the country. In his wake, however, he left Memphis a program without a star player or a legitimate head coaching candidate.

Perhaps the strangest storyline of this off-season was how much trouble Memphis and Arizona had filling their head coaching vacancies. Memphis was reportedly interested in, well, everyone - from Baylor's Scott Drew, to Missouri's Mike Anderson, to USC's Tim Floyd, and everyone in between - before finally settling on up-and-comer Josh Pastner. Arizona was rebuked by a number of candidates, including Pitt's Jamie Dixon and USC's Tim Floyd (yes, Arizona was desperate enough to offer the job to Tim Floyd, more on him in a bit), before they inked Xavier's Sean Miller ... after Miller initially rejected their offer.

Back to Cal, the most important by-product of his move to Kentucky was that, for the second time in his coaching career, he left a school with a slew of NCAA allegations hanging over their head.

Those NCAA allegations were, and still are, quite a story all by themselves. First, news broke that Derrick Rose may have been ineligible for the 2007-08 season. Why? Because someone else allegedly took his SAT's for him. Then, word came out that Rose may have had his grades changed when he was in high school. Specifically, he had a D changed to a C on the transcripts that were sent to colleges.

Of course, Coach Cal knew nothing about it (which, for you cynics, may have actually been true).

Then, word gets out that not only was Robert Dozier not allowed in Georgia because of his SAT's (apparently, after scoring a 1260 on his first test, Dozier's score was flagged, and he scored a 720 on the next attempt), but Doneal Mack was not allowed into Florida because of questions involving his SAT scores.

Could anyone on that Memphis team even spell Final Four?

Coach Cal wasn't the only coach in bluegrass country to make a splash in the national headlines. You can't forget about Rick Pitino, who called the FBI on Karen Sypher, the estranged wife of a former Pitino colleague, after she attempted to extort him out of $10 million. She was interviewed by a local TV news station, but her claims were so incredible (and, apparently, unbelievable) that journalistic integrity said they could not report them until the claims could be verified.

I would love to know what Sypher claims happened. She has since been indicted on extortion charges.

And then we have Tim Floyd. Not three months ago, Tim Floyd was living the dream. After reaching the second round of the tournament (his third straight trip to the dance), Floyd had a roster full of talent set to return and a great recruiting class set to come in.

But then everything started to unravel. First, Renardo Sidney was denied entrance into USC for a multitude of reasons, the majority of which involve Sidney possibly being ineligible for college hoops. He eventually signed with Rick Stansbury at Mississippi State.

Then, came the bombshell - Yahoo! Sports confirmed that Louis Johnson, a former associate of Guillory and Mayo, said, under oath nonetheless, that he saw Floyd hand Guillory an envelope full of benjamins. The players must have known that this was coming, because even before the May 12th article was posted online, USC was hemorraging players. Daniel Hackett, Demar Derozan, Taj Gibson (who hasn't hired an agent, but is almost guaranteed to stay in the draft at this point), and Marcus Johnson all went pro. Noel Johnson, Lamont Jones, and Solomon Hill all withdrew from their commitments/LOI's to USC.

Things were so bad at USC, that Floyd was looking at possibly having to start Percy Miller, aka Lil' Romeo, who had come to USC as a package deal to land Derozan as an under the radar prospect.

And yesterday, the icing on the cake. Floyd stepped down as head coach at USC, leaving the school, in mid-June, without a head coach and with a roster that is half-full. It may be a while before we see USC back in the dance.

I still haven't mentioned stories like Isiah Thomas' hiring at FIU, the Jeremy Tyler-Nick Calathes-Terrence Oglesby trek abroad, the fact that Lance Stephenson - a top 10 recruit, a program changing talent, and a kid that went toe-to-toe with OJ Mayo as a HS freshman - has still yet to find a program that is willing to take on his baggage, or the spat that Paul Hewitt and Steve Cohen had over the NBA's age limit.

And everyone thought Brandon Jennings going to Europe was a big deal last summer.




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Tim Floyd reactions from around the intrawebs

By now, you've probably heard: Tim Floyd has stepped down as the head coach of the USC Trojans. Here is what the best have to say about it:

• Gary Parrish of CBSSports: Mayo had bounced around in high school. He was tied to a noted "runner" named Rodney Guillory. He had been a big part of a corrupt summer scene for years. And yet Floyd still took him, still put him on scholarship and welcomed him to campus. Two years later, Floyd's career is effectively over, his name forever tainted by allegations that he, among other things, once gave Guillory a stack of $100 bills on a street corner in Beverly Hills. When that allegation broke, some questioned whether Floyd was stupid enough to deal that way because in this business it's usually the assistants whose fingers get dirty. But I never accepted that logic as a defense, because one thing I had always been told about Floyd is that he was incredibly private and determined to not let others know what he was doing, regardless of what he was doing.

• Dana O'Neil of ESPN: Simple answer? Good old-fashioned hubris. For Floyd and anyone even remotely associated with the USC basketball team to think the NCAA wasn't paying attention to their every move in the wake of the Reggie Bush scandal and the hoops' team decision to bring in Mayo (basketball's version of Bush) is either plain foolish or plain arrogant. I'll take the latter. I'm not naive enough to think college basketball is clean and pure, but at least you have to give most of the rulebreakers some props -- they're clever rule maniuplators or masters of plausible deniability. Yet reportedly Floyd was standing on a street corner in Los Angeles forking over some money to an agent's runner. Not since Hugh Grant made a late-night deal has such a stupid exchange been transacted in LA.


• Andy Katz of ESPN: How much will the NCAA look at Floyd's resignation as a sacrificial lamb in the wake of a major investigation that involves football and basketball? Was this move pushed by USC so that whenever it is in front of the committee on infractions it can show that it took corrective action to avoid a charge of lack of institutional control?


• Jeff Goodman of FOXSports: Now starting for USC, Percy "Lil' Romeo" Miller. Nope, this isn't a movie or even a music video. It could be the reality next year facing the USC Trojans. USC basketball won't just return to obscurity. The Trojans program is headed for a virtual free-fall where fans will yearn for the days of mediocrity when Henry Bibby was running the show. Indiana secured Tom Crean despite the sanctions left over from the Kelvin Sampson phone call mess. Arizona struggled to lure a big-name coach and eventually settled on Sean Miller even after the Lute Olson saga and two seasons without any legitimate recruits. But those programs have tradition. They have won national championships and been to multiple Final Fours. USC has nothing.


• Rush The Court: Instead of Floyd’s lasting legacy at USC becoming a deep tournament run led by OJ Mayo and his SuperFriends, it will now instead be sullied ruminations of the urchin Rodney Guillory and a stack of benjamins handed over on a corner in Beverly Hills, just another soulless transaction like so many others on LA street corners in a given day. But if you think about the whole sordid affair, who ever believed that Mayo, a kid who had never expressed a bit of interest in the Pac-10 throughout his prep career, suddenly became enamored with the City of Angels without so much as a recruiting visit? Who out there bought into that yarn that Floyd often related about Guillory showing up at his office one day ‘offering’ Mayo, and letting the coach know that ‘ OJ will call you,’ not the other way around? The whole thing was farked from the get-go, and anyone with any sensibility about how this sport works knew it.


• TheRiot from Rumors and Rants: Up to this point, neither USC nor Floyd had commented on the investigation. They still haven’t. Floyd doesn’t need to. When a coach resigns after very serious allegations have been thrown his way, it really doesn’t leave much room for debate, does it? It might as well be a guilty plea, regardless of what he did or didn’t do. Sure, Floyd could have just been burned out on the job. But is that possible for a basketball lifer? It’s more likely the athletic department realized what kind of shit Floyd had gotten the program into and gave him a chance to slide out of town.


• Chris DuFrense of the LA Times: The sad part is Floyd is a decent guy and good tactician and, in a very short time, became arguably the most successful basketball coach in school history -- leading the Trojans to an unprecedented (for them) three straight NCAA tournaments. And here comes the almost comical question: Who wants to coach USC basketball? The new hire will inherit the specter of NCAA sanctions that could kick USC to the closet for years. Even if the NCAA exonerates USC's basketball program, the next guy inherits . . . what?


• Eamonn Brennan of The Dagger: One week after Floyd passionately (and hilariously) came out against one of his players declaring for the draft and two months after he rebuffed Arizona's coaching advances because he said he wanted to build his own traditions at USC, we're supposed to believe that he can't muster the enthusiasm to coach? Floyd is many things, but dispassionate isn't one of them. Now he, and USC, expect the college basketball world to think that this resignation is about apathy and not about the explosive allegations that were reported by Yahoo! Sports last month? Oh, come on. Contrary to the old adage, things are almost always what they seem in college basketball. Indiana learned that when they hired Kelvin Sampson. Memphis is getting that lesson right now, as they deal with fallout from John Calipari's seemingly-lawless reign at the school. And now USC has realized that the things that seemed too good to be true (like O.J. Mayo recruiting himself to the school) were, indeed, too good to be true.

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Tim Floyd resigns as head coach of USC

Reports are flying from every major news outlet that Tim Floyd, the head coach of the USC Trojans, has resigned.

The Clarion (Mississippi) Ledger was the first to report it, as they were able to obtain a letter from Floyd to USC athletic director Mike Garrett which read:

As of 1 p.m. today, I am resigning as head basketball coach at the University of Southern California. I deeply appreciate the opportunity afforded me by the university, as well as the chance to know and work with some of the finest young men in college athletics. Unfortunately, I no longer feel I can offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal. I always promised my self and my family that if I ever felt I could no longer give my full enthusiasm to a job, that I should leave it to others who could. I intend to contact my coaching staff and my players in coming days and weeks to tell them how much each of them means to me. I wish the best to USC and to my successor.

In his four years at the helm of the Trojans, Floyd went 85-50, reaching the NCAA Tournament the last three seasons. But ever since Yahoo! Sports reported on May 12th that Floyd had paid Ronald Guillory, a runner for the Bill Duffy Associates sports agency and a known associate of OJ Mayo, everything Floyd had built has slowly begun to disintegrate.

First, Daniel Hackett, Demar Derozan, Taj Gibson (Gibson can still return to the Trojans as he has yet to sign with an agent), and later on Marcus Johnson all declared for the NBA Draft. Then, Floyd's recruiting class started falling apart: Solomon Hill decided to go to Arizona, Noel Johnson backed out of his commitment, and Renardo Sidney was not allowed into USC.

We will be following this story as more information comes out, but according to FOXSports, neither Taj Gibson nor the USC coaching staff knows anything about Floyd's decision.

To be completely honest, I really hope that Floyd was fired (UPDATE: The Dagger believes that Floyd was fired/forced to resign). He got himself into this mess by allowing OJ Mayo and his handler's to take advantage of the situation. Now there is this shitstorm brewing around his program, and this shitstorm is only aiding in the decision of some very good college hoopers to avoid USC like the plague. For him to walk away right now and leave USC - the players, the fans, the administrators - in the lurch is cowardly.

You, coach Floyd, brought this on the program. Not the guy that will be brought in to replace you. Not the players still left on the team. Not the fans who started to believe that the Trojans could be a basketball school. Not any future recruit that will have to deal with any NCAA sanctions handed down.

You should be riding this out with your team and your university.

How does the saying go? The Captain always goes down with the ship?

Terrible analogy aside, Tim Floyd hopped on the first life boat, and left the rest of his crew on the USC ship to drown.

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BREAKING: Tim Floyd paid Ronald Guillory

If Guillory's name sounds familiar, it should. He was the runner that got OJ Mayo and USC in the news prior to the 2008 NBA Draft. Apparently, Louis Johnson (the former Mayo confidant turned media-snitch that spawned the entire investigation) saw Floyd hand Guillory an envelope with "a grand" in it.

From Yahoo! Sports (the same outlet that broke the UConn recruiting scandal):

On Feb. 14, 2007, Johnson and Guillory packed up Guillory’s black Infiniti SUV and were preparing for the drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to attend the NBA All-Star weekend. Before they left, Guillory informed Johnson several times that he had to meet with Floyd so the coach could give him cash for the trip. Sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Guillory and Johnson headed toward Beverly Hills to meet with Floyd. During the drive, Johnson listened as Guillory and Floyd exchanged several cell phone calls as Floyd explained where the meeting would take place.

Upon arriving in Beverly Hills, Guillory pulled up to a stretch of cafes in the downtown shopping district, where Floyd was waiting on the sidewalk. Because there were no parking spaces, Guillory asked Johnson to circle the block in the SUV until Guillory was ready to be picked up. Johnson exited the passenger side of the vehicle, at which point Johnson saw Floyd and the two exchanged greetings. Johnson then got into the driver’s seat and proceeded to circle the block while Guillory and Floyd met.

After approximately 15 minutes, Johnson saw Guillory waiting on the curb in front of the stretch of cafes and pulled over to pick him up. Once Guillory was inside the vehicle, he produced a white envelope with cash inside. Guillory told Johnson that Floyd had given him “a grand,” and Johnson was able to view $100 bills inside the envelope. He said he believed there appeared to be “substantially” more than $1,000, although he did not count the bills.

My initial reaction to seeing this article: no wonder Taj Gibson, Daniel Hackett, and Demar Derozan left school; and no wonder USC did not allow Renardo Sidney to sign an LOI. They had to have known that this was on the horizon.

Improper benefits in college basketball and college football is akin to steroids in baseball - everyone knows it is happening, but no one is truly willing (or able) to do anything about it.

To be honest, I couldn't care less. I personally believe that these athletes should be getting paid by the universities. I've written about it numerous times, but these kids (especially the stars at the big universities) generate a ridiculous amount of revenue for their respective universities. And what do they get in return? A scholarship for an education which will be largely useless to them.

For the majority of the kids playing D1 basketball, they are going to school because they want to be professional basketball players. While this is will only work out for a select few, it does not mean that the rest of the kids looking to further their "basketball education" cannot find a way to make a living off of the game. Be it as a coach, an announcer, a writer, a front office guy, a scout, a trainer (physical or skills wise), a ref, a player's assistant, a money manager, an agent, a runner for an agent (only half kidding here), there are a million ways to make money in the sports industry that does not actually involve playing the game.

Not everyone that goes to med school ends up being a neurosurgeon. It doesn't mean that they should find a different career because they may end up as a career nurse.

So if OJ Mayo, or any other player, pocketed some extra cash as a result of his talents, I don't see anything wrong with this.

You want to end all of this corruption? You want to get rid of this "black market" in college sports? Pay the kids that generate the money.
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Maybe Tim Floyd should have taken the Arizona job

About a month ago, USC looked like they had the makings of a Final Four contender. They were returning basically everyone from a team that had overcome an injury-filled season to win the Pac-10 tournament and give Michigan State all they could handle in the second round of the dance.

I mean, look at this starting line-up - Taj Gibson, Renardo Sidney, Demar Derozan, Daniel Hackett, and Dwight Lewis.

No wonder Tim Floyd decided to pass on the Arizona job. During the press conference in which he announced his intentions to stay with the Trojans, Floyd said

But there is something really special about building your own traditions, your own histories and doing it with a group of guys that you love. ... I have never been more excited to be a Trojan.

Those days must seem like so long ago.

First, Gibson, Derozan, and Hackett all declared for the Draft, and all three have signed with (or have every intention of signing with) an agent. Now, Sidney, who is a five-star recruit (#16 by Rivals, #7 by Scout), has backed out of his verbal commitment to the Trojans. From the LA Times:

the source close to the Sidney family said school officials expressed concern about signing the player while an NCAA investigation into former USC stars Reggie Bush, a Heisman Trophy winner in football, and O.J. Mayo, a first-round NBA pick last year, was still open.

Sidney's father, Renardo Sr., "didn't want his son to be the scapegoat for those allegations," the source said without elaborating why that could happen. "Neither side wanted an impending investigation hanging over them."

Renardo Sidney looks to be headed to the SEC.
(photo credit: LA Times)

Sidney's recruitment has had a number of these snags. Sidney transferred to Fairfax High in LA three years from Mississippi, and for a time it looked like UCLA was the favorite to land the 6'11" big man. But two days before he was to announce his college decision, UCLA unexpectedly dropped out of the chase. Most speculated that it was because he had not yet received an SAT score that would allow him to be eligible.

Now it seems as if Sidney is all but going to Mississippi State. While it is obvious that Sidney is a talented young man, is he going to be worth the risk? In a word, yes. The Bulldogs return basically everyone from a team that made a run to the SEC tourney title, and teaming Sidney with Jarvis Varnado (assuming he pulls his name out of the draft) gives MSU arguably the best front line in the conference.
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Coaching Carousel

Is it just me, or is there an unusually high number of famous coaches and big-time programs involved this year?

Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, Memphis, Arizona.

Calipari, Pitino, Floyd, Capel, Few, Fox, Pearl.

And I'm sure we are just getting started.

The newest rumors circled today around Tim Floyd and Arizona. Many outlets were reporting that Floyd had, in fact, accepted an offer from Arizona to "replace" Lute Olson. Yes, he went and visited with Jim Livengood in Tucson on Wednesday (and apparently also toyed with the idea of going to Memphis), but Thursday afternoon he squashed those rumors by announcing that he would remain a Trojan.

It was probably a good decision. Arizona is going to be going through a major rebuilding process (especially if Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger decide to go pro). It is more than likely that Memphis will be doing the same thing, but in C-USA, not the Pac-10.

Assuming that no one leaves school early (which is a huge leap of faith - Demar Derozan, Taj Gibson, and Daniel Hackett all could end up in the Draft), USC looks like they could be a Final Four contender. In addition to the three players I mentioned, USC also returns, well, everyone from a team that won the Pac-10 tournament and gave Michigan State everything they could handle in the second round of the dance.

Did I mention they also add 5 star recruit Renardo Sidney to the mix?

Floyd has had some excellent success recruiting at USC, and if he can ever manage to keep one of his McDonald's all-americans for more than a year, Floyd has a chance to actually build a program. It is not often that a coach has an opportunity to create a legacy for himself. At Memphis and Arizona, he would be replacing legends, and thus would be burdened with expectations and pressures that are going to be near impossible to live up to while these teams are rebuilding.

It also isn't too hard to read into Floyd's desire to make himself a legend much the way that Olson did at Arizona. Take a look at this quote the press conference:

"But there is something really special about building your own traditions, your own histories and doing it with a group of guys that you love. ... I have never been more excited to be a Trojan."

Pay raise and school prestige aside, Floyd made the right choice.

But that was far from the only coaching news to come out today. Friday morning, Georgia will announce that they have hired Nevada's Mark Fox as their new basketball coach. Great hire, as Fox has flown under the radar for a while. Nevada has been one of the most consistent mid-majors (is a school in the WAC a mid-major?) this decade.

He also has a knack for landing top-tier talent. If he can get guys like Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions, Kirk Snyder (ok, maybe a bad example), and Luke Babbitt to play in Nevada, imagine what he can do coaching at a school that plays in the SEC and is smack in the middle of the talent-laden south.

Not done yet.

Bruce Pearl was one of the guys everyone mentioned when talking about the openings at Memphis and Arizona. But Pearl and Tennessee were able to renegotiate his contract, agreeing to terms on a six-year deal. Again, probably a good decision. Assuming Tyler Smith doesn't go pro, Tennessee returns as much talent as anyone in the country.

Brad Stevens, another young stud on the coaching circuit, has inked a deal with Butler that will keep him in Indianapolis through 2016.

There were even reports that Jamie Dixon, who is from California and whose wife is a USC grad, was considering the would-be opening at USC if Floyd had left.

And I still haven't mentioned the possibility of Jim Calhoun leaving UConn after this season.

So why are there so many big name schools looking for coaches to change zip codes?

Short answer - it is just one of those years. Kentucky is one of the top five coaching gigs in the country. Arizona is top ten. When those schools have an opening, you listen.

Long answer - coaching changes are becoming the trend in sports. It is becoming a more and more cutthroat industry. If you don't win immediately, your job is going to be on the line. And the pressure is only turned up with the deep pockets of the team's boosters and overzealous fan-bases asking "what have you done for me lately".

I mean, look at some of the firings. Billy Gillispie I understand. Not only was he losing games, but he was losing the respect of the fans, the school's administrators, the media, and, most importantly, his players.

Dave Leitao's firing at UVA was probably deserved as well. Other than a freak season where he won a share of the ACC crown (when UNC and Duke were way down) led by two stud guards in Sean Singletary and JR Reynolds, Leitao's tenure in Charlottesville was nothing short of, well, bad.

But Dennis Felton being fired at Georgia? The guy took his team on what was probably the greatest conference tournament game of all time (he won two games in one day!) a year before being canned midway through this season. Remember, this is a Georgia program that was essentially stripped bare by Jim Harrick. But hey, if you coach in Georgia and can't recruit Georgia, you're probably screwed.

And I thought that writing was a tough profession to get into.
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