USC Basketball

There is an ominous sound being heard by the PAC-10 opponents of USC.

Orchestrated by Mike Gerrity, the recently eligible point guard who is making the Trojans his third stop, that sound is beginning to reach crescendo level.

For UNLV, who came in with a sterling 12-1 record, they just want the noise to stop.

Led by Marcus Johnson's 19 points and 9 rebounds, USC throttled the running rebels 67-56 to win the inaugural Diamond Head Classic on Christmas day.

Mike Gerrity, who scored 13 points and played all 40 minutes, was named tournament MVP.

And well he should.

Mike Gerrity's handling of the ball and court leadership was the difference between the Trojans victory and victimization against what is typically a stifling UNLV defense.

The senior point guard repeatedly broke the running rebel defense which had been so stout in other victories, including quality wins against Arizona and Louisville.

None of that mattered to Gerrity, who simply dribbled around, through, and sometimes over a rebel defense that hadn't seen much of anything like the athletic Trojans.

USC trailed 3-1 early in the game but after that, never looked back, leading by as many as 21 points at one point in the game.

For the Trojans, their next game will open PAC-10 play against Arizona.

In the meantime, the Trojans will savor this tournament.

What is becoming abundantly obvious is that with Mike Gerrity leading the team, the Trojans are a different breed of cat.

Gerrity brings a calm leadership to the Trojans that makes those around him better players.

In Gerrity, the Trojans have a floor leader who doesn't panic and always looks for an open man.

And the Trojans have responded by by beating their second top twenty team in the last four games, including a then No. 8 Tennessee by 22 points at the Galen center a week or so ago.

Meanwhile, Marcus Johnson stepped up his game with those 19 points and 9 boards.

In addition, Johnson was a defensive beast, forcing UNLV into bad shots and hawking the ball with intensity.

Dwight Lewis chipped in 13 points.

Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic, usually point and rebound leaders for the Trojans, both had quiet games.

However, the fact that USC could overcome the off games of Stepheson and Vucevic to win this game in such convincing fashion is a testament to the Trojans versatility under Gerrity.

There are some cautionary notes to be sounded though.

In the long run, bench depth beyond Leonard Washington must be developed.

Washington came in to give the Trojans a boost off the bench with 9 points and Marcus Simmons offered his usual stalwart defense but that was it for the reserves.

A seven man rotation may not hold up for the whole season, so some minutes must be found elsewhere.

Also, free throw shooting for the Trojans was abysmal in this game.

59% (22-37) from the charity stripe will not cut it in the long run so expect coach Kevin O'Neill to make this a focus in the practices to come.

Having said all that, Kevin O'Neill must be very pleased with the progress of the Trojans who now stand at 8-4.

And the rest of the PAC-10 might want to look for some ear plugs to stop all that noise.

Don't look now, but some strange things are going on in Trojanland.

USC, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the PAC-10, have found new life under first-year head coach Kevin O'Neill and an influx of new players.

The Trojans, who saw former head coach Tim Floyd resign under a cloud of NCAA suspicions that he violated a myriad of rules, also lost the bulk of their starting five from last year with Demar DeRozan and Taj Gibson both landing in the NBA.

As such, expectations for the Trojans were understandably low for the upcoming season. In Los Angeles, laser-like focus remained on the UCLA Bruins, just like in so many past college basketball seasons.

College basketball experts took a look at the Trojans and stifled a collective yawn, with nary a positive thing to say.

So much for the experts and their opinions.

Though it is very early in the season, the Trojans are making noise.

And lots of it.

With yesterday's 60-49 win over St. Mary's, a team that was expected to challenge Gonzaga in the WCC and who came in with a sterling 10-1 record, the Trojans have served notice that they don't intend on being any one's patsy this year.

The win marked the third straight since the arrival of point guard Mike Gerrity who led the Trojans with 17 points.

Previously, in his first start for the Trojans after being cleared to play by the NCAA, Gerrity led the Trojans to a rout over then No. 9 Tennessee at the Galen center.

While the play of Gerrity has been a huge lift for the Trojans, he is by no means the only transfer that has made an impact for USC.

Alex Stepheson, a local player who went to play for North Carolina, sat out last year and was finally cleared to play this year for the Trojans.

Stepheson's return has reminded everyone why he was such a hot commodity coming out of high school, averaging 12 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Meanwhile, forward Nikola Vucevic continued his strong play both inside and out.

Vucevic scored 15 points and led the Trojans with seven boards against St. Mary's.

Although USC's only returning starter from last year, Dwight Lewis, has been inconsistent, he has the talent to go for 25 points on any given night.

The other returning starter, Marcus Johnson, who was granted another year of eligibility after transferring from Connecticut, is a fabulous athlete and a lock down defender.

But that's not all for the upstart Trojans.

Leonard Washington, a versatile forward who has had trouble staying on the court due to injuries and academic issues, returned yesterday and had 10 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes against the Gaels.

All of this portends very good things for the Trojans, who have made those same experts that discounted them at the start of the season sit up and take notice now at their resurgence.

And much of the credit must go to first-year coach Kevin O'Neill.

O'Neill, who walked into a minefield when he took over for Tim Floyd, was not a popular hire.

Given the circumstances surrounding the departure of Floyd and the loss of so much talent, the thought around southern California was that O'Neill simply took a job that no one else wanted.

That may be true, but there is no doubt that O'Neill has already left his imprint on the Trojans. They have responded to his coaching with a stifling defense, and just enough offense to make the future look very bright for the rest of the year.

In fact, a college basketball expert at ESPN has recently projected the lowly Trojans, so disparaged at the beginning of the year, to finish fourth in the PAC-10 and make the NCAA tournament.

Tomorrow, the Trojans take on Nevada Las Vegas for the Hawaii Rainbow Classic title and, if successful, will continue their resurgence.

Either way, USC has already exceeded most expectations for this year.

Something special brewing in Trojanland?

Indeed.

In what will clearly be considered the dividing point of the USC season, the arrival of unheralded Mike Gerrity before the Tennessee game has led to a 2-0 “A.G.” (After Gerrity) record for the Trojans after a gutsy win over Western Michigan which featured a double-digit, second-half comeback, led by the aforementioned senior point guard. 

USC has shown to be a different team with a floor leader who can both handle the ball and is a threat to opposing defenses with his break-down-his-defender-and-get-into-the-lane skills.

After what would have to be one of the top-five, all-time worst offseasons in NCAA history, that not only had the Trojans lose maybe their best coach ever (Tim Floyd), but also their strongest captain in recent history (Daniel Hackett), their best inside presence in recent history (Taj Gibson to the NBA’s Bulls), and their best pure scorer (DeMar DeRozan to the NBA’s Raptors).

They also had recruits fleeing USC for greener, potentially non-NCAA-sactioned pastures, including three players in ESPN’s Top-100 recruits, USC has apparently found its life preserver in Gerrity, after floating aimlessly to an early 4-4 record, with zero good wins and an RPI below 250.

Although new USC coach Kevin O’Neill and most USC-faithful owe Donte Smith a debt of thanks after how he had been previously treated by the former coaching staff, it was very apparent that Smith was not a Division I-level point guard and USC suffered horribly the first eight games with him at the point, sporting an assist-to-turnover ratio on the bad side of 1:1, where a good NCAA ratio hovers around 2.5:1. 

It was becoming very easy for USC’s opponents to just pressure Smith consistently, which led to too many easy baskets and with no real backup for Smith, USC was at the mercy of the opposing defenses and were actually lucky to stumble their way to a 4-4 record.

Then, before the Tennessee game, USC received word from the NCAA that unheralded point guard Mike Gerrity would be eligible for the Tennessee game, and for the rest of the season.  This news was surely music to the ears of the USC staff, but to the fans, this was just another piece of neutral news amid a season of below-average results. 

Gerrity by no means cut an imposing figure on the sidelines, and his under-six-foot frame and receding hairline made him look much more like an average, everyday, walk-on than the sparkplug and commander the Trojans so sorely needed.  While it seemed worth a try to throw anyone in at the point other than Smith, expectations for Gerrity had to certainly be moderate at best.

With a 40-point blowout at the hands of the ball-hawking, tenacious, and superiorly-talented, Volunteers surely imminent, Gerrity instead used his cool and collected ball-handling and ultra-quick dribble-drives to break down the startled Tennessee squad to a surprisingly easy blowout win where USC won going away over the No. 9-ranked Vols. 

It was USC’s most-shocking win in years and resuscitated the slumbering program, and got the Pac-10 its first win over a Top-50 rated RPI team after starting off 0-19 cumulatively vs. the RPI Top-50 this year.

It was certainly eye-opening for Tennessee and got the attention of the national media at the same time.  It even had ESPN commentator and Dukie, Jay Willaims (formerly Jayson), saying that USC could easily finish fourth in the Pac-10, which is quite a step up from the ninth-place finish that was predicted in the preseason by the Pac-10 coach’s vote. 

Gerrity is the sole reason for the turnaround from Season Of Doom to Season Of Hope for USC. 

Much like a football team that has no skill at QB and can be easily defended because there is no threat of any downfield passing game, USC went from a team that could be forced into dozens of turnovers per game.

They became a team that could actually dictate the pace of the game themselves, from using Gerrity’s speed and decision-making in the transition game to a competent half-court game where Gerrity can create shots for others by breaking down his defender, getting in the lane, and drawing defenders to him. 

USC had neither of these threats in the first 8 games and their offense struggled mightily with no real identity at all.

The arrival of Gerrity has moved Smith to a role where he can contribute much more productively and where he can play on a wing, taking the occasional open 3-point shot, while taking away the stress of just trying to get the ball past half-court each possession. 

Once Gerrity starts to take and hit the open 3-pointer, USC should be able to develop a decent half-court offense, which they heavily lacked against Western Michigan due to USC’s dearth of players who can create their own shot. 

Western Michigan packed in their defense and pretty much took away USC two best half-court players, inside threats Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson, forcing USC to shoot from the outside or try to drive to the basket, both of which they were incapable of doing on their way to an 18-point first half and 9-point deficit.

In the second half, USC was able to open the game up a bit and get some easy baskets, but were also buoyed by Gerrity’s 15 second-half points and a few outside shots made by Lewis, Smith, and Gerrity, which also forced Western Michigan out a bit on defense and opened up the middle for USC’s slashers and big men. 

For the time being, there is optimism in the Galen Center, where a cloud has been lingering for the last six months or so, as the arrival of Gerrity has turned USC’s probable eight- or nine-win season into a season that could see USC above .500 or even better.  Jay Williams’ prediction of a fourth-place Pac-10 finish is certainly a long-shot, but just a week ago, in a pre-Gerrity world, it would have been an impossibility.

What do an NBA team and a college basketball squad have in common? They don’t show up to finish a game.

The LA Lakers have unfortunately taken a page out of the USC book over the past week, allowing their opponents to do whatever they want in the second half.

The Lakers had the same problem in games with the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets over the weekend.  Then, last night, it almost happened again in a game at the Staples Center with the Detroit Pistons.

In all three games, the Lakers' second half defense resembled the basketball version of the USC Trojans.  All three opponents were able to score at will.

On Friday, in the second of back-to-back games, the Lakers offense managed just 23 total, second half points as Denver crushed them 105-79.  Coming out of the break, the Lakers only scored eight points, probably their lowest quarter in history.

On Sunday, it was deja vu as the Rockets and Aaron Brooks blew into the Staples Center and handed the Lakers a 101-91 defeat.  

Again, the Lakers were dismal in the second half, scoring just 37 points.

In both of those games, the bench was virtually nonexistent at both ends of the court. They were outmatched and outscored by both the Nuggets’ and the Rockets’ reserves.

Kobe Bryant played through both games with a painful groin pull and put up 19 and 18 points respectively, which is a low-scoring game by his usual standards.

Last night, the groin was feeling a little better, and he scored 40 points against the Pistons.  But the bench once again nearly blew a 25-point lead.

With the Lakers up 88-63 going into the final quarter, Phil Jackson called upon his reserves to hold the lead so Bryant and the rest of his starters could relax.

Not so.

Andrew Bynum had to return at the 10-minute mark to replace D.J. Mbenga, as the Pistons were grabbing offensive rebounds and getting second chance points off of slam dunks.

With the lead down to 15 and the Lakers in foul trouble, Kobe Bryant was forced to re-enter the game at the eight-minute mark. 

The Pistons whittled the lead down to seven points, 98-91.  That forced Lamar Odom to return.

With the three starters—Bryant, Bynum and Odom—on the court, the Lakers secured a 106-93 win.

But it wasn’t easy. 

All three were winnable games.  Yet the Lakers, particularly their bench, lost two of those games.  And these games in November count just as much in the final standings as the ones in March.

Everyone is pointing to the fact that Pau Gasol has missed all 11 Lakers’ games.  Things, of course, will change with Gasol starting and Odom coming off the bench.  Odom makes the bench stronger.

However, all teams have to deal with injuries in an 82-game stretch.  The Lakers didn’t need Gasol on the court to beat the Nuggets and the Rockets.  They just needed some extra effort and some heads-up play.

Bryant, as tough as he is, can’t do it all.  

The Lakers have a dominant center in Andrew Bynum.  If they work the ball into Bynum more and don’t settle for so many of these one-and-done jumpers, they can win games that they otherwise might lose.

In Denver, Josh Powell went 1-for-5, Shannon Brown 1-for-8, Adam Morrison 1-for-5, Sasha Vujacic 0-for-4.  Meanwhile, Bynum, the forgotten man, was 8-for-13.  

Many more games like that, and the Lakers’ season could be as huge a disappointment as the one the Trojans are having.

Let’s hope not.

Today USC hired Kevin O'Neal, who has had mixed sucess at his five head coaching stops.

This announcement came after USC stated they were going to hire a high profile coach. While O'Neal is a decent coach, he is certainly not high profile. He hasn't held a job for more than five years and has had mediocre results.

This has been a let down for me, as I hoped that USC would make a big name signing and rise to national prominence, creating an even more competitive Pac 10, which is one of the most entertaining conferences in basketball.

But aside from whether O'Neal is high profile or not, is he the right hire for USC?

I say no.

His college resume includes a great run at Marquette during his first coaching stop, getting two twenty win seasons. He also had stops at Tennessee and Northwestern that were subpar, and replaced Lute Olsen for one season at Arizona, earning his only NCAA berth and a first round exit.

Then there was the NBA tenure with the Raptors, in which he basically got every single player on the roster to stop hustling and finally gave Vince Carter a reason to leave Toronto.

So Kevin O'Neal is a hot-head with a losing record and one NCAA berth as an interim coach on a team that wasn't his, and he is your high profile hiring?

It seems like USC was talking a big game during the interview process, but when it came down to backing it up, they just couldn't shell out the money for the big names.

They would have been better off signing a no name coach than the absolute failure Kevin O'Neal is.

Only a few days away from the NBA Draft, Pac-10 Division I men's basketball stalwarts USC and UCLA are staggering. Both are about to have their starting lineups damaged for the second season in a row. Combined, USC and UCLA were the sources of three lottery picks in 2008 and are going to lose three more lottery pick players in 2009. 

Last year, UCLA lost All-American freshman center Kevin Love and starting NBA guard Russell Westbrook to the draft, along with defensive specialist forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. The NBA draft cost USC freshman guard sensation O.J. Mayo and freshman forward Davon Jefferson in 2008.  

As if that was not bad enough, UCLA senior All-American guard Darren Collison, Pac-10 All-Freshman Team guard Jrue Holiday, and USC's Pac-10 All-Freshman Team forward DeMar DeRozan have hired agents, which locks them into the 2009 NBA Draft. 

Aren't These Losses Bad Enough? Apparently Not

Adding insult to injury, USC's men's basketball coach Tim Floyd resigned under a cloud this past week. Floyd had been the only USC men's basketball coach to take his team to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament three consecutive years. The coach responsible for bringing O.J. Mayo to campus has been accused of paying off Mayo's AAU coach, Rodney Guillory. 

An NCAA investigation into the USC sports program regarding Mayo and NFL running back and USC alumnus Reggie Bush is ongoing. It appears that this investigation will result in some sort of disciplinary action for the USC basketball program.

Without its tournament-familiar head coach and with the potential for a ban, recruits are reversing Letters of Intent, and players are declaring for the 2009 NBA Draft.

Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and Second Team All-Pac-10 junior forward Taj Gibson, who has not signed an agent, is leaving early for the draft. Likewise, Second Team All-Pac-10 junior guard Daniel Hackett has entered the draft.

Forward Marcus Johnson, who averaged 3.1 ppg and 1.9 rpg over 12.3 mpg, also informed USC two weeks ago that he would be turning pro. Johnson, who missed games in 2008 because he changed schools, is turning pro despite receiving an extra year of eligibility late in May. 

6'7" forward recruit Derrick Williams from La Mirada has been released from his Letter of Intent, along with guard recruits Noel Johnson and Lamont Jones. For the 2009 recruiting class, only 6'6" Oaks Christian High School forward Evan Smith remains. Mater Dei's 2010 three-star point guard recruit Gary Franklin is also reportedly considering whether he may de-commit.

What About Those Graduating Seniors? 

UCLA is likewise preparing to suffer attrition among its starting five. Senior forward Josh Shipp and senior center Alfred Aboya have graduated, leaving some big shoes to fill. 

Shipp, the Pac-10's No. 12 career leading scorer, led the team in scoring with 14.5 ppg and a 50.4 percent field goal percentage.

Aboya, the bruising center from Cameroon and future self-proclaimed Presidential Candidate, blossomed as a senior. Figuring out how not to collect fouls, he was able to average 9.9 ppg and 6.3 rpg, shooting 54.2 percent from the field.

USC will also be losing senior forward Keith Wilkinson, who averaged 2.7 ppg and 2.5 rpg over 18.5 mpg over the 2008 season.

USC in Worse Shape

At this point, the fate of the USC men's basketball program is unknown. Assuming that the NCAA investigators come to a conclusion that gives USC the latitude to field a basketball team in 2009, the results will not be pretty.

Of the starting five, only junior point guard Dwight Lewis will be returning. His 2009 statistics were 14.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, and 2.3 apg, but also 2.5 turnovers per game. 

6'7" freshman forward Leonard Washington, who averaged 6.1 ppg and 4.2 rpg over 17.9 mpg, will also be called upon to fill the void. Alex Stepheson, the 6'9" forward transfer from UNC, who must now be questioning his decision, will also be able to plug a hole in the frontcourt. He averaged 4.3 ppg and 4.5 rpg in 14.5 mpg at UNC in 2006-07.  

USC's faithful can also pray that Marcus Johnson decides to return, but that is unlikely at this point. No one else on the roster can be considered to have put in meaningful minutes in 2008.

With no coach, no five-star recruits along the likes of Mayo or DeRozan matriculating, and the recruiting class decimated, it is quite possible that USC will join the Oregon schools in the Pac-10 cellar.

But UCLA Not Sanguine

UCLA's prospects are less bleak, beginning with the head coach. Not only do they have one, head coach Ben Howland is also proving to be the best coach in the Pac-10, and among the elite of Division I men's basketball. 

He has taken the Bruins to the Final Four for three of the past four years. His defense-minded style of play emphasizes super-athletic guards locking down the ball handler, wings and guards who jump passing lanes, and denial of access to the post. Offsetting the speed of the fast break points generated from UCLA's defense is Howland's trademark methodical half-court offense. 

As such, Howland has proven he can coach and recruit both elite high school talent and identify terrific recruits who are sleepers. At UCLA, he has also been able to make the most out of the role players who stayed for four years.

But none of that masks the fact that UCLA is losing four of its starting five, including its two NBA Draft lottery picks. The core of the rebuilding effort will have to be upperclassmen forwards Nikola Dragovic and James Keefe, along with guard Michael Roll. 

Dragovic, who stands at 6'9", averaged 9.4 ppg and 4.3 rpg over 24.1 mpg in 2009, fourth in Bruins scoring and second in rebounding. The 6'8" Keefe brought 3.0 ppg and 3.4 rpg over 14 mpg in 2009, unable to repeat his strong performance from the 2007 Regional Finals. 

In 2009, Roll finally emerged from perennially debilitating foot injuries. The sharpshooter put up 6.7 points with a 49.1 field goal percentage over 17.1 mpg.

Returning freshmen will also provide some base of support in the interior but will really be tested at the guard positions. 6'7" freshman forward Drew Gordon, who was invited to Team USA U19 trials, saw meaningful minutes in 2009. He was able to put up 3.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg over 10.8 mpg. 6'10" freshman center J'mison "Bobo" Morgan has yet to prove himself, with only 5.4 mpg in 2009.

2009 five-star SF and No. 12-ranked recruit Tyler Honeycutt, from Sylmar Senior High School, will likely see some playing time.

Ball-handling will be a tremendous area of risk for UCLA in 2009. Freshman guard Malcolm Lee will likely take over the point position for Darren Collison. In 2009 he averaged 3.2 ppg and 0.6 apg over 10.7 mpg. Freshman Jerime Anderson will also contribute, but he only saw 8.6 mpg in 2009, getting 2.3 ppg and 1.2 apg.

Overall, UCLA will be relying on upperclassman role players in the post, without a truly dominant big man to grab rebounds and box out larger and stronger forwards and centers. Inexperience will pervade the guard positions, where setting up the offense and turnovers may become troublesome.  

Ben Howland has his work cut out to repeat the performance of 2009, which included a 26-9 record overall and 13-5 record in the Pac-10, second to Washington.

In response to the railing he has taken in the media over the total demise of the men’s basketball program at USC, Athletic Director Mike Garrett along with Senior Vice President Todd Dickey made a video statement yesterday.

You can view it on the Trojans’ athletic site at USCTrojans.com.

If you don’t have the time or the inclination, I will recap it for you…

"..."

There! Satisfied?

Oh, you didn’t see a recap?

That’s because they didn’t say anything. Well, at least nothing new.

Garrett and Dickey simply commented that they could not comment on the on-going NCAA joint investigations of the Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo allegations. Unlike my good friends in the media who are clamoring for some news about the investigations, I have been okay with the "no comment" comments.

I can understand that. It is what it is—an investigation.

It would not be an investigation if news were leaked to the media prior to the investigation’s conclusion. Then it would be a circus.

But as I have been writing here at Bleacher Report this past week on the USC Basketball and Football Boards, I am asking—no, demanding—that Mike Garrett make a policy statement.

Not about anything that has happened in the past. Whatever the Bush people and the Mayo people have done is finished.

You cannot change what has happened. Hopefully the NCAA will get it right and let us all know at some point what exactly did happen.

However, what I want Mike Garrett to address is the future. What new policies with regards to student-athletes on scholarship are being instituted to insure situations like these do not arise again?

Garrett owes it to the athletes who are at USC now and their families, to recruits, to alumni, to fans, and yes, even to the media, to give some sort of inclination as to how the school plans to prevent repeats of these sort of actions.

He must come out and tell us what kind of checks and balances the university has instituted to guarantee that associations between professional sports representatives and the student-athletes and their families are quickly exposed.

He needs to announce that full financial disclosure from the families of every student-athlete on scholarship must be filed along with statements of support the families intend to give those student-athletes while in attendance. In addition, these statements must be updated each year that the student remains at the university.

In this way, if a student-athlete from a family with a combined income over $100,000 drives around in a Hummer, that is understandable. But if a student-athlete from a family barely making $40,000 a year with three or four children to support drives around in a Hummer and wears 24kt gold bling, then that need to be investigated.

One more thing Garrett needs to spell out is the fact that athletic scholarships will be considered formal contracts. Should a student-athlete and/or his family accept funds from any source in violation of NCAA rules, they can be held liable up to a certain period of time (ten years, for example). That will give the university the right to sue the athlete and his family to recover any damages incurred from NCAA penalties.

If such policies are put in place and enforced, student-athletes and their families will be very reticent to associate with these criminal types who are at the bottom rung of the sports representative ladder no matter how dire the family’s financial circumstances are.

Also, should USC be penalized over the outcome of the current investigations, the athletes who have caused those penalties currently walk away virtually scott free. The university and its present athletes suffer, but those who caused the penalties are living off multi-million dollar contracts from professional sports teams.

So, now is the time for Mike Garrett to be proactive and show USC alumni and fans as well as the media that the university means business.

Tim Floyd is a winner as a college basketball coach. 

But he couldn't find a good fit in the NBA, where he replaced Phil Jackson, coaching the Chicago Bulls after The Last Dance. 

He won 13 games in his first lockout-shortened season. He won was 17-65 and 15-67 in his only two full NBA seasons. 

After four wins in his first 25 games in the fourth season, he resigned with a 49-190 record.

In one season with the New Orleans Hornets, Floyd finished 41-41.

The Hornets were still in the Eastern Conference at that point so with that stellar record they made the playoffs. The Hornets lost in seven games to the Miami Heat.

After never posting a winning record in four-plus NBA regular seasons and one NBA postseason, even Floyd admitted he wasn't very good at coaching in the NBA.

As a college basketball coach though, Floyd won plenty of games. 

He began as an assistant under Hall of Fame coach and legend Don Haskins at UTEP. 

Floyd became a head coach at Idaho and then moved on to coach at New Orleans. 

He won conference tournament championships in the Big-8 and Pac-10. 

He went to the Sweet 16 with Iowa State and USC. 

His USC team had momentum going into the 2009-2010 season. 

Coming off of a Pac-10 Tournament Championship and a first-round NCAA Tournament win, Arizona courted him to leave L.A. for Tucson.

Floyd decided to stay where he could build something rather than try to keep building on what another great coach, Lute Olson, had already established.  

Allegedly handing a paper sack with cash in it to a handler for O.J. Mayo was probably the furthest thing from his mind when he had his choice of two Pac-10 schools, one a former national champion.

The Mayo saga was in the 24-hour news cycle for a few days. One of the guys who had his hand out ended up being left out so he called ESPN and they ran with it. 

I remember not being surprised as the perception persists in the college basketball recruiting season that if you aren't cheating then you are not trying.

Mayo is now making jaws drop in the NBA. 

When his college basketball career was in the news cycle, people said that he was well-known since he was in the eighth grade.

Like the sluggers in baseball, whoever landed Mayo for his one-and-done season of college basketball was going to be linked to cheating.

The final result was a career-killer for Floyd. Perception is reality and all of the winning he did in his college basketball career was handed away in a paper sack. 

I like Tim Floyd. I liked Kelvin Sampson. I liked Eddie Sutton. I was spoiled by Lute Olson, who really did do it the right way. 

Never really liked Bobby Knight and he did it the right way, too, so that's a thinker.

What I really don't like is the intrusion of the NBA business and lifestyle into college basketball that was created by this ridiculous one-and-done rule. The NBA literally tells a grown man of 18 years old that you cannot work for us.

Tim Floyd made his choice and he has to suffer the consequences. 

Is he really that worse off though? 

Look at the lengths he had to choose to go to in order to get a player that would not build anything but his NBA stock. Mayo's USC team lost to Michael Beasley's Kansas State team in the only NCAA tournament for both players.

Tim Floyd can leave the recruiting trail that has become sullied with the tracks of sports agents.  He does not have to worry about where he will coach next or worry about the next eighth grader that is turning people's heads.

If he has the NBA Ticket on Satellite, he could watch OJ Mayo get a triple-double for the Grizzlies or catch the highlights in the 24-hour news cycle.  

The final nail in USC Basketball's coffin was hammered in on Tuesday with the not-so-surprising resignation of Head Coach Tim Floyd.

His resignation came weeks after allegations of improperly paying Memphis Grizzlies star O.J. Mayo before he attended USC two seasons ago.

It also came after four—yes, four—Trojans made themselves eligible for the NBA. Included in this group was fifth-year senior Marcus Johnson, who averaged all of 3.1 points per game during his last injury-plagued season, and would-be senior Daniel Hackett, both of whom will probably not be picked in the NBA Draft.

The Trojans also released two players from their previous commitments to the program, including top recruits Noel Johnson and Renardo Sidney.

If all that didn't spell a looming death sentence for the program, I don't know what could.

The sad thing about this whole affair is that Floyd, Mayo, and last year's freshman star DeMar DeRozan (who is expected to be a lottery pick later this month), had put Trojan basketball on the map. The brand new Galen Center was a recruiter's dream. USC seemed poised to challenge UCLA for Los Angeles college basketball prominence.

Then reality set in.

USC must be held accountable for its basketball team's off-court infractions. The school should probably lose some scholarships, and perhaps suffer postseason probation. But the NCAA has rarely doled out the latter punishment to basketball programs, not that it will matter to a Trojan program that would be lucky to win a handful of Pac-10 games the next few seasons.

This scandal comes just days after two Memphis Tiger players, including Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose, were accused of not taking their own SATs in high school.

The NCAA is set to rule on penalties for Memphis, which could include forfeiture of up to 38 games in which Rose played in.

Of course lost in all this is that the universities might not have actually committed the alleged violations.

Still, next year, similar stories will come out about other one-and-done players.

And we'll have the same thing occur the year after.

Of course, universities are to blame for losing control of their programs. But so is the NBA.

The NBA Draft eligibility rule that prohibits players jumping to the league straight out of high school has created a system that has tainted college basketball and the professional game's future stars—it's impossible to look at Mayo and Rose without thinking of the scandals they helped cause at their universities.

When the league instituted this rule in 2006, I thought it was a good move.

It was an idealistic thought.

It was a belief that the pro game would benefit from more mature players, and the NCAA would benefit by showcasing the best teenage players in the world.

Not only that, but I believed it was good to show future stars that everyone should go to college.

I was very wrong.

Fact is, guys like Rose, Mayo, and DeRozan, never belonged in college basketball. They were good enough to be in the NBA right out of high school. More importantly, they were always basketball players, and only grudgingly students.

But the scandals in college haven't caused the professional league executives to pause in their thinking.

Before the start of the NBA Finals, Commissioner David Stern said he's going to try to institute a 20-year-old age limit during the next round of collective bargaining.

He compared the current age limit to that imposed on people seeking national office.

“I don’t know why our founders decided that age 25 was good for Congress, but I guess they thought that was about maturity,” Stern said in The New York Times. “For us, it’s a kind of basketball maturity.”

He added that high school players who don't want to go to college can either play in the NBA's Developmental League, or go play in Europe.

But honestly, is a 20-year-old, who was treated like a god in college before deciding to drop out, really more mature than an 18-year-old trying to start his professional career right away?

Some of the best players in the NBA today are guys who bypassed high school—NBA finalists Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard are two.

If Stern is really concerned about the maturity of NBA players, he needs to modify the age limit and create a better minor league system.

Here's what I mean:

1. Keep the NBA Draft two rounds, but allow teams to select any post-high school player, or 18-year-old that has declared himself eligible.
2. Create an age limit for players who actually play in NBA games—19 or 20.
3. Either create a minor league system more practical than the NBDL, or form a partnership with professional European teams.
4. Require all underage draftees to play an entire season in the NBDL, or in Europe.
5. Allow these draftees to play in the NBA once they meet the age requirement and have played that ENTIRE season elsewhere.

I usually write about USC Football and rarely about the Trojans' basketball program. However, the recent resignation of head basketball coach Tim Floyd, in the midst of allegations that he paid off one of O.J. Mayo's handlers, affects both programs and perhaps the entire athletic department.

The NCAA has combined the Mayo allegations with the previous allegations against Reggie Bush and his family into one large-scale investigation of the athletics program at USC.

So far, athletic director Mike Garrett has failed to step up and address any of the charges. Even in this most recent incident of Floyd’s resignation, Garrett had an assistant issue a statement.

The only comment out of his department regarding any of these charges is that the university is cooperating in every way with the NCAA investigations but cannot comment on any of the allegations.

Perhaps that is understandable, but somewhere along the line—and I’m afraid that line may have already passed—Garrett must step up and address some of the recent occurrences that have caused even the most devout USC alumnus and fan to wonder what is taking place.

Several players have left the team and opted for the NBA draft. Perhaps only two of them stand the remotest chance of ever making it in the NBA. Certainly a couple of them decided to leave anyway, knowing their chances of an NBA career were slim and none. Garrett needs to step up and address this.

Several of Floyd’s recruits have de-committed. That is understandable, but still, Garrett needs to address this as well.

Garrett also needs to explain why Floyd’s letter of resignation was published in the Clarion-Ledger (Mississippi) before it even reached his desk. Or had it reached his desk, and he withheld the announcement?

Finally, Garrett needs to make it quite clear that his next hire is not about wins and losses, but about integrity. He must make it perfectly clear that the next hire is not only about basketball but also about building character. He needs to emphatically promise that the person he chooses will lead by example.

Then Garrett must go out and fulfill this promise by picking a person of exemplary character who is beyond reproach. But this has not been an easy thing for Garrett to do over the years.

Even his hires of Floyd and Pete Carroll were not his original choices. Carroll wasn’t even on his short list. It was Carroll himself who initiated the contact.

Hiring a no-nonsense coach of strong character may help lessen the extent of any impending sanctions on the basketball team and the athletic program in general.

Do I think it’s an impossible job to fill? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. The new coach will get at least a two-year pass due to the mess that Floyd left. The next coach will also have one of the finest state-of-the-art facilities in the country, the Galen Center, to begin rebuilding the program.

Some names are already being thrown out there by the media, including former Sacramento Kings and New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus, former Seattle Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo, Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon, Oregon State coach Craig Robinson, and St. Mary's head coach Randy Bennett

At least one ESPN commentator mentioned former Indiana and Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight, now a college basketball analyst with ESPN.

One other suggestion that would lessen the extent of any impending NCAA sanctions is for USC President Steven B. Sample to start compiling his own short list of strong character, beyond reproach decision makers to replace Mike Garrett.

Too much has gone down on Garrett’s watch, I’m afraid, and he has only stepped up when it has been time to receive a trophy. When controversy has arisen, he always seems to step back behind a stone wall.  Maybe this time he should step down.

Let's here from USC and other college basketball fans.  Do you think MIke Garrett should step down?  Who should USC hire as the next basketball coach?  Do you think Tim Floyd will eventaully be exonerated or not?