Beyond the Arc : USC allegations

USC goes online to respond to allegations

Mike Miller — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:44:00 GMT

USC offered up its own response Thursday to Tim Floyd’s resignation and the O.J. Mayo allegations with a pair of video statements from athletic director Mike Garrett and Todd Dickey, the senior vice president for administration.

To watch the six-minute video, click here. To read the transcript, click here.

Or, you can save a few minutes and read the short summary below.

USC officials can’t comment on the investigation. (So don’t expect anything after this.) Publicizing info about it could “pollute” the final verdict. Also, they have confidentiality concerns.

Dickey is overseeing USC’s internal investigation. He also says USC asked to participate in the NCAA’s interview of marketer Lloyd Lake, who allegedly gave Reggie Bush gifts while playing at USC. They have, however, interviewed Louis Johnson twice. He’s the former associate of O.J. Mayo who told the feds and the NCAA that Floyd gave $1,000 cash to Rodney Gillory, who allegedly steered Mayo to USC.

That was most of the video. Garrett spoke after Dickey. The A.D. expressed his concern that people think the school is hiding something (they aren’t) and that they’re trying to protect their people (nope). He also said the school has started looking for a new hoops coach.

See? I just saved you six minutes of your life. Next time, they should get a boost from the film school and jazz up the video.

Floyd fallout: Just who would want USC job?

Mike Miller — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:00:00 GMT

The predictable consensus on Tim Floyd’s resignation? He fell on the basketball sword to save USC’s football program.

That’s what happens when a one-paragraph letter lands on the athletic director’s desk and is accepted without a second thought. All that was missing was a return letter. “Thanks Tim, and enjoy the time off, Pete.”

The school – reeling from allegations of payments to O.J. Mayo from Floyd and the ongoing investigation of more alleged payments to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush – certainly hopes the resignation carries some weight with the NCAA.

An NCAA expert told the L.A. Times that Floyd’s move will serve as a “mitigating factor” when the organization considers penalties. “But how much it will help, I don’t know.”

Jim Mcisaac/Getty

Tim Floyd

Fair enough. Maybe the NCAA will be unimpressed. But the public perception is just as valuable. Michael Rosenberg of FOXSports.com writes that somebody had to pay for USC’s transgressions. And that somebody better not have been Pete Carroll. (To that extent, Rosenberg takes some of the blame off of Floyd, which doesn’t make much sense to me. Forget Reggie Bush for a second; Floyd had plenty of worries of his own, namely taking a chance with a one-and-done player.)

Just who is to blame for it all? Truzenzuzex at A Sea of Blue posted a thoughtful series of links and analysis that covers the coaches, players, draft rules and more. It’s far more complicated than just one-and-done players or coaches who bend the rules. One resignation is just a symptom of the larger problem and doesn’t do much to solve anything.

Still, the resignation does raise several questions, most of which Andy Katz covers:

Does Floyd get a settlement? How much did USC push Floyd along? And if Floyd was innocent of paying Mayo, why not wait to see if any of the allegations turned into NCAA charges?

Maybe Floyd just didn’t have the heart to fight it out. With recruits bailing on him right and left, I can’t really blame him. Why not take the millions earned from NBA stints with the Bulls and Hornets and head back to Mississippi and try to forget this whole thing?

Because now, the other consensus is that USC’s hoops program will be in shambles. For a long, long time.

A long time.

And if it’s going to be a wreck, just who will take that gig? Who wants to clean up this mess when recruits are bailing and the NCAA hasn’t even leveled any penalties (if any are coming). Tom Crean took over an Indiana program last year that was rife with issues, but the Hoosiers are one of the nation’s traditional powers and are committed to rebuilding. USC basketball couldn’t be further from that.

So who’s crazy enough to take the reins?

If Jeff Van Gundy is to be believed, it ain’t him.

He didn’t deny that the school had contacted him, but he’s not talking.

“I'm not going to say that,” he told the L.A. Daily News. “Tim Floyd is a helluva guy and a helluva friend. That's my quote.”

Other candidates include Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon (whom the school has already contacted, but seems like a longshot), ex-New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus and Southern Mississippi’s Larry Eustachy, who’s friends with Floyd.

More considerations? Long Beach State’s Dan Monson (who already cleaned up one mess at Minnesota), Oregon State’s Craig Robinson, Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg or ex-coaches Billy Gillispie and Bob Knight (no way, no how, but his name’s out there).

And, via USA Today, maybe even Rick Pitino.

But would he be a glutton for punishment twice? Sure, he did his magic at Kentucky, but that was Kentucky. USC football is the equivalent to Kentucky basketball, not USC hoops.

And at this rate, it never will be.

Tim Floyd sounds like a man on the brink

Mike Miller — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:39:00 GMT

Tim Floyd sounds like a man on the brink. Let’s recap why.

Just days after Floyd reportedly turned down the vacant Arizona job in early May, USC’s players started leaving en masse for the NBA. Losing DeMar DeRozan, Daniel Hackett and Taj Gibson doesn’t help a program. (In Floyd’s four seasons, he’s had eight players jump early; you’d think he’d be used to it.)

Jim Mcisaac/AP

Tim Floyd

And losing those three wasn’t so bad once more bad news emerged about O.J. Mayo’s 1 year at USC. Floyd reportedly paid one of Mayo’s associates at least $1,000 in 2007. The NCAA’s ears perked right up, and opened an investigation. The school’s trying to stay mum on the whole thing.

Recruits started bailing, too. Noel Johnson and Solomon Hill backed out of commitments. Another, prize L.A. recruit Renardo Sidney signed with Mississippi State after he and USC – after questions arose about Sidney’s eligibility – decided by “mutual agreement” that he probably shouldn’t be a Trojan.

Not enough? Less than a week after forward Marcus Johnson was granted another year of eligibility, he bolted for the NBA. Nothing like losing four underclassmen to the pros.

So if you’re Tim Floyd, you’ve had better springs. And the cracks are starting to show. The boosters at Monday’s Coaches Tour 2009 got the unfiltered version.

"Kansas has two players who would have been NBA lottery picks, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, and they are returning to school. Good for them. Our guys get an offer from Islamabad and they’re gone.”

(Whistles)

The roster flux means there are nine players no longer with the program who were scheduled to be on the team as of early April.

Now the Los Angeles media is speculating that USC hoops is essentially toast – forget the basketball powerhouse when it’s hard to enough to field a team – and that Floyd is a coach in over his head who can’t control his program.

Right about now, Tucson never looked so good.