Multiple sources are reporting that USC Head Coach Tim Floyd met with Arizona AD Jim Livengood on Wednesday. Sources say that he’ll be announced as the new coach of the Wildcats as early as Thursday. Nothing is set in stone, but where there’s this much smoke–there’s usually fire (or at least a press conference).
Assuming these reports are true, you have to figure that Arizona will again be among the Pac 10 elite in the near future. Outsiders might point to the failed Floyd experiment in the NBA where he guided the Chicago Bulls to a nose-dive of epic proportions. In fact, the only thing I’ll remember from his entire NBA coaching career (aside from the horrific record: 49-190), is that Michael Jordan called him “Pink Floyd.” Not exactly the kind of figurehead that demanded respect.
In the college ranks, he's been successful everywhere he goes
But NBA failures aside, Floyd has been an impressive coach in the college ranks. A damn good coach in fact. He was a good enough recruiter to convince Marcus Fizer to attend Iowa State University. In fact, he was good enough to help the Cyclones earn national respect during his tenure in Ames. Anytime you can get people outside Iowa to pay attention to Iowa State athletics, you know you’re doing a good job!
After his trips to Chicago and New Orleans in the NBA, Floyd returned to the college ranks at USC. While leading the Men of Troy, he’s again showed that he can recruit with the best of them: landing both OJ Mayo and Demar DeRozan over the last 2 seasons. In 4 years at the football powerhouse, he’s lead the Trojans to the Big Dance three times. Not too bad when they’re constantly trying to compete with cross-town rival and traditional power UCLA.
The biggest problem that people are going to have is the way this all went down. On Tuesday night at USC’s post-season awards banquet, Floyd gave an “impassioned speech” trying to convince all of his players to stick around another year before bouncing to the NBA.
“He was just saying that we would have a good year next year and that he believed in us, and that he thinks we could make a Final Four run,” USC guard Marcus Simmons said. “Not just win one game, a Final Four run, and have a great team next year if everybody comes back.” –LA Times
If Floyd was able to effectively recruit at USC and Iowa State, just imagine what he’ll be able to do at Arizona! A school that has been known to bring in the best of the best, Floyd will have the commitment of the athletic department in Tucson. I have no doubt that Tim Floyd is the type of teacher and recruiter that could continue the winning tradition that Lute Olsen left behind. Bottom line: Floyd just wins. If he does that in Tucson, all will be well.
As Tim Floyd changes addresses within the Pac 10, he leaves a pretty high profile job in high profile Los Angeles. Even before Floyd’s press conference, there are already rumors that USC will go after current Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. As native Californian, you have to believe that Dixon will at least listen to USC’s sales pitch (even though he has a good recruiting class coming to Pittsburgh next year). Throw in the fact that he’s still best friends with Ben Howland, and the opportunity to coach against him twice per year in a rivalry setting may prove to be very appealing for the Panthers coach. As much as Panther fans don’t want to admit it, it’s a very real possibility.
Only time will tell if Dixon is interested in the USC job; but either way the Trojans are going to go after a big name coach. With UCLA as strong as ever and the USC football team grabbing headlines year-round, the basketball program has to hire someone with some name recognition. We’ll see how interested Jaime Dixon is– but it’s usually hard to say no to coming home.
Update (4/2/09):
It looks like KTAR was a little premature in reporting that Tim Floyd had accepted the head coaching job at Arizona. Now the Phoenix radio station is changing its tune—stating that Floyd has turned down the job offer after he had 24 hours to think it over. They go on to mention that Floyd’s name has been mentioned in connection with Memphis, but everything with the Tigers is speculation.
I have to say, after Tim Floyd’s speech to his players at USC’s banquet on Tuesday, I’m glad to hear that he’s not leaving the team for a Pac-10 rival. I’ve grown callous to a lot of things; but that story sounded particularly screwed up. So as it stands today, Arizona still has a coaching vacancy to fill; and the Trojans do not.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
