(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
It’s safe to say the USC Basketball program is in shambles.
On Tuesday, the last standing member of a promising and hopeful team departed. Tim Floyd, the head coach of USC the past four seasons, filed his resignation.
I couldn’t be happier.
Although Floyd took a battered USC team to three consecutive NCAA Tournament trips, it is becoming clearer he did it the wrong way.
Amid the O.J. Mayo investigation, Floyd stated it “was a lack of enthusiasm” that prompted him to leave the school.
And I couldn’t be happier.
In the past three years, yes the Trojans have appeared in the Sweet 16, won the Pac-10 Tournament, and sported such stars like Mayo and future NBA Lottery pick DeMar DeRozen.
But, in the past few months, everything has gone down the drain.
A top-five recruit for the 2009-10 season, Renardo Sidney, has already bailed out of his commitment with USC and is now heading to Ole Miss.
Along with that, two other recruits have decided to attend other universities after hearing of the trouble with USC and the scrutiny the program is under by the NCAA.
Not only that, but many young players are forgoing more school for the NBA Draft in the coming weeks.
Freshman sensation DeRozen, junior Taj Gibson, junior Daniel Hackett, and more are testing the NBA waters this month, hoping they don’t pull a "Davon Jefferson" from 2008.
After originally hearing about these departures, I was extremely upset. But through learning of Floyd’s resignation, I am starting to recognize what was going on with this deal.
Floyd seems like he was the right guy for USC's job.
But I have always felt he wasn’t doing the right things when he was running the program.
And when he “left” USC to interview for the University of Arizona job, it didn’t get much better. The fact that he left and betrayed the Trojans and nearly took an offer to coach a rival in Arizona was disheartening to all fans, players, and future recruits.
By playing hopscotch with these two basketball programs, he turned away many talented basketball players. They didn’t want to play for a coach who wasn’t solidified in his position.
A guy who would leave for a better job in a heartbeat.
A guy who had given a middle man the small sum of $1,000 to bring West Virginian native O.J. Mayo to Southern California.
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