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.)
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.
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