It has been one seriously disastrous offseason for the USC Trojans. Instead of building off a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tourney, the program had to deal with accusations that head coach Tim Floyd personally paid money to O.J. Mayo’s handler and numerous (not-so-coincidental) defections and decommitments. It appears the writing was on the wall for Floyd, who has apparently just resigned.
(”Bye, everyone!”)
The JACKSON (MS) CLARION-LEDGER obtained a copy of Floyd’s one-paragraph resignation letter to USC athletic director Mike Garrett. If you’re wondering why a newspaper in Mississippi is breaking the news about a coach in California, Floyd is a Hattiesburg native. No worries about shenanigans here… sort of:
“As of 1 p.m. today, I am resigning as head basketball coach at the University of Souithern California. I deeply appreciate the opportunity afforded me by the university, as well as the chance to know and work with some of the finest young men in college athletics. Unfortunately, I no longer feel I can offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal. I always promised my self and my family that if I ever felt I could no longer give my full enthusiasm to a job, that I should leave it to others who could. I intend to contact my coaching staff and my players in coming days and weeks to tell them how much each of them means to me. I wish the best to USC and to my successor.”
So why is there “sort of” no chance of funny business here? Well, for one, when the media contacted several people at USC this afternoon, Floyd’s resignation was news to them. As FOX SPORTS reports:
USC big man Taj Gibson was unaware of Floyd’s resignation when reached late Tuesday afternoon.
“I haven’t heard anything about it,” Gibson said. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
According to sources, the Trojans staff had yet to be informed as well.
Now, we’re not saying the Clarion-Ledger would make anything up; a hoax is far more plausible. But as there’s been no immediate and forceful pushback from the USC athletic department, it’s far most likely that the resignation is legitimate and that Floyd just hasn’t gotten around to saying goodbye.
1:12 pm on June 10th, 2009
U$C deserves whatever they get from the NCAA, and then some. They've cheated for far too long and gotten away with it, both in football and in basketball.
Their 2003 and 2004 national championships in football need to be voided, since they won them with paid (and therefore ineligible) players. All those Pac-10 titles that they won with Reggie Bu$h should be voided too. As far as NCAA sanctions go, they should be cut back to about 15 scholarships for the next several seasons and banned from post-season competition for at least the next 5 years.
As for basketball, O.J. Mayo isn't the only player Tim Floyd has bought. Take a look at the story behind incoming freshman point guard MoMo Jones. He was committed to Virginia Tech until he had a monster senior season at Oak Hill Academy and his greedy mother decided that she wanted to cash in on her son's increased marketability. Virginia Tech, to their credit, refused to ante up and so she went shopping for a program that would meet her requirements. Evidently she found someone who would meet her asking price in Tim Floyd.
U$C is the poster child for everything that's wrong with college sports today. I hope the NCAA drops the hammer on them big-time.