FanSection Blog

USC’s head coach, Tim Floyd, announced his retirement yesterday.  There are many legitimate and relevant roads I could take a nice, Sunday drive through for this blog post, but that’s no fun. So, seeing as I have a knack for relating everything that happens in the sports world back to a team I love, I feel I should talk about how the University of Arizona dodged a major bullet.

How, you may ask, can you relate this seemingly dissimilar news to your alma mater?  I’ll spoon feed it to you: Tim Floyd interviewed for the Arizona job on U of A’s campus before returning to L.A. and turning it down. His reasoning?

“I am at a point where I want to do something really special and I feel like I needed to go look at an elite program. But there is something really special about building your own traditions, your own histories and doing it with a group of guys that you love… I have never been more excited to be a Trojan.”

Then, only two months later, he turns around and announces his retirement, claiming he no longer has the required enthusiasm for the job. Um, does anyone else smell something fishy? Or should I say, does anyone think this announcement reeks of Mayo?

While he has been a tremendous asset to USC basketball, with three Big Dance appearances in his four years with the team, we all know that Floyd is also plagued with allegations that he paid $1,000 in cash to an O.J. Mayo handler to help persuade the Ohio native to play for USC. Even though Mayo has since moved on (he’s now a guard for the Memphis Grizzlies and was the runner-up for the 2008-09 NBA Rookie of the Year Award), the NCAA’s investigation into what really happened continues. According to ESPN, a guilty verdict would be considered a major violation that could result in forfeiting victories, as well as recruiting restrictions and loss of scholarships.  Ouch.

Alas, I am getting way too on-topic here, so let me wrap up my digression. With such a big cloud over the team’s future, I’m very thankful that Floyd and his players’ only association with the University of Arizona is their shared presence in the Pac-10.  However, if current USC recruit Lamont “MoMo” Jones wants to come play for us, I might be willing to make an exception…