It was a situation rife with irony. Tuesday night at the USC basketball banquet, coach Tim Floyd’s emotional speech begged and implored his players not to jump to the NBA, because they could be something special next year. Then the next morning he jumped a plane to talk to Arizona to discuss their head coaching
But Floyd was not just blowing smoke Tuesday, he apparently meant what he said.
Today Floyd has reportedly turned down the Arizona job and will return to USC next season.
Freshman DeMar DeRozan and junior Taj Gibson were the question marks, and who Floyd was speaking to on Tuesday night. Both have had interest from the NBA, but both could also use one more year of quality college coaching to really polish their games. And both were at Tim Floyd's press conference Thursday afternoon.
If they returned, joined by Renardo Sidney, a 6-foot-11 McDonald's All-American center (who still needs to meet school acceptance requirements), USC had a chance to be real national title contenders.
You can see why Floyd drew interest from a top school, he has a quality resume — he has been in the NBA as the head man with the Chicago Bulls from 1999 to 2002 and them with the New Orleans Hornets in 2004. In his four years at USC, his teams have reached the NCAA Tournament three straight years (a first in USC history) and reached the Sweet 16 once. This year the team won the Pac-10 Tournament.
But Floyd’s fifth year at USC could be the special one. If everyone just listens to his advice.
