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Trojans Pick O'Neill for Stability

Posted: Jun 20th 2009 9:40PM by Gary Washburn (author feed)

Kevin O'Neill has gained a reputation as the guy always looking for the next job. He was building a winner at Marquette and then bolted for Tennessee. He was in the midst of trying to make Tennessee less of a football school when he bolted and took the Northwestern job. After a 30-56 mark for the Wildcats, O'Neill left for an NBA assistant job.

He returned to the NCAA to be Lute Olson's assistant at Arizona but then became the interim coach when Olson took ill and missed the 2007-08 season. Apparently, O'Neill was lobbying to get Olson's job permanently and he was not asked back to Olson's staff for the next season.

So USC athletic director Mike Garrett has decided on O'Neill to stabilize and bring respectability back to its program. It's an odd hire because O'Neill has never been known as a stabilizer or someone who stays put.

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Kevin O'Neill New USC Basketball Coach

Posted: Jun 20th 2009 12:35PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: USC, Pac-10, Coaches

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According to a report on ESPN, Kevin O'Neill has been hired as the new head basketball coach at the University of Southern California. USC had been without a head coach since Tim Floyd resigned under fire a few weeks ago. Allegedly, Floyd paid someone $1,000 to convince highly-touted recruit O.J. Mayo to attend USC.

In the wake of Floyd's departure, there is a bit of a mess to be cleaned up for Trojan basketball, and that's the task at hand for new coach O'Neill. Much of the roster who inexplicably made a Sweet 16 run last season is gone, as are three solid recruits Floyd had previously signed. O'Neill will try to pick up the pieces with Dwight Lewis and Leonard Washington as the leaders of his team -- assuming he can convince them to stay aboard.

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Who Is New Would-Be Arizona Wildcats Head Coach Mike Dunlap?

Posted: Oct 23rd 2008 12:59PM by Shiloh Carder (author feed)
Filed under: Arizona, Pac-10, Coaches

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With the news that Lute Olson is supposedly stepping down as head coach at Arizona, associate coach Mike Dunlap would now take over a program that has the longest current streak of NCAA Tournament appearances.

But who is Dunlap?

Dunlap became an assistant to Lute Olson back in May after an ugly breakup with 2007-2008 interim coach Kevin O'Neill. Dunlap spent the last two seasons as an assistant for the Denver Nuggets. Before that, he was the head coach at Metro State College in Denver for nine seasons, leading them to a 248-50 record and two NCAA Division II championships.

Dunlap was a candidate for the head jobs at California, Oregon State and the NBA's Chicago Bulls when the Wildcats came calling. It had been rumored that he was promised to succeed Olson at Arizona, though neither Olson or Dunlap would confirm that.

That may be a bit premature. There have been rumblings that the school will do a full search for a new head coach. And, yes, Bobby Knight's name has been thrown out there among fans.