FanHouse Larry Eustachy

It's June, a.k.a., a terrible time to find a quality basketball coach. But that will be USC's task after Tim Floyd's sudden resignation Tuesday amid a slew of allegations regarding the recruiting of star guard O.J. Mayo. Athletic director Mike Garrett (right) is used to hiring coaches on the fly. He fired Henry Bibby just four games into the 2004-2005 season, tabbed Jim Saia as interim coach for the season and then nabbed Floyd.

Garrett has time before having to go the interim route and there are some qualified coaches who either are unemployed or at mid-majors and would likely leave their schools and incoming recruiting classes for a job at a major school in a major conference. The USC athletic director has a history for going after tough gets and succeeding, but the question is whether the Trojans basketball program will be severely punished for the Mayo situation? Floyd was accused by former Mayo associate Louis Johnson of giving $1,000 to Rodney Guillory, an alleged street agent representing Mayo.

At the University of Maryland, where I started teaching a course last semester, the university president just before last Christmas announced that the campus would have to implement a furlough plan -- unpaid leave -- this year because of budget cutbacks from the state due to the economic downturn. Maryland wasn't alone.

Arizona State implemented furloughs. Utah State did the same for all of its 2,995 employees the second week of last month. That followed layoffs at Clemson. Small schools like John Carroll University in Cleveland aren't immune as it, too, forced unpaid vacations on employees.

In a now-infamous press conference exchange last month, Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun was reminded that he makes $1.6 million while working for a public university in a state that has a huge budget deficit. Before the questioner could finish, Calhoun snapped, "Not a dime back."

Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy is no Jim Calhoun. Eustachy has decided to give not just a dime back, but 250,000 dimes back.