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.
We knew Western Kentucky was dangerous. We knew a 12 seed was destined to upset a five, just as at least one manages to do nearly every NCAA tournament. We knew Illinois was a worse team than all four No. 6 seeds, and we knew the Illini were also without their emotional leader and best defender (Chester Frazier).
So -- while it's still newsworthy, being an upset and all -- it was hardly shocking when Western Kentucky completed their triumph over the Fighting Illini in the wee hours of Friday morning.
As the buzzer sounded in Conseco Fieldhouse early Thursday evening, the Indiana Hoosiers had lost to Penn State by a count of 66 to 51. Tom Crean's first season as head basketball coach had mercifully concluded. The Hoosiers will miss the NCAA Tournament for only the third time since A Season on the Brink was published. They will miss any sort of postseason play for the second time since 1977. In fact, this was -- statistically speaking -- the worst team in Indiana basketball history.
The funny thing? I was much more relieved when last season ended, and I guarantee I'm not alone among Indiana alumni.
Thursday night, the Northwestern Wildcats -- looking to crawl back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble -- held a 14-point lead over their intrastate rival, Illinois. Less than six minutes later, the No. 22 Illini were victoriously celebrating on the Welsh-Ryan Arena floor. What made this thing exciting wasn't the comeback itself, but how it happened.
It all started so innocently. A Mike Davis jumper cut the Northwestern deficit to 57-45 with 5:08 left in the game. A few minutes later, and the lead was slowly chipped down to seven. With about 1:30 left in the game, though, is when things started to get crazy.
Illinois really needed a bounce-back win after that bad loss in Wisconsin Thursday night. Sunday they got it in the form of a 66-48 trouncing of Purdue. The Illini stifled the Boilers' offensive attack, holding them to just 32-percent shooting, including a dismal 2-of-15 from behind the arc.
Of course, Purdue also missed the presence of their best player, Robbie Hummel. This is a bad sign for them moving forward, because they do not play well without the sophomore swingman. Purdue is 16-3 with Hummel in the lineup and 1-3 without him this season.
Clemson turned on the offensive and defensive pressure in the second half, forcing 17 Illinois turnovers and squeaking out a 76-74 win in Champaign.
In one of the best games of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Clemson shot an amazing 58% from the field (Illinois shot a darn good 51.7% themselves). It was a fun, physical game to watch and had just 21 combined free throws attempted.
Illinois was less balanced. Mike Davis scored a career-high 28 points and Demetri McCamey added 20. The rest of the team combined for just 26 points.
This is the first win for the ACC in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge after the Big Ten took the first two games. It was also the third straight road win to open the series.
Vaden played at Indiana for two seasons and left when Davis left to coach in Birmingham. He sat out the 2006-2007 season before having an outstanding junior year this past season.
Vaden is already 23 years old (he'll turn 24 next March) which let some to think he may stay in the draft. His draft stock most likely won't change next year. He'll be older than most draftees, which now means that his talent has hit the ceiling.
He will re-join a Blazers team that should be good enough for an NCAA Tournament bid and could (maybe) challenge Memphis in Conference-USA. He led the team with a 21.1 ppg average and dumped an amazing 142 threes.
When the word of Kelvin Sampson's newest set of NCAA violations hit the wires Tuesday night, it was sure to make Indiana fans look back to the days of Bobby Knight with some wistfulness. As Michael David Smith pointed out on Wednesday, Knight coached Indiana for 29 years without running afoul of the governing body and Sampson couldn't even make it that many months.
What was once as stable a program as there was in the country has spiraled. The Hoosiers enabled Knight long past the point of defense, treated his replacement Mike Davis like dirt even when he won for them and then hired a known rulebreaker to replace him. Indiana will have its hands full dealing with the fallout but one thing they shouldn't do is take it out on innocent parties. Like the fan who wore a t-shirt calling for Knight's return to Bloomington.
There was an IU fan in Assembly Hall for Wednesday night's game against Wisconsin wearing a T-shirt that read, "Bring back Bobby." Twice security asked him to remove it. And twice he put it back on.
Methinks the school should focus more on repairing the program than about what fans are wearing to games. And they should start focusing on it posthaste because calls for Knight to play, well, the white knight of the program are only going to increase. Sorry, No Photos
This is based on nothing more than watercooler chit-chat ... but with Kelvin Sampson's current problems at Indiana there may be an opening soon. A program like Indiana will want to regain their image and will need a strong, honest leader to guide them in past this. Someone who will excite the fanbase and alumni.
Yes, it is loopy. Insane. Madness. Or things breaking in the right direction. After all: Knight unexpectedly quits job at Texas Tech so his son can take over; Knight says he wants to coach again; Allegations of wrongdoing come up for Indiana's coach Kelvin Sampson that could lead to his dismissal.
You would think that if Knight was going to coach again, it would have to be just the right fit for him. While Texas Tech seemed right, basketball really wasn't the main focus for the school. It is at Indiana where Knight could resurrect a program that has seen nothing but drama since his firing.
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.
We knew Western Kentucky was dangerous. We knew a 12 seed was destined to upset a five, just as at least one manages to do nearly every NCAA tournament. We knew Illinois was a worse team than all four No. 6 seeds, and we knew the Illini were also without their emotional leader and best defender (
As the buzzer sounded in Conseco Fieldhouse early Thursday evening, the Indiana Hoosiers had lost to Penn State by a count of 66 to 51. 
Thursday night, the Northwestern Wildcats -- looking to crawl back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble -- held a 14-point lead over their intrastate rival, Illinois. Less than six minutes later, the No. 22 Illini were victoriously celebrating on the Welsh-Ryan Arena floor. What made this thing exciting wasn't the comeback itself, but how it happened. 
Illinois really needed a bounce-back win after that bad loss in Wisconsin Thursday night. Sunday they got it in the form of a 66-48 trouncing of Purdue. The Illini stifled the Boilers' offensive attack, holding them to just 32-percent shooting, including a dismal 2-of-15 from behind the arc. 
Clemson turned on the offensive and defensive pressure in the second half, forcing 17 Illinois turnovers and squeaking out a 76-74 win in Champaign.
One of the oldest underclassmen to declare for the NBA Draft will be going back to school. 
When the word of 
This is based on nothing more than watercooler chit-chat ... but with 
