FanHouse Tim Floyd

Well, at least Tim Floyd is not simply spending his free time down in Mississippi waiting to find out what the NCAA investigations will eventually/someday/maybe rule regarding O.J. Mayo and what kind of asylum he was running at USC.

No, Floyd has found time to go to the Morongo Resort and Casino in beautiful Cabazon, Calif. Apparently a place where things can get a little wild. Floyd waded hip deep into trying to break up a cat fight. Blogger Spencer Hall sees this as proof of a future as a bouncer at the casino. Judging by the women in the fight, and willingness to pick up a chair to attempt to go upside Floyd's head, I'd say he should be aiming to be security on the Maury Povich Show. Video after the jump.

This is a game of chicken. Down on one end of the street is USC, revving its engine. On the other end is the NCAA, doing the same. And they are about to start barreling toward each other. Which one will chicken out?

I'm going with the NCAA on that one. It has been three years now since we knew that USC had become the classic college sports cheat. USC athletic director Mike Garrett figures Trojan football is too big and strong to be touchable. Heisman winners getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from shady characters hanging around. Basketball coaches getting into the mud, and maybe a slush fund, to recruit. That's just a start.

The NCAA has had the goods on USC for years now. And still ... nothing.

European basketball teams often have a tough time convincing quality American players to venture overseas to work. The same can be said for getting coaches.

Eric Musselman became the second former NBA head coach to turn down a job offer from Spartak St. Petersburg in Russia.

Earlier this month, former Bulls and Hornets coach Tim Floyd rejected a similar offer from the same team.

It isn't just the players on the fringe of the NBA who are leaving the country to play overseas. It's the coaches, too, who are being courted.

Eric Musselman, former head coach of the Golden State Warriors, is weighing an offer to join Spartak St. Petersburg in Russia for the 2009-10 season, according to sources at the Las Vegas Summer League.

Musselman has been around the NBA, as an assistant or head coach, since his father, Bill Musselman, coached the Minnesota Timberwolves from 1989-1991. Eric was head coach of the Warriors from 2002-04. They improved 38 games his first season, which was 17 more than they had won before he arrived.

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.

In case you haven't been paying attention to the goings on of college basketball in the last few weeks, USC's 2009-10 basketball season has been already been summarily decimated. Tim Floyd resigned in the face of allegations against the program. In the wake, three incoming recruits have been granted their release from letters of intent to play for the Trojans. Plus, three players from last year's Sweet 16 squad have entered the NBA Draft early and now cannot change their minds. Factor in two graduations, and the team is left with only two players who logged regular, meaningful minutes in 2009, with no recruits of consequence.

The truth can't be avoided any longer. It would be like denying Tim Floyd is a crook, Adam Lambert is gay or Brett Favre is going to be a Viking.

It was the Week of Pittsburgh and will inevitably be the Year of the Steel City .

First the Steelers, now the Penguins and Ben "Hogan" Roethlisberger. Soon the Lakers, eventually the Pirates.

All have or will win world championships, making Pittsburgh the only city in history to hold titles in the five major sports all in the same year.

Can you name a better sports town?

Several years after allegations first arose that Reggie Bush accepted cash and gifts, several days after letting embattled basketball coach Tim Floyd 'quit' and a day after Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke slammed them for their silence, USC commented about the investigations.

Essentially, USC re-affirmed its commitment to silence until the investigation concludes but did take time to accuse several individuals of lying about their involvement in the investigation.

Like or loathe the NCAA, this much is certain about this unique, voluntary association that houses the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world:

It's good to be the King -- and royalty certainly works at its own pace and plays by its own rules.

Following Thursday's announcement that 16 teams at the University of Alabama have been penalized for their involvement in improperly obtaining free textbooks for other students, three high-profile NCAA investigations are currently on the books for fans to score at their leisure.

Whether it was arrogance, defiance or one last chance to kick start a fading coaching career, Tim Floyd knew exactly what he was getting into. And he had every chance to wiggle out of the trap when Rodney Guillory, a parasite known around the USC athletic department for his unscrupulous dealings with a Trojan basketball player, wandered into Floyd's office without an appointment three summers ago and offered him fool's gold.

"How would you like to have the best player in the country?'' Guillory said. "Have you heard of O.J. Mayo?''