USC lands two

[Josh Gershon]

Daniell Hackett and Taj Gibson. (http://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=457028)

I love Hackett's game... he'll be a big time scorer for USC eventually. He's a slasher that Arizona had a lot of interest in.

[Jason Scheer]

Gibson seems to be a nice pickup too. Nice day for Floyd

[Ben Hansen]

Incredibly bright future for SC.

[JMarkJohns]

I have no clue to just how hard the schools were going after Gibson, but it seems to me that with heavyweights such as UConn, Texas and Louisville going after him, that this is a HUGE get for SC.

[Josh Gershon]

I feel as if USC has given out about 15 scholarships already. What's their deal?

[Flipper]

I feel as if USC has given out about 15 scholarships already. What's their deal?

Well, they only had 4 returnees from last season's squad. Plus, the scuttlebutt in LA is that several of this season's incoming class (CRobinson as an example) have been told that their scholly's good for this season only, and could be given to newer recruits.

Also, this could validate the Pruitt/Young bolting to the NBA after this season.

[Auercat]

Josh,

Apparently Floyd is throwing darts at a board and is going to see what sticks. ;)

Bearing Down on USC's Coaching Staff Finding New And Interesting Ways To Recruit Players And Assemble a Roster :wink2:

Auercat

[Class of 1990]

Floyd (http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/8891463/1)


Southern California coach Tim Floyd is smooth. I'll give him that. So smooth that he's slick? Not sure about slick. Slick's harsh.

Suffice it to say, however, that Floyd is off to an interesting start at USC. Nine months into the job, he has amassed a body of work unlike any I've ever seen.

From Henry Bibby-Rick Majerus-Jim Saia, Floyd inherited a program in peril. The Trojans went 12-17 last season, during which they fired Bibby, hired Majerus, lost Majerus to a change of heart five days later, and finally turned the program over to Saia on an interim basis. At one point this spring, the Trojans had four players on scholarship.

Floyd has scrambled for players since being hired Jan. 14, and along the way, three trends have emerged and even overlapped. They're not flattering trends, but we'll give Floyd his say on the following observations:

Floyd hires staff members to get his hands on their players.

Floyd will recruit players, then let them go once he has recruited over them. If this is in fact a trend, it dates to his days at Iowa State from 1995-98. When the NCAA enacted the eight-and-five scholarship rule in 2000 to stop schools from running off players, coaches all over the country referred to it as "the Tim Floyd rule."

Floyd will swipe recruits from other programs.
That's how it looks from the outside, from the perspective of someone who hasn't spoken with Floyd. After speaking with him? It looks a little different. Not all the way different, not totally kosher, but different. Like I said, Floyd's smooth.

See for yourself.

Trend: Package deals?
Item: Floyd hired College of Southern Idaho coach Gib Arnold in April, then signed two of Arnold's better players, Shaun Davis and Abdoulaye Ndiaye, weeks later.

Floyd says: "I told Gib I didn't care if his prospects came or not. You might want to call him and ask him that. Ask him if I told him if he had a job based on a player coming. Gib's the coach of the No. 1 (junior college) team in country, and his best players didn't come. Mohammed Kone (who signed with Baylor) and Jamaal Brown (Oklahoma State) would have been those guys. I didn't recruit Shaun Davis. After Gib got here, he talked me into taking (Davis). He said the kid wanted to be in Southern California. That he was calling (Gib) hoping we'd take him at USC. Gib had to convince me to take him."

Item: Floyd hired ex-Syracuse star Rudy Hackett in August as his strength and conditioning manager, then received a commitment from Hackett's son, Daniel, one of the state's top juniors, weeks later.

Floyd says: "You want to question Rudy Hackett's background? He played on a Final Four team. He played in the NBA and Italy. He worked for the Southern California All-Stars (club team). He knows every kid in Southern California. I told Gib Arnold and Rudy Hackett: 'I want you up here and I'm not hiring you to get your players. If you want to recruit them, great.'"

Trend: Cutting recruits loose?
Item: Floyd released one of Henry Bibby's last signees, forward Mike Freeman, from his National Letter-of-Intent in March -- quasi-normal protocol when one coach replaces another.

Floyd says: "I didn't run off Mike Freeman. I watched him play after I got the job, and it's not like I couldn't have used him. I only had four guys on scholarship. His mom and dad were sitting there with me as I watched him, and the dad asked me after the game, 'What did you think of my son?' I said, 'I want to preface this by telling you, USC will honor its commitment to your son. But you want me to be honest? No two coaches see and view players the same way, but had I been the head coach here, I'm not sure I would have signed him.' Does that make me a bad guy? They called me two days later and asked for their release."

Item: Floyd picked up a commitment in May from Las Vegas junior Andre McFarland (whose former AAU coach, DeMarlo Slocum, is Floyd's director of operations). After fizzling during the summer, McFarland announced he had re-opened his recruitment. Two sources told me Floyd had cut McFarland loose.

Floyd says: "Not true. I would take him tomorrow if he wanted to come back. (McFarland's) brother told me he read on the Internet that we were involved with (two top wing prospects whom Floyd can't name). He said, 'If those two guys are coming to your program, where does my brother fit?' I told (McFarland's) brother, 'I like him, he's going to play for us, I'd love to have him here.' But I had a hard time convincing him."

Item: Floyd released Shaun Davis from his NLI early this month. Davis signed with New Mexico State and will be eligible this season.

Floyd says: "We could not get Shaun into school, or he would be in school. I've got a scholarship open, and I could use a guy right now. But we found out right at the end of August."

When I told Floyd that multiple Division I coaches say Arnold had been calling around since July trying to find Davis a new school, Floyd continued:

"I'd like for you to talk to Gib Arnold. It was probably along the lines of us not being able to get (Davis) into school. He had a lot of academic work he had to do. And we do have requirements. For example, we couldn't get Jamaal Brown into school."

That's the same Jamaal Brown that played for Gib Arnold, the one Floyd had told me minutes earlier he didn't try to recruit from College of Southern Idaho.


Trend: Stealing recruits?
Item: Before signing with USC, Shaun Davis had committed to Indiana. After Floyd hired Arnold, Davis switched his commitment to USC.

Floyd says: "That was (Davis') choice. He didn't want to go Indiana. Ask the kid if I ever recruited him. I did not."

Item: Ryan Francis of Baton Rouge, La., committed to Louisiana-Lafayette before his senior season, then signed in the spring with USC.

Floyd says: "Lafayette coaches will tell you he committed, but give Ryan's mother a call. Ask her if he committed to Lafayette. She told me (ULL) put it out but (the Francis family) never, ever made any comments that they'd committed to Lafayette."

Item: Houston's Jeremy Barr, a native of the Bahamas, committed to Texas Tech on April 14, then signed with USC one week later.

Floyd says: "I got a phone call from Greg Glenn, Jeremy's high school coach, and he said, 'Coach, Jeremy's sitting here, he's made his decision -- he wants to go to Texas Tech.' I said that's fine, good luck, best wishes. I then called (USC assistant) Bob Cantu and said, 'I want you to write and thank anybody and everybody who had anything to do with trying to help us in this situation.' I was just being considerate. (Cantu) made a call to a guy from the Bahamas, and that guy got really upset at the whole thing. This guy called (Barr's guardian) Frank Rutherford and said he didn't want Jeremy to go to Texas Tech, he wanted him to go to USC. I was unaware any of that had happened. Then I got a call saying (Rutherford and Barr) had reopened the recruiting. I talked to Jeremy and told him I didn't want him here unless he wanted to be here. This needed to be his decision."

Barr made his decision on Floyd. Now you make yours. You've read some facts. You've read Floyd's defense of those facts.

My take? Floyd's smooth all right.

But he's not that smooth.