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The Tim Floyd era is over at USC
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Reed Saxon - AP
As of 1 p.m. Today, Tim Floyd resigned as the head basketball coach for the University of Southern California. Floyd’s tendering his resignation comes after a tumultuous past few weeks in which the coach was accused of giving money to a man, who was connected with O.J. Mayo as well as with Mayo’s ending up as a Trojan.
After rebuilding a lagging Trojans basketball program over the past few years, which included three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament as well as an impressive run to capture the Pac-10 Championship this past year, the Floyd-led men's basketball team appears to be in ruins. The loss of Tim Floyd is an incredible blow to a school that has long been known for its football accolades rather than its exploits on the hardwood. This loss, coupled with the decisions of Daniel Hackett, DeMar DeRozan, and Taj Gibson to test the professional waters, has left the team in utter shambles.
Following the end to the 2008-2009 basketball season, Tim Floyd flirted with a number of prominent coaching positions such as the programs at the Arizona Wildcats and the Memphis Tigers. Turning down these head-coaching gigs, Floyd decided to finish what he started with the Trojans basketball program.
At the time, a mere month or so ago, it seemed as though keeping Floyd would be a major coup for Southern California, especially with five-star high school recruit Renardo Sidney poised to join the Trojans next year. Fast forward to the here and now; Sidney has decided to head elsewhere after being dogged with allegations similar to those surrounding Mayo and Floyd, adding icing on the cake, has tendered his resignation. Now a program that ended the year on a high note is scrambling to make sense of where exactly it will go from here.
According to the article published on ESPN, a person in Floyd's inner-circle admitted that Floyd's decision to step down as men's basketball coach came as a great surprise to everyone. Per the source, Floyd has maintained his innocence since the allegations first arose but in recent weeks has recognized that it would be an incredibly difficult fight to maintain his integrity in the coming months.
Recently, at a banquet held for alumni and boosters of the USC Trojans athletic programs with both Tim Floyd and Pete Carroll in attendance, members in the audience were instructed to stay away from the rumors surrounding Floyd, O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush. Both the University's as well as Floyd's choice to remain silent raised eyebrows in many athletic circles as neither USC nor Floyd has commented on the rumors surrounding O.J. Mayo since the allegations broke in a Yahoo! Report on May 12, 2009.
The loss of Tim Floyd has dealt the Men of Troy a major blow, not only for next season, but for the foreseeable future as well. What Henry Bibby was unable to do with men's basketball at USC in the years before the Tim Floyd era was quickly forgotten as the Trojans have had a resurgence in the college basketball world in the last few years under Floyd’s tutelage. Where the Trojans go from here is anyone’s guess, but we can all hope that the Trojans can put this ugly situation in the rear-view mirror and move on to bigger and better things as soon as possible.
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