(Part I)
When Tim Floyd was hired earlier today as the new head coach of the UTEP Basketball Program, I did not bat an eye. My head did not spin, and my body did not begin to shake. No longer can the world of college basketball surprise me anymore when hearing the news of coaches being hired and hired and hired again.
The question still remains: how many times must a coach screw up before he never gets another opportunity to do it again. In the wonderful world of college basketball, that question undeniably has no answer.
Floyd, by his own admission, is "not very good at [coaching]." Yes those are his words after being fired from his New Orleans Hornets gig. Floyd's time in the NBA left him with a career record of 93-235. Yet after mild success with Iowa State, New Orleans (the University) & Idaho, the Southern California Trojans selected Floyd to replace departed head man Rick Majerus who left after just five days on the job.
Maybe big ol' Ricky knew what was going on at USC. Or maybe he just plain didn't like those In N Out burgers in SoCal, but the bright lights of ESPN grabbed him, and just like that Floyd received another opportunity. Yet after a couple of mediocre seasons in Southern California, the questions began to mount for Floyd who was overseeing a program that would be done in by runners and illegalities that most likely occur at a vast number of high-major programs.
There is the naive person who will claim that Floyd had no knowledge of these happenings, and there is the overly critical approach that states Floyd knew everything that was taking place between one Rodney Guillory and another Ovinton J'anthony Mayo. The truth most likely lies somewhere in-between, but it made USC's inept athletic director Mike Garrett force Floyd to resign in June of 2009. Comically enough, Floyd cited "a loss of enthusiasm for coaching" as the reason for his resignation.
For those keeping score, the firing from USC became the third of Floyd's career; one that features 16 seasons as a college coach without advancing a team past the Sweet 16. When you combine that mediocrity with his supposed lack of enthusiasm to coach and his admission that he just isn't good at the darn coaching thing, well one might assume that good ol' Timmy was just about done coaching this sport.
Yet, this isn't the real world.
This isn't Wall Street where one mistake could land you blacklisted from any investment firm in the country. This isn't the Government where a wrong move could put you in jail. This is college basketball, where an admonished drunk who has been arrested three times for DUI's has become the front runner to take over at Houston University, a program that just removed its former coach who's had his fair share of allegation and scandal as well.
Maybe Floyd is the answer? Perhaps he will continue the success left by the now departed Tony Barbee, and keep the Miners right atop Conference-USA (they lose no one from a team that went 26-7). But maybe the more important question is: does he deserve the chance to do so?
Part II will come out later this week chronicling another recently hired College Basketball Coach
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