Another Retread Coach, Big Surprise

So USC hired a new basketball coach the other day. Did they go with some young, energetic, recruiting wiz that eats, drinks, and sleeps basketball? Someone like Josh Pastner? No, and its not exactly a reach to suggest USC SHOULD hire someone like a Josh Pastner. The situations are similar. Big name coach leaves (under different circumstances), school facing big time NCAA allegations, boatload of top flight recruits immediately jump ship. So how about taking the Memphis approach and hiring one of the best recruiting minds in the game, a la Josh Pasnter. Hell, its already worked for Memphis: Latavious Williams, the Barton brothers in 2010 and possibly even Lance Stephenson, jsut to name a few of Pastner's latest signings as head coach. But that's enough of the Josh Pastner show, let's take a look at Kevin O'Neill's pristine coaching record. 86-62 at Marquette. Decent, but this wasn't a Big East Marquette team. Losing records at Tennesse, Toronto Raptors, and Northwestern. Add in some mild success as the interim head coach at Arizona and O'Neill has a whopping 171-180 career record with 2 NCAA appearances. But look how his last gig at Arizona ended. O'Neill was tapped as the coach to be when Lute Olson retired. Well, Olson kept coaching and O'Neill got angry. He wanted the job. Guess what, Lute Olson is a LEGEND, he can do what he wants. Do you ever see Jimbo Fischer crying at FSU because Bobby Bowden won't retire? Well, poor Kevin ended up losing his spot at ARizona due to his incessant bitching. Not exactly a stellar career.
Now, before you start screaming that USC really had no options at this point in June considering their circumstances just go to Memphis and compare the situations. We already know that both programs are probably about to get raped by the NCAA. But USC is in the PAC 10, Memphis in the lowly Conference USA. USC is in LA, Memphis sucks. I don't know if you've ever been to USC before, but any athlete there is swimming in co-eds withink the first week of school. Its not a bad place to be for coaches or players. A young coach like Pastner could thrive in an environment like this. Recruit to a beautiful campus, great facilities and the fact that the young coach gets to build the program the way he wants it built. There are no Hall of Fame shoes to fill, only new legacies to be created. But hey, I'm not AD Mike Garrett. I didn't oversee the interviewing process, nor did I oversee the O.J. Mayo fiasco.
You ever hear the saying "You can't bullshit a bullshitter?" Stop trying Mike Garrett: "We're thrilled to have Kevin O'Neill as our men's basketball coach...His 30 years of experience at the college and professional levels has prepared him well for this opportunity." Bullshit. You are not excited at all. The program is in disarray and Kevin O'Neill won't change a thing. Recruits Lamont Jones and Renardo Sidney, the replacements for veterans Daniel Hackett and Taj Gibson, have bolted along with Noel Johnson and 6 other recruits. Also, DeMar Derozan and Marcus Johnson declared for the draft. In no way shape or form am I saying the program is dead. Far from it. I'm saying that Kevin O'Neill is not the right fit, not even close. Following in the Josh Pastner prototype would have been the smart move here. So, even in a very weak Pac 10, don't look for USC to make any kind of noise anytime soon.