That nutty college hoops coaching carousel

In the wake of Tony Barbee’s departure to take the Auburn job, UTEP decided to look into its not so distant past for a replacement.  Nothing wrong with that, but when the guy turns out to be Tim Floyd, it’s a bit of a head scratcher.

Floyd basically resigned from Southern Cal because he handed cash to Rodney Guillory, a handler for O.J. Mayo.  It’s a charge Floyd has denied, but when a guy quits during an investigation, I pretty much presume him to be guilty.  If the glove even sort of fits, you must not acquit.

We know for sure that Guillory provided Mayo with improper benefits.  But apparently UTEP has received assurances that Floyd will not be punished in connection with the allegations at USC.  Where did those assurances come from?  Nobody is saying for sure at this point.

Floyd, who was an assistant at UTEP under Don Haskins from 1978 to 1986, joins football coach Mike Price as the second scandal ridden dude to find an oasis in the El Paso desert.

Beyond having the same employer, it seems that the figure of $1,000 also links Floyd and Price:  that’s supposedly the amount that Tim paid to Guillory and was around the amount that a stripper charged to Mike’s credit card for room service in that Pensacola hotel room.

Man, Floyd seemingly gets off easy while a guy like Morgan State’s Todd Bozeman, who has more than paid his dues since that ugliness at Cal, still walks around with a scarlet “A” on his clipboard.  Doesn’t seem fair.

While UTEP courted controversy with its hire, St. John’s hired a guy who hasn’t coached at all in seven seasons.  Steve Lavin last patrolled a sideline in 2003, the year UCLA pink slipped him.

It’s not like Lavin has dropped the game altogether, he’s been a pretty solid analyst for ESPN during his hiatus from coaching.  But can he recruit at a program that doesn’t possess nearly the name recognition it once did?

St. John’s was scrambling at this point, they had already been spurned by Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt and Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg.  If the search had gone on much longer guys like Gene Keady and Lou Henson would have been brought in for interviews.

When a school looking for a coach ends up with its third or fourth choice, it’s not necessarily a great thing.  Refer to Kentucky hiring Billy Gillispie and Auburn hiring Jeff Lebo for proof of that.  I like Lavin a lot, but he’s stepping into a very tough situation he might not be equipped to handle.

One guy who had been a frontrunner for the St. John’s job was Boston College’s Al Skinner.  He’s now out of a job himself, thanks to AD Gene DeFilippo, the dude who doesn’t take kindly to his employees expressing ANY interest in other gigs.

Remember when then-BC football coach Jeff Jagodzinski interviewed with the New York Jets last year?  DeFilippo canned him over that.  Then Skinner has the nerve to seriously discuss another job as well?  If I’m Boston College women’s lacrosse coach Bowen Holden, I would say nothing but “I love me some BC!!!” whenever DeFilippo is around.

Richmond’s Chris Mooney and Harvard’s Tommy Amaker (both of whom are no strangers to controversy) have emerged as candidates for the BC job during this early speculation phase.  No word yet on whether or not the next coach will have to sign his contract in blood and have a maroon and gold eagle tattooed on his forehead.

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