USC hires... Kevin O'Neill?

by Grady. on Jun 21, 2009 9:15 AM PDT in The Pac-10 Comment 10 comments

Kevin O'Neil was 19-15 in one year at Arizona, and 72-48 in five years coaching the muppet rec league team.

So, let's recap. USC head coach Tim Floyd reportedly takes the same position at Arizona earlier this Spring. Only the next morning we find out he didn't actually take the job and was spending a relaxing evening at home thinking about it. Arizona goes on to hire Xavier coach Sean Miller.

A couple of months later, despite the fact there was some mild turmoil already which he hadn't been fired for, Tim Floyd resigns from USC. Was he forced to resign? Most likely. Was it two and a half months after the end of the season, when the coaching carousel has already passed? Most definitely.

So USC hires former-interim-Arizona coach ~~Sam The Eagle~~ Kevin O'Neill, because, hey, he's a coach with Pac-10 experience. That's all you need, right? Besides, Jay John is busy finally winning games again as an assistant up at Cal-Berkeley.

If you ever needed definitive proof that USC is punting basketball for football, this has to be it.

Maybe O'Neill will prove me wrong. But let's face it, the poor guy is walking into a NCAA hornet's nest.

0 recs | Comment 10 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Color me completely unimpressed

Katz gushes about the hire here, but what exactly has O’Neill done to deserve such praise?

1989-94: Marquette, head coach (86-62, 58.1 percent)
1994-97: Tennessee, head coach (36-47, 43.4 percent)
1997-2000: Northwestern, head coach (30-56, 34.9 percent)
2000-01: New York Knicks, assistant coach
2001-03: Detroit Pistons, assistant coach
2003-04: Toronto Raptors, head coach (33-49, 40 percent)
2004-06: Indiana Pacers, assistant coach
2006-07: Indiana Pacers, consultant
2007-2008: Arizona, interim head coach (19-15, 55.9 percent)

What in the world makes this a good hire? The guy has done nothing in 20 years to prove he can win games long term. He was so impressive at Arizona that Lute Olsen fired him after that one year, and Jim Livengood went along with it. The guy is going to have to recruit a special kind of kid — one that will sell out of defense and loves getting yelled at. He can probably make out OK on the former, but the latter I’m not so sure of.

CougCenter

by Nuss on Jun 21, 2009 9:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Sorry

The Katz thing is here: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=4274871

CougCenter

by Nuss on Jun 21, 2009 9:27 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well if you just look at his time at Marquette...

he looks ok.

by cfred on Jun 21, 2009 10:31 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Except that he's been more or less terrible everywhere else he's been

I’d wager to say I probably could have gotten 19 wins out of Chase Budinger, Jarryd Bayless and Jordan Hill …

CougCenter

by Nuss on Jun 22, 2009 12:17 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That made me actually lol.

But you could be right. Yet with your lack of reputation… you might have a hard time recruiting.

by cfred on Jun 22, 2009 12:22 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think O'Neill is going to have similar trouble

I love it how Katz makes it sound like berating people is a quality to be admired.

CougCenter

by Nuss on Jun 22, 2009 2:54 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

How crazy would that have been:

If USC and UA had simply swapped coaches?

by cfred on Jun 22, 2009 12:23 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Well coaches from two seasons ago that is...

by cfred on Jun 22, 2009 1:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like this hire

SC hoops can become the new (or is it old, but not too old) OSU. bad

Dude reminds me of a former WSU coach, good hoops mind, terrible HC

by woolybugger on Jun 23, 2009 8:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

My Question:

What has Andy Katz done to become the expert on college basketball? To me he looks like a college kid drop out that couldn’t cut the academic load. Why is he the guy, better yet why do we even bother to listen to the clown? I’d rather listen to Dicky V over someone that popped out of nowhere and somebody at ESPN offered him the label of “guy to listen too”.

The O’Neill hire is a “stay afloat” hire. Believe me, they don’t expect Kevin [yawn] O’Neill to compete for Pac 10 championships or league tournament titles. They hired this guy to keep the ship afloat so that when the NCAA has bugged out- the USC brass could then hire someone else to take it back to the top. O’Neill has become a bigtime basketball baby sitter.

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Jun 24, 2009 7:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs