Floyd returns to college ranks at Southern Cal

LOS ANGELES – Tim Floyd is back coaching college basketball after a tough ride in the NBA. He has work to do in his new job at Southern California – reviving a program that is a mere footnote at a school dominated by its national championship football team.

The Trojans have never been consistent winners on the basketball court, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this season.

“It’s going to be a challenge this first year and maybe year two,” Floyd said.

Only four scholarship players return from a team that finished last in the Pacific-10 Conference and 12-17 overall.

Henry Bibby was fired last December and replaced by Rick Majerus, who backed out of the job five days later to stay in television. That led the Trojans to Floyd, whom they hired in January. He attended one practice, then hit the road recruiting while Jim Saia coached the rest of the season.

“Everything has been centered around trying to put a team together for the future,” Floyd said.

The good news for Floyd is that he can begin rebuilding almost immediately.

Several players who stagnated under Bibby’s restrictive approach are gone, giving the newcomers valuable playing time.

Two of them – freshman Ryan Francis and 6-foot-11 junior Abdoulaye N’diaye from Senegal – are expected to start when USC opens the season Sunday against Cal State Northridge before heading to the Great Alaska Shootout.

“We really do have more control of our destinies because we’re in charge of the personnel,” Floyd said.

Also starting in the opener will be Lodrick Stewart, the team’s second-leading scorer with a 12.1-point average last season; sophomore Gabe Pruitt, the team’s co-MVP last season; and flashy sophomore Nick Young, who was third in scoring and fourth in rebounding last season.

“He knows how to get things going,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said of Floyd. “The challenge is going to be creating the culture that he wants.”

Floyd has been away from college coaching for seven years. He was successful at Idaho, the University of New Orleans and Iowa State – averaging 20.3 wins in 12 seasons combined – before leaving in 1998 to try the NBA.

He replaced Phil Jackson as coach of the Chicago Bulls in the post-Michael Jordan era, winning just 49 games while losing 190 in less than four seasons before resigning.

After practically getting run out of Chicago, Floyd moved on to the New Orleans Hornets but was fired in 2004.

Already, Floyd has noticed a vast difference in how he can approach college players.

“On defensive transition, I’d tell a guy to pick up his darn feet and get back on defense,” he said.

In the NBA, he joked, that same request would have sounded like, “Pick up your feet and get back on defense, please, sir.”

The Trojans will be playing their final season in the dumpy Sports Arena before moving to a new $147 million on-campus arena that will surely turn the eyes of new recruits.