About a month ago, I wrote a post about USC’s Tim Floyd and how there were rumors circulating that he “bought” OJ Mayo. An investigation by the NCAA ensued and is still underway. Yet, Tim Floyd took matters into his own hands and recently resigned as head coach.

Tim Floyd resigned on Tuesday, perhaps due to speculation about NCAA recruiting violations concerning former player, OJ Mayo.

I know that you are innocent until proven guilty, but when you bow out like this it only makes everyone think that you are guilty. According to Rivals.com, “Floyd didn’t address the allegation in his letter to USC athletic director Mike Garrett, which was obtained by the Clarion-Ledger and also released by USC in a statement.”

In the letter, Floyd said he was resigning due to lack of enthusiasm. I find that hard to believe. He has only been USC’s head coach for four seasons. Maybe he was forced to resign, or maybe he felt that the Yahoo! Sports report about the alleged allegations had tainted his career at USC. Whatever the real reason is doesn’t matter. Floyd’s coaching career will be tainted no matter where he goes.

USC, meanwhile, is now dealing with two separate investigations into the school’s football and basketball programs.

“The University is cooperating fully in the continuing investigation with the NCAA and Pac-10 into all allegations of NCAA and Pac-10 rules violations at USC,” USC vice president Todd Dickey said in a statement Tuesday. “The university, the NCAA and Pac-10 have jointly conducted interviews of approximately 50 witnesses. No conclusions have yet been reached. … At this point, it would be both inappropriate and premature to comment further.”

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with Dickey. Conclusions by the media and the general public have already been reached. And they aren’t good.

Photo: Zuma

And not the kind you spread on a turkey sandwich, either.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Tim Floyd paid a man named Rodney Guillory,who helped deliver O.J. Mayo to the Trojans program.

Tim Floyd is under investigation for reportedly paying someone to bring O.J. Mayo to USC.

This information was given by a former friend of Mayo’s, Louis Johnson, who told NCAA officials (as well as the FBI, IRS and U.S. Attorney’s Office) that Floyd gave at least $1,000 in cash to Guillory so that he could continue to ply Mayo with star treatment and numerous gifts.

Didn’t USC learn anything from the Reggie Bush scandal? The college is already under a three-year investigation for violating NCAA regulations in both the football and men’s basketball programs.

But beyond all of that, I have one important question.  Was O.J. Mayo even worth it?

Image: Newscom

Soon after I wrote about how Davidson Coach Bob McKillop received a contract extension through the 2015-16 season and won’t be around long enough before heading for the bigger and better, UCLA’s Ben Howland signed a deal lasting through the 2014-15 season this week. The new extension will pay Howland $1.97 million next season and $2.3 million in the final year, plus incentives that could top out at $235,000 a year.

And again I say, yeah, right!

Howland won’t see that $2.3 million because he won’t be at UCLA to collect it.

Howland is an even bigger commodity than McKillop. First off, he’s been to the Final Four three consecutive times. Second he coaches in the media capital of the world where everyone is watching him – especially NBA executives. And third, he coaches at UCLA, not known for keeping coaches for a long time unless their name happens to be John Wooden.

I’m predicting that Howland and the Bruins will win a national title or multiple titles before the 2014-15 season. And when that happens the NBA will call. Hey, it may even happen before the Bruins finally win one under Howland. All Howland needs is a few more solid seasons and some pro team in desperate need of a new makeup, new direction, or someone fresh to lead a team that just stinks will call him.

The NBA is tempting for just about every college coach. It was for Larry Brown, Jerry Tarkanian, Tim Floyd, Mike Montgomery and Rick Pitino just to name a few. Only Brown was able to win at both levels – at the University of Kansas and with the Detroit Pistons.

Howland is a good if not great coach. There’s no way he will resist the temptation of the NBA before 2014-15, especially since he plays in the same town that houses the Los Angeles Clippers.

What were most of you doing when you were in the eighth grade?

For some of us (especially me), it was an awkward time of trying to fit in with the cool kids or any kids for that matter who share some of your interests and awkwardness among other things. Dating was starting to become a reality as well as other things like facial and chest hair, change in voice and zits.

And if you were developing athletic skills of any kind, all you wanted to do was make it to high school, and playing anywhere beyond that was a dream at best no matter how talented you were.

Not so anymore today folks.

For some insane reason, some college basketball coaches are becoming so desperate that not only are they recruiting high school underclassmen, now they are hitting up the junior high and middle schools for commitments too.

Choosing a high school with a decent basketball program is difficult enough, now college basketball coaches want you to decide where you’re going to before you attend your first high school dance or beaten up by your first high school senior.

According to the Associated Press, Michael Avery, an eighth grader from Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks, CA has already committed to the University of Kentucky. He was recruited by Wildcats Coach Billy Gillispsie, who was scouting an AAU event Avery was playing in Akron, Ohio, making him the youngest player ever to be recruited by the Wildcats.

The 6-foot-4 Avery is likely to grow more and get even bigger. But who knows where his mental attitude will be by the time he gets to his senior year? And for that matter, who knows where Kentucky will? Kentucky has had problems with the NCAA before, and if it happens again or if they happen to stink up Rupp Arena by the time Avery is ready to enroll, rest assured he and his parents will do everything they can to get him out of that commitment and into another school.

On Thursday, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (that’s NABC for all you acronym junkies) said it is opposed to eighth graders committing without completing their sophomore year of high school and wants this to stop. NCAA rules stipulate that coaches aren’t even supposed to contact players before mid-June following their sophomore season.

According to the AP, the NABC board of directors said that the decision was made in part, because younger athletes had not yet “demonstrated sufficient academic credentials” to be admitted to school.

So you mean those eighth grade sewing or print shop classes don’t count towards enrollment into schools like Florida, Connecticut, North Carolina or Kansas?

To make matters worse, this isn’t the first time college coaches have made recruiting trips to middle schools. In 2006, USC Coach Tim Floyd got Ryan Boatright and Dwayne Poole Jr., both from the Southern California area to commit before entering high school.

But I digress. Even though the idea of recruiting kids before they hit high school may be a little silly (and a little weird), if I can get Floyd, Ben Howland at UCLA or Mike Krzyzewski at Duke to come and take a look at my kid and offer him an early scholarship that would be great.

My son is four years old and over three and a half feet tall. He as wicked ball handling skills and has been dunking on his Playskool basketball hoop since he was two and a half. My wife and I already have a college fund set up for him, but if he can get a college scholarship now, we can blow his college money on that trip to Europe we’ve always wanted to take, an HD television or on gas.

We’re paying well over $4.50 a gallon out here in Southern California!

OJ Mayo is an amazing talent. He is a pure scorer. He can score from inside or outside. He is athletic and charismatic. He is a sure-fire top 10 pick in next year’s NBA draft.

(Channeling Captain Jack Ross from A Few Good Men…)These are the facts, and they are indisputable.

Everybody assumes that Mayo is going to turn pro after his freshman season, and I really don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t. Read more