Pete Carroll breaks news of USC bball hire

Uh, this from Friday's U.S. Open story:

Ian Poulter was watching from his hotel room after a hard-earned 70 from the morning wave, and he must have been shaking his head as he Twittered, "did anyone see mickelson hit 6 iron on the 3rd hole par 3. yesterday we was hitting 3 iron."

 

The only way I'll ever trust a tweet to be legit is if I'm sitting next to the athlete and watching him/her log-in and type the message.

Which kinda reduces the need to mention Twitter in my story to begin with.

 

I'll back up Kevin O'Neill here. Solid coach at Marquette before they returned to being serious about basketball again with the Tom Crean hire. He made the jump to Tennessee where he failed.

Yet his return to Northwestern came after the program was rocked with 1994 point-shaving scandal and more serious issues. They were competitive but still Northwestern (I'm still amazed that they can have a decent FB team for the last 15 years but still can't put it together for basketball...)

Assistant/interim HC in NBA for seven years -- surprised one (or more) of his players didn't kill him in the NBA.

In Arizona, they probably didn't like him (meaning Lute probably didn't like him) after he took over a messy spot there.

O'Neill is a tough guy but works his tail off. Look, as long as Pete Carroll is there, an honest effort to make USC into a UCLA-like level for basketball will never come off. Not enough priority.

 

Became an instant fan of Dixon upon seeing the story of him and his sister on Real Sports. Good for him.

 

Am I the only one thinking Carroll broke the news to remind O'Neill who the Alpha Male on campus really is?

 

Why hire Dixon with Pitt's history of shitting the bed in the NCAA tournament?

 

At USC? Pretty unnecessary.

 

Agreed, but then again, wasn't it Coach K who met with the Lakers the day a new president took over a few years ago? Same situation...nobody there, least of all the new prez, needs to know that when Coach K sneezes, 75 people better say "Bless you."

It's not enough for most of these guys to know they're The Man. They've got to remind everyone else all the time too. Though Carroll does seem a little different than the rest.

 

O'Neill is a better coach than he's given credit for. Got screwed at Arizona. Hard to say how he'll recruit, but with the way the Pac-10 is tilting toward defense, he makes a ton of sense and though I doubt he'll ever turn USC into a national power, I'd be surprised if the Trojans aren't playing for the tournament every March.

As for Dixon, his problem always has been getting his team past the Sweet 16. There are about 310 Division I programs each year that would love to have such an issue.

 

O'Neill did a bang-up job at Marquette (got them to the Sweet 16) after the debacle that was Bob Dukiet. But he wasn't the "right kind" of guy for Marquette -- basically administration types were appalled by his language. They were glad to let him go to Tennessee, then really shit the bed when they hired small-timer Mike Deane to replace him. They finally got it right with Crean. It remains to be seen if they got it right with Buzz Williams.

 

Yeah ... not sure if he is a program CEO type, but he coaches toughness and I suppose I love any coach who gives a shit about defense.