Tim Floyd vs. Andy Enfield

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wicked

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This story makes Floyd look like a whiny pantload.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10051914/tim-floyd-says-andy-enfield-altercation
 
Mizzougrad96 said:
Floyd is a whiny pantload. He has been since he was at Iowa State.

Maybe so, but Enfield's taken some pretty harsh and unnecessary personal potshots at Floyd.
 
albert77 said:
Mizzougrad96 said:
Floyd is a whiny pantload. He has been since he was at Iowa State.

Maybe so, but Enfield's taken some pretty harsh and unnecessary personal potshots at Floyd.

True, and if USC really did tamper with a recruit UTEP already had signed than Floyd already had a reason to be pissed.

That said, I think this is cool. I was thinking back to the 80s and early 90s when more coaches were characters and personalities. College basketball was more fun and more popular back then. It seems to be tip-toeing in the direction again.
 
To me, it comes off as Tim Floyd still bitter over getting fired at USC and then not rehired by Haden (like he had a realistic shot).
 
How does USC benefit if the player ends up at UCLA.

The biggest problem with El Paso is that is just so far from other cities - the nearest MLB team is 400 miles away. El Paso is a very livable city and, despite being next to Juarez, a pretty safe city for anyplace with over a half-million people. The UTEP basketball team is the main athletic draw there, and there will be a Triple-A team in a new stadium in the city. The area around UTEP is a lot better than the area around USC, and the UTEP basketball program means a lot more than USC basketball.
 
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As much as I want to side with Andy Enfield and go against Tim Floyd, I still have a hard time respecting Enfield to say much of anything.

He's been a head coach for all of two years, took the "Stan Heath Expressway" to a big-time job at USC after beating a couple of sleepwalking teams in the NCAA tournament. He's never built a programs with his name out front. Always an assistant until Florida Gulf Coast.

At least Floyd built programs at Idaho, New Orleans and got Iowa State to a decent place before his NBA debacle. That I do respect.

If Enfield can win a few games in a conference where people care a little, then he should chirp.

(It's still interesting, I admit)
 
Gold said:
How does USC benefit if the player ends up at UCLA.

Enfield didn't know he'd resurface at UCLA when the alleged tampering happened.

My understanding of the Hamilton recruiting saga goes something like this: Originally signed a LOI to play for Floyd at UTEP. Enfield and staff then allegedly tampered by encouraging the kid to ditch Floyd and switch to USC. Kid notifies Floyd he wants to decommit. Floyd, angered by the alleged tampering, refuses to release him from his LOI. Meanwhile, as the bickering goes on between UTEP and USC, the kid ditches both schools and ends up at UCLA, where I believe he's sitting out this season because he never got the release.

If Enfied is guilty of tampering with Hamilton, it certainly backfired on him, as he's now at USC's crosstown rival instead of out in El Paso where he can't hurt him.
 
Stoney said:
Gold said:
How does USC benefit if the player ends up at UCLA.

Enfield didn't know he'd resurface at UCLA when the alleged tampering happened.

My understanding of the Hamilton recruiting saga goes something like this: Originally signed a LOI to play for Floyd at UTEP. Enfield and staff then allegedly tampered by encouraging the kid to ditch Floyd and switch to USC. Kid notifies Floyd he wants to decommit. Floyd, angered by the alleged tampering, refuses to release him from his LOI. Meanwhile, as the bickering goes on between UTEP and USC, the kid ditches both schools and ends up at UCLA, where I believe he's sitting out this season because he never got the release.

If Enfied is guilty of tampering with Hamilton, it certainly backfired on him, as he's now at USC's crosstown rival instead of out in El Paso where he can't hurt him.

As long as the kid is playing for Steve Alford, he still can't hurt him.
 
Enfield sounds like he could use some humility...but how much do you want to bet Floyd's continued to recruit guys who've committed somewhere else?

Do any of these guys have great morals?
 
Elliotte Friedman said:
Enfield sounds like he could use some humility...but how much do you want to bet Floyd's continued to recruit guys who've committed somewhere else?

Do any of these guys have great morals?

In the case in question, the kid was not merely "committed" -- which as we all know is a load of crap -- but had actually SIGNED a letter of intent with UTEP. That is an enormous difference.
 
Elliotte Friedman said:
Enfield sounds like he could use some humility...but how much do you want to bet Floyd's continued to recruit guys who've committed somewhere else?

Do any of these guys have great morals?

College basketball is a little like The Wire or the wild west. These murders, hustlers and thieves generally have a moral code, it just doesn't necessarily conform to the law, in this case the NCAA rulebook. Scott Drew is despised by other coaches and looked at as a cheater even though the stuff that pisses them off isn't necessarily "illegal." I bet most coaches would rather lose a recruit because the other program offered (more) cash than have one poached after signing.

It seems like Enfield has done a few things that aren't acceptable in the world of college basketball coaches. Maybe it's partially because he didn't spend the years as an assistant learning the way that world works.
 
Jake_Taylor said:
Elliotte Friedman said:
Enfield sounds like he could use some humility...but how much do you want to bet Floyd's continued to recruit guys who've committed somewhere else?

Do any of these guys have great morals?

College basketball is a little like The Wire or the wild west. These murders, hustlers and thieves generally have a moral code, it just doesn't necessarily conform to the law, in this case the NCAA rulebook. Scott Drew is despised by other coaches and looked at as a cheater even though the stuff that pisses them off isn't necessarily "illegal." I bet most coaches would rather lose a recruit because the other program offered (more) cash than have one poached after signing.

It seems like Enfield has done a few things that aren't acceptable in the world of college basketball coaches. Maybe it's partially because he didn't spend the years as an assistant learning the way that world works.

This is it exactly. They all expect the cheating and they all engage it, to some form or fashion. It's the guys who cross certain other lines, some of them based on unwritten rules, that are universally despised.
 
printit said:
Jake_Taylor said:
Elliotte Friedman said:
Enfield sounds like he could use some humility...but how much do you want to bet Floyd's continued to recruit guys who've committed somewhere else?

Do any of these guys have great morals?

College basketball is a little like The Wire or the wild west. These murders, hustlers and thieves generally have a moral code, it just doesn't necessarily conform to the law, in this case the NCAA rulebook. Scott Drew is despised by other coaches and looked at as a cheater even though the stuff that pisses them off isn't necessarily "illegal." I bet most coaches would rather lose a recruit because the other program offered (more) cash than have one poached after signing.

It seems like Enfield has done a few things that aren't acceptable in the world of college basketball coaches. Maybe it's partially because he didn't spend the years as an assistant learning the way that world works.

This is it exactly. They all expect the cheating and they all engage it, to some form or fashion. It's the guys who cross certain other lines, some of them based on unwritten rules, that are universally despised.

College basketball assistant coaches are a very tight breed for the most part, even those from rival schools. They nibble on hot dogs up in the stands and play the same low-stakes gambling games ("guess the combined last number of both teams' scores - with the payout at each timeout" is a favorite when scouting high school or other college games).

They gossip about openings.

It's the ultimate networking atmosphere because they could get canned at anytime. They all know they serve at the whim of the head coach and the W-L record.

This is also what got Bruce Pearl blackballed for a decade from major schools when he was an assistant at Iowa and taped a conversation with an Illinois assistant. What he did wasn't illegal but it was seen as breaking the code.

College coaches, in general, look out for each other. I've seen fired coaches at major colleges with no other good prospects get picked up as the last assistant in the NBA. Keeps them in the circus even if they just hold a clipboard.

Enfield did most of his time as an NBA assistant. He wasn't driving around New Hampshire to recruit Division III guys to play at Middlebury, for example. He wasn't ducking gunfire in Chicago to pull a kid to play at IUPUI.

So when these college basketball lifers see him come in and get into a tiff with Tim Floyd - who was cleared of wrongdoing at USC - I could see how it would chap them.

The lifers are Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross while Enfield is Alec Baldwin.
 
Jake_Taylor said:
It seems like Enfield has done a few things that aren't acceptable in the world of college basketball coaches. Maybe it's partially because he didn't spend the years as an assistant learning the way that world works.

I think that's fair. From my side, having known Enfield since he was 12, he's basically a goofy but good guy who is still pinching himself. He's going to make mistakes.
 

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