USC Hires New Basketball Coach

[RManske2]

Courtesy of ESPN
 

LOS ANGELES -- Southern California has hired Andy Enfield as men's basketball coach after he took Florida Gulf Coast to the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Athletic director Pat Haden said Monday night that Enfield has reached an agreement to take over at the Pac-12 school.
A source told ESPN.com's Andy Katz Enfield's deal is for six years.
Enfield was earning $157,000 a year at Florida Gulf Coast, but according to a source with direct knowledge, the USC deal will pay him "well over $1 million a year."
"My family and I are thrilled to join the Trojan Family and be part of the unparalleled athletic tradition at USC," Enfield said in a statement released by USC. "In meeting with Pat Haden, I was very impressed with his vision for the men's basketball program. I am looking forward to bringing an exciting, up-tempo style of play to USC and building the men's basketball brand into one that the fans and basketball community will enjoy and respect."
Haden says Enfield's success at FGCU was "not a flash in the pan" and that his up-tempo style and stingy defense will be fun for both the Trojans players and fans.
Before taking over Gulf Coast in 2011, Enfield spent five seasons as as assistant at Florida State and has spent time in the NBA as an assistant with the Bucks and Celtics.
"Andy has been successful in every area of his life," said Haden. "He has been a success on the court as a record-setting player, in the classroom as an Academic All-American, in the corporate world with successful businesses, in his personal life as a husband and father, as an NBA assistant and shooting coach, as a collegiate assistant at Florida State and most recently as a head coach with his Sweet Sixteen team at Florida Gulf Coast," Haden said in a statement.
The 43-year-old coach was 41-28 in his two seasons at the Fort Myers, Fla., school. He led the Eagles to a school-record 26 wins this season, including upsets of No. 2 seed Georgetown and No. 7 seed San Diego State as a 15th-seed in the NCAA tourney.
Enfield scored 2,025 points at Division III Johns Hopkins, and his 92.5 free throw percentage set the NCAA all-divisions career record.
Enfield takes over from interim coach Bob Cantu, who had a 7-8 record after succeeding Kevin O'Neill, who was fired in mid-January.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 
I'll be honest, I am somewhat disappointed by this for a few reasons.  One, I am not a fan of USC so anytime they do something I don't like it.  Second, I was enjoying riding the Florida Gulf Coast bandwagon during their recent NCAA Tournament run.

But in reality I can't fault Enfield for taking a huge pay raise and moving to a big name school.  I don't know much about the guy's prior coaching but wonder if this is USC just trying to catch the headlines by going with the hot name of the week (and the coach's wife). 

 

[jonathanlambert33]

All this because the team got hot.

 

[Pugz]

holy shit, that was fast.