USC finds a basketball coach; hires Kevin O’Neill

After a ten day search for its next head basketball coach, USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett announced that the Trojans had hired former Arizona coach Kevin O’Neill. O’Neill, who has previously coached at Marquette (1990-94), Tennessee (1995-97) and Northwestern (1998-2000), was last scene as the interim coach at Arizona in 2008 when Lute Olson took a leave of absence. During that season, he led the Wildcats to a 19-15 mark and an NCAA tournament birth. Now, after a year away from coaching, O’Neill is set to return to the Pac-10, as head coach of the Trojans.

“We’re thrilled to have Kevin O’Neill as our men’s basketball coach,” Garrett said in a press release. “Kevin is the consummate coach. He knows his Xs and Os, he’s an excellent recruiter and he is very in tune with the academic side of a player’s collegiate experience. His 30 years of experience at the college and professional levels has prepared him well for this opportunity.

“I love his coaching philosophy and principles: he’s a no-nonsense coach who is very detail-oriented and prepares his teams well. He stresses defense and I’ve always believed that defense wins championships.”

The last time USC tried to hire a well-respected assistant coach with some head coaching experience was when Paul Hackett was hired as the school’s head football coach in 1998. In three years on the job, he failed miserably, compiling a mediocre record of 19-18. 

The idea of bringing in a coach like O’Neill has very little appeal to most Trojan fans, as many are expecting a full nose dive into basketball irrelevancy with a coach expected to bring little national spotlight to a USC program.

But if anything is clear, O’Neill’s hiring appears to be a stop-gap measure for a program  expected to be hit with NCAA sanctions in the coming months. O’Neill, who holds a Master’s Degree in Education and is known as a squeaky clean guy, was likely put in charge of the USC program to do one thing: keep it out of trouble. Judging by his reputation as an ethical coach and experience at rebuilding troubled programs such as Marquette, Tennessee, and Northwestern; there is a strong possibility that he will be able to turn USC into a more stable and clean program. The question is whether there will be any W’s.