Typically, when a team comes from out of nowhere and makes a nice run in the NCAA Tournament, that team’s coach becomes a hot commodity. While nobody can blame a coach from a small school striking while the iron is hot, one would have to wonder if this is a smart idea for the new school. Is a couple of hot weekends a trend? Or is it a fluke? To grab a coach you never heard of a few weeks earlier seems a bit risky.

Sometimes these hires do work out. Nobody ever heard of Bruce Pearl until he took Wisconsin-Milwaukee to the Sweet Sixteen. Tennessee hired him away and he took the Volunteers further than any coach they’ve had, including the great Ray Mears. Nobody knew Steve Alford was a head coach until he took the Missouri State Bears to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998. He turned that gig into a Big Ten job with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Alford had success at Iowa before moving on to the New Mexico Lobos. After making New Mexico a contender he was recently hired to take over the UCLA Bruins.

Gregg Marshall took the Winthrop Eagles to several NCAA Tournaments. He got to the Round of 32, after which we was hired by the Wichita State Shockers. He is taking the Shockers to the Final Four this season. But he had the Eagles in the NCAA Tournament several times before being hired away.

But then there are cases like Dan Monson, who was the coach who took the Gonzaga Bulldogs to the Elite Eight in 1999. He was snatched up by the Minnesota Golden Gophers where he was never able to get the Gophers headed in the right direction.

To hire a coach after one good tournament run is very risky. But if you are USC, and have to compete in the same city as UCLA, along with the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers, you need a hire that will get the fan base excited. Right now, Enfield is hot.

Enfield and his Eagles were not only a surprise team in this year’s tournament, but they were fun to watch. They played a high-flying up-tempo style that had fans referring to Ft. Myers, Florida as Dunk City. The Clippers play that same kind of style and have had the fans referring to their city as “Lob Angeles.” That style will do well in L.A.

But the pressure will be on Enfield to win big there. What fans need to remember is the Eagles came in second place in the Atlantic-Sun conference regular season this year to the Mercer Bears. What fans need to remember is the Eagles lost to St. John’s, Maine, Mercer, Stetson, East Tennessee, and Lipscomb (twice). So which team is the real Florida Gulf Coast? The one that beat Georgetown? Miami? San Diego State? Or the one that lost to VCU by 23? or Lipscomb twice? Or Stetson?

The Trojans are gambling on a coach that was really not on the radar two weeks ago. Nobody had FGCU as a possible darkhorse pick. There was really no sign of this coming. So to turn one good weekend into a high profile job like USC, really is amazing.

If he can turn USC into an entertaining team like FGCU was, and get them into the NCAA Tournament, he will own that campus. USC is more known for football than basketball so Enfield has a chance to be “the man” there, unlike UCLA where even if Alford wins big, he will always be below John Wooden. So USC makes perfect sense for Enfield. I’m just not sure that Enfield makes sense for USC.

 

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