Silence not always golden

Poor Tim Floyd.

The former Southern California basketball coach is aggrieved the USC administration didn’t support him when a former handler for O.J. Mayo — Floyd’s onetime one-season star — said he had received an envelope full of cash from Floyd, and that Mayo received gifts and money while playing for the Trojans.

All serious NCAA violations.

Floyd, who has hooked on as an assistant with the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets, is also unhappy so many people believe he was dirty.

“O.J. came to us, no shenanigans, no promises of money, of anything. O.J. the young man lived his college life with no car, no apartment. I just wish people would do research.”

Well, Tim, I did some research — on you, and I discovered that in the wake of Louis Johnson’s allegations, you said nothing — nada, niente, bupkis — to defend yourself. You ran from reporters with same speed Mayo uses in jacking up a shot.

Then you quit.

Now, the Garbo routine and the quitting might not be proof of guilt, but it doesn’t make me feel disposed to believe you now.

Cheaters never prosper? Au contraire

Kelvin Sampson cheats at Oklahoma, putting the hurt on the Sooners, then cheats at Indiana, nearly destroying that program. His punishment? An $800,000 “go-away-but-don’t-sue-us” package and a job as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks.

At Southern California, Tim Floyd allegedly not only looks the other way as money and other goodies are funneled to star guard O.J. Mayo, he reportedly acts as his own bagman in laying a cool thousand in cash on a Mayo associate. As a result, the Trojans might get hammered by the NCAA — an investigation is ongoing — but Floyd already has landed on his feet with an assistant’s job with the New Orleans Hornets.

The NBA Cares — about dirty coaches. Talk about your old-boy network.

Living good? Maybe. Thinking good? Definitely not

In April, with Southern Cal in the midst of an major NCAA investigation into alleged improprieties into the Trojans basketball program, University of Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood reportedly offered Trojans coach Tim Floyd the Wildcats’ job.

Floyd turned him down.

Two months later, following a new accusation that Floyd personally handed a recruit’s associate $1,000 in cash, Floyd has resigned as Trojans coach. The guessing now is that serious NCAA penalties are headed the Trojans’ way, and that Floyd is finished as a Division I coach.

All of which makes Livengood the luckiest AD in the land.

Friday column: This silence is not golden, but all too common

Accountability is big in sports — in concept, anyway — and is preached constantly, sometimes with the help of visual aids.

I remember former NFL coach Bum Phillips famously brandishing a short piece of white cord — the idea being, as I recall, that players were accountable to each other like mountain climbers. If you were headed over a cliff, you really needed the person on the other end to “hold the rope.”

But while accountability is preached in Toyland, it often is not practiced.
Take Tim Floyd at USC.

The Los Angeles Times said that at his team’s March 31 banquet, the men’s basketball coach pleaded with his most talented players to not turn pro but stay and help the Trojans win an NCAA title.

The next day — April fools! — Floyd flew to Tucson to interview for the University of Arizona job.

In May, Floyd — whose program already was the target of an NCAA probe into alleged goodies provided to former “one-and-done” star O.J. Mayo — was accused of acting as his own bagman in handing $1,000 in cash to a Mayo associate during the “recruitment” process.

More Trojan players and recruits jumped ship.

Tuesday, Floyd did, too, but how he did it is revealing. He gave a newspaper in his home state of Mississippi his resignation letter — before faxing it to USC. He told the newspaper he “intended” to contact his players and assistants — then turned off his cell phone. And presumably hid in the cellar.

To be fair to Floyd, who in his last weeks never so much as issued a simple denial of the charges facing him, he’s pretty much following USC’s modus operandi.

The Trojans’ football program is also under investigation for alleged NCAA infractions — serious infractions — yet neither coach Pete Carroll, athletic director Mike Garrett nor school President Steven Sample will say “boo” about the matter.

Things aren’t much better a few miles away at Dodger Stadium, where Manny Ramirez did talk to the press — but refused to answer questions about his 50-game drug suspension.
Ramirez said he had apologized to his teammates, fans and ownership but felt no need for further discourse. I guess being a star doesn’t mean never having to say you’re sorry but does mean never having to explain exactly what you’re sorry for.

“I didn’t kill nobody, I didn’t rape nobody, so that’s it,” Ramirez said.

Rape and homicide — so that’s where the accountability bar is set.

By that standard, Ramirez, Floyd, Carroll, Garrett and Sample don’t owe us a thing.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want any of them at the other end of my rope.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Can’t Tim Floyd afford a bag man?

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that USC basketball coach Tim Floyd allegedly graced a man with $1,000 in cash in 2007 to help steer star guard O.J. Mayo to the Trojans for his “one-and-done” season.

Louis Johnson, a former associated of Mayo and “runner” Rodney Guillory, said he saw Floyd and Guillory meet outside a stretch of Beverly Hills cafes on Valentine's Day in 2007. When Guillory returned to his car, where Johnson was waiting, he had the cash.

Johnson has given this information to investigators from the U.S. Attorney's Office, FBI, IRS and the NCAA.

A former sportswriter, Johnson said the moment he locked eyes with Floyd outside the café was telling. "He knew who I was, a writer," Johnson said. "I read body language well. He was uneasy. It was written all over his face."

USC, which is facing a major NCAA investigation not only over Mayo’s recruitment but also over money and benefits allegedly given to football star Reggie Bush, isn’t talking. Neither is Floyd.

How about a simple denial, Tim? No?

This isn’t looking good for the cardinal and gold.