Floyd says NCAA told him to get an attorney

Former USC basketball coach Tim Floyd said Tuesday night that in July 2008 an NCAA investigator, LuAnn Humphrey, called him and gave him a piece of advice.

“She told me I needed to get an attorney,” Floyd said. “I said I hadn’t done anything wrong. She said, ‘No, you need to get an attorney.’ ”

In a wide-ranging interview at Staples Center, Floyd said that Humphrey told him that the NCAA investigations involving Trojans football player Reggie Bush and basketball player O.J. Mayo were moving into the area of institutional control.

When Floyd told Humphrey that he hadn’t done anything wrong and that he didn’t need an attorney, Floyd said she told him, “You need to think about the Ohio State situation.”

Floyd said when he asked what that meant, Humphrey told Floyd to think about how when there were questions about Ohio State football player Maurice Clarrett, and how it was the Ohio State basketball program under Jim O’Brien that eventually suffered severe NCAA sanctions.

It was then, Floyd said, when he thought that USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett abandoned him.

“At that point,” Floyd said, “all support stopped. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Mike’s reputation took precedence over the truth. All loyalty, all support stopped.”

Floyd said he left USC without speaking publicly because his assistant coaches were still employed.

“My staff was all rehired,” Floyd said. “I don’t think they would have been rehired if they were part of a cheating staff. If I said what I wanted to say, I don’t think those guys would have been retained.”

Floyd resigned as USC coach June 9 in a one-page statement to Garrett. He accepted an assistant head coaching job with New Orleans Nov. 12 after Byron Scott was fired and replaced on an interim basis by General Manager Jeff Bower.

Floyd hadn’t spoken to Los Angeles-area media about the resignation until Tuesday night after the Hornets lost to the Lakers at Staples Center.

His USC resignation came amid allegations that he had paid a representative for Mayo. As rumors of possible sanctions against USC kept growing, a stellar Floyd recruiting class disassembled itself and three upperclassmen left for professional basketball.

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