Bruins’ first-round foe plays game the right way
It is the mystery opponent, Mississippi Valley State. Champion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament, located in Itta Bena, Miss., with an enrollment of 3,767.
And the place where Jerry Rice played college football. That’s what most of the UCLA players know about their first-round NCAA tournament opponent. Tim Floyd, coach of the Bruins’ crosstown rival, USC, knows a little more.
James Green, who was Floyd’s assistant at Iowa State, coaches the Delta Devils.
“I called James last night to congratulate him after his win to get into the tournament,” Floyd said. “I should have sent my condolences. He’s got a tough draw here.”
Floyd discovered Green in 1986. “It was my first year as coach at Idaho,” Floyd said. “I went to see a player at Jim Hill High in Jackson, Miss. When I came out of the gym I told one of my coaches it was a great day.
“He said, ‘You liked the kid?’ I said I didn’t like the kid but I found a coach. I wanted to hire this guy one day. He ran the best high school practice I’d ever seen.”
Green is in his third year as head coach at Mississippi Valley State, but he has been at several major programs. He was head coach for eight seasons at Southern Mississippi, where Floyd’s father once coached. Floyd said Green was the assistant coach at Alabama who recruited Antonio McDyess.
“I’ve never known him to play anything other than man-to-man defense,” Floyd said. “His team will try to take care of the ball, try to take great shots and he’ll look meaner than [former Purdue coach] Gene Keady on the sidelines, but he’s a nice guy. They have ordinary players at best, but they play the game the right way.”
In his eight seasons as head coach at Southern Mississippi, Green led the Golden Eagles to two 20-win seasons and two trips to the NIT.
“I remember talking to Bob Huggins, John Calipari, Charlie Spoonhour, when they were all in Conference USA and they all told me the same thing -- that there wasn’t a better coach in the league.”
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