Majerus at Center of Radar

Time hasn’t officially expired on the Jim Saia era of USC basketball, but Trojan administrators are moving quickly to hit the buzzer.

USC apparently remained focused on making a high-profile hire as the interim coach lost in his debut, 71-68, Wednesday night to Fresno State at the Sports Arena. Although the team did some things better in its first game since the firing of Henry Bibby, Athletic Director Mike Garrett and Daryl Gross, the senior associate athletic director, are thinking of the big picture.

Officials have spoken with former Utah coach Rick Majerus. Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal (USC ‘72) has his supporters, and others are on deck for a position Garrett hopes to soon have filled on a permanent basis regardless of how the team performs under Saia.

“It could be 10 days, it could be 14 days,” Garrett said.

It’s not personal, he continued, it’s just business.

“I think he has a great chance to show his wares,” Garrett said of Saia, “but never did I say he had a chance to vie for the job.”

So Saia has no shot?

“I would think he has a remote chance,” Garrett said.

And apparently becoming more remote each time Majerus speaks with the Trojans.

“I’ve talked to them, they’ve talked to me and I anticipate we’re going to talk again in the next few days,” said Majerus, working as an ESPN studio analyst.

“I really don’t want to get into who I’ve talked to over there or anything like that. We’ve just talked. That’s really all there is to it right now.”

With Garrett setting the pace and Gross at the point (“I’m talking to people and I’m talking fast,” Gross said), the Trojans are thinking big, which seemingly puts Majerus at the front of the line.

Garrett’s checklist:

* Experience? Majerus spent 15 years in Utah.

* Overall success? A .767 winning percentage.

* NCAA tournament appearances? The Utes had 10 under Majerus and reached the 1998 national-title game.

“We go after the best people,” Gross said. “We consider him one of the best people, and we need that type of impact.”

Of course, USC would strongly consider many candidates if this were only about basketball, which it isn’t. The hiring of the next coach is more about the mind-set of an athletic department emboldened by the resurgence of the top-ranked football program.

The Trojans again believe they should be among the nation’s elite in every sport. Despite Bibby’s success (three NCAA tournament berths, one NIT appearance in eight-plus seasons), the basketball program lagged far behind football the last three years.

Garrett wants someone to close the gap and stir excitement as USC enters the 10,300-seat Galen Center to start the 2006-07 season and provide the athletic department with two consistent major revenue-generating programs.

Call it keeping up with the Carrolls.

“We’re recruiting people, but at the same time people are recruiting us,” Gross said of the coaching search.

“That’s the nice thing about this. People see the potential of USC basketball.”

Having previously been an assistant at UCLA, Saia understands how things work.

“I can’t worry about who’s going to get this job. If I do that I’d go crazy,” he said. “I have to coach the kids, enjoy the kids, and be the best I can be.”

Getting the USC job is the only thing that would bring Majerus out of retirement, two of his friends said this week. He enjoys working for ESPN, but living in the Southland and having a $114-million arena as a recruiting tool would be too much to reject.

As for Garrett’s possible two-week time frame, Majerus said that’s news to him.

“There’s no rush on my part and there’s no time frame for me,” he said. “They have a coach who’s going to coach there until the end of the season.” And if something changed?

“Well, two weeks is a long time,” Majerus said. “I’ll tell you that a lot of things can happen in two weeks.”