Dan Hubbs to remain baseball coach at USC

Dan Hubbs will remain as USC’s baseball coach.

The Trojans took a $1-million-plus run at coaxing over UCLA Coach John Savage, but when that advance was spurned, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden decided to stay with Hubbs.

Haden said Monday that USC was working on “a long-term contract” with Hubbs, who was promoted from associate head coach to the top spot when Frank Cruz was fired only weeks before the start of last season.

Hubbs was not immediately available for comment.

Haden acknowledged that Hubbs was “unproven” as a head coach, but expressed confidence that he had “a good future ahead of him.”

Recruiting is key for USC, a high-cost private school with only 11.7 scholarships to split among 30 or so players. But Haden said he thinks that Hubbs “understands how to work it.”

Hubbs, 42, is a former USC pitcher who spent seven years in minor league baseball and 12 years as an assistant at Cal before coming to USC in 2012.

In his final season at Cal, 2011, the Golden Bears, playing in a program that was nearly discontinued because of budget cuts, advanced to the College World Series. That team had 11 shutouts and was second in the Pac-10 Conference with a 2.90 earned run average.

The Times reported last week that USC had offered Savage, a former Trojans pitching coach, more than $1 million to move across town.

However, Savage, whose UCLA program is fresh off its first national championship, decided to stay put with a contract extension that runs through 2025.

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