Raveling Denies That He Will Leave USC for University of Miami Job

George Raveling, USC’s basketball coach, said Tuesday that he has no plans to become the coach at the University of Miami.

A report by Miami’s NBC affiliate, picked up by KNBC’s Fred Roggin, said Raveling had talked with Sam Jankovick, athletic director at Miami, about replacing Miami Coach Bill Foster, who will retire at the end of the season.

Raveling said the rumor started because Jankovich was his boss at Washington State, where Raveling coached for 11 seasons. Jankovich and Raveling are friends.

“The only thing I can tell you is that I’m not a candidate for the Miami job,” Raveling said. “I never have been a candidate for the University of Miami job. It’s my goal to be the coach at USC for the next seven years because that would take me to 60.

“I’ve said in a hundred different ways that I love Los Angeles and that I love coaching at USC. And there hasn’t been anything that has transpired so far to make me want to leave USC. Obviously, I’ve had a bad won-lost record, but it hasn’t discouraged me to (the point that I) want to leave. I’ve never run from a fight in my life and I don’t plan to start now.”

Has Raveling talked to Jankovich about the Miami job?

“For a number of weeks,” said Raveling, whose Trojans are 7-10 this season. “But all of my conversations with him have been about other candidates. . . . As for him ever saying, ‘George, do you want to be a candidate?’ it’s never come up.”

Rich Dalrymple, Miami sports information director, said Jankovich is still in the preliminary stages of hiring a coach.

Raveling has one year left on his contract at USC, where he is 33-72 since replacing Stan Morrison in 1986.