COMMENTARY : Program Is Tough Sell for Garrett

Already 0-1 in its quest for a coach, USC is dangerously close to “America’s Funniest Job Search” status. One more rejection from someone on the Trojan short list and it will be time to alert Bob Saget.

So far, USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett has dangled the job in front of Seth Greenberg, only to get outbid by Long Beach State.

The Trojans contacted Utah’s Rick Majerus--smart move--but then backed off when they discovered Majerus made some serious green stuff and had a five-year rollover contract--bad move.

Garrett made other inquiries, going so far as to hop a plane to North Carolina last weekend to visit Tommy Amaker, an assistant coach at Duke. Following earlier form, Garrett stuck a low-ball offer on the table and hoped Amaker wouldn’t notice. Surprise, he did.

Garrett did the same sort of thing with Greenberg, adding a vague promise of reworking the contract if the Trojans started winning in the next couple of years. Classic bait-and-switch stuff. It didn’t work.

What Garrett can’t--or won’t--understand is that USC basketball has all the attraction of a heaping portion of fried smelt with a side order of Spam. It is the estranged program of the Pacific 10 Conference right now and becoming less of a factor with every loss.

Put yourself in Greenberg’s place a few weeks ago. Or Amaker’s today. Consider the USC situation.

P ro: Garrett, a real USC guy, is the athletic director.

Con: Garrett, a real USC guy, is the athletic director.

According to those who know him, Garrett’s greatest strength--his blind love of USC--also might be his greatest weakness. The story goes that Garrett thinks there are two kinds of people other than Trojans: those who wish they could be at USC, and those whose only purpose is to play USC teams.

Garrett is a hands-on athletic director, which is fine unless you’re the one with Garrett’s thumbprints all over your program.

For instance, Garrett is a frequent visitor to the Trojan locker room at halftime of home games and afterward too. He has interrupted halftime coaching meetings and asked if he could address the players. The speeches reportedly are inspirational enough, but there isn’t a coach in America who wants his athletic director hanging out near the shower stalls while the staff plots second-half strategy.

Garrett also has taken over the scheduling duties, which isn’t exactly a selling point. Coaches like to do that themselves or, at the very least, be a partner in the process.

Pro: Revised NCAA recruiting rules favor a program located in a metropolitan area such as USC.

Con: Here’s what recruits see: Arguably the worst Division I practice facility in America. North Gym has a high school-sized court, brick walls at baseline’s edge and lighting from the Thomas Edison era. Worse yet, it has to be shared with women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, the physical education department and the intramural department.

No wonder the USC administration was thrilled when former coach George Raveling had the Trojans practice at 5:30 a.m.

Pro: USC can sell its image, its academics, its campus and its legendary “Trojan Family” network.

Con: What it can’t sell is tradition. When it comes to basketball, the Trojans can only whistle “Victory,” and play the same Paul Westphal highlight film over and over.

And did we mention the team in Westwood?

Pro: Those recruits in the Midwest and East love the warm weather.

Con: OK, the recruit agrees to an official visit. You pick him up at LAX and the first thing he wants to see is your on-campus arena. Problem is, you don’t have an on-campus arena. You’ve got the Sports Arena, which might be one of the three worst facilities in the NBA. For $7 you can park and get panhandled at the same time. There’s no college feel, no flavor, no atmosphere.

Said a USC insider: “The alums want to feel like they’re coming back to campus. You know, ‘Remember that all-nighter we pulled,’ that sort of thing. They don’t say that when they’re at the corner of Martin Luther King and Figueroa.”

Pro: The Pac-10 is gaining a reputation as one of the five best conferences in the country.

Con: USC is gaining a reputation as a Pac-10 have-not. The typical negative recruiting stuff: “You’ll love it at USC, especially if you enjoy playing in front of 14,000 empty seats.” . . . “By the time USC builds its talent base, you’ll be receiving letters from the alumni association.” . . . “Didn’t Seth Greenberg turn down that job?”

Wake up and smell the 1990s, USC. Right now, it’s a nice program to beat, but you wouldn’t want to coach there. Not on the cheap, you wouldn’t.