Trojans Make Progress Toward Hiring of Floyd

USC moved closer Thursday to introducing Tim Floyd as its next basketball coach, and that could occur early next week.

The sides continued to make progress in negotiations toward an agreement that might be finalized today. The Trojans are eager to bring closure to the situation and Floyd apparently is as well, prompting the sides to aggressively resume talks they had postponed until after the football team completed its season Tuesday in the Orange Bowl.

The Trojans are ready to make a move, and Floyd is their man.

“We’re still negotiating to see where we are,” USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said during the basketball team’s 84-59 Pacific 10 Conference loss to Washington at the Sports Arena.

“It would be premature to say anything right now in case something fell through. But we are negotiating.”

Attempts to contact Floyd were unsuccessful.

Floyd quickly emerged as the Trojans’ top choice to succeed Rick Majerus, who resigned five days after having succeeded Henry Bibby, who was fired four games into his ninth season.

Floyd’s representative and Daryl Gross, the search point man and a senior associate athletic director, had agreed on some contract language before USC focused on the football team’s bowl game. But a source involved in the process said a deal had not been finalized during the earlier talks.

Floyd, who was fired in May after one season as coach of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets, is scheduled to receive close to $2 million a year for the next two years from the team. Issues relating to the remaining money Floyd is owed from the Hornets apparently have been resolved.

“We’ve been able to be real thorough because we have time to be, and so we’re just making sure on everything and we feel really good about it,” said Gross, who will leave this month to begin his duties as athletic director at Syracuse. “Does that mean there’s just one guy left and all that stuff? Well, yeah, kind of.

“But at the same time, I’ve seen things probably set better than this fall apart.”

Times staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.