They know it can’t be Pete Carroll

USC’s campus is abuzz with talk of the men’s basketball team, which plays North Carolina today in the NCAA tournament. And in a random survey, Trojans football players were excited that old What’s-His-Name was turning the program around.

Asked, among other things, who the basketball coach was, eight football players immediately answered, “Floyd.” Meanwhile, seven others chuckled or burst out laughing.

Said junior safety Josh Pinkard: “No clue.”

Senior defensive lineman Sedrick Ellis blanked on the question, then later blurted out, “Wait! Tim Floyd!”

It might be noted that the Trojans’ offense appears to be in sharp hands. Quarterback John David Booty answered that, and five other basketball questions, correctly.

And one player seems to have his priorities in order, at least from a USC point of view. Defensive tackle Alex Parsons, correctly answering that Florida had won the national title last year by beating UCLA, added, “I just like watching UCLA get beat.”

What a long, strange trip it’s been

There is little basketball history between USC and North Carolina. Floyd and Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams, however, have more connections than you get when you book a flight on Orbitz.

Floyd’s University of New Orleans team lost a first-round tournament game to Williams’ Kansas team in 1991. The Jayhawks went all the way to the title game, where they lost to Duke, prompting people to wonder if Williams would ever win an NCAA title, which he did with North Carolina in 2005, leaving Kansas fans unhappy that he hadn’t done that with the Jayhawks, as Larry Brown had in 1988 before he went on to coach the Clippers, who then played in the Sports Arena, which was home to Floyd’s USC team last season before moving to the Galen Center, where they had a 15-3 record, qualified for the tournament and will now face Williams’ North Carolina team in the Sweet 16 today.

Inhale now.

Trivia time

What is Floyd’s postseason record against Williams?

Crossing Jordan

The paths Floyd and Williams have followed since their Big 12 days have been radically different.

Williams left Kansas in 2003 to coach North Carolina, his alma mater, where his reputation was made as the assistant coach who recruited Michael Jordan to play for the Tar Heels.

Floyd left Iowa State after the 1997-98 season to coach the Chicago Bulls, who had just lost Jordan to a second retirement, resulting in one of the worst records in a single NBA season.

Timing is everything.

Beating around the Bush

President Bush honored Florida’s national championship football team Monday. The visit prompted Gators quarterback Chris Leak to say, “This is the day we turned the White House into the Swamp.”

Said talk show host Stephanie Miller: “Oh, too late.”

Still, it was only fair that Bush honored the Gators. It was Florida, after all, that made Bush national champion in 2000.

Trivia answer

Floyd and Williams have split four games. Williams won in the 1991 NCAA tournament and the 1997 Big 12 tournament title game. Floyd defeated Williams in the 1995 and 1996 Big 8 title games.

And finally

Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen seems tan, rested and ready for the new baseball season. Asked whether there would ever be a 20-year reunion of the 2005 team that won the World Series, he said:

“Those ceremonies -- ‘Oh, let’s bring back those guys from 2005,’ we’re all crippled and ... pushing wheelchairs, kids crying because his dad was on the ballclub.... I don’t need that bull. A bunch of fat guys, another one is broke. ‘Hey, where’s your ring?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know, I sold that ... two years ago.’ ”

Said Scott Reifert, Sox vice president of communications: “I guess we can scratch the reunion off the list.”

chris.foster@latimes.com gary.klein@latimes.com