A New Era In Gamecock Basketball Begins Today
posted by Scott Hood, 4/01/2008 02:40:00 AM
But, considering how much USC is prepared to pay Horn to make the jump from Western Kentucky, this is no joke.
Horn will, my sources have told me, earn about $750,000 in salary plus bonuses and incentives. If everything falls into place for Horn, he could earn well over $800,000 per year.
I knew I was in the wrong profession.
But, there’s only a few dozen major college head coaching jobs in the country that pay that type of money and Horn now has one of them.
We should know the exact payment terms around 12 noon Tuesday when the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees formally puts its stamp of approval upon the newly minted deal.
As I said yesterday, I like this hire. I think Horn is exactly what the Gamecock basketball program needed – a young, energetic, enthusiastic coach that will recruit his butt off to bring in SEC quality players.
We could sit in front of our computers all day long and argue whether the head coach should have been Jeff Capel, Anthony Grant, Sean Miller, Travis Ford or any other excellent young coach you can think of.
But that would be a worthless exercise constituting little more than the splitting of hairs. Here’s one thing that’s true - except for Miller, who has a $2 million buyout in the contract he agreed to last season, none of those other coaches led their teams to the Sweet 16.
Based on his record, I’m willing to give Horn the benefit of the doubt for the next three or four years until he explicitly shows he can’t coach at the SEC level.
But, I’ll think he’ll do just fine.
Horn has certainly proven he can win. His five-year record at Western Kentucky was 111-48. That’s a winning percentage of 69.8 percent.
After watching USC compile consecutive losing records the last two seasons (14-16, 14-18), and a decade of non-winning seasons in conference play (Odom was 41-71 against SEC teams), I can assure you there are thousands of Gamecock fans more than happy to sign off right now for a winning percentage like that.
But, I’m not naïve enough to think there aren’t more than a few skeptical Gamecock fans out there in cyberspace unwilling to embrace Horn as the new coach. Yet.
To those fans I ask this question: Why?
Just because most USC fans hadn’t heard of Horn until the start of this year’s NCAA Tournament doesn’t mean it’s a bad hire. Instead, all it means is Horn has toiled in obscurity at a school situated in a one-bid conference.
USC athletic director Eric Hyman is paid a lot of money to make these type of hard decisions. I know Hyman well enough to understand he wouldn’t have hired Horn without, as he likes to say, doing his due diligence.
Hyman is big on doing his research before he makes any important decision, and the hiring of a new men’s basketball coach at USC qualifies in my book as an important decision.
Hyman knows very well that his credibility on the line with this hire. It will be the basis of how he is judged over the next five or six years, or whenever Steve Spurrier retires as head football coach.
As I’ve covered this story over the last few days, a couple of things have captivated me. First, it’s been hilarious reading the hysterical reaction of WKU athletic director Wood Selig, who had to watch with dismay and anger as his basketball coach flirted with USC before agreeing to take over the Gamecocks.
Monday, soon after news of Horn’s hiring by USC broke, Seling was quoted in an article as saying this: “I hate it for us, hate it for our fans, hate it for Darrin and his family.”
Nice, huh?
After that reading that, I’m happy Horn was able to pry himself away from a maniacal boss of epic proportions.
I guess Selig believes he’s the only person employed by the Western Kentucky athletics department who’s allowed to better themselves by taking on new job with bigger pay, bigger challenges, bigger responsibilities and bigger pressures.
Our forefathers called it life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And Horn has a lot of reasons to be happy today.
Financial security for the rest of his life, for one.
The second thing that has intrigued me about the hire is Horn’s contract with Western Kentucky supposedly contains a clause stating any school that hired him had to schedule WKU in a four-game home-and-home series.
Here’s the fascinating question: does Hyman and USC believe they’re obligated to comply with that provision, since it only exists within a binding contract between WKU and Horn?
That will be an interesting question to ask the parties during Tuesday’s press conference.
A new era of USC basketball begins today.
And not a moment too soon.
Yes, I do think it’s just a coincidence Darrin Horn will be introduced as South Carolina’s new head basketball coach on April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool’s Day.
But, considering how much USC is prepared to pay Horn to make the jump from Western Kentucky, this is no joke.
Horn will, my sources have told me, earn about $750,000 in salary plus bonuses and incentives. If everything falls into place for Horn, he could earn well over $800,000 per year.
I knew I was in the wrong profession.
But, there’s only a few dozen major college head coaching jobs in the country that pay that type of money and Horn now has one of them.
We should know the exact payment terms around 12 noon Tuesday when the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees formally puts its stamp of approval upon the newly minted deal.
As I said yesterday, I like this hire. I think Horn is exactly what the Gamecock basketball program needed – a young, energetic, enthusiastic coach that will recruit his butt off to bring in SEC quality players.
We could sit in front of our computers all day long and argue whether the head coach should have been Jeff Capel, Anthony Grant, Sean Miller, Travis Ford or any other excellent young coach you can think of.
But that would be a worthless exercise constituting little more than the splitting of hairs. Here’s one thing that’s true - except for Miller, who has a $2 million buyout in the contract he agreed to last season, none of those other coaches led their teams to the Sweet 16.
Based on his record, I’m willing to give Horn the benefit of the doubt for the next three or four years until he explicitly shows he can’t coach at the SEC level.
But, I’ll think he’ll do just fine.
Horn has certainly proven he can win. His five-year record at Western Kentucky was 111-48. That’s a winning percentage of 69.8 percent.
After watching USC compile consecutive losing records the last two seasons (14-16, 14-18), and a decade of non-winning seasons in conference play (Odom was 41-71 against SEC teams), I can assure you there are thousands of Gamecock fans more than happy to sign off right now for a winning percentage like that.
But, I’m not naïve enough to think there aren’t more than a few skeptical Gamecock fans out there in cyberspace unwilling to embrace Horn as the new coach. Yet.
To those fans I ask this question: Why?
Just because most USC fans hadn’t heard of Horn until the start of this year’s NCAA Tournament doesn’t mean it’s a bad hire. Instead, all it means is Horn has toiled in obscurity at a school situated in a one-bid conference.
USC athletic director Eric Hyman is paid a lot of money to make these type of hard decisions. I know Hyman well enough to understand he wouldn’t have hired Horn without, as he likes to say, doing his due diligence.
Hyman is big on doing his research before he makes any important decision, and the hiring of a new men’s basketball coach at USC qualifies in my book as an important decision.
Hyman knows very well that his credibility on the line with this hire. It will be the basis of how he is judged over the next five or six years, or whenever Steve Spurrier retires as head football coach.
As I’ve covered this story over the last few days, a couple of things have captivated me. First, it’s been hilarious reading the hysterical reaction of WKU athletic director Wood Selig, who had to watch with dismay and anger as his basketball coach flirted with USC before agreeing to take over the Gamecocks.
Monday, soon after news of Horn’s hiring by USC broke, Seling was quoted in an article as saying this: “I hate it for us, hate it for our fans, hate it for Darrin and his family.”
Nice, huh?
After that reading that, I’m happy Horn was able to pry himself away from a maniacal boss of epic proportions.
I guess Selig believes he’s the only person employed by the Western Kentucky athletics department who’s allowed to better themselves by taking on new job with bigger pay, bigger challenges, bigger responsibilities and bigger pressures.
Our forefathers called it life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And Horn has a lot of reasons to be happy today.
Financial security for the rest of his life, for one.
The second thing that has intrigued me about the hire is Horn’s contract with Western Kentucky supposedly contains a clause stating any school that hired him had to schedule WKU in a four-game home-and-home series.
Here’s the fascinating question: does Hyman and USC believe they’re obligated to comply with that provision, since it only exists within a binding contract between WKU and Horn?
That will be an interesting question to ask the parties during Tuesday’s press conference.
A new era of USC basketball begins today.
And not a moment too soon.
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