Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Officially official: USC hires away FGCU's Andy Enfield.

If you didn't know by now, Andy Enfield was the head coach of Florida Gulf Coast University -- the overnight media darling come Cinderella team, that made it to the Sweet Sixteen round of March Madness, and broke up most people's brackets in the process.

Tonight he was hired away by USC's AD Pat Haden.



It's probably sexist to say this, but I'll say it anyway, because I'm not all that PC: USC will now host two of the most beautiful women on campus: Lane Kiffin's wife and Andy Enfield's wife.  You judge:

Layla Kiffin
Amanda Enfield


And of course, we have the inevitable cross-town comparison.  So, which hire do you think was bigger, better hire that generated more excitement for their respective schools: UCLA hiring Steve Alford, or USC hiring Andy Enfield?

Alford received about $1.1M last year, before another $100K in incentives kicked in.  This year, his top-10 ranked Lobos got bounced out of the first round of March Madness thanks to Harvard.  The Bruins signed him to a contract worth $2.6M a year, just weeks after he had signed a 10-year contract renewal with the Lobos.

In his first year as head coach in basketball, Enfield's FGCU ended with a 15-17 record as a first year, full Division-I member.  In his second year, he took that team to the Sweet Sixteen -- the first 15th seeded team to do so, ever -- and he did it on a measly (by comparison) salary of $157K.  The Trojans signed him for over $1M a year.

This is not to say that Alford hasn't been successful -- he's had just two losing seasons as head coach, which dates back to 1991 -- but Enfield got past the second round of March Madness in just his second year as a head coach, and did it at an obscure school that no one had previously heard of.  It faintly echos of Pete Carroll's tenure as a college football coach, going from a 6-6 record in year 1 to an 11-2 record in year 2.

It also doesn't hurt that Enfield's brand of fast-paced, high-flying basketball is the direct opposite of Kevin O'Neill's defense-oriented, low-scoring teams.

Others seem to agree, too.

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