Basketball Coach Needed

Will all the great talent in SoCal, Clown Cooper coaches Lady Trojans to a loss to Arkansas Freaking State. O’Neill has never been a good coach, getting fired from job after job….

KO’s behavior on the sidelines is indeed an embarrassing spectacle, and his tantrums are magnified in the mostly empty Galen Center. And who can forget the hotel bar incident? If he showed a little grace and dignity on the court we could cut him some slack, but that’s just not in his DNA. KO is a great defensive coach, but he doesn’t have the self-control to be a head coach. It is time to for Pat Haden to the plug, and he should do it before the Pac-12 season begins.

In the meantime, we will have a perfect caretaker in Bob Cantu, a great coach and recruiter that deserves a live audition. After more than 10 years and four head coaches, USC owes Coach Cantu a break. Perhaps we already have our new head coach in the building.

is doing a really nice job at Hawai’i

When Gib Arnold was hired as the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in March 2010, he inherited a once-proud program mired in the midst of three straight losing seasons. Many in the basketball realm considered his reclamation project as one of the most challenging for the newest crop of first-year head coaches.

But that didn’t stop the 42-year-old Arnold whose "All In" approach has rejuvenated Rainbow Warrior basketball and has set a winning foundation for years to come.

Arnold went to work fast, reeling in a nationally ranked recruiting class despite an abbreviated window following his hire. His first UH recruiting class was rated fifth best in the nation by The Hoop Scoop. Arnold meshed that class with a sparse, yet talented, group of returning upperclassmen to complete a remarkable turnaround season in 2010-11. UH finished the year with 19 wins, nearly doubling its win total (10) from the year prior. The 19 wins were the most for the school in seven years and tied Arnold with Bruce O’Neil for the most wins in program history by a first-year head coach.

There were numerous other highlights along the way. UH won its first five games of the season for its best start in six years; the ’Bows went 2-1, including wins over Utah of the Mountain West and Mississippi State of the SEC in the prestigious Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic; UH re-established its home court advantage with a 14-5 record at the Stan Sheriff Center and accumulated its most road wins in seven years. Arnold also molded a formidable defensive unit as UH set a new school record for field-goal percentage defense, a mark that ranked eighth in the nation in 2010-11.

Even when things got rough, Arnold was able to keep his team together. After an 0-5 start in league play, UH ended the regular season by winning nine of its last 12 games, and eight of its last 11 in Western Athletic Conference play. The year concluded with a bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and a victory in its first-round game versus Portland. It was the program’s first postseason appearance and first postseason win since 2003-04.

Arnold received national acclaim from Athlon Sports who named him one of the five best first-year coaches in 2010-11 after working "a minor miracle" at UH.

It was only inevitable that Arnold would one day lead his own Division I program. In recent years, Arnold was tabbed by numerous outlets as one of the nation’s top assistants and recruiters after serving for schools in the Pac-10, Southeastern Conference and West Coast Conference. He also boasted head coaching experience having guided junior-college power College of Southern Idaho for two seasons.

It was even more fitting he would make the leap at Hawai‘i, where he was named the program’s 19th head coach. Arnold returns to Hawai‘i, following the footsteps of his father Frank who served as UH head basketball coach for two seasons at UH (1985-87).

Prior to arriving in Hawai‘i, Arnold coached at USC where he was an assistant for five seasons. He was instrumental in helping USC achieve a record three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, three straight 20-win seasons and the winningest five-year stretch in school history. In 2009, Arnold helped USC capture the inaugural Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, hosted by Hawai‘i.

As one of the elite recruiters in college basketball, Arnold’s efforts were crucial with the infusion of top-caliber talent at USC. Arnold was the lead recruiter for former Trojan standouts DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson, both of whom were selected in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, as well 2011 first-round pick Nikola Vucevic.

Arnold has also tapped into the global basketball talent pool. He has worked with numerous European and African National teams and conducted clinics in more than 20 countries. During his career, Arnold has recruited more than 20 international players to play college basketball in the United States. Two of those players eventually went on to the NBA, including Vucevic (Montenegro) and Yakouba Diawara (France).