Tim Floyd submitted his resignation Tuesday and Athletic Director Mike Garrett accepted it so fast he probably got a paper cut snapping it out of the fax machine.
The good news, of course, is that it's only the fall of USC basketball, leaving the all-important work of preserving, defending and protecting the constitution of USC football.
What happened to Floyd was inevitable and the appointed hour of his departure was inconsequential. The fact Floyd handed a resignation news cookie to a paper in his home state, Mississippi, only proves he was loyal to people other than the players he coached until Tuesday at 12:59 p.m.
Yesterday, today, next week, next month . . . who cares?
Before the NCAA report comes out on possible infractions . . . after the report . . . what did it matter?
Anyone who could follow a bouncing ball understood USC basketball has been over for several weeks now, and it's going to be over for several years.
More than two decades ago, Southern Methodist football received the "death penalty" for crimes committed against the NCAA.
USC and Floyd succumbed to a death "watch" penalty.
How fast it unraveled was certainly fascinating, and piecing the time line together is more fun that Sudoku.
One March minute Daniel Hackett had stolen the ball and was heading for the game-tying basket against Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Then the ball slipped out of Hackett's hand, Michigan State won and advanced all the way to the championship game, and USC hoops became the last scene in "Thelma and Louise."
You need the pivotal pinpoint?
March 31, the Tuesday before the Final Four, at USC's season-ending banquet, Floyd implored his prime-time fence sitters to return and make the Trojans a national title contender -- it wasn't that much of a stretch.
Hours later, Floyd jumped on a plane to interview for the Arizona job.
Days later, DeMar DeRozan, Taj Gibson and Hackett announced their intentions to turn pro -- so much for the national title.
OK, the bazookas were gone, but the Trojans had some good recruits coming in, until book-in-the-works Louis Johnson poisoned the future with his latest contention to Yahoo that Floyd had once handed an envelope with $1,000 to O.J. Mayo.
