Coaches

The direction USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett could take with his beleaguered basketball program is up Figueroa Avenue to Staples Center. Lakers assistants Jim Cleamons and Brian Shaw are trying to win an NBA championship with one eye on the Trojans' job that opened when Tim Floyd announced his resignation Tuesday. Both coaches are interested in the position, according to sources close to them who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Former NBA coaches Reggie Theus and P.J. Carlesimo have emerged as two of the leading candidates for the USC basketball job, independent sources familiar with the situation said. Another source said Lakers assistant Jim Cleamons has already talked with USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, whose football and basketball programs are under NCAA investigation. There were no indications that Garrett was close to making a decision.

Former Sacramento Kings coach Reggie Theus has removed his name from consideration for the USC job, a source close to Theus said. Theus interviewed for the job Thursday but was apparently left in limbo when USC representatives approached Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon for a second time, according to a source familiar with the Trojans' program. Dixon reiterated that he was not interested, the source said.

Can't you just see it? It's midway through next season and the Lakers are in Memphis, the crowd apoplectic because L.A. is down by three as the final buzzer nears, and Kurt Rambis, like any other normal head coach on planet Earth, looks very much like he wants a timeout. But noooo . . . Instead, Rambis digs in his pocket and fishes out his purple-and-gold iPhone, which has buzzed incessantly for the last minute. From Malibu, a text: Timeout? Don't even think about it!

The first article in a series looking at unheralded individuals helping others in the world of sports: -- Chad Sauter never wants to see his players again. At least not while on duty. Sauter is a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputy who deals with his share of unsavory characters. At 6 feet 4 and 240 pounds, Sauter is also plenty intimidating. He was an All-Pacific 10 Conference offensive lineman at UCLA who longed to become a fifth-generation law enforcement officer upon graduating in 1998.

Duane Cooper is out as boys' basketball coach at Compton Dominguez High, and star center Norvel Pelle may have played his last game as a Don. Hours after learning the Compton Unified School District let go of Cooper, a former USC and NBA player, Pelle said he intended to transfer. "For now, I'm still checked in, but I'll leave," Pelle said here Wednesday at a club tournament.

Bob Schaefer sits in a quiet dugout on one of those glorious baseball afternoons in Chavez Ravine, staring out at a gleaming stadium slowly filling with the clatter of dirt-caked groundskeepers, smiling peanut hawkers and grim security toughs. "I've done that," he says. Which part? He smiles and shrugs. "All of it," he says. The Dodgers bench coach has been more than just the guy with the fungo bat and stopwatch and sweaty sleeve from throwing a basket of balls.

The idea of hiring John Lucas had been percolating in Mike Dunleavy's mind for quite a while, and finally it came time to put it out there. "It was one of those ideas," said Dunleavy, the Clippers' general manager and coach. "Hey, unless I ask him, I won't know." Dunleavy said Thursday morning that Lucas, a well-respected former NBA player and coach, was at the team's offices in Playa Vista and would be joining the Clippers coaching staff. Lucas has a long-standing relationship with Dunleavy, and many of the current Clippers have worked out with Lucas at his Houston base.

In a city known for gangs, corruption and poor schools, Coach Russell Otis stood for excellence and opportunity. Over two decades, Otis led the basketball team at Dominguez High School in Compton to five state titles and a top national ranking. He helped dozens of players win college scholarships and saw four make it to the NBA. In 2000, USA Today named him high school basketball coach of the year. These days, the 47-year-old Otis is not to be found at the Dominguez gym, getting ready for another season.

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Tom Lasorda under the same roof? It happened Tuesday as a portrait of the Dodgers legend was unveiled at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery on Lasorda's 82nd birthday. "This is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me," Lasorda said. The portrait recognizes the contributions of Lasorda -- in his 60th year in the Dodgers organization, he is perhaps baseball's most beloved goodwill ambassador -- to American culture and history.