Ncaa Tournament

Count USC basketball players among those excited by the school's hiring of Andy Enfield and the uptempo Dunk City style he will bring to the Galen Center. Trojans guard Byron Wesley said Tuesday that he became a fan of Enfield's Florida Gulf Coast University team during its run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. "After the first game, I saw it wasn't a fluke -- they were legit," Wesley said. "I really like they're style of play. He really let them play, throw lobs and just play exciting.

A process that started quietly more than a year ago went into overdrive last weekend and culminated with Andy Enfield's becoming USC's basketball coach. USC Athletic Director Pat Haden said Tuesday that Enfield, who coached at Florida Gulf Coast the last two seasons, was hired after a vetting process that once included 40 to 50 names. Haden fired Kevin O'Neill in January and the Trojans finished the season under interim Coach Bob Cantu. Haden, who said he hired a recruitment firm to search for a new coach more than a year ago, met with Enfield for 4 1/2 hours on Monday before announcing his hiring that evening.

From passed out on a floor to the Final Four - it has been a pulse-rate ride for Carl Hall. "Oh man, it's been a long journey for me," Hall said. Wichita State's senior forward, who overcame a heart condition that sidelined him for two years, has become the inspirational leader on the Shockers' surprising four-game run through the NCAA basketball tournament. Hall introduced himself nationally at the Salt Lake City sub-regional as an undersized 6-foot-8 forward taking on Steven Adams, a 7-footer from Pittsburgh.

I saw the guy working on TV, his team surprising folks in the NCAA tournament, but honestly I don't even know his first name now that he has become USC's basketball coach. But he has to be more interesting and exciting than the dolt introduced as UCLA basketball coach Tuesday. It's pretty well understood that whoever coaches UCLA basketball is a dead man walking, it being only a matter of time before the alumni agree he'll never be another John Wooden. But this might be the first time UCLA actually hired a dead man. Yeesh, the John Wooden statue outside of Pauley had more life to it than Steve Alford, the robot who sputtered nonstop platitudes while never once answering a question directly.

If you had a serious case of the heebie-jeebies when University of Louisville sophomore guard Kevin Ware snapped his tibia on live television during the NCAA basketball tournament, you weren't alone. Teammates crumpled to the floor. Players on the nearby bench physically recoiled. Louisville Coach Rick Pitino says he nearly vomited at the sight of his player's bone jutting through the skin of his lower leg. Broadcasters stopped showing the break after a few replays. Their reaction may be rooted in evolution, genetics and upbringing.

Wichita State is off to its first Final Four since 1965 with the appropriate nickname: Shockers. The ninth-seeded team from Kansas concluded its siege through the West Regional on Saturday with a 70-66 win over Ohio State in front of 17,998 at Staples Center. Wichita State is the first team seeded No. 9 to reach the Final Four since Penn in 1979. That was also the last year a team from the Missouri Valley Conference made it: You may remember Indiana State, Larry Bird and the Sycamores.

Steve Alford, who spent the last six seasons at New Mexico, will take over the basketball program at UCLA less than two weeks after saying how happy he was to be signing a contract extension to remain coach of the Lobos. The hiring came at the end of a hectic week in which two other mid-major coaches - Butler's Brad Stevens and Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart - said they weren't interested in the job, according to a person close to the situation who was not authorized to speak on the matter.

He has a rock-star image with an opening-act resume. He was once Hoosiers, but, in the last decade, Gene Hackman has led the exact same number of teams to the Sweet 16. He prides himself on playing Ivy League-smart basketball, which was pretty cool until a couple of weeks ago when his team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round by, um, Harvard. Of course, regarding Saturday's hiring of Steve Alford as the UCLA basketball coach, there is only one question that matters.

There has been some unending traction to the name "Tommy Amaker" and the USC basketball head coaching job that is still open and being taken care of by interim head coach Bob Cantu (who must be tired of that word. "Interim. "). Also, according to a person close to the athletic department and another aware of candidates contacted by a search firm being used by USC, Syracuse assistant and former Mater Dei player Mike Hopkins is still in the picture. Since Amaker's name remains floating out there, it might be time to examine his coaching record.

A day before LaQuinton Ross leaped, splayed his legs and downed Arizona with a decisive three-pointer Thursday, the 6-foot-8 Ohio State forward randomly won the locker-room lottery. He walked into the Lakers' locker room at Staples Center - his team's temporary digs in the NCAA tournament - and staked a claim to a corner locker that normally belongs to another clutch shooter. "I found out from one of the guys who worked here it was Kobe Bryant's locker," Ross said after the Buckeyes' 73-70 victory.