USC Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Andy Enfield as Head Coach

After eleven seasons at USC, Andy Enfield was recently announced as the new head coach at SMU. He departs the Trojans after more than a decade, taking over a Mustangs program that joins the ACC next season and sending USC into a head coaching search.

Enfield was born and raised I Pennsylvania and was actually a sharpshooter in his playing days. He broke numerous shooting records while playing at Johns Hopkins in the late 80’s and early 90’s and would actually serve as an NBA shooting coach early in his career.

After various jobs, both in basketball and outside of it, Enfield got his first college gig back in 2006 when Leonard Hamilton hired him onto Florida State’s coaching staff. Enfield would spend the next five seasons with the Seminoles before getting his first head coaching gig, the job that would be his big break.

That career began in 2011 at Florida Gulf Coast and it’s where Enfield would make national headlines just two years later. He and Dunk City took the 2013 NCAA Tournament by storm, becoming the first 15-seed to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen, upsetting Georgetown and San Diego State in the process. Enfield truly put Florida Gulf Coast on the map with that run more than a decade ago.

Shortly thereafter, Enfield was hired as the new head coach at USC and remained with the Trojans for the last eleven years. After last place finishes in two rebuilding seasons, Enfield would experience solid success with the Trojans, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament and five Top 3 finishes in the Pac-12. The greatest highlight was the 2021 team that advanced to the Elite Eight as a 6-seed, upsetting Kansas in the process.

While Enfield left on his own and was not fired, he’s coming off one of his roughest seasons in Los Angeles. The Trojans began the season in the national rankings, having brought in considerable talent this season. Instead, his squad greatly underachieved, won just 15 games and tied for 9th in the Pac-12, their worst finish in nearly a decade.

Regardless, USC bids Enfield farewell and has no choice but to turn the page, hoping to create the next era of success. It’s a unique time for the Trojans, as this program will transition into the Big Ten next year. They aren’t exactly entering their new conference on the highest note, but this is a program with resources to turn things around. It all depends on interest in the program and nailing this next coaching move.

We’re going to be diving deeply into a number of potential names that could be mentioned for the USC job. There’s a few less than realistic names that we won’t spend time on, instead focusing on ten possible coaches who could be intriguing fits in Los Angeles. Nobody knows what exactly this program will look like in the Big Ten in the coming years, but let’s run through a few coaches who might have an idea.

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