USC Freshmen Want Say in Hiring Coach : Four May Transfer If Morrison’s Successor Isn’t From the West Coast

It’s not standard procedure for athletes to have the final say in the hiring of a coach, but circumstances at USC may be different.

Four USC freshman basketball players--Tom Lewis, Rich Grande, Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers--met with Athletic Director Mike McGee Friday and told him that they want him to hire a West Coast coach, preferably one in Southern California, to replace Stan Morrison.

They also reportedly told McGee that if a coach from another region is hired, they would seriously consider transferring to another school as a unit.

If the four freshmen leave, the USC basketball program would suffer a severe setback. The recruiting class brought in by Morrison last year was generally regarded as the fourth-best in the country.

The freshmen have also told McGee that they would like to have assistant coach David Spencer retained by the new coach. Spencer was personally responsible for recruiting Kimble and Gathers in Philadelphia.

Lewis, a highly regarded prep star out of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, was the spokesman for the group. They reportedly told McGee that they would remain at USC if either Pepperdine’s Jim Harrick, UC Irvine’s Bill Mulligan or Loyola Marymount’s Paul Westhead was hired.

Mulligan has publicly removed himself as a candidate for the job. But, Monday, Crenshaw Coach Willie West announced that he will apply for the position later this week.

Harrick was interviewed by McGee last week and reportedly will meet with the athletic director later this week at the NCAA Final Four in Dallas, which also coincides with the annual college basketball coaches’ convention.

The freshmen made three points to McGee in their support of a local coach to take over the USC basketball program:

--It would be a smooth transition.

--The new coach would be knowledgeable about the USC players.

--It would benefit recruiting in this area and the state.

“We don’t want to wait a couple of years for an outside coach to get used to the area, the program and the recruiting,” Lewis said. “Like, we need a big guy right away so we need a coach who knows the big players (in this area) so we can get one in.

“We told Mr. McGee that we’re all sticking together. If one of us doesn’t like the new coach and says he’s going, I think all of us would follow him. And I don’t understand why Mulligan hasn’t gotten an interview. They’re looking outside of the state, and Mulligan is as good a coach as anybody else they’re looking at.

“I want to stay at USC. All four of us love the school and everything outside of basketball. But we don’t want to get some coach who will take a long time to adjust to the program.

McGee was unavailable for comment.

It was also learned that Chris Munk, the highly regard 6-foot 9-inch, 225-pound center from Riordan High in San Francisco, would not come to USC if the freshmen transfer.

Munk’s first choice was Stanford but he reportedly doesn’t qualify academically. It’s believed that he would enroll at USC if the freshmen stayed in school.

“I’ve talked to Monk and he’s going to do what we do because he wants to play with us,” Lewis said. “If we’re there, he’s going to come.”

LeRon Ellis, a 6-10 junior center from Mater Dei, is another future prospect. But he reportedly wouldn’t be interested in USC if the freshmen transfer.

Lewis said that McGee didn’t confide in the freshmen in regard to any coach he may have in mind.

“He just said that he was a giant sponge and was absorbing everything in right now before he makes his decision as to who is the best person for the job,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, the coaching hunt continues at USC. Navy Coach Paul Evans was reportedly scheduled to visit McGee here, now that his team has been eliminated from the NCAA tournament.

But Navy Athletic Director Bo Coppedge said Monday that a minimum of a dozen universities had inquired about Evans’ availability. “Paul is the hottest property in the America right now,” Coppedge told the Associated Press.

According to one report, Pitt may have the inside track to Evans, who has indicated that he prefers the East and the possibility of coaching in the Big East.

Besides Harrick, McGee has already interviewed SMU’s Dave Bliss and Alabama Birmingham’s Gene Bartow on the USC campus.

It is rumored that Iowa Coach George Raveling is also regarded as a prospect. Raveling, the former Washington State coach, expressed an interest in the USC job before Morrison was hired in 1979.

Jim Valvano, North Carolina State’s coach, said, in effect, that he wasn’t interested in the USC job, but jokingly remarked, “I wouldn’t mind coaching the tailbacks there in football.”

Morrison announced his resignation March 11 to become an associate athletic director at the school. It is strongly believed that it was a forced resignation.

Now the pressure is on McGee to hire a suitable coach as a replacement for Morrison.

It is rumored that McGee wanted to introduce a new coach at the same time that Morrison resigned at a campus press conference.

But McGee’s first choice, Boston College’s Gary Williams, took the Ohio State job instead.

There are some drawbacks in trying to attract a big-name coach to USC--the school’s national identity is football, lack of a campus arena, small crowds at the Sports Arena and the lack of perks such as a radio or TV show and a basketball camp.

Dick Perry, USC’s former athletic director, ran into the same problem when Bob Boyd’s resignation took effect in 1979.

Lute Olson, then at Iowa, backed out of the job just when press releases were being prepared to announce his hiring. Jerry Pimm, who was Utah’s coach at the time, also turned the job down.