by Jeff Goodman

Nope, this isn't a movie or even a music video. It could be the reality next year facing the USC Trojans.

USC basketball won't just return to obscurity. The Trojans program is headed for a virtual free-fall where fans will yearn for the days of mediocrity when Henry Bibby was running the show.

Indiana secured Tom Crean despite the sanctions left over from the Kelvin Sampson phone call mess. Arizona struggled to lure a big-name coach and eventually settled on Sean Miller even after the Lute Olson saga and two seasons without any legitimate recruits.

But those programs have tradition.

They have won national championships and been to multiple Final Fours.

USC has nothing.

The basketball program was best-known for a kid named Harold Miner, dubbed Baby Jordan, who flamed out after an irrelevant and brief NBA career.

It's a football school that made relevant on the national landscape by Tim Floyd over the last three years because of his ability to lure stud recruits such as O.J. Mayo and DeMar DeRozan.

Now the cupboard is virtually barren at USC.

The Trojans lost DeRozan and Daniel Hackett early to the NBA. Marcus Johnson decided to go overseas — even after being granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA. Taj Gibson is now a virtual lock to follow with the news that Floyd has resigned in the wake of the recent allegations that he gave $1,000 to O.J. Mayo's handler.

The recruits have started to jump ship as well. Noel Johnson, who got his release a couple weeks ago, went overboard first and Lamont Jones and Derrick Williams will almost certainly end up in the free-agent waters.

It's hard to believe that it was less than two months ago — before Hackett signed with an agent and prior to the Floyd allegations — there was a chance that USC could have lay claim to a preseason top 10 national ranking. They were the frontrunner to win the Pac-10.

Allegations involving O.J. Mayo's recruitment put USC coach Tim Floyd in a difficult situation. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Now they'll be lucky to finish anywhere except for 10th in the Pac-10.

You can't argue with the fact that Floyd could coach. He led the Trojans to three straight appearances in the Big Dance and a trio of consecutive 20-win campaigns for the first time in school history.

However, John Wooden back in his heyday could take over this team and have difficulty getting them to win games — even in a lackluster Pac-10.

Who knows whether any of the current players will bolt for other programs? Dwight Lewis and Leonard Washington were both Louisiana kids who came all the way out to the West Coast because of Floyd's southern roots.

Maybe Lil' Romeo, who logged a grand total of a dozen minutes as a package deal that brought DeRozan to the Galen Center, can finally get off the bench now. Shoot, they may want to check if that 14-year-old who committed to Floyd a couple years ago, Ryan Boatright, can graduate and enroll a couple years early.

They may need him.

Miller may as well just bring in all his Hollywood buddies to take the court because it's going to be a complete laughingstock for the next few years.

Remember, Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood had to scramble to land Miller from Xavier. In fact, it had gotten so bad that Livengood even brought Floyd to Tucson before hiring Miller.

Now there's no one in the country who let out a louder sigh than Livengood when the news leaked out that Floyd was resigning on Tuesday.

Well, maybe Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson, who also pursued Floyd.

Memphis couldn't even persuade Baylor's Scott Drew or Florida State's Leonard Hamilton to take their job — and that was before anything came out about the potential violations that occurred within the Tigers program under John Calipari's watch.

Latest USC talk

In the wake of the Tim Floyd resignation, keep up to date with everything USC at Scout.com and talk to other Trojan fans in their message boards.

USC is a football school and will always be a football school.

The Trojans aren't going to be able to lure an established, proven coach. Not with the uncertainty involving NCAA sanctions, the dark cloud hanging over the program and the lack of talent.

Here's how it'll go when USC athletic director Mike Garrett calls Pittsburgh head coach and Southern California native Jamie Dixon.

Garrett: "Jamie, I'm just calling to see if you have any interest in coming back home to Los Angeles?"

Dixon: "I think you have the wrong number. Click."

The Trojans will be fortunate to get a guy like St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett or San Diego's Bill Grier.

Maybe they can snag Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg, Utah's Jim Boylen, or even the President-in-Law, Oregon State's Craig Robinson.

But even that may be a long shot.