The newly hired University of Southern California men's basketball coach praised the school Wednesday at his first public appearance as a Trojan, promising to bring a winning culture and up-tempo "dunk city"-style of hoops.
"Next basketball coach at USC: I still can't believe it. This has been a dream of mine since I was a young child," Andy Enfield said at an afternoon news conference.
Enfield, 43, signed with USC after leading Florida Gulf Coast University to the NCAA Sweet 16 this March. The Eagles were the first No. 15 seed to advance that far in the tournament. Their run was cut short by the University of Florida (No. 3) in a 62-50 loss on March 29.
"USC basketball should be relevant, but let's be honest. It has not been relevant for a while. Were about to change that, we believe," USC athletic director Pat Haden said before introducing the new head coach.
"We want to reset the basketball culture, starting today," he added.
Enfield is known to run up-tempo, high-flying offenses, earning FGCU the nickname "Dunk City" -- not such a far cry from USC neighbor "Lob City," the Los Angeles Clippers, also famed for their alley-oops and show-stopping dunks.
Enfield is expected to bring that style of basketball to USC. The school was already promoting the Twitter hashtag "#DUNKCITYUSC," alongside mentions of "showtime" -- a tip of the hat to the Magic Johnson-led Lakers of the '80s.
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"I know they say, 'Well you're an East Coast guy.' Well, if you're a basketball coach, you can coach anywhere; if you can recruit, you can recruit anywhere; and if you have a winning culture in a program, you can win big anywhere," Enfield said.
"I want to thank you for believing in me, Pat and the rest of the administration. And one thing I can say, I'm going to show up every day in this office with my coaching staff and make this a better place than it was the day before, and I look forward to it," he said.
From 1995 to 1996, Enfield served as the shooting coach for the Milwaukee Bucks, and an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics from 1999-2000.
Enfield played four seasons (1988-91) at Johns Hopkins, where earned an economics degree. He received a master's in business administration from the University of Maryland.
Enfield and his wife Amanda have two daughters, Aila and Lily, and a son, Marcum.
