NCAA Tournament Tourney Coaches

John Wooden is, without question, one of the greatest college basketball coaches to ever set foot on the hardwood. A (seriously) spry 96 years old, Coach Wooden was kind of enough to take some time out of his Championship Monday to speak with FanHouse. From his upcoming Gatorade commercial (it debuts tonight, you can get a sneak preview of it here), to how he feels about the money and attention that college coaches receive, to who he has pegged to win Monday night's big game, Coach Wooden had plenty to say. Hit the jump to read the full interview.

A day ago, folks in Tucson thought yet another coach had turned down the offer to be the next head coach of the Arizona Wildcats.

A day changes a lot of minds. Xavier coach Sean Miller originally declined the offer from Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, but asked for a day to sleep on the decision. After waking up, Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Miller took the job, letting Xavier officials know on Monday he would not be returning.

Now, this is just getting silly. Both Jeff Goodman at FOX Sports and Gary Parrish at CBS Sports are reporting that Xavier head coach Sean Miller has turned down an offer to be the Arizona head coach.

Miller, apparently took a charter flight to New Mexico on Sunday morning to meet with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood along with the Arizona president and a booster about the job. The offer was rumored to be as much as $15 million over seven years. He then flew back to Cincinnati that same day.

DETROIT -- It's the phoniness of it all that usually is so annoying.

Teams rally around their trumped-up idea that they don't get respect.

They live for respect. They've got to have their respect.

DETROIT -- There are few places -- the golf course, maybe -- where Roy Williams would rather be than where he was Saturday night and will be again on Monday night: the biggest stage in college basketball. He'd just prefer it not be raised like it is at Ford Field.

"I don't like the safety [of it]," Williams said Sunday afternoon of the floor the NCAA is using for this tournament championship round, which is waist high off the ground and has everyone around it, the benches included, seated around it in a moat.

During halftime of the thrilling Michigan State vs. Connecticut national semifinal, Chevrolet and CBS presented their awards for player of the year and coach of the year. To no one's surprise, Blake Griffin of Oklahoma took the honors from the player side, while Kansas' Bill Self won the coaching award.

Griffin, only a sophomore, was a monster for the Sooners this season. He averaged 22.7 points and 14.7 rebounds a game while shooting an unreal 65 percent from the field. He took the Sooners to the Elite Eight before losing to a much deeper North Carolina team.

Nothing like the threat of having a bitter in-state rival possibly poaching your coach to force another contract extension, even after a somewhat disappointing season. Memphis was hoping to land Bruce Pearl from Tennessee, with a whopping seven-year, $21 million contract according to some reports.

Memphis was reportedly looking to make a big splash after losing John Calipari to Kentucky. Rick Pitino was not going to be walking through that door. Neither was Tim Floyd coming from USC -- despite apparently listening. Bruce Pearl may or may not have been interested, but Tennessee was not going to let Pearl even appear to be considering an offer from Memphis.

Georgia fired Dennis Felton in mid-season appeared to be thoroughly botching their coaching search. They targeted Missouri coach Mike Anderson, and had to wait until he finished a strong run to the Elite Eight. In doing so, Georgia missed out on other coaches like Anthony Grant. If not for the farce of a coaching search in Arizona overshadowing things, Georgia would have been receiving plenty of ridicule.

Anderson rebuffed Georgia and the reported $2 million plus offer to stay at Missouri for a nice raise, but not what Georgia was offering. Georgia's coaching search appeared to be in disarray. As if the program did not expect to be rejected by their first choice if they overwhelmed him with cash.

In what can only be described as a coaching search that is rivaling on a drunken, drug-induced trip while wearing roller skates and a blindfold, the University of Arizona has not found its next head coach at Southern California.

Multiple news sources, including ESPN, who first reported Tim Floyd on his way to Tucson, is now saying that USC plans to hold a press conference sometime Thursday afternoon to announce its head coach will stay put, putting the Wildcats' insane coaching spree back to full speed.

Third Update: ESPN is reporting that USC coach Tim Floyd will be Arizona's next coach. ESPN's radio affiliate in Phoenix reports that the Trojan coach and Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood are finalizing a deal and an announcement is expected Thursday. Floyd coached USC for four seasons, including three NCAA tournaments and proved to be a highly effective recruiter. The Tuscon Citizen is reporting that Floyd flew in to discuss the job, but citing an unnamed source, says it is unclear if the coach was offered the job or even visited the campus. The paper reports that no press conference is yet scheduled for Thursday.