NEW ORLEANS – Iconic New Orleans coach
Tim Floyd will be inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Floyd is the second announced member of the class of 2020.
Floyd and the Privateers gained national prominence in his six seasons on the Lakefront (1988-94), with a combined record of 126-59. Floyd led New Orleans to two NCAA tournaments, three NIT bids and won four conference titles.
Floyd said; "I can say that I never had more fun coaching then I did at UNO," and continued "I was never happier than I was at UNO."
However, head coach
Mark Slessinger, states how the most impressive achievement in his eyes, is the relationship coach Floyd maintains with his former student-athletes.
"The love, admiration and friendship between coach Floyd and his student-athletes spans decades. I have witnessed this first-hand, and he remains close with his players."
Throughout the years, coach Slessinger is quick to mention the legends
roaming the Lakefront Arena halls.
"After nine seasons on the Lakefront, I still get goosebumps entering Lakefront Arena knowing I sit at his desk."
FROM COACH TIM FLOYD
"
Ron Maestri and the University of New Orleans, as well as George Shinn and the New Orleans Hornets gave me two great opportunities in New Orleans. I continue to main valued relationships with many coaches and players I worked with during those years. I thank the Greater New Orleans Sports Committee for this recognition."
FROM HEAD COACH MARK SLESSINGER
"He helped propel our program to the highest levels. He has been a great mentor and friend and I am forever grateful for his kindness. I know how much he treasures his time at UNO and his love for New Orleans. No one deserves this honor more and I am excited for him and his family."
By Ed Cassiere, Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee
Floyd's first UNO team was a major rebuild. It had no returning starters from the previous season and no starters taller than 6-feet-5. "That's the first time no one in an airport asked me if I was with a basketball team," Floyd said on the eve of his UNO debut, a tournament in San Marcos, Texas. Unheralded UNO won that tournament and finished the season with 19 victories, including a home upset of 12th-ranked Florida State. After winning the American South Conference regular-season championship, Floyd's Privateers earned an NIT invitation.
"Tim Floyd was the whole package," said New Orleans attorney David Sherman, who chaired the UNO search committee that helped hire Floyd. "He was an amazing recruiter, great coach and wonderful ambassador for UNO in the community."
Of Floyd's 13 college teams (including stops at four other schools) that reached 20 victories, his winningest was at UNO, when the Privateers were 26-4 in 1992-93, went 18-0 in the Sun Belt Conference and ranked 17th in the nation in the final regular-season Associated Press poll.
Floyd-coached UNO teams also scored victories against Power-Five programs such as Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Pitt, Texas A&M and — in back-to-back seasons — Virginia.
"UNO was an urban job in a city that was loaded with basketball talent," Floyd said, "with a relatively new building (Lakefront Arena) in a city that I loved. I didn't have the pulls from the outside that I would experience at other places."
Floyd also credited city rival Tulane — whose return to basketball after a self-imposed four-year shutdown coincided with Floyd's second season at UNO — as a motivational factor.
"Tulane coming back forced us to work really hard," Floyd said. "It was like a new Burger King opening across the street from McDonald's. The service gets better, the pricing gets better, the bathrooms get cleaner.
"Fortunately, there were a lot of players in the area available, and we had assistant coaches who could go outside the area and find good players when necessary. This was a time when the state was really strong in basketball. There were enough good players around to service many good teams in the state."
Floyd emphasized defense, rebounding, free throws and composure on the road. His teams regularly delivered on his demands. Five times the Privateers ranked among the top 25 in NCAA Division I in scoring defense. They won nearly two-thirds of their conference road games. The 1990-91 team led D-I with a 9.1 rebound margin. Two years later, Floyd proudly boasted of his 26-4 team making more free throws (552) than its opponents attempted (542).
"That doesn't happen a lot," Floyd said of the FTM-to-FTA ratio. "But it's an important stat because you're getting opponents in foul trouble and giving your team a chance to score with the clock stopped. It means you've got a pretty good team."
Floyd's most notable player success was
Ervin Johnson, an unrecruited 6-11 center that he developed into UNO's only NBA first-round draft pick, as well as a Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Famer. "I can't say enough about coach Floyd and what he's meant in my life," said Johnson, who played 13 NBA seasons (1993-2006). "He took a chance on me when nobody else would. He kept working with me and motivating me to bring out the best in me. He never gave up on me, even though I wasn't a good player when I got to UNO."
Floyd also was a head coach at Idaho, Iowa State, USC and UTEP and in the NBA at Chicago and New Orleans. He finished with 444 victories in 24 seasons as a college head coach, and his best winning percentage — .686 — was at UNO. His college teams produced 20 winning seasons.
This will be Floyd's second in-state induction. He was enshrined in the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month - the honors enter their 64th year in 2020. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 96 Hall of Fame players, 50 Hall of Fame coaches and 18 Heisman Trophy winners in its 86-year history. The 87th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2021. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1.6 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors over 100,000 student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.7 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.
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