Dear Pat Haden:

Through this petition we call on you to consider relieving Kevin O'Neill of his duties as Head Coach of our beloved Men's Basketball Team.  The "we" includes alumni, students, and fans of the program. 

We make this request based on both his lack of leadership skills and the on court basketball results.

Leadership skills: We believe a large part of a college coach's responsibilities is to be a teacher and role model for young men and women.  Kevin O'Neill has displayed the opposite traits that one would want out of someone in that kind of position:

- The incident last year during the PAC 10 tournament that led to his suspension

- The fact that he always has "victim glasses" on and looks for excuses (probation, injuries, player mistakes, etc) rather than what a leader should do: take responsibility and focus on solutions.

- The fact that he contiuosly throws his players under the bus IN PUBLIC with his constant comments to the media.

- His overuse of the one skill he has perfected: YELLING

We believe our student athletes deserve a better role model to help them grow as men.

On court basketball results:

- We are on our way to the worst year in USC basketball HISTORY, this at a time when the PAC10/12 has arguably the weakest combination of teams in a long time.

- He has a sub 0.500 record after more than 400 games at schools that, with the exception of Northwestern, are better than average basketball schools relative to their conference.

- He has shown an ability to mismanage his roster by recruiting many players who have to either sit out, or have lacked the level of talent one would expect at a school like USC.  This has allowed him the excuse of not having enough players/talent to win.  He has had THREE recruiting classes.  This is HIS roster.

- Although he has proven to be a good defensive coach, his lack of imagination on the offensive side (We are #335 out of 338 teams in scoring!!) will never lead us to where we want to be. 
- Although we have had injuries this year, where would we be without them?  0.500?  Is that acceptable?

This Univerity deserves better.  Our Student Athletes deserve better.  Our fans deserve better. 

We are a top academic institution in a city loaded with high school talent.  In the last decade we have added the Galen Center to better position us to be an elite program.  All of these factors point to us attracting a top tier coach. Kevin O'Neill's record as a coach and leader show he is a lower than average coach.

Please show us your committment to excellence for our Univversity by closing this chapter of USC basketball by relieveing Kevin O'neill of his duties.

Respectfully,

Petition signees