College basketball: Mark Trakh returns to coach USC women

USC’s new women’s basketball coach isn’t really new. The Trojans have hired Mark Trakh, who previously coached the Trojans from 2005 to 2009, to fill the open position, the school announced Friday.

The announcement ends an unusually lengthy coaching search. Cynthia Cooper-Dyke resigned in March after four seasons, following a ninth-place finish in the Pac-12 Conference. It took 49 days to fill the position.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mark back to USC,” athletic director Lynn Swann said in a statement. “It was important for us to hire a coach who really wanted to be at USC, who truly cares about our student-athletes and who believes in the Trojan way of excelling. We found that coach in Mark Trakh.”

In Trakh, the Trojans bring on the engineer of an impressive rebuild at New Mexico State, where he coached the last six seasons. In his first season there, the Aggies went 6-24 overall. By his final three seasons, they won at least 20 games and finished first in the Western Athletic Conference each season.

Trakh went 90-64 in his earlier five-season stint at USC. His best finish was fourth place in the Pac-12 Conference, which his teams did three times, and two NCAA tournament second-round appearances.

After leaving USC, Trakh, 61, took two years off before starting at New Mexico State.

In a statement, Trakh said that he was “excited to once again be a part of the great tradition at USC. The goal and expectation is always to get to the Final Four.”

Etc.

Gonzaga junior Johnathan Williams has declared for the NBA draft but will not sign with an agent, leaving open the possibility he will return for his senior season. By not signing with an agent, Williams has until May 24 to decide whether to remain in the draft or withdraw and return to Gonzaga. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 10.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in his first season with Gonzaga after transferring from Missouri. …

New North Carolina State coach Kevin Keatts has signed his six-year contract with the school worth at least $2.2 million per year. The deal will pay the men’s basketball coach an annual salary of $1.1 million plus another $1.1 million in supplemental income for fundraising, media appearances and apparel. Keatts is a former assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville who led UNC Wilmington to the past two NCAA tournaments. He was hired to replace Mark Gottfried, who was fired during his second straight losing season with the Wolfpack.

Associated Press contributed the notes to this report.