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Updated at 1:36 a.m., Friday, February 20, 2009

CBKB: Report: NCAA looks into Hackett's USC arrangement

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The NCAA is looking into whether point guard Daniel Hackett's arrangement to play for Southern California was part of a package deal that includes his father, who is the school's strength and conditioning coach, according to a report.

Because Rudy Hackett is a university employee, his son Daniel receives free tuition, which opens up another scholarship for the Trojans to use, ESPN reported Thursday.

Hackett's name was mentioned, but he is only one of the "package deals" that an NCAA focus group is looking into, the cable network said. Such a situation technically does not violate NCAA rules.

USC coach Tim Floyd denied any wrongdoing.

"All I can tell you is that that bridge was crossed three years ago with the NCAA, with the Pac-10, with our compliance office and we have not done one thing wrong," Floyd said after the Trojans beat Washington State 61-51 Thursday night.

"As far as Rudy Hackett being at this university as our basketball coach, he was here a year before Daniel Hackett got here and he's far more qualified than 95 percent of the assistant coaches in the United States of America. He played in the NBA, he played on a Final Four team at Syracuse, coached and played in Italy and was highly recommended by the number one team in Southern California."

Rudy Hackett joined USC in 2005. His son, a point guard who grew up in Italy and has represented the country internationally, joined the Trojans a year later.

Floyd said that Rudy Hackett had been recommended to him by Pat Barrett, president of the Southern Cal All-Stars, an AAU team.

"He recommended him, I hired him and I'm very glad we did," Floyd said. "That's all I got to say."