Pink is his favorite color. Well, I can’t confirm that, but I do know that Tim Floyd now bleeds Chicago Bulls’ red and white.

Without a doubt, the biggest sports story to hit the ISU campus this summer was the resignation of men’s head basketball coach Tim Floyd.

Floyd now mans the position of director of basketball operations for the Bulls. And, if Phil Jackson doesn’t return as coach, Floyd may take his place as head coach (wink, wink).

OK, so Floyd will coach the Bulls next year, barring some incredibly surprising decision by Jackson.

Still, the man dubbed as “Pink” by Jackson has a lot to prove in order to make naysayers believe he can succeed in the NBA.

So what motivated Floyd to jump from an extremely comfortable position at ISU into a massive rebuilding job that seems destined for the current NBA champions?

Maybe Tim Floyd left ISU for money. After seeing what former college coaches John Calipari and P.J. Carlissimo demanded and received for their coaching services in the NBA, perhaps Floyd believed that his services could be more valuable to an NBA team.

Floyd’s back may have been against the wall at ISU. After three consecutive winning seasons and three consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament, Floyd’s squad slipped in 1997-98, finishing with a 12-18 record.

However, many factors played a part in last season’s disappointment. The most obvious: an entirely new starting five.

Losing your entire starting lineup from the previous season is not exactly a one-way ticket back to the Sweet Sixteen.

At the same time, losing players from the team before and during the season who you are counting on can kill a team’s consistency and togetherness.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to say what exactly motivated Tim Floyd to leave behind four years of Hilton magic.

This is just a wild guess, but I’d like to think that Floyd left for the same reason most of us would if we were in his position: advancement.

Let’s face it; the chance to become a major player in one of the most powerful organizations in professional sports only comes around … well, about as often as a trip (figuratively speaking, of course) to the dark side of the moon.

Granted, I’ll be the first to tell you that Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause are the men who pull the strings in the Bulls organization.

Still, I think Floyd’s (and the Jerrys’) ambition was to have Floyd become the new coach of the Bulls.

The Bulls knew that the Jackson-Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen era couldn’t last much longer. They decided that now, while the team was still on top, was the time to pull the plug on the dynasty and start fresh.

Floyd has said publicly that he does not want to be known as the man who forced Jordan out of basketball.

However, if anyone were responsible for pushing Jordan out the door, it would be Reinsdorf and Krause.

Their constant haggling over key personnel decisions in recent years (see Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong among others) has probably made a retirement decision by Jordan easier to make.

The other important factor in this situation: Jordan has said he will only return next season if Jackson coaches the Bulls again.

Jackson, though, seems more interested in riding his Harley and finding enlightenment out of the NBA.

And so, with the hiring of Larry Eustachy as ISU men’s basketball coach, the four-year courtship between ISU and Floyd has ended.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact Floyd will make on the Windy City and how well Eustachy can adjust to the bright lights of Ames.

For those of you who may have been confused or offended by the obvious Pink Floyd (and one mini-Aerosmith) references made throughout this column, I apologize.

To everyone else: have a cigar, get crazy and walk this way to a newsstand near you. Grab your copy of the Daily, because you know you don’t want to miss a thing!

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Justin South is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Ankeny.