Unranked Pac-10 Teams Are A Bunch Of Inglourious Basterds

The Hitler parodies from the movie "Downfall" are certainly played out.

USC losing to an unranked Pac-10 team each season has also grown redundant and tiresome.

And yet when the two come together, it's evident that they're a perfect match for each other.



(H/T: Bruins Nation)

so, let's see...I don't update the site for six months and then my first post back features Adolf Hitler- and one in which Hitler's rant makes sense, at that. Yeah, this return is going to be a roaring success.

USC Song Girls: Fright On!

In an odd twist of events, it appears that there will actually be a reason to watch members of the USC athletic department in the month of March.

E! Entertainment has announced (HT: Scott Wolf) that it will debut a new reality show Friday March 13 cleverly titled, "Hot Girls in Scary Places" in which three female friends are presented with the challenge of spending the night together in an abandoned, and supposedly haunted, hospital. If the trio is able to make it the night and complete a set of challenges therein, they will win $10,000. Oh yeah, and the best part- the threesome will comprise of college cheerleaders. Specifially, members of the famed USC Song Girls, including the already internet famous Lindsey G.

Now while casting cheerleaders into a "real life" 80's horror flick is an otherwise brilliant move, I think E! is making a mistake by casting girls from USC. It's not that the Song Girls aren't beautiful enough to be on tv - they certainly are - but what can the producers at E! throw at the girls that they don't already experience in their daily lives? Gunshots fired? Those might as well be evening crickets in South Central. Women shrieking in the attic? That's every Thursday night in an SC frathouse. Shadowy figures in the window? No different than during football recruiting. You want to freak out a USC coed? Ask her to walk three blocks to a local convenience store at midnight. That will do the trick.

E! says this project is being considered as a "special/backdoor pilot." Or as it's known at Southern Cal, a Maualuga.


Photo Credit: Yeung Photography.

Excuse Pete Carroll While He Slips Into Something A Little More Comfortable

In a move that had been rumored for many months, Pete Carroll and Rick Neuheisel have come to an agreement which will allow both teams to wear their home jerseys in their rivalry game this Saturday. The change in attire will honor the days when both the Bruins and Trojans shared the Los Angeles Coliseum and also will allow USC to further embrace their rich heritage:



Rick Neuheisel has also suggested that as long as the two teams are honoring their traditions, they should go all the way back to beginning of the rivalry and have both teams lineup in the single wing formation all game. In fact, Neuheisel has promised not to allow Kevin Craft to throw a single pass if Carroll will do the same with Mark Sanchez.

It was originally feared that the teams would not be able to restore the jersey tradition because NCAA rules mandated that the offending team be charged with two timeouts during the course of the game. But in a last minute decision, the NCAA capitulated to one of its cash cows storied institutions and minimized the penalty to only one first half timeout. However in an effort to not appear biased towards USC, the NCAA has enacted another new rule whereby any interception thrown by Kevin Craft that is not returned for a touchdown will instead be ruled as an incompletion.

In other college football news, Oregon coach Mike Bellotti has named Chip Kelly the head coach in-waiting, but has yet to set a date for when that might be. Kelly now joins Jimbo Fisher at Florida State and Will Muschamp at Texas as the coaching equivalent of a mistress who stays with a married man because he tells her that he's going to break it off eventually. He just needs to wait for the right moment. These things take time, baby. Meanwhile, they don't get any younger, their wrinkles start to show, and their desirability to other suitors begins to wane. So they better hope this gig works out, because there might not be time for any others (certainly not for Fisher).

This Thursday, the Raiders-Chargers game will be televised in 3-D in select theaters in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. 3ality Digital feels this game will be a great opportunity to showcase their new technology; and as an added bonus, they are able to reduce costs as this game will not require them to put any cameras in the endzone.

I'm no marketing major, but my feeling is the best way to make sure the 3D experiment is a success would be to make sure there are some cameras on the San Diego sidelines to capture all the dimensions of:



But if viewers in an Imax theater end up seeing Norv Turner's facial craters or Al Davis' animated skeleton in 3D, then 3ality Digital is going to need a GM sized bailout by the end of the game.


NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has suspended Sean Avery indefinitely for referring to this puck bunny:




as "sloppy seconds." Bettman had to invoke the suspension for the good of the game, as Cuthbert is the only fan the league had left. Bettman will meet Avery soon to discuss the duration of the suspension and to make certain that Avery is aware that this particular term will not be tolerated and should instead be replaced by, "a drop pass into the crease," "a rebound through the five-hole," or simply "bacon scraps."

Nobody Puts USC Song Girls In a Corner

Sunday night, I paid my first visit to the Galen Center, the newish (built in late 2006) basketball facility for the USC Trojans which is located just a few urine-soaked blocks from the main campus. Wearing UCLA blue to the game, there were a few things I knew to expect. I knew that I'd be booed and cursed at by USC students (I was, although it wasn't excessively vulgar at all); and I knew that if the Bruins were to win, Trojan fans would immediately invoke the recent history of the football programs (they did). But one thing I wasn't prepared for was the aural assault that was Petros Papadakis as the PA announcer.

For those that don't live in Southern California, here's the best way I can describe Petros. Remember when Tony Siragusa was on Hard Knocks and in preparation for a career outside of football, Goose tried to portray himself as the fat, fun-loving court jester- only he wasn't really that funny, so instead he was just loud and obnoxious? Well try to imagine that rather than getting a tv gig where he could receive some training, Siragusa was instead given a sports radio talk show where the more obnoxious he was, the more airtime he would be given. That's Petros Papadakis; and for some reason USC has decided to give him a microphone for a captive USC audience. It's absolutely brutal. By the end of the game, I wanted to borrow a gun from one of the SC fans, blow my brains out, and leave a note beside me which read, "Whoever finds this, please pick up the gun and empty the chamber into my head so that my ears can never be raped again." C'mon Southern Cal. The voice of your basketball program is a mindless, witless blowhard. Even I think you deserve better.

As for the game itself- while Tim Floyd may be a brilliant defensive tactician, he leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to player development. The Trojans only substituted one player out (Jefferson) the entire game, leaving the other four to play all 40 minutes of the game. I know SC was down an injured player, but there had to be somebody on that bench who could steal a few minutes of rest for the starters. No wonder the Trojans finished the game with more turnovers (22) than field goals (20). I'm just surprised that nobody vomited on the ball.

If the Bruins want to make it back to the Final Four, somebody is going to have to find their outside shot. In their last four games, the Bruins are 7 for 44 from beyond the arc. Josh Shipp has missed his last 15 attempts at three pointers. Lately, their most potent long range shooter has been center/forward Kevin Love. Fortunately, the team's next games are at home vs the worst team in the conference, Oregon State and a team that plays pretty loose defense, Oregon. If they're ever going to find their shooting touch, it should be against these schools.

This was the first year in which the visiting team's cheerleaders, dance team and band didn't make the trip for the rivalry games as financial greed (initiated by UCLA) has taken priority over tradition. One would have guessed that this would at least mean more floor time for the USC Song girls during timeouts, but instead the marketing experts at the Galen Center opted to use that time to promote SC alum Will Ferrell's new movie, "Semi-Pro." There was a trailer for the movie on the jumbotron, the dance team performed to one of the songs from the movie, and fans were given cardboard cutouts of Will Ferrell's face to wave around during free throws. Either SC is really proud of their prodigal son or they're getting some points on the back end of the movie. I'm guessing it's the latter. Meanwhile, the Song Girls spent most of the timeouts prancing in a corner behind the baseline. That's inexcusable.

Matt Leinart was sitting courtside at the game, and surprisingly, he was with his son Cole and his baby momma, Brynn Cameron. They all appeared to be happy, which must mean that Matt's child support check had just cleared.

While I think the architects of the Galen Center got a few things wrong, being in a new building was a stark reminder of how outdated Pauley Pavilion has become. There's really no excuse for one of the top basketball programs in the country to be playing in a building that offers neither the intimacy nor the amenities of these newer facilities. Actually, the Galen Center doesn't offer much in the way of intimacy either. It's a rather sterile, concrete structure in which the students were screwed over by being put behind the backboard. Worst of all, the seating was designed in such a way that you feel removed from the action on the court and feel much more like a distant observer than an active participant. For example, my seats were in row 14 behind the backboard opposite the SC students, and yet I was so far from center court that I had to take an Ansel Adams landscape approach to the photos I took. That is, if Ansel Adams was a horny old man instead of some dude that just liked nature. Well, judge for yourself:

Even On Injured Reserve, Matt Leinart Keeps Taking Hits

Last year, Matt Leinart celebrated his new contract by paying $2.4 million for a six bedroom, six and a half bath, 6,800 square-foot, tuscan style home in an Arizona suburb called Ahwatukee. This week, he sold the house to Phoenix Suns forward and real estate mogul (he owns four homes in Arizona) Amare Stoudemire for $1.9 million, for a tidy loss of $500,000, or roughly a little more than three years of child support payments.

You can now add "Real Estate" to a growing list of subjects for which you would never want to ask Matt Leinart's advice. That list includes:

Birth control
Driver's Ed.
STDs (allegedly)
Parenting
Sportsmanship
Durability
Self-esteem

On the plus side, if you ever need tips on the foxtrot, Matt's your guy.

The Softer Side of Juice Deuce

Andy Katz has a nice piece on the debut of USC freshman OJ Mayo at an exhibition in Mazatlan. The article is noteworthy not so much for the stories he relates, but rather for the possibilities they present.

For one, perhaps there is another side to OJ Mayo than the one that has been presented in the mainstream media and blogs (including this one), and he's actually a misunderstood, industrious kid just trying to do what's best for his future.

More importantly, if USC was accompanied by any members of their spirit squad, then on some digital camera somewhere, there have to be pictures of SC song girls frolicking on the beaches of Mazatlan.

Oh. Sweet. Jesus.

Johnnie Morton Struggles Going Over the Middle

Mixed Martial Arts has been called many things by many people. Some call it "human cockfighting" while others think it represents the complete evolution of contact sports. ESPN just hopes it's something that can garner better ratings than the WNBA and Arena League football. What MMA probably isn't however, is a second career for former professional athletes after their playing days are over.

Johnnie Morton has known better nights than the one he experienced Saturday at the LA Coliseum. He was the hero in one of the most exciting college football games of the last quarter century, catching the game winning pass from Todd Marinovich with 12 seconds on the clock in a 45-42 USC victory over UCLA. (Was that really 17 years ago? Man, this whole getting old thing sucks.) Never quite a superstar in the NFL, Morton did put up four 1,000 yard efforts in the span of five years, making fantasy football players love him (tho Matt Millen would later deride him for any kind of man-on-man love.) After retiring in 2005, the former first round draft pick decided to give mixed martial arts a try, and well, it didn't exactly go as he had hoped:



Well, at least the first 25 seconds of the 38 he lasted weren't so bad. Reportedly unconscious when medical personnel got to him, he was put in a neck brace and taken out on a stretcher. He also has been suspended indefinitely as he refused to take a urine test after the fight. In this case, refusal shouldn't necessarily mean guilt. He did provide a pre-fight sample which will be tested, and if I just got knocked into dreamland after my first fight, I wouldn't be so eager to get out of my hospital bed so someone could watch me pee either.

Still, the refusal means that he will be denied his $100,000 purse, so there's certainly reason to be suspicious that he's revived a new form of a Marinovich to Morton connection. Although if Morton had been taking any sort of performance enhancers, he should ask for his money back.

HTs: Sherdog
Trojan Wire
Bruins Nation
Conquest Chronicles

Matt Leinart Would Like to Show Your Kids A Few Things

Have a kid between the ages of 7 and 14 that loves football? Or perhaps there's a neighborhood MILF that you'd like to get closer to, but you need to get her kid out of the house for a few days? Either way, Matt Leinart is here to help. This summer, Matt Leinart and 4th and 9 Sports (great name, I must admit) are offerring the Matt Leinart Football Camp, which will provide a series of non-contact instructional drills and classroom sessions over the course of five days in Santa Barbara. For the low price of $695, overnight campers will be provided lodging at Tropicana Gardens, a local dormitory across from UCSB. Additionally, special guests from the NFL are scheduled to attend, including Reggie Bush, Brian Urlacher, Edgerrin James, Nick Barnett, and Dwayne Jarrett. This sounds pretty cool (Urlacher is one of my favorite players and Bush has been great for the city of New Orleans,) but unfortunately their level of participation isn't detailed in the brochure. Perhaps they forgot to scan a page before putting it online. So I guess I can only speculate on what expertise each athlete will be bringing to the clinic. Here are the special sessions they could potentially offer:

"Opening Ceremony Inspirational" Presented by Matt Leinart.
Mandatory session. Matt Leinart will present the monologue he would have performed had his worthless former agency landed him the hosting gig on Saturday Night Live instead of that pasty, over-exposed Peyton Manning. (Note: any child who does not laugh at Leinart's jokes will not be allowed to participate in the remainder of camp.)

"Winning Isn't Everything." Presented by Edgerrin James.
Sure everyone would like to win a Super Bowl someday, but that's just not realistic. Edgerrin will help kids realize that there are more important things in life than winning- like getting PAID!

"Gamebreakers Don't Stay in Dorms" (overnight campers only). Presented by Reggie Bush.
After two days of on-field drills, Reggie Bush will determine who the elite players are within the camp. Those kids will be upgraded from the Tropciana Gardens to the Four Seasons Resort at no additional cost.

"Tackling With One Arm Tied Behind Your Back." Presented by Brian Urlacher.
After the on-field sessions have completed, campers will join #54 in the film room where they will review game tape of the Super Bowl. Urlacher will break down the tape to illustrate how even the best defenders can't make plays when defensive coordinators are essentially playing "prevent D" all game long.

"Waltzing Your Way to Eligibility" Presented by Matt Leinart.
Many of your kids will be playing high school sports soon, and for some, maintaining academic eligibility will be a difficult challenge. Leinart will draw on his years of experience to help kids select the right elective courses that are sure to keep their grades in a comfort zone.

"Believing in Yourself." Presented by Dwayne Jarrett.
One of the most important attributes for any young athlete or young person in general is self confidence. Throughout college, Jarrett was one of the most arrogant, cocky, confident players in the league. Jarrett will teach kids how to realize- and in fact overinflate - their own self-worth. He'll also show kids all the bling he purchased with the bonus he's going to receive for being a top 10 pick. (Please instruct your children not to inform Jarrett that he wasn't drafted in the top 10. As Jarrett says, "It doesn't matter what order Roger Goodell calls the names. The order in my head is all I care about."

"Hitting Sessions" Presented by Nick Barnett and Matt Leinart.
Campers between the ages of 7 and 12 will join Nick Barnett as he demonstrates proper the tackling form. Campers aged 13 and 14 will join Matt Leinart in the film room where he presents a slideshow of various female celebs and athletes and calls out, "Yeah, I hit that."

C'mon now, who wouldn't pay 700 bux for that? Really, all that's missing is an announcement from Leinart that he also convinced a few 'SC Song Girls to attend and this would be the greatest camp ever.

NFL Trivia Time- Booty Edition

The Oakland Raiders are one of many NFL teams that are in a state of disarray in the quarterback department. New head coach Lane Kiffen has done his part to solve the problem by signing Josh Booty, who has been out of the league for three years but has the credentials of being the brother of current USC QB John David Booty; and he also happens to be tied with me for career NFL completions. I'm guessing the Raiders' next move will be to sign LenDale White's cousin to play safety and Reggie Bush's parents to book the team's hotel accommodations.

This move was probably just done as a goodwill gesture to the Booty family, who Kiffen likely got to know well during his transactions in John David's recruitment. However, if Josh Booty makes the team and the Raiders draft JaMarcus Russell, they will have two quarterbacks who went to LSU. The person who brought this to my attention then asked if this would be the first time that a NFL team had two QBs on the roster from the same university. My initial response was that there's no way it could be, but for the life of me, I can't think of another example of this occurrence.

Fortunately, my readers are much smarter than I am. So I'll pose the question to you. What other NFL teams have had two QBs from the same college? Help me out here.

An Open Letter to CBS

Dear CBS Directors,

I know you have a lot of sponsors who have logos that need to be presented coming out of each commercial, but this evening when USC takes on North Carolina, it may be the last opportunity to show the SC Song Girls. For all the basketball fans who are choosing to stay home and watch TV this Friday night rather than going out to a bar, night club, or strip joint, could you please reward their loyalty with a few unobstructed shots of these lovely ambassadors of the game:





Thank you kindly,

Basketball fans everywhere

P.S. Keep your cameramen ready for some nice shots of the Ducks cheerleaders too.

Can I Get an Extra Ham with Mayo?

Credit goes to the AOL FanHouse for this find. Here's footage from USC-bound OJ Mayo's final high school game. According to the AOL article, Mayo's team was ahead by a large margin, so he decided to toss the ball off the backboard to himself, dunk it, and then launch the ball into the crowd.



On one hand, I get that he's just a kid and wants to do a little celebrating. On the other hand, where the hell is his coach in all of this? Can you imagine how Bob Knight or Roy Williams would have responded to a stunt like that? Fortunately for Mayo, he's going to Tim Floyd's program so he needn't worry about any of that discipline stuff. Tho I'm guessing that whistle happy Pac-10 referee Dave Libby has a few technical fouls just waiting for "Juice Deuce."

The Nightcap

Tonight's Nightcap is being brought to you by um..whatever they're having. It looks real good to me. Make mine a double.

The game of the night was USC at Arizona, where the Trojans won at the McHale Center for the first time in over twenty years. It's now 26 games into the season and Southern California still hasn't developed anyone off of their bench, but so far they're proving that their starting five is enough. Tonight Gabe Pruitt, Lodrick Stewart, and Pac-10 Player of the Year candidate Nick Young combined for 69 of the team's 80 points.

Arizona is now 17-8 and has four remaining games (vs UCLA, at Arizona St, at Cal, at Stanford) before the Pac-10 tournament. I wouldn't go so far as to call them a bubble team just yet as reputation goes a long way with the selection committee. But they do need to beat either UCLA or Stanford to firmly secure their invitation to the dance. I think they'll do both.

It may be my imagination, but this season really seems to be wearing on Lute Olsen. He's beginning to look less and less like a venerable old coach, a la Dean Smith in his golden years; and is beginning to take on the appearance of a frustrated old man, like Joe Paterno. I'm not sure how many more years Lute has left in him. It will be interesting to see if the program is able to maintain its position amongst the elite when he leaves.

What happened to Jawann McClellan? When he first arrived at Arizona, he looked like the next superstar to wear the Wildcats uniform. But this season with the emergence of Chase Budinger and Marcus Williams, he's all but disappeared. It seems like the only time he's capable of putting together a good game is when he's playing the Washington Huskies (for some reason, all of the Wildcats transform into Sean Elliot and Steve Kerr when they play U-Dub). McClellan is going to have to step up his game if Arizona is going to be any sort of threat in March.

The exact same could be said of Josh Shipp at UCLA. He is no longer the same dynamic player he once was when he joined the Bruins. UCLA doesn't need him to be a superstar, but he does have to become a viable third option and role player- much like Cedric Bozeman was for last year's team. While he did lead the team in assists in UCLA's lethargic victory over Arizona State, he also led them in turnovers. He needs to become more of a contributor on offense especially against the zone defenses being thrown at UCLA.

About those zone defenses? Expect to see a lot of them, because until either Shipp or Mbah a Moute develops a reliable mid-range jumper, the Bruins primary attack against the zone is to just throw it around the perimeter until either Collison or Afflalo shoots a three to beat the shot clock. That's not the kind of offense that will get them to Atlanta.

Has Cal really fallen on such hard times that their fans will rush the court after any game that the Bears manage to win? Apparently so, as the students came a-stormin' after Cal beat Oregon, 63-61. This is the same Oregon team that has now lost four of their last five and is falling fast. With Cal playing Oregon State on Saturday, they'll need to get some extra security at Haas Pavilion as there could be a full blown riot if the Bears actually get a two game winning streak.
...

I've been having an internal struggle on just how much to write about the Tim Hardaway fallout today. When I first heard the comments, it seemed to me that what he said was pretty much indefensible. But then listening to talk radio and reading the AOL FanHouse, it's apparent that many people are rushing to his defense. I've been trying to stay out of the discussion because I'm of the opinion that anyone that advocates hate against a group of people is by definition closed minded, and so my words won't be that persuasive anyway. I expected the Biblical cherry-picking to justify hate, but my favorite rationalization has been that it's OK to hate gays because unlike race, sexual orientation is a choice and therefore homosexuals can be "trained" to like the opposite sex. I'm not sure how anyone can sincerely believe that it's a choice, because why would a person choose a lifestyle that leads to being oppressed and ostracized? And if that were the case, then wouldn't the converse be true? Wouldn't you be able to get any heterosexual male off the street and via therapy be able to train him to prefer the company of men? I guess the theory is that a dick is like Diet Coke. It's revolting at first, but if you force it down your throat long enough, it becomes quite palatable.

Hypothetical question of the night: Let's say you had an 8 year-old son who wanted to join a youth basketball league. There are two teams in the league with a roster opening. One is coached by John Amaechi and the other is coached by a Catholic priest. Which team do you put your son on?

Picture Pages

For some reason, Blogger is being really pesky with letting me upload pictures to my server, which is why there are no photos attached to my latest post. To make up for that, I've created a quick photo album from some snaps I took during the game last night. More accurately, they are photos I took during the dead-ball situations and pregame. So there isn't much in the way of in-game shots, but that doesn't mean there aren't action shots. (hint, hint: USC's song girls did make the trip.)

Bruins Deliver in the Clutch

Tonight was an opportunity for the top teams in college basketball to assert their dominance, and for the most part, they did just that. Florida won at Georgia, 71-61. Wisconsin took care of Penn State 71-58. North Carolina withstood an early charge from Duke and prevailed, 79-73. But I didn't see any of those games, because I was at Pauley Pavilion watching the #2 UCLA Bruins take on the crosstown Trojans of Southern Cal. Much like their first meeting, USC was the dominant team for the first 30 minutes of the game. However in those final 10 minutes, UCLA had enough will, enough composure, and enough defense to come away with a 70-65 win. Some notes from the game:

While Arron Afflalo will always be the heart of the team, the MVP for the Bruins Wednesday was Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who had two big blocked shots, 10 rebounds, a nice soft touch on his mid-range jumper, and the steal that gave UCLA its first lead of the game with 5:49 to go in the game.

The Trojans did an excellent job of mixing up their defenses, frequently switching between a 2-3 zone and man to man. Too often, the Bruins settled for outside jumpers, leading to a miserable 2-17 performance from 3 pt land.

Much will be made of the 31 to 5 free throw discrepancy in favor of the Bruins, however as I mentioned elsewhere, one must keep in mind that:
-13 free throws came in the last 1:12 of the game, when USC was trying to stretch out the game to mount a comeback.
-2 free throws were the result of a blatant technical foul.
-3 free throws were the product of Tim Floyd employing the "Swat-a-Mata" tactic with the Bruins in the one and one in the first half.

Take away those 18 free throws, and that makes the ref-related free throw differential only 13 to 5. Still one-sided, sure; but considering that UCLA's defense in the first half was so atrocious that they couldn't have grabbed an SC player if they wanted to, the stat seems reasonable.

That being said: it should come as no surprise that in a game in which a coach was upset with the officiating, the head ref was good ol' Dave Libby. Libby is an absolute disaster of an official. He is the same man of whom ESPN analyst Doug Gottleib once wrote, "Please stop putting him on big West Coast games. He ruins the flow and puts both teams on edge."

There were some notable celebrities and athletes in attendance tonight. Amongst them was Governer Arnold Schwarzenegger. As he hobbled by, it was very disconcerting to see the Terminator on crutches- almost as disconcerting as the bad, bad dye job on his hair. Yikes.

Many former UCLA football players were in the crowd, including Cade McNown. When shown on the jumbotron, McNown had a look on his face that said, "Yeah, I may have been a bust in the NFL, but I had sex with Heather Kozar, and no one can take that away from me. And hey Bears fans, do you think I could have possibly done any worse in the Super Bowl than Rex Grossman?"

The highlight for me however was being fortunate enough to have UCLA volleyballer Nellie Spicer standing next to me while UCLA ushers spent 15 minutes trying to find her a seat. Already charming on tv, Ms. Spicer is an absolute stunner in person. She can dig my balls anytime. (I'm not sure what that means.)

I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I was wrong about the juggler being out of place at UCLA basketball games. I guess there must have been some circus renaissance in pop culture that I missed, because the fans really seem to like him. And if the fans like it, then it's good for the game. Mr. JugglerMan, I apologize.

During one break in the game, the PA announcer honored a UCLA gymnast for her accomplishments this past year in national competition. In a very surprising move, the USC song girls joined in cheering for the UCLA athlete. I know that SC's girls have been known to cheer for anyone in the past, but this was a very classy move by the squad. It almost made me feel guilty for ogling them as sex objects for two hours. Almost.

While this has never been even a possibility in the recent past, it appears that the UCLA and USC basketball teams have developed a mutual respect for each other. It's a strange, strange feeling. Fortunately, the arrogance of Pete Carroll and the incompetence of Karl Dorrell will ensure that there will still be plenty of hatred to fuel the rivalry for years to come. Or at least until Dorrell gets fired and Carroll flees to the NFL to escape NCAA sanctions.

Joe McKnight is Moving Out West

Three years after the fact, LSU fans are still upset that the mainstream media often chooses to recognize USC's 2003 AP Championship in football over the Tigers' BCS title. Now, Tigers fans have yet another reason to be upset with the men of Troy. Louisiana recruit Joe McKnight, who many people consider to be the next Reggie Bush, has announced that he has chosen Southern Cal over Louisiana State.

Congratulations to USC. And congratulations to the McKnight family. I hope you enjoy your new, rent-free home.

Wilbon Calls It Like He Sees It

As frustrating and irritating as ESPN has become in recent years, there are still a few ESPN personalities who I do like. Dan Patrick and Eric Allen come to mind, as does Michael Wilbon.

Today, a judge granted an injunction on the two game suspension of the #1 high school player, OJ Mayo, which had been the result of two technical fouls he received in a recent game. Here is what Michael Wilbon had to say about the entire incident, as well as some new camera angles taken by fans:
(sorry about the static in the audio at the beginning; it clears up after 8 seconds or so...)



Those are some harsh words for the future USC guard. Having seen the new footage, OJ is a little more culpable than I originally thought. But I still think the ref took a dive.

West Coast Bias

If you're going to have a coming-out party, ya might as well make it a block party. Stanford freshman Brook Lopez set a school record by blocking 12 shots en route to his first career triple double (18 points, 11 rebounds). USC kept driving into the paint, and Stanford defenders kept swatting it away. When the final seconds had ticked off the clock in the Stanford 65-52 victory, the Cardinal had amassed a grand total of 19 blocked shots. The Trojans had 67 field goal attempts in all, so that translates into nearly 30% of SC's shots not ever making it to the rim. You'd think at some point, the Trojans would have learned that trying to score from the low block was a bad idea. But this is Southern Cal we're talking about, and learning isn't really that high on the priority list over there.

The depth of young players in the Pac-10 is astounding. One week, it looks like Spencer Hawes is the best freshman in the league. Then it's Chase Budinger who starts to dominate with his play. A few weeks later, Ryan Anderson puts a few good games together, and his name starts to get mentioned as a Freshman of the Year candidate. Now, the Lopez twins have announced their presence in the conference. You could put together a team of just the best freshmen in the Pac-10, and they would be a top 10 team in the country. I just hope they decide to stick around for a couple years.

The headline at Yahoo Sports reads, "Torrid Huskies Upset Ducks." Obviously, the headline writer doesn't also read the Yahoo odds page, or he would have known that by tipoff, Washington was a 4.5 point favorite in the game. (By the way, if you ever do encounter a torrid husky...well, you don't want him around if you're wearing short pants- if you know what I mean. A word of warning though: If he does lay into you, it's best to just let him finish.) Still it was a much-needed win for the Huskies, as any hopes they had for making the Big Dance (save for winning the Pac-10 tournament) would have been pretty much eliminated with a loss Thursday. As it is, Washington is 2-6 in the Pac-10 with 10 conference games remaining. They probably need to go 7-3 in those games to have a shot at an invitation. One of those games will be a visit to Eugene, Oregon for a rematch against the Ducks, where I'm sure the team will remember the "overrated" chant that came from the Huskies faithful tonight. That may have been a miscalculation on the part of HuskyFan.

UCLA now stands alone atop the Pac-10 after overcoming a slow start (boy, does that sound familiar) to beat Cal 62-46. Once Arron Afflalo began to heat up and the UCLA defense tightened up, Cal lost any hope they had for an upset bid. The Bruins now go to Palo Alto, which over the last decade, has been a nightmare game for UCLA. The Bruins will have to play 40 minutes of energetic basketball if they hope to escape Maples Pavilion with a win. I'm not so sure that they'll win, but I do feel pretty confidant that they won't get swatted 19 times. That's just the type of preparation you can expect from Ben Howland. Well that, and the Bruins don't have a single reliable scorer in the low block. Thank heaven for small favors.