We're shuffling the deck with a number of the L.A. Times sports blogs. This blog is folding, but I'm honored that I will continue posting on a site with a lot of aces. The Fabulous Forum, our main sports blog on latimes.com, is the only place for first-hand accounts of Sam Farmer taking a blimp ride with Matt Millen, or Lisa Leslie experiencing the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. Now, it's also where you'll find all of my posts.
In a few more years, maybe we can convince T.J. Simers to start posting there. Maybe.
Sometimes lost among recent headlines about the newspaper industry is some really good news. We're harnessing new technologies and finding new ways to do our job -- to tell a good story. A columnist like Bill Plaschke can make you misty whether you're holding black-and-white newsprint or a BlackBerry. A sleepless beat writer like Gary Klein can break a story before bedtime or over breakfast.
At the end of the day, audiences are consuming more information than ever. Millions of people come to latimes.com for news, and even some of our silly YouTube videos can crank out over a million views. The industry is going through an awkward reinvention, but it's got awesome possibilities. It's exciting to be a part of that.
This isn't a swan song for me, though it is for this blog. I want to take this opportunity to thank the readers, the athletes and coaches, the SIDs and (gasp!) PR people, the entire staff of the L.A. Times (especially Randy Harvey, Tony Pierce, and all my editors and the seasoned pros who have taught me so much), and all the other bloggers I've had the privilege of linking to or being linked by. Let's keep it up on the Fabulous Forum!
The best news is that this transition is REALLY easy. All it takes is a couple of clicks. Here are the important ones for you to know:
CLICK HERE for all the USC blog posts on the Fabulous Forum. It's a lot like All Things Trojan, with posts from me PLUS even more updates from the rock stars at our sports desk.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the RSS feed for USC content from the Fabulous Forum. Again, it's pretty much like the All Things Trojan RSS feed.
CLICK HERE for all our USC videos on YouTube. Yes, we've made a YouTube playlist to help keep you up to date.
CLICK HERE if you want to find all of my posts on the Fabulous Forum. I like to call it my "mom link." Since I post about more than USC, it's where my friends and family (and, hopefully, fans) can find what I've written. An especially big thanks, and a lot of love, to all of you!
-- Adam Rose
Photo: An unidentified man Adam tries to take home the NBA Championship Trophy. Credit: Probably an accomplice.
An important member of the Trojan family passed away last week.
Ryan Davidson had been battling cancer for 9 1/2 years. He lost the battle on his 16th birthday but will be remembered around USC for winning everybody's heart.
For the last four seasons, Davidson would visit USC's locker room even though he lived in Wisconsin. He served as an honorary team captain and developed a close relationship with several players, notably Matt Leinart -- who would later host the Davidson family at Arizona Cardinals games and at his home in Arizona.
Throughout his battle, Davidson maintained an upbeat attitude that was downright contagious. He was an inspiration to players and coaches for his spirit, not simply in fighting his illness but because he reached out to help others in his situation. He set out to raise $15,000 for the American Cancer Society, but more than doubled his goal.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to one of his favorite organizations: the American Cancer Society, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, or the Matt Leinart Foundation.
We've seen Tim Floyd displeased before, but Sunday night at Arizona State was one of his most epic tirades. Trailing by six, the Trojans had the ball and 48 seconds left in the game when point guard Daniel Hackett collided with the Sun Devils' Jamelle McMillan. One official apparently signaled blocking against ASU. Another official overruled him and signaled a charge on USC.
Then Floyd sent some signals of his own.
He yelled, he stomped and he may have even brushed into a referee. The performance earned him an ejection and a double technical foul. ASU's Derek Glasser sank the first three of his four free throws to put the game out of reach.
Of course, 48 seconds is an eternity in a close basketball game -- especially when you've still got a timeout. Had Floyd kept quiet, Arizona State would have taken the ball but no foul shots. Had Floyd studied his USC history, he might have remembered a night 10 years ago when the Trojans were trailing by five on the road at Oregon. Adam Spanich nailed a pair of three-pointers in the final 2.8 seconds to complete one of the most unbelievable comebacks in college basketball history.
Unfortunately for USC, Sunday's game isn't history yet.
You could almost imagine it with the crowd on hand ... "Put me in for coach!"
Tim Floyd exploded in the final minute of a rough 65-53 loss to Arizona State on Sunday night in Tempe, easily earning an ejection that could end up an instant classic on YouTube.
If the Trojans needed any help, there were plenty of his colleagues in the building. The NBA All-Star game wrapped up around the same time that the Trojans and Sun Devils tipped off, and the two arenas sit just a few miles apart.
Portland Trail Blazer Coach Nate McMillan was on hand to watch his son, Jamelle McMillan, play for ASU. It was just the second game of the year for the dad, who was also there when the Sun Devils went to Oregon State. In those two games, Jamelle has hit 7 of 11 (64%) from beyond the arc, but he's only 17 of 59 (29%) on the rest of the season.
Los Angeles Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy was also in the stands to support his son, James Dunleavy, a USC walk-on.
Former Memphis Grizzlies and Texas A&M coach Tony Barone was there as a scout, as was former Southern Methodist and WNBA coach John Shumate. Speaking of the Grizzlies, their rookie star (and former Trojan) O.J. Mayo also took in the game.
If anybody gave Floyd some advice, though, it was probably retired USC coach Bob Boyd. The two are close friends, and Boyd came over to give Floyd a pat on the back during the postgame news conference.
-- Adam Rose
Photo: USC's Daniel Hackett gets in between Trojan Coach Tim Floyd and a referee at Sunday night's game at ASU. Credit: Paul Connors/AP Photo.
If you act now, there's a chance to get Matt Leinart into your pants ... pocket.
The Desert Schools Federal Credit Union is still offering ATM cards featuring a picture of Arizona's favorite backup quarterback. The promotion started a while ago, but a teller I spoke with only recalled giving out one of the Card's cards. A similar offering with the team's stadium is apparently a hot item.
Despite the Cardinals falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, Phoenix continues to show plenty of pride in their hometown heroes. Even Costco is selling NFC Championship commemorative items.
Speaking of Arizona, the USC men's basketball team is in the desert this weekend. The school's former star football player? He was spotted back in Los Angeles visiting with a financial planner. No word if he uses his own card.
National letter-of-intent day, when high school football recruits pledge their services to college programs around America, was last week -- but there's still plenty of buzz.
We kept most of our recruiting coverage over on the Fabulous Forum, so if you haven't checked out the football signings category you should take a look.
If you need more, here are the top 10 links that will make you sound like an expert on any L.A. sports talk radio show:
It's not easy being a freshman, and it's especially hard to make an impact as a freshman football player. These five could do it. [Rivals.com]
USC, as usual, signed the best class in the Pac-10. UCLA, unexpectedly, was right on its heels. Find out how the conference stacked up. [ESPN]
Manti Te'o's going to Notre Dame was the biggest news of the day, but did UCLA's Norm Chow make a last-ditch effort to keep him from USC? [Orange County Register]
What's it like inside Rick Neuheisel's office on signing day? Bruce Feldman went in as an embedded reporter. [ESPN]
Bryce Brown, the nation's top unsigned recruit, has, well, a very close advisor. Sounds more like a ticking time bomb. [NY Times]
A lot of hype becomes official and a few surprises are sure to be in store ... today is National Letter of Intent Day. It's the first chance that high school recruits have to formally commit to their new school.
For updates throughout the day, keep an eye on the Fabulous Forum, where we've created a special football signings category so you can get your fix.
You know the ol' joke about the only two seasons in America? There's football ... and spring football.
USC has picked out a practice schedule for the spring, though dates and times are always subject to change. Each practice will be open to the public except April 11 and held on Howard Jones Field unless otherwise noted.
Also, USC's pro day (closed to the public) is April 1. Don't be surprised if Pete Carroll has a practical joke up his sleeve.
Announced practice dates:
March 28, Saturday, time TBA
March 31, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
April 2, Thursday, 4 p.m.
April 3, Friday, 4 p.m.
April 5, Sunday, TBA
April 7, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
April 9, Thursday, 4 p.m.
April 11, Saturday, Coliseum (CLOSED to the public)
April 14, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
April 16, Thursday, 4 p.m.
April 17, Friday, 4 p.m.
April 18, Saturday, TBA (Swim With Mike day)
April 21, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
April 23, Thursday, 4 p.m.
April 25, Saturday, Trojan Huddle at the Coliseum (Time TBA)
Three USC alumni were in Tampa for the Super Bowl, but only one of them left with the big prize.
Troy Polamalu's Pittsburgh Steelers won a thriller, 27-23, over Deuce Lutui and Matt Leinart's Arizona Cardinals.
Polamalu assisted on two tackles and broke up a pass -- a relatively quiet night for one of the league's most feared defenders. He'll take the ring over the stats, thank you very much.
Lutui started the game on the offensive line for Arizona, while Leinart never left the sideline. Pete Carroll, in case you were wondering, indicated he was rooting for the Cardinals.
There are three USC quarterbacks with a lot of offseason buzz. If Kurt Warner returns to the desert (there are rumors of a potential two-year contract), will the Cards trade the former USC Heisman winner? Matt Cassel, now that he has a franchise tag, is also a hefty roster burden in New England. There's a rumors he could wind up in Kansas City. And then there's Mark Sanchez, who could be drafted to Detroit, San Francisco or just about anywhere. Stay tuned.
It's never fun to line up against USC alum Troy Polamalu, and Coke ad execs played into that with this commercial homage to their classic Mean Joe Greene campaign from the 1979 Super Bowl. Thirty years ago they went for touching -- this time they went for slapstick. The result was one of the better commercials of the year (my personal favorite was this gem from Doritos, followed by the punched koala and embarrassed Conan).
Tim Floyd was concerned about guarding Cal on the perimeter before Saturday night's game. It turned out all right, as the Trojans held the Bears to 2 of 16 from beyond the arc.
With the win, USC is now a game out of first place in the conference behind Washington and UCLA. The Trojans face the Bruins in Westwood on Wednesday.
USC will need to repeat its defensive perimeter performance in its next game. UCLA has the best outside game of any team in the conference and arguably the best guard play in the nation. Actually, the Bruins are good all-around. They used this last week to develop an inside game, making a concerted effort to score points in the paint against Cal and Stanford.
NOTE: Due to technical issues, the video from this post was missing on Sunday.
It wasn't a perfect game, but it was a good win. Here's what Tim Floyd had to say about USC's performance against Cal:
After slipping behind in the second half, USC finally put away the Bears, 73-62, in the Galen Center on Saturday night. The margin was comfortable enough that Mamadou Diarra, Percy Miller and Jordan Cameron all got in for a minute.
Cameron is a wide receiver on the USC football team after transferring from BYU. He became the first player to make both rosters since Gregg Guenther did it for three years from 2001-2003, before concentrating on basketball in 2004. Cameron is the uncle of young Cole Cameron, whose mom, Brynn, is on the USC women's basketball team. Both were in attendance on Saturday. Cole's dad is former Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart, who's with Arizona in the Super Bowl. If there was ever a kid destined to be a USC athlete ...
Walt Ransom, member of 1978 national championship football team and first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox. [USC]
Bobby Robertson, member of the 1939 national championship football team. [USC]
Elsewhere
The outgoing Pac-10 commissioner says the league is willing to leave BCS if they try to add a +1 game. Did I mention he's outgoing? Even George W. Bush didn't take any gambles on his approval ratings once he became a lame duck. [The Sporting News]
Ever wonder how scholarships and stipends vary from school to school? Dr. Saturday explains. [Yahoo]
Last but not least, a student manager from the USC football team has started a new blog. Purple Trojan will look at sports with a distinct Trojans and Vikings spin. I wonder if he knows The Interception King. Welcome to the blogosphere, Brian!
USC has experienced problems with sports agents in the past. As a safeguard, staff now checks visitors' identification outside the gates of the team's open practices.
Apparently, they couldn't keep one suitor away from their star quarterback.
Mark Sanchez has reportedly hired his brother, Nick Sanchez, as his agent. Nick was a quarterback at Yale, earned his law degree at USC, and works as a business litigator for Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman in Costa Mesa. According to the Orange County Business Journal, "Mark is the first client of Nick's new sports consultancy at the law firm."
Nick Sanchez knows about college football and has a solid legal resume, but no known experience as an agent. Earlier this month, his brother announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility at USC and enter the NFL draft. With projections placing Mark at anywhere from the first overall pick to somewhere in the second round, it's stunning that he would pick a rookie to guide him through the process. It's unknown if he will seek additional representation.
Mark Sanchez has been very quiet about his decision to turn pro, taking just a few questions during the news conference held to announce that he was leaving for the NFL. He hasn't been seen much in public since then, but was at the L.A. Sports Awards on Friday. He declined to discuss the matter at that time.
Hiring within the family is often considered risky business, a concern being expressed at SportsAgentBlog.com.
UPDATE: Nick Sanchez confirmed the arrangement to LA Times reporter Gary Klein. He does have some experience in the sports world, as his firm represented the Angels in their fight with Anaheim over the Los Angeles name issue. David Dunn, an experienced agent who represents Carson Palmer, will be retained as an adviser.
-- Adam Rose Photo credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport
As most football fans know by now, New England Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel sat on the bench at USC behind two Heisman Trophy winners -- Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.
This past year, Palmer was hurt early and missed most of the Cincinnati Bengals' season. He still collected $7,750,000.
Leinart was a backup to Kurt Warner and was barely called upon, even for mop-up duty with the Arizona Cardinals. He's still dreaming of a starring role, but this Sunday he may get a Super Bowl ring to cap off a $6,175,280 season.
And Cassel? He stepped in when Tom Brady shredded his knee in Week 1, then led the Pats to 11 wins and narrowly missed the postseason. He piled up 3,693 yard and 21 touchdowns with his arm, adding 270 yards and two scores with his feet (behind a struggling offensive line, no less). Cassel even wrote himself into the team's record books with successive 400-yard games against the Jets and Dolphins.
All that for just $525,640? Talk about a bargain.
As a result of his unexpected performance, Cassel was honored with the 2008 Vizio Top Value Performer award. In only its second year, the concept is to recognize "pro football players with smaller contracts that emerge to perform above and beyond expectations and bring the highest value to their teams." Cassel won a fan poll with 42% of the vote, beating out Houston's Steve Slaton, Denver's Brandon Marshall, Tampa's Antonio Bryant and Green Bay's Nick Collins.
Consider this a one-time honor for Cassel. New England plans to slap a franchise tag on him, locking him in as Brady's backup for a whopping $14 million per year. That's the equivalent of Leinart's guarantee for six years, though the total value for the Arizona backup could have reached $51 million with incentives.
The 2008 LA Sports Awards were held Friday, bringing together some of the biggest names in the Southland. Mark Sanchez was on hand, and while he kept mum about the NFL, he did pose for a picture with Phil Jackson. Sanchez was also spotted last week at a Lakers game.
A media panel selected by the LA Sports Council named the top 10 moments of the year, and the Trojans' continued dominance of Pac-10 football -- a seventh straight conference title -- was selected as Los Angeles' seventh greatest moment of 2008. Ken Norton Jr. was there to pick up the hardware. When asked if the Trojans will experience a drop-off on defense next season, he said they might surprise everybody and be even better.
Every local team was honored for its greatest moment, based on an Internet fan poll. USC's top moment was its athletes or alumnis winning 21 medals in the Beijing Olympics. If the school were a nation, it would have been 13th in the world in overall medals and eighth in the world with nine gold medals.
Curiously, the media's favorite USC moment (winning the Pac-10 in football) wasn't even among the three choices that fans had: the Beijing Olympics, the NCAA women's golf championship and the NCAA men's water polo championship. Those three nominees were selected by the school.
The Dodgers' acquisition of Manny Ramirez and the subsequent "Mannywood" craze was the top winner. Staples Center stars dominated the individual awards, with Kobe Bryant being named sportsman of the year, Candace Parker sportswoman of the year, Phil Jackson coach of the year and Mitch Kupchak executive of the year.
A presentation of the awards ceremony will air on PrimeTicket this Friday, with several repeats in the following days.
-- Adam Rose Photos by Jon SooHoo, courtesy LA Sports Council
For the second year in a row, USC had the most players in the Senior Bowl, the annual all-star game featuring some of college football's brightest stars.
Maualuga had the best showing out of his former teammates, with three tackles (one for a loss) and a forced fumble. Wide receiver Patrick Turner led the South with three catches for 30 yards. Defensive end Kyle Moore made a sack for a 6-yard loss. Matthews assisted on a tackle and broke up a pass play. Cushing and defensive tackle Fili Moala were both credited with one tackle.
The biggest performance on Saturday was from West Virginia's Pat White, leading the South to a 35-18 win over the North. That could affect Mark Sanchez. The early-entry redshirt junior seems to yo-yo in draft predictions from No. 1 overall to somewhere in the second round.
We're shuffling the deck with a number of the L.A. Times sports blogs. This blog is folding, but I'm honored that I will continue posting on a site with a lot of aces. The Fabulous Forum, our main sports blog on latimes.com, is the only place for first-hand accounts of Sam Farmer taking a blimp ride with Matt Millen, or Lisa Leslie experiencing the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. Now, it's also where you'll find all of my posts.
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