Friday Hot Links

Happy free Slurpee day, everybody! And is it just me, or is ESPN.com down? According to this site, it's fine ... but I can't access it.

Football

• What do Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky and Will Smith have in common? Their kids play on the same high school football team. [LA Times]
• Chris Galippo had back surgery. That means it's time for a summer edition of the Injury Clinic. For those unfamiliar, this is a series that gives a detailed explanation of injuries that happen to Trojans. [Conquest Chronicles]
• Mark Sanchez was on Dameshek, Denholm & Long yesterday. Click here for the audio. [ESPN 710]
• It's July, so the BCS debate is in full swing. [Athens Banner-Herald]

Hoops

• Davon Jefferson made the Lakers summer-league roster. [Lakers]
• Lute Olson will not recruit one-and-done players. Will other coaches follow? Not Tim Floyd. [LA Times]

Elsewhere

• John McCain joked about USC being the University of Spoiled Children. [LA Times]
• A local man is sitting in every seat in the Rose Bowl. [AP]

Playboy Photos

• Not quite what you're thinking. These photos, apparently connected to the Playboy All-American photo shoot, show USC players partying it up.
• Rey Maualuga
  • Maualuga and Brian Cushing

Comments

[Bill Baldwin, Jr.]

Arizona's Lute Olson has had enough of "one and done". It's about time someone with credibility in the college game took a stand on a practice that is not only insulting to the schools, but threatens the viability of the sport itself. At least that's my view. Olson has been the Pac 10's best coach for a long time. He has an eye for talent, certainly, but there's more to it than that: character and respect for the game and for the institution at which he coaches. Those are traits the best coaches always seem to have from John Wooden to Mike Krzyzewski .

No such consideration exits where the coach of my school's team is concerned, as Tim Floyd defends his one year Mayo-Era saying O.J. brought a lot to the team. The Bruins coach says much the same thing about Kevin Love. Meaning, both head coaches and many others in their profession just want to win games. And whether it's fair for me to say so or not, they really don't care if it takes one or two One Year “Student/athletes” each season to make it happen, regardless of how acting as a Double A stop for the Memphis Grizzlies looks for the future.

Tim Floyd has no connection to USC other than his paycheck and so why should I expect him to pull a Lute Olson, instead of each season being your basic ass-kissing member of next year's can't miss NBA Lottery selection's posse? Because it's the honorable position to take and that other USC coaches, Pete Carroll being the most prominent, would not allow themselves, their teams, programs and schools to be dictated to in such a shoddy fashion. I realize USC Football is a big business, and with seven Trojans in the first two rounds of the NFL draft, I can’t claim we’re Cal Tech, but Pete Carroll has never knowingly recruited a kid who was going to do a One and Done tour of duty and then bolt to the NFL and I’m confident he never will.

Pete Carroll’s recruits come to USC to win at USC and hopefully to become good enough to eventually go to the pros. They come to compete and then, as Carroll and so many others who did not graduate from USC do, they become Trojans, taking great pride in representing the university. Yes, there have been some who left after their junior years, even one who went after just two years, but with two exceptions, leaving short of finishing your senior year for SC football players has been a mistake. Steve Smith vs Dwayne Jarrett and Mike Williams for example.

What about all the money and the hardship backgrounds of the basketball can’t miss stars of the future like O.J. Mayo? It’s not any different in football, but the dictates of the game and rules put in by the owners and players make it harder to jump from high school to Pro Football. For David Stern and his ilk in the NBA, no such barriers exist other than this “you can’t play in the NBA until you’re 19” nonsense, which spawned the whole One and Done practice to start with. However, without the “cooperation” of the NCAA and the Jim Boeheims and Tim Floyds of this world, One and Done would never have been allowed to impact the college game as it now has.
Pete Carroll leads a football team--players and coaches alike, including the 3-All American (UCLA) and Multiple All Pro (49’ers) former linebacker and now USC linebacker’s coach, Ken Norton,Jr., that lives and as a group dedicates itself to winning while proudly representing the University of Southern California.

It should not be unreasonable for me to expect the same thing from the SC Men’s Basketball team and coaches. And while I’m sure many of these individuals do feel the same way I do, until we get a head coach who would rather Be Like Lute than wallow in the depths with the likes of Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, who when asked to comment on the One and Done rule said, "we can't do anything about this rule . . . we're stuck with it," until 2011. Asked if he too would follow Olson's disregard for "one-and-done" candidates, Boeheim exclaimed, "Are you crazy?" and cast doubt on the seriousness of Olson's claim.

Well, if “crazy” means you recruit players like the late Ryan Francis and say thanks but no thanks to future O.J. Mayos, then I want a basketball coach who is just that “crazy.”, because that USC TEAM will inspire me to be as crazy about men’s basketball as I am about USC football, women’s volleyball and track and field. If it remains Tim Floyd’s Business As Usual , Agents Welcome, I Like Boeheim Trojans, then just stick a fork in me ‘cause I’ll be Done.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

Nice post Bill, only thing I would like to mention is that the NFL has a two year rule and makes it well known that a player better be ready our they will not make it.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

Another note on the subject is that most basketball players today have no tought of going to college other than how long till I can get good enough so I can get drafted and make big money. Most football players have been playing their sport longer than basketball players and have a get a college degree first attitude than if I'm good enough to make the pros thats great. Sad as it is basketball might end up like tennis someday where most players turn pro and don't even go to college look at Brandon Jennings, you know his agent ( oh i mean father or guardian ) had some conversations with euro leagues. Most of todays pro basketball players don't even love the game they are playing just the money, they are always looking to jump teams for the money because they have to take care of their family.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

Somebody has to inform Rob Long that there are no spoiled children at UCLA I mean their perfect in every way. And their parents are smarter than most because they figure out a way to get the state to pay and keep all their cash.