 Believe it or not, there is a cool freshman at USC. His name is Michael Balzary.
You probably know him as Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The legendary group has sold more than 50 million albums, won six Grammy Awards and topped the Modern Rock charts a record 11 times.
The 45-year-old is listed as an "undergraduate visitor" in USC's Thornton School of Music. Balzary probably has a leg up on most of his classmates, considering he founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music and, oh, yeah ... is a rock icon. Although he's on campus several times per week, don't expect any dorm sightings -- Flea's a commuter student.
Besides collaborating with legendary artists such as Jane's Addiction, Nirvana and Alanis Morissette, Balzary has appeared in "The Big Lebowski," "My Own Private Idaho" and two of the "Back to the Future" movies. His latest "appearance" was at USC's football practice -- he stopped by after class because he heard a commotion. The Trojans were playing simulated crowd noise to mimic their upcoming road trip to Oregon State, and the practice field is adjacent to the music school.
You may know that Balzary is a huge sports fan and blogs about his beloved Lakers on NBA.com.
No word if the team will try a flea-flicker this season in his honor.
Of course, Balzary isn't the only music celebrity starting his undergraduate studies at USC this year. Percy Miller, better known in his rap career as Romeo (a.k.a. Lil' Romeo), is on scholarship to play basketball for the Trojans.
Update: Margaret Wapler of Soundboard just posted this interview with Flea where he talks more indepth about his musical goals at USC (which includes the jazz trumpet?), the status of the RHCP, and much more.
-- Adam Rose
Photo: Kristian Dowling/Getty Images
This may be a sports blog, but I've got a message for Apple if anybody's listening:
What did you do to iTunes?!?
Version 7.7, which has been out about a month, no longer imports .wav files. That means things that might be of interest to this crowd -- like Pete Carroll's post-practice press gaggle -- will be on hold until we can figure out a fix. A bit of Googling shows that other people are experiencing this problem, but there are no solutions on apple.com/support.
If anybody (perhaps in Cupertino) can shed some light, it would be appreciated ...
-AR
The last year has yielded two of the Internet's most guilty pleasures: the Rick Roll and Stuff White People Like. Both are amusing and, on some level, awkward and disturbing.
With a nod to EDSBS's recent post on Stuff Black and Gold People Like, we present Stuff Cardinal and Gold People Like (not to be confused with the alumni organization by that name, which primarily likes football and tailgating) ...
Numbers - The nine-oh. The two-nine. The three-two. These all mean something to Trojans (though younger ones might now know the latter as "Superior"). Area codes fall into this as well. The 949 carries a different social meaning than 909 or 818. Those new to the area claim to be "still reppin' 213" when they get their new digits. And nobody knows what the Harbor freeway is anymore. It's the 110.
Whoever Is Playing UCLA/Notre Dame - When the Bruins and Irish face each other, USC fans will be satisfied only if both lose. Longtime Trojan broadcaster Pete Arbogast coined the term "The Perfect Day" for any time that USC wins and both of its archrivals lose. Trojan fans have been reported to have a toast outside of the Coliseum whenever a perfect day occurs.
Orange County - If they aren't from there, cardinal and gold people have usually watched their fair share of Laguna Beach or The Real Housewives of Orange County. And don't forget that The OC was produced by a USC alum. But mostly, cardinal and gold people are either from Orange Country or dated somebody from there.
Read on »
 You may have read stories over the last week about the tragic and senseless killing of Jamiel Shaw II. The story first ran in the L.A .Times on March 4 and a follow-up was in yesterday's paper. LAist posted a number of video tributes. If you missed it, try to take a couple of minutes today to learn about what happened. It's a stunning reminder that life is precious -- and sometimes all too short.
Even if you heard about the what happened, you might not have realized that Shaw was part of the Trojan Family.
Shaw was a cousin of Audrena Goodie, a longtime staff member of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting. He was also a candidate for a USC Summer Leadership Program. People in Leventhal are trying to get the word out about a fund that has been established in his name (to support the family, including a younger brother that he helped care for) as well as a number of memorial services that are starting today (more information is available after the jump).
Our condolences go out to the entire Shaw family.
Yesterday, Kurt Streeter wrote a column about the violence. In it, he implored readers:
"Volunteer. Find a charity and send money. Call your congressman. Do something."
Amen. You don't have to start a charity like Pete Carroll, but at least you can give to one. And remember that time is often more valuable than money (just ask Randy Pausch -- check out his "Last Lecture" and "Time Management Lecture" if you've got a couple of hours).
Read on »
Congrats: LA Times columnists Bill Plaschke and T.J. Simers were both honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors this week.
Get Well Soon: UCLA superhero John Wooden was hospitalized after a fall today. We all wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him courtside at a USC-UCLA tournament game in the coming weeks.
Two USC alumni went to Rio last week for Carnival and wound up lost in a Brazilian rain forest. They hacked their way through the dense foliage for 26 hours until a rescue crew found them. Local reporters jumped on the story, eager to talk about these young men from the land of movie stars (the most outlandish articles, sadly, are available only in print).
They didn't catch any tropical diseases but maybe the media circus was contagious.
Since their return, bizarre outbreaks have been cropping up all over Troy.
USC and the Coliseum Commission tentatively agreed to keep the Trojans playing on their home field for two, 25 or 47 years. The announcement was complete with the Trojan Marching Band, an appearance by Pete Carroll, and, in the middle of everything, a surprise proposal by a private equity firm to take over the Coliseum for $700 million. If none of that works out, state lawmakers might just offload the property.
Reggie Bush was scheduled to give a deposition on the 25th in response to accusations that he called "cowardice." The case took another strange turn when Lloyd Lake stormed out of his own deposition. Allegedly, somebody accompanying Bush's legal team flashed a gun at him. Lake's attorney told ESPN, "Come on, we're lawyers. I don't threaten people, I sue them."
As ugly as it may get in civil court, things couldn't get much worse for another Trojan on the hard court. Cyberspace is running out of room to list all of Daniel Hackett's injuries. At last count, he's suffering from a fractured spine, partially torn oblique, bruised pelvis and sprained ankle. At least the broken jaw is healed. Another guard -- Marcus Simmons -- is hoping to hobble out against UCLA on his own sprained ankle to help USC's depleted roster.
OK, maybe that last one isn't a media circus -- but it should tell you something when a USC-UCLA rivalry game fades into the background of all this other news. Don't worry, O.J. Mayo is still getting ink.
At least nobody in the Trojan family has their mugshot on TM ... nevermind. Don't tase me JDB's bro!
With so much going on at USC, the Old Gray Lady found it fit to print a feature on a young blond boy. Yup, high school junior Matt Barkley's commitment to USC is even big news in the New York Times.
One of Troy's most popular figures, Will Ferrell, is stepping it into high gear to promote his latest movie. Ferrell appears in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition with Heidi Klum and can be seen on billboards for "Semi-Pro" rocking short-shorts. He spoke with Arash Markazi about his old job in USC's sports information office, where they could probably use an extra hand right about now.
The Trojans may add some more international (or at least multi-lingual) hubbub when the women's soccer team plays the Mexican women's national team next week.
If the Trojans were playing Brazil, maybe the circus could come full circle.
The same day nine USC students were arrested on suspicion of public intoxication during an event some are describing as a riot (reports are that 1,000-2,000 were involved), O.J. Mayo's dad was arrested for "possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver."
Ben Bolch will have a story up about Mayo's dad shortly.
There are a lot of rumors about the "riot" at USC, but eight years ago this would have been called a typical Thursday night, with no need for riot gear. That's just my gut feeling after seeing some limited video footage on YouTube (warning: expletives used at the end). Another difference? A few years ago, people wouldn't ask for trouble by posting parties on social networking sites like Facebook (that was apparently behind last night's events, and also led to a USC fraternity getting the ax for a party on 4-20 last year).
On the topic of crime (or at least criminally inept), we haven't said much yet about the Lane Kiffin vs. Al Davis feud (if you haven't heard about it, the San Francisco Chronicle's Ray Ratto has a great take on the situation). This is a PR debacle for both former Trojan coaches, but far worse for Davis. Angelenos already consider him a criminal for stealing pro football from L.A., and then there are his frequent crimes against fashion.
ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso on his favorite part of the Rose Bowl experience: I love the parade. You know, 40 million people in the United States watch the parade. It's on television for 115 countries, and I think it's the 118th parade. How the hell could that not be #1? This [the Rose Bowl Game] is just, what, 90 years old? Something like that. Forget about it. The parade is the biggest thing out here.
Pretty impressive off the top of his head (it's 119 and 94, respectively). Corso added that he grew up watching the parade on TV.
 In the wake of awards season, you might like to know that Pete Carroll isn't the only one who recuses himself from voting in college polls.
A few years ago, the Los Angeles Times implemented a policy that prohibits the paper's staff from participating in the type of media votes that you've been hearing about all season. Per Sports Editor Randy Harvey, "The reason is simple: We are here to report news, not make it."
The policy is in line with other major papers like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun. The voting-neutral movement at the LA Times started under former Editor John Carroll. It casts a wide net, meaning the Times avoids other polls and awards commonly associated with Hollywood or Washington. In the sports world, the policy extends to obvious situations like the AP poll and Heisman balloting, and less obvious ones like naming an official player of the game.
The policy helps the paper avoid conflicts of interest and other headaches.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a healthy debate over the paper's voting policies.
Bill Dwyre, who preceded Harvey as Sports editor and currently writes two columns per week, believes sports writers are well qualified and bring valuable expertise to the table. "Any voting system in sports is imperfect, but the least imperfect system is sports writers who get paid to know this better than anybody."
He added that, "Coaches have much more of an ax to grind than we do ... we have less [of an] agenda than anybody else." If it weren't for the paper's current policy, Dwyre would happily mark his ballot for the MLB Hall of Fame or the Wooden Awards. "When something is named for John Wooden, I want that to be as pure and above reproach as possible."
Dwyre does agree that specific big-money situations, like the BCS and the Schilling Rule (see conflict of interest link above), might be inappropriate for media voting. But at the end of the day, he feels the Hall of Fame and CY Young are "best handled by people who have been around for awhile and have followed this closely."
Another perspective, currently being voiced by Tom Van Riper at Forbes, is that entities like the MLB should use more public fan-votes. Not missing a beat, ESPN and Sports Illustrated are pushing voting brackets to crown a hypothetical college football champion.
For now, The Times will continue to abstain on all of this. Or as one person in the Sports department joked, "Our folks don't vote for anything -- just complain about everyone else's silly choices."
[Do you] think USC would actually move to the Rose Bowl? -- Scott
I doubt it, especially after seeing one of the ploys the school used last week. Remember that this is just about dividing up money and power. Regardless of who "wins" on that end, everybody will lose if USC winds up in Pasadena. The school, Coliseum Commission, local community, Rose Bowl, and even UCLA are united behind keeping the Trojans in Exposition Park.
What ploy caught my attention? After the Coliseum Commission meeting, a USC representative promised to sign an offer from the Rose Bowl as soon as it was on the table -- potentially the following day.
But the next day, a different USC representative acknowledged that they were aware the offer needed UCLA's approval. Translation: "This isn't possible for another few weeks."
Suddenly the threat wasn't as serious. But in the few hours the elapsed between those statements, USC forced the Coliseum Commission to begin negotiating from a weakened position. Talk about shrewd tactics!
Even if this backfires, USC would only be gone for a year. UCLA won't agree to more than that (they have the right of first refusal at the Rose Bowl), and USC can't find anywhere else that seats 90,000+. After one season, USC will have made its point and the parties will have figured out how to return the Trojans to the Coliseum.
Any word on why the Coliseum lights went out so early after the UCLA game? The band was still playing and I was just outside (only 20 minutes after the end of the game) when half the lights were turned off. -- Bobak
No conspiracy theory necessary. When the lights go down in the city ... it's frequently a car hitting a transformer. We're not sure if that's exactly what happened in this case, but a representative for the Coliseum confirmed that the lights went off early due to a local power outage. It started somewhere well outside the perimeter of the stadium and affected a lot of Exposition Park and the surrounding neighborhood. The Coliseum's sign off the 110 Freeway went down, too.
Some lights were powered by backup generators, so there was ample lumination for people leaving the area. Though stadium officials haven't dealt with a situation like that mid-game, presumably they could get backup power turned on fast enough to finish playing. If not, maybe that's one of the renovations that should be done.
Which Hollywood starlet reportedly slept with the entire USC football team? -- David
This seems like a Matt Leinart joke in reverse. Anyway, Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon" reportedly said Clara Bow was the Trojans' biggest, um, fan back in the 1920s. Snopes says it's not true. I'm inclined to believe the latter.
Plenty more after the jump, including Reggie Bush and the NCAA Death Penalty, Mark Sanchez vs. Mitch Mustain, the Sears Cup and Lexus Gauntlet, and Hershel Dennis and Championship Streaks ...
Read on »
Athletes engaged in limited drills due to air quality, as an eerie light was filtered by the haze.
The Southland is burning, and wispy fingers of smoke are choking USC's campus. Even though there are no wildfires threatening the school, there are blazes to the west in Malibu, south in Orange and San Diego counties, and east in San Bernadino County.
Pete Carroll tried to keep the mood light when asked about the impact of the conditions on practice.
"The coaches were asking about wearing the SARS masks, but I don't know if that's going to help us."
Besides bad air quality, athletes training at USC today are contending with blistering temperatures. It's a week from November but the mercury is well into the 90s.
The important news is that there have been no reports of fires impacting the families of current USC athletes, though several alumni have been evacuated. Baseball pitching coach Tom House, who lives in the San Diego area, had his commute snarled by the evacuations. It took him an hour and a half to drive just 11 miles.
Coach Tom Walsh, who oversees distance running, checks with the South Coast Air Quality Management District when conditions get bad. He said the smoke has impacted both his teams. On Monday, track took the day off and cross country drove out to Manhattan Beach for some fresh air. Tuesday, both squads had a scaled-down workout and went into the weight room early. The rest of the week will be the same, and outside work will be limited.
It could always be worse. Walsh recalled fires a few years ago when "we weren't allowed to train for two or three days because there was actually ash coming down."
The women's soccer team opted to head indoors today instead of practicing on the field.
The most poignant coverage of these fires comes to us from CBS 8's Larry Himmel. He reported on his home of 25 years burning to the ground, and still had the presence of mind to say "it's not all about me" before sharing some hopeful words for his neighbors.
[UPDATE: Football practice was generally unaffected, though it was hot and smoky.]
USC's Susie Phadke won the female collegiate division of the Los Angeles Triathlon on Sunday. The sophomore finished in a time of 3:04:31, taking first place in both the bike and run. Phadke is president of the USC Triathlon Club, which is run out of Recreational Sports.
More than 2,000 athletes competed in the 8th annual event, which consisted of a 1.5K (0.93mi) swim, 40K (24.8mi) bike ride, and 10K (6.21mi) run. What did you do on Sunday morning?
Earlier this month, another Trojan had a "tri" victory on an even bigger stage. USC senior Allyson Felix won three gold medals at the Track and Field World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Felix can't compete for the USC team because she is considered a professional athlete.
Photo by Nate Koenig.
For those of you looking to procrastinate at work (or any other time), here's some reading material for Trojan fans in the know:
- It's just come to light that USC running backs coach Todd McNair has a rap sheet for cruelty to dogs. Good news for McNair: UCLA's wide receivers coach recently had a questionable past revealed, and got to keep his job. Bad news for McNair: Michael Vick put this issue in the hot seat, and this might not blow over very well in the court of public opinion.
- Todd Marinovich pulled a Todd Marinovich over the weekend. The former USC football star was allegedly carrying a gram of meth, a metal spoon and a hypodermic needle. It's certainly not the first time he's been arrested for drugs. What might be a first for Marinovich ... he was caught because he was skateboarding in a no-skateboarding zone by Newport Pier.
- Trojans should have an advantage in next year's Olympics after training in the Los Angeles smog.
- In case of emergency, check your cellphone. USC has a new system to send alerts to people on campus during a major emergency situation. Even if you're not a student, staff or faculty member, you may want to sign up if you spend lots of time watching the football team practice. You know who you are.
- PSU is using PS3 to teach their quarterbacks the playbook. It wasn't JoePa's idea, but we know some players at USC like video games, too.
- A forum member on WeAreSC.com posed the question, "What's better than a Song Girl?" His own answer ... "Wet Song Girls."
- Another poster noticed that Sports Illustrated had some trouble with basic math. Apparently, Pac 10 football teams should have a record of 41-49 against other Pac 10 football teams this season. Huh?
- USC students received a nice little e-mail from the administration explaining the ins-and-outs of copyright infringement. About 1,370 words of not-so-light reading are after the jump, if you're so inclined.
Read on »
 USC's former football captain is barking at the mic on KLAC and getting more listeners than the Trojan's flagship station.
ESPN is looking to turn things around by giving away a sweet prize package and has encouraged listeners to hold up signs at their competition's remote.
Steve Mason and John Ireland host The Big Show on ESPN 710AM from 3 to 6 p.m., a time slot that overlaps with Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith, who host PMS from 4 to 7 p.m. on KLAC 570AM. Both shows compete for valuable listeners in PM drive time, when many Angelenos are stuck in their cars while driving home from work.
Papadakis was USC's football team captain in 2000. Besides hosting PMS, he also covers Pac 10 games on TV. In the Spring radio ratings from Arbitron (slightly less controversial than the BCS is to college football), PMS had a 3.1 share of men 25-54 while The Big Show had 1.3. A share is basically the percentage of people in a city listening to the radio at that time.
The contest (or "movement," as one of the hosts might have you believe) will award a pair of tickets to a USC football game every week, access to the ESPN VIP tailgate party and chauffeured transportation to and from the game. Packages are awarded weekly, but only for home games. That means the show will give away three packages for the USC games against both Washington State and UCLA. It's unclear whether the contest will extend into bowl season.
Based on what they've "not" suggested on the show and Mason's blog, we could have the makings of some radio rivalry hijinks.
 The Princeton Review released their 2008 edition of the nation's Best 366 Colleges today. Among the 62 categorical rankings, USC landed at #8 on their "Packs the Stadium" list and #19 on their "Jock Schools" list. The former is based on the popularity of intercollegiate sports, and the latter is a combination of intercollegiate sports, intramural sports and popularity of the Greek system. However, USC did not make the top 20 in either intramural sports or Greek system.
The rankings, now in their 16th edition, were created for high school students looking at colleges and are based on an 80-question survey taken by 120,000 college students. Princeton Review emphasizes that it's about the "best college for you" and not the "best academics." The company behind these rankings is widely known for their SAT prep books and other college-related guides.
USC has yo-yo'd when it comes to packing the stadium, landing at #2 last year but #16 in the 2006 edition. Of course, it's just a popularity poll. Top-ranked University of Maryland can only seat 51,500 in Byrd Stadium, while the Coliseum regularly packs in a capacity crowd of 92,000.
The Trojans were #15 in "diverse student population" two years ago and #14 in "major frat and sorority scene" in 2004.
In the past, these rankings have generated controversy (and publicity) because of their party-school category. They also rank schools for the most (and least) widespread use of weed, beer and liquor. USC did not make any of those lists. For our commenter on this blog who said the Trojans have a "spoiled brat party/football school" reputation ... looks like you were right about the football part.
Cover courtesy of The Princeton Review.
If rival schools can't say much about USC's football rankings, some of them may talk a little trash about this year's list of America's Best Colleges published by US News & World Report.
USC is in the the top tier (National Universities: Top Schools) at 27, holding steady from last year. That's one behind UCLA and Michigan, who tied at 25. Stanford was the top West Coast school at 4. Notre Dame was 19 and Cal was 21.
Whether it's sports or academics, rankings cause controversy. The US News methodology uses a formula based 25% on reputation from people in academia and the rest on a bunch of survey data plugged into a computer. Like the BCS, it has both detractors and supporters.
USC has shown some improvement over the past couple years (ranked 30 in 2006), but has had even greater growth since the annual study was started in 1983. If anybody has links to historical results, please post them in a comment.
[NOTE: An earlier error was corrected in this post. USC did not fall a spot from last year.]
|
|
Believe it or not, there is a cool freshman at USC. His name is Michael Balzary.
