UCLA women's basketball hosts USC in the early game, which will also be televised on FSN. The last two rivalry games at Pauley have had a combined attendance of more than 15,000.
The on-court match up should be intriguing. Under first-year Coach Nikki Caldwell, the Bruins are 10-3 and had a strong start in non-conference play. They split their games last week, beating Oregon State but falling against Oregon to open Pac-10 play. USC, missing a number of key players due to injury, is 8-5 -- but has won three of its last four including both games against the Oregon schools.
In the evening game, USC men's basketball hosts UCLA. The Bruins are ranked No. 10 in the country and look poised to make another huge run this season. The Trojans have been wildly inconsistent, but whichever team shows up (the one that shredded Georgia Tech or the one that lost to Oregon State), it should be a fun rivalry game.
Seven former Pacific 10 Conference players made the NBA Finals this month and seven more -- USC's O.J. Mayo, UCLA's Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook, Stanford's Brook and Robin Lopez, Arizona's Jerryd Bayless and Cal's Ryan Anderson -- are projected to be first-round picks tonight. . . .
Also projected to be a first-round pick is JaVale McGee, a 7-footer from Nevada and son of Pam McGee, who teamed with twin sister, Paula, and Cheryl Miller to lead USC to NCAA women's basketball titles in 1983 and 1984. . . .
Paula at the time was Darryl Strawberry's girlfriend. . . .
Former USC forward Brian Scalabrine of the Boston Celtics wasn't the only bench-riding athlete with Southland ties who donned a uniform for a championship-clinching celebration after a game in which he did not dress. . . .
Ageless defenseman Chris Chelios, who summers in Malibu, did the same with the Detroit Red Wings after sitting out the Stanley Cup finals. . . .
Paola Moreno, a senior on USC's NCAA champion women's golf team this spring, and incoming Trojans freshman Jennifer Song are among the amateurs competing this week in the U.S. Women's Open at Edina, Minn. . . .
Among the seven Pac-10 players in the NBA Finals were Trojans Brian Scalabrine and Gabe Pruitt.
There's a lot to look forward to for USC women's hoops next season. In addition to returning players and key newcomers returning from injury, they've also got an impressive freshman class.
Women's Basketball - Nadia Parker had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Women of Troy shut down UCLA 49-36. It was a historic low point total for the Bruins and half of their season average. It was USC's seventh straight win over UCLA ... USC is in sole possession of fourth place in the Pac-10 and could be a dark horse candidate for the NCAA tournament.
Women's Water Polo - USC opened up MPSF play with wins over No. 10 UC Irvine and No. 8 Arizona State. Michelle Stein was named the league's player of the week after scoring seven goals on the road trip.
Women's Swimming and Diving - In its last dual meet of the season, No. 25 USC beat No. 15 UCLA, 158-142.
Baseball - The Trojans open the season on Friday with a three-game series at Florida International.
Men's Tennis - No. 6 USC fell to No. 7 Texas at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle over the weekend.
Women's Tennis - Coming off two losses, No. 11 USC cruised to a 7-0 victory over No. 52 San Diego.
Men's Volleyball - USC continued its oddly symmetrical league play last week, beating UC San Diego and losing to Long Beach State. The Trojans take a break from MPSF this weekend and instead will play in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.
Lexus Gauntlet - It's all but over. USC leads 50 to 17.5, and it takes 55 points to clinch at least a split title. This will continue the odd tradition USC and UCLA alternating wins of the annual trophy. It's oddly like men's volleyball.
Women's Basketball - The Trojans recovered from a rough road trip by returning to the Galen Center and sweeping the Washington schools. USC is 11-1 at home. Against Washington State, the Women of Troy were led by Nadia Parker (23 points) and Heather Oliver (21 points), who both had career highs. The WSU game was on Think Pink day at USC, a tribute to raise awareness for breast cancer. It was also the Trojans' chance to host Coach June Daugherty, who has made a comeback this season after a different sort of medical crisis.
Women's Tennis - No. 8 USC fell in the consolation quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships this past weekend. It was the Trojans' third straight 4-3 decision, and came after a seven-hour match the night before. Top singles Lindsey Nelson and Amanda Fink won their matches.
Men's Tennis - The Trojans are 7-0 after downing No. 27 Boise State at home this weekend. They're head to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships ranked sixth in the nation.
Men's Volleyball - No. 9 USC has had one loss and one victory in all five weeks of league play, but last week's win was a sweep of rival UCLA -- pushing Troy even further ahead in the Lexus Gauntlet.
Golf - In men's action, sophomores Rory Hie and Jamie Lovemark tied for fifth individually at the UH-Hilo Intercollegiate in Waikoloa. During the tournament Hie shot a school record 62 on the par-70 course. The Women of Troy are competing at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes.
Swimming and Diving - USC's men's and women's squads both lost to No. 3 Stanford over the weekend in their final competition this season at McDonald's Swim Stadium. Next up, Pac-10 Championships.
The Department of Homecourt Security has released footage of Saturday's incident at the Galen Center.
USC's Mark Haas put together a video recap for USCTrojans.com (click here to watch for free) that shows some emotions flaring but nothing serious going down in the closing seconds of USC's victory over UCLA in women's basketball.
As reported earlier, there was a "fight" between the teams, but let's be careful not to exaggerate it.
To set the scene, USC dominated almost the entire game, but the Bruins came within a shot down the stretch. A hard foul led to the benches clearing, some shoving, and multiple ejections.
Perhaps "the good fight" is one that doesn't really happen.
Certainly the good news for the Women of Troy is a winning record in the Pac-10 (4-3), including key victories over national powerhouse Stanford and crosstown rival UCLA (their 6th straight against the Bruins). The latter came against a crowd of 8,545, the fourth largest in the program's history.
The Trojans' success continues to be impressive after the loss of their top freshman and sophomore to injuries. Imagine the men's team playing without O.J. Mayo and Taj Gibson. (Of course, the women's team gets more contribution from their upperclassmen.)
It's been a particularly rough week in the land of Troy. From Reggie Bush to men's hoops. Feh.
Even men's volleyball got crushed by Cal State Northridge, winning the first game but dropping the next three.
To buoy Trojan spirits, here's a quick story from legendary USC football Coach John Robinson about motivation. The video was shot at this week's national football coaches convention in Anaheim, and we'll have more highlights next week.
Also, if USC fans somehow missed it, the women's basketball team scored a giant upset over #2 ranked Stanford last week (USC has a free in-house recap). Due to some bad timing the Women of Troy did not get the love they deserved on this blog, but needless to say it was a huge moment for the team and could go down as their highlight of the year.
Also, Amy Rodriguez has returned to the U.S. women's national soccer team roster, and four other players from USC made it to national squads at lower levels.
The final buzzer sounded on the Trojan's basketball game against UC Riverside Saturday night and it was over -- not just the game, but just the entire Fall sports schedule.
Spring will start quickly (using the new year as a line in the sand) with the Rose Bowl and some hoops games, so this is a logical time for top ten lists. While considering the top ten USC sports stories of Fall 2007, it was obvious that certain words kept coming up.
To give things a new twist, here are the top ten words of the Fall. These aren't here because they are the "best," but they are the most significant, dominating both headlines and public discourse.
Injury. They happen all the time in sports and nobody is immune, but this semester had an inordinate number of setbacks for Trojan athletes. Men's basketball got thumped by Mercer without Davon Jefferson (knee) and Daniel Hackett (jaw), and still hadn't completely gelled by the time the faced their first real challenges. Women's hoops lost two of their top players before the season even began. The soccer team's defense was thinned out. Cross country couldn't field their lone NCAA championship competitor due to illness. Volleyball learned to adjust for awhile without Diana Copenhagen. What's missing? Oh yeah -- football. Early in the season, somebody inside Heritage Hall said the mounting injuries weren't unusual. A couple weeks later, newspapers were dedicating a mind-numbing number of column inches to injury reports. A healthy John David Booty or fewer chinks in the offensive line, and the Trojans might only be practicing on New Years Day.
Streak. While a couple big ones ended (top-10 rankings and home victories), the football program maintained their most sacred one: Pac-10 crowns. As Pete Carroll's pre-season goal, winning the league (or a share of it) for six straight years has also resulted in six straight BCS appearances.
Men's Basketball - Taking on Cal Poly before a light crowd of 5,321 on Saturday, it seemed like USC could have sleep-walked through the game. It wouldn't have felt out of place if the Trojan Marching Band took a page from a Warner Brother's cartoon and played Edvard Grieg's Morning Mood. With some typically solid D and an offense showing signs of improvement, USC waltzed away with a 78-55 victory. There's one more game USC can't look past (UC Riverside) before the start of Pac-10 play ... O.J. Mayo spent Christmas in LA instead of going home, presumably working maniacally on his jump shot. That's some serious work ethic.
Women's Basketball - USC won their own 4-team Women of Troy Basketball Classic last week. They downed Grambling State 78-45, then won the championship 75-68 over Portland State. The Trojans are undefeated at home this year. Heather Oliver was named MVP of the tournament with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists.
Women's Volleyball - After making it the the NCAA Final Four, the Women of Troy finished the season ranked #3 by the AVCA with a 29-5 record. It was the fourth time the Trojans made the semifinals in the past six years. Asia Kaczor (first team) and Taylor Carico (second team) were named All-Americans.
Men's Water Polo - After finishing as NCAA runner-up for the second year in a row, USC had six players honored by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. Senior Tommy Corcoran made the All-American first-team for the first time, and has been recognized on some level for the past three years. Senior Adam Shilling has also been honored for three years, making the second-team in 2007 along with sophomore Matt Sagehorn. Sophomores J.W. Krumpholz and Shea Buckner and senior Gabor Sarusi earned honorable mentions.
Men's Tennis - Trojan alumnus Stan Smith, an NCAA and Wimbledon champ, was honored earlier this month with the Davis Cup Award of Excellence.
Men's Basketball - #25 USC stomped Delaware 83-54 on Monday night thanks to 68% shooting. With the margin reaching as many as 36, it was never really in question ... O.J. Mayo became the first Trojan to score in double digits in his first 10 career games ... Around halftime, Jonathan Kay of Rivals pondered whether the Trojans would call a single timeout in the game. They didn't. As the assembled press corp scratched their heads over what else was worth writing about, the band kept counting down the game clock for Delaware -- several seconds early.
Women's Volleyball - After an upset sent the Trojans to the NCAA Final Four in Sacramento, the Women of Troy fell to Stanford in the semis ... All-American Asia Kaczor was named one of four finalists for the Honda Award, presented to the nation's top player in every sport.
Women's Basketball - Following a difficult midwest trip, USC got back on track with a 55-52 victory over Pepperdine last week. Nadia Parker had 17, all in the second half ... This weekend they'll host the Women of Troy Basketball Classic, including Portland, Hawaii, and Grambling.
Women's Soccer - Rankings and awards are inconsistent in college soccer. USC ended the season without a first team All-American.
Ask anybody, and they're probably satisfied with the national
championship instead. The fact that they did it as a unit without individual standouts says
a lot about this group -- and their coach ... It would be unfair to say nobody is getting recognition. Goalkeeper Kristin Olsen, who only made the Pac-10's second team despite dominating almost every statistical category, is a finalist for her sport's Honda Award. The sophomore was already named top defensive player in the NCAA Tournament ... Ashley Nick and Kristin Olsen were named to the NSCAA All-America Second
Team.
Quarterback Debate - In order to address a previous football question on this blog, I arbitrarily asked students at the basketball game if they preferred Mark Sanchez or Mitch Mustain. Sanchez won in a bigger blowout than the one on the court that evening. I'll be the first to say that this doesn't really prove anything, other than Mustain's low-profile on campus. That will change come Spring camp. I doubt there'll be much more to add until then.
Planning a Sunday funday?
