USC football: Pat Haden says Matt Barkley is in 'no hurry'

After meeting with Matt Barkley and his parents, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden said the quarterback was "a savvy kid" and that he expected Barkley would make an informed decision regarding his future.

Haden and Coach Lane Kiffin met with Barkley and his parents on Monday, just after the announcement of the Heisman Trophy finalists. Barkley was not among the five players invited to New York for Saturday's Heisman ceremony.

Barkley is weighing whether to turn pro or to return to USC for a final season.

"He's in no hurry," Haden said. "I met with him and I have no idea what decision he’s going to make."

Haden said Barkley would consider "extremely good advice" from a variety of sources before making a decision. Players have until mid-January to declare for the draft.

"I just said, 'You know the advantages of going, we all recognize those. If you come back, here are the advantages,'" Haden said. "He’s aware of those too.

"Hes a savvy kid. He knows both sides.... So he’s got finals coming up, he's going to get those behind him and then I think he’s going to be reflective. He's not going to rush into it and I think he’s going to make a very thoughtful decision."

--Gary Klein

 

USC football: Pat Haden awaits outcome of Lane Kiffin's NCAA hearing

USC Athletic Director Pat Haden will not venture to predict the outcome of Lane Kiffin’s appearance before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions.

Haden and David Roberts, USC’s vice president for athletic compliance, attended the hearing in Indianapolis over the weekend which resulted from the NCAA’s probe of the University of Tennessee.

Now, Haden awaits a decision that could affect the Trojans.

“I have no idea what goes on behind closed doors,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve misread the committee before.”

The NCAA enforcement staff alleges that Kiffin “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program” at Tennessee and that he “failed to monitor” the activities of assistant coaches and an athletics administrator.

If Kiffin is penalized, the punishments could include limits on his recruiting at USC and, possibly, suspension from games.

Haden said he and Roberts addressed the committee for about 10 minutes at the end of the hearing.

“I think we got the point across that the Lane Kiffin we know has been very compliant,” Haden said.

ALSO:

USC's Lane Kiffin loses swagger, gains a steadiness

USC is stripped of its 2004 BCS national championship

 -- Gary Klein

Top photo: Pat Haden. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Bottom photo: Lane Kiffin. Credit: AJ Mast / Associated Press

USC football: Lane Kiffin scheduled to appear at NCAA hearing

USC football Coach Lane Kiffin is scheduled to appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions on Saturday, facing allegations that stem from his short tenure at Tennessee but which might lead to penalties that could affect the Trojans.

Kiffin’s appearance in Indianapolis is part of a broader hearing into Tennessee’s athletic department, which was the subject of a 22-month investigation that led to the firing of basketball coach Bruce Pearl and the resignation of athletic director Mike Hamilton.

Kiffin has declined to comment.

USC Athletic Director Pat Haden and David Roberts, USC’s vice president for athletic compliance, will attend the hearing. Haden said this week that, if asked, he would tell the Committee on Infractions that Kiffin has been “nothing but compliant” during his time at USC.

“It’s a bit part, not a starring role,” Haden said.

USC football: Pat Haden will attend NCAA hearing regarding Tennessee and Lane Kiffin

Pat Haden’s week began with the NCAA finally stripping USC of its 2004 Bowl Championship Series title.

The USC athletic director’s week will end in a hotel ballroom in Indianapolis, where football Coach Lane Kiffin will appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions in its investigation of alleged violations during his 14-month tenure at Tennessee.

“I’m there as a representative for USC,” Haden said. “I’m going to be a character witness. I’ll be telling them, if asked, that from my perspective, in my 10 months, Lane has been nothing but compliant.”

Haden and David Roberts, USC’s vice president for athletic compliance, are scheduled to travel to NCAA headquarters for a series of meetings before the weekend hearing. None of the meetings, Haden said, were related to the NCAA’s denial of USC’s appeal of sanctions.

“We’re moving on,” he said.

Kiffin’s appearance is part of a broader hearing that resulted from the NCAA’s 22-month investigation of Tennessee’s athletic program. Former basketball Coach Bruce Pearl was fired for violations that occurred during his tenure and Mike Hamilton resigned as athletic director on Friday.

Haden said he had not thought about potential sanctions that could be levied against Kiffin. The NCAA alleges that Kiffin "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program" and "failed to monitor" the activities of assistant coaches and an athletics administrator.

“This is the University of Tennessee’s situation,” he said. “I don’t know how long this takes to work its way through the system. The results will be what they are and we’ll deal with them when we get them.”

Haden said he was aware that former running backs coach Todd McNair last week filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking unspecified damages for libel, slander and other claims. McNair was not retained by USC after the NCAA determined that he had engaged in unethical conduct and sanctioned him with a "show-cause" order, preventing him from contact with recruits for one year while working for USC or any other NCAA-member institution.

“He’s obviously separate from our university,” Haden said, “and he’s going to proceed down this road.”

Haden also said he was aware of tailback Marc Tyler’s situation. The fifth-year senior confirmed to The Times that he was awaiting word from a USC judicial body regarding his involvement in two off-field incidents in April. Tyler allegedly spit on a female student while intoxicated and, two weeks later, allegedly inappropriately touched another female student at a bar near campus.

“We have no control over [the USC judicial process],” Haden said. “That’s their responsibility. We expect students to go in there and tell the truth and live with whatever is decided.

“I don’t know how long those things take. I think Marc has apologized and hopefully learned from his mistakes.”

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-- Gary Klein

Photo: Pat Haden. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press.

 

College baseball: UCLA's Trevor Bauer puts a cap on Fresno State batters

When UCLA pitcher Trevor Bauer had finished off an impressive 3-1 victory over Fresno State, eliminating the Bulldogs from the NCAA regional Saturday, it seemed clear that the best chance to get to Bauer was before the game started.

Bulldogs’ Coach Mike Batesole decided to have a serious discussion with home plate umpire Josh Scheipis. “We were just cleaning up a few ground rules from the other day,” Batesole said afterward.

Truth be told -- and UCLA catcher Steve Rodriquez went with the truth -- Batesole was complaining about Bauer’s well-worn and faded cap.

“He said it was white and that made it illegal,” Rodriguez said. “The ump said it was team issue.”

Ground rules established, Bauer (13-2) struck out four of the first six batters and 14 in the game. It gave Bauer 203 strikeouts this season, breaking by one Mark Prior’s Pacific 10 Conference single-season record and had moved into second on the conference’s career strikeouts list behind Tim Linecum.

“We live another day,” UCLA Coach John Savage said in big-picture reference to the victory.

The Bruins, coming off a 3-0 loss to San Francisco on Friday, were facing elimination. They needed every bit of Bauer’s performance as UCLA batters were once again more slumber than lumber (or metal).

The Bruins stranded 14 runners and were two for 11 with eight runners in scoring position.

“It’s very frustrating,” Savage said. “But that’s kind of been our style.”

Bauer’s style has been to cover up for those shortcomings. He wasn’t much different Saturday. “It was just Trevor being Trevor,” Savage said.

Bauer gave up only five hits and finished strong, striking out the side in the seventh and eighth innings. He threw 133 pitches for his ninth consecutive complete game. About the only stress the Bulldogs seemed to cause him came from hunger pains at the end.

“I’m pretty drained and need to get something to eat," Bauer said.

--Chris Foster

Photo: Trevor Bauer. Credit: Don Liebig / UCLA Photography

USC football: Kick-off times announced for Utah, Syracuse and UCLA

USC's Nov. 26 game against UCLA at the Coliseum will kick-off at 7 p.m. and will be televised by FSN, USC announced Wednesday.

The school also announced that the Trojans' Sept. 10 game against Utah, the first game in the new Pacific 12 Conference, would kick-off at 4:30 p.m. on Versus, and that the Sept. 17 game against Syracuse will kickoff at 3:30 on FSN or 5 p.m. on FX.

Kick-off for the Oct. 1 game against Arizona is still to be determined.

Here is the Trojans' schedule, all times PDT:

Sept. 3--Minnesota, 12:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sept. 10--Utah, 4:30 p.m. (Versus)

Sept. 17--Syracuse, 3:30 p.m. (FSN) or 5 p.m. (FX)

Sept. 24--at Arizona State, 7:15 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Oct. 1--Arizona, TBA

Oct. 13--California (at AT&T Park, San Francisco, Calif.), 6 p.m. (ESPN)

Oct. 22--at Notre Dame, 4:30 p.m. (NBC)

Oct. 29--Stanford, 5 p.m. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2)

Nov. 4--at Colorado, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)

Nov. 12--Washington, 12:30 p.m. (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/FSN)

Nov. 19--at Oregon, 5 p.m. (ABC)

Nov. 26--UCLA, 7 p.m. (FSN)

--Gary Klein

College baseball: UCLA draws familiar foe in NCAA baseball tournament

UCLA's baseball team begins the postseason where its regular season started -- at home against San Francisco.

The Bruins (33-22) are scheduled to play the Dons (31-23) at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday. UC Irvine (39-16) and Fresno State (40-14) are to play in the regional's other game.

Cal State Fullerton (40-15), which also hosts a regional, is set to play Illinois (28-25) on Friday at Titan Field. Kansas State (36-23) is to play Stanford (32-20) in that regional's other game.

UCLA began the season as the top-ranked team in the nation and swept San Francisco in the opening series without allowing an earned run in the three games. The Bruins labored offensively during the season but captured the Pacific 10 Conference title by winning eight of their last nine games.

For the first time since the NCAA tournament was expanded to 64 teams, the West does not have a team seeded in the top eight. Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, defending champion South Carolina, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Texas and Rice are the top eight teams.

-- Chris Foster

 

College baseball: UCLA, Cal State Fullerton will host NCAA regionals

UCLA and Cal State Fullerton were among the 16 schools awarded NCAA baseball regionals on Sunday.

UCLA clinched at least a share of the Pacific 10 conference title with a victory over Arizona State on Saturday. The Bruins, who finished second to South Carolina at the College World Series last season, hosted a regional and super regional in 2010.

Pac-10 teams will host three regionals: Arizona State and Oregon State were also awarded bids.

Fullerton, the Big West Conference champion, has hosted a regional the last four seasons and seven times in the last eight. The Titans lost to UCLA in the super regional in 2010.

South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Florida, Rice, Vanderbilt and Florida State will also host regionals, which run June 3-6.

The 64-team tournament field will be announced Monday. The eight super regionals will be announced on June 6. The College World Series begins on June 18.

--Chris Foster

Photo: UCLA's Tyler Rahmatulla celebrates his two-run home run in the ninth inning as he rounds first base behind Cal State Fullerton's Nick Ramirez during last season's NCAA super regional. Credit: Chris Carlson / Associated Press

USC basketball: UC Irvine forward Eric Wise will transfer to USC

About two weeks ago, Eric Wise's phone rang. A USC men's basketball coach was on the other end. The UC Irvine junior forward was surprised but happy. Coming out of Riverside King High School, he'd been recruited by few Division I schools, and those were in the Big West Conference. Now USC wanted him. 

On Friday afternoon, Wise signed the paperwork to make his transfer to USC official. He will sit out the following season and have one season of eligibility remaining in 2012-13.

"It's USC; it's everybody's dream to go to a school like that," Wise said by phone.

In April, Wise, who started 62 of 63 games in which he played during his first two seasons with the Anteaters, announced that he wanted to transfer from UC Irvine to finish his college career.

"I thought it was just time to move on, pretty much," Wise said then, according to the Daily Pilot. "I don't want to make it seem like Irvine was a bad place. I guess I thought [transferring] will be best for me playing basketball after [college]."

USC Basketball: Catching up with Nikola Vucevic, whose NBA draft stock has risen to first-round territory

Nikola Vucevic arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The former USC junior forward had spent the previous four days in Chicago. He made himself quite a bit of money there -- not literal money, mind you, but potential money, which he'll likely see pour his way in person at the 2011 NBA draft on June 23.

That's right. Vucevic said Monday he's going to be there, along with his family.

"We believe he's a first rounder and we believe he should be in New York with his family," added Vucevic's agent, Rade Filipovich of Bill Duffy's BDA Sports Management. 

Before Vucevic's trip to Chicago, the site of the official NBA draft combine, his presence at the draft and the idea of him as a first-round pick seemed foolhardy. He entered the Windy City as an unknown, but he measured out very well there and in a draft that's short on both good players and big players, he could be a good big player. That possibility made him the hottest prospect to come out of that combine and propelled him into the first round in several mock NBA drafts. He might go mid-first round, even. 

"I just went really hard," Vucevic said. "I just wanted to show what I can do. I don’t really know how I did, but some coaches told me I did good so I guess I did."

USC football: Pat Haden and Matt Barkley react to NCAA decision on sanctions

USC Athletic Director Pat Haden and quarterback Matt Barkley just met with the media to discuss the NCAA's decision to deny USC's appeal of sanctions.

The NCAA's Infractions Appeals Committee announced Thursday that it had upheld all penalties, including a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. USC had asked the committee to reduce those penalties by half, which would have meant a one-year bowl ban (already served) and the loss of 15 scholarships.

Haden said USC would not pursue a lawsuit.

Here is some of what Haden said:

--"Clearly I'm very disappointed, but I'm not surprised."