Recruiting monopoly alive and well in L.A.


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Will UCLA catch up to USC? We’ve been asking this for years now, and even as both programs inch closer to national signing day Wednesday, nothing indicates that such a scenario is on the horizon. So the question has become, “Okay, will anything, even sanctions, derail the Trojans’ run of success? That’s where we are […]

If I were Pat Haden, if I were USC’s AD


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Earlier this week, a buddy of mine alerted me to the fact that seven of the eight Pac-10 softball teams are in the preseason top 25. My first reaction was not one of admiration, but of disappointment that there are eight softball teams in the Pac-10. Then, I realized that if USC did have a […]

Eric Strangis’ walk-on reality provides lesson


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With just two minutes remaining in USC’s 65-42 drubbing of Stanford on Thursday night, junior walk-on guard Eric Strangis stepped on to the Galen Center court for the first time in his collegiate career. The entrance lacked the typical Hollywood-esque feel you’d assume would accompany a young man’s final fulfillment of an improbable dream. There […]

Treatment of USC has never been ‘fair’


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NCAA bylaws require that a successful appeal of sanctions proves an “abuse of discretion.” But fans understand that doing so is challenging. The odds are bleak. College athletics’ governing body must acknowledge its previously rendered decision was incorrect. In essence, it must admit failure. Since the NCAA amended its procedure for appeals hearings in 2008, […]

Odds for a successful appeal appear slim


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Tomorrow, USC suits up for its most important game of the year. With all due respect to the men’s basketball team, this game will be played in a court 2,000 miles from the Galen Center in Indianapolis, and USC Athletic Director Pat Haden will be throwing the passes. Bad puns aside, an impressive delegation consisting […]

Bright future for USC might be knocked out


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A new decade means new beginnings, and for the USC men’s basketball program, it could only signal a change from the bitter, not too distant past. Following the resignation of former coach Tim Floyd in 2009, the USC basketball team was in shambles. Former guard O.J. Mayo was found to have received improper benefits and […]

The fine line between sanity and sports


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Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Sadly, this timeless lesson never made its way to the town of Kingston, Tenn. In observance of coach Lane Kiffin’s abrupt departure from Knoxville one year ago,, the owner of the town’s shooting range, concluded that there was no better way to […]

Win reveals shift in L.A. power


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Boy, it was a sight to witness. On display Sunday night was something reminiscent of what I’d normally see at a football game. A sea of cardinal and gold jam-packed the entire student section and proceeded to fill the upper decks. A raucous, standing-room-only Galen Center crowd screamed, shouted and cursed voraciously at the powder […]

Trojans hope to begin year on right foot


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Every year around this time there is a faint sense of renewal and change we really can believe in. When the calendar flips to a new 365-day period, the talk is always about what we hope to achieve tomorrow, not of what we didn’t achieve yesterday. Yet in these often best-laid plans, our fickleness typically […]