USC Basketball

I wrote this for the Open Mic in the Bleacher Report. Am I right or am I right?

Share/Email This

Related posts

• J’Mison Morgan: Official Announcement Could Come Today (0)
• Morgan to be released by LSU (0)
• NCAA = Money Grubbing Jackasses (0)
• O.J. Mayo is SHADY (4)
• Rick Neuheisel Rips Profanity-Laced USC Walk-on Recruiting Video (2)
• Download the UCLARadio Interview with Darren Collison (0)
• Darren Collison interview on UCLARadio.com (0)

Recently, ESPN has released a report on OJ Mayo receiving gifts in forms of money and material items during his high school and college careers. Being an avid sports fan, I wasn’t surprised at all that he received “gifts” in high school and college. Top amateur athletes in the US including top basketball prospects like OJ Mayo will naturally attract people that will attempt to take advantage of their talents. And in OJ’s case, he’s been dealing with people like this since he was in 6^th grade. How can we condemn the guy, if he was getting consistent mixed messages ever since he was 12 years old?

I don’t believe anyone is in the right to criticize Mayo for receiving these gifts. By no way am I justifying his actions of accepting the gifts, on the other hand, I believe all athletes should make decisions that are within the rules that are in place. OJ Mayo isn’t the problem, he’ll keep on living his life, looking forward to his NBA dream, and he can’t and won’t even suffer any serious consequences.

Instead, the criticism should be directed at USC and the NCAA for letting things like this happen. Will the NCAA do something this time around? If they don’t enact severe punishment on USC, then they’re sending the wrong message to the league, college sports, and amateur sports in general. Athletes aren’t bigger than the law; by letting them and the participating parties off, the whole point of college sports is lost. And it’s wrong to totally focus on just USC; it’d be false to say that this isn’t happening anywhere else in the country.

People like Rodney Guillory (the person who gave gifts to Mayo) are a growing population in amateur sports culture. Something needs to halt the growth of this breed. Whether it is coaches, recruiters, agents, family, friends, or people just hoping to make a quick buck, it’s almost become some what of normality now. As a high school student, I daily see athletes receive preferential treatment in the school environment. Most notably, they suffer fewer consequences for breaking the rules. And it’s not just on the high school level, it happens on all levels of amateur sports. No matter how ethically wrong it is, and although there are rules put into place by the appropriate authorities to prevent “favoritism”, short-cuts are always found, consequences are weakened, and young athletes are often manipulated by people trying to take advantage of them.

The system is flawed. We can’t stop society from exploiting 12-year old basketball talent. But the NCAA can be stricter with the enforcement of their rules. And it starts now, if this story proves true, and the NCAA does something serious about it, USC and other colleges will second think and be more careful about situations like this one. If USC gets off easy, then stories like this won’t be scandals they’ll become accepted and ignored newspaper headlines.

I'm hardly an expert when it comes to this issue.

There weren't highlights of me playing ball in high school on the local news, much less on ESPN. Upon graduating high school, I wasn't sought after by every Division I school in the country with a scholarship in hand.

Finally, once I decided upon a school, there wasn't a press conference, and said school didn't expect large amounts of money to come in on my account—just the bills for tuition and books.

Despite that, I was able to observe, for a time, this phenomenon while attending the University of Illinois.

As a sophomore, our Illini basketball team rose to prominence as they made it all the way to the championship game before losing to the North Carolina Tarheels. Along the way, just about everyone remotely associated with the team became overnight super-celebrities.

While athletes on campus were already worshipped, it became very obvious that year how these guys, ranging in age from 18-22, became viewed as gods walking amongst us mere mortals.

Students would drop everything they were doing at the time to get a picture taken with said athlete, and if they didn't have a camera they would at least try to get an autograph—anything so that they can brag to their friends back at the dorm. The team received nightly exposure on both local and national sports stations, praising the team while fattening the schools pocketbook by garnering constant exposure.

As observed by many incidents that have occurred over the years at a vast number of schools, a good percentage of these "student-athletes" end up doing just enough to make the grade, thanks in large part to the help of the hundreds of tutors, "online classes," or having leisure studies as a major.

And last but not least, don't forget the groupies.

The point is that college, for the student-athlete, is the ultimate ego trip. If your head hasn't been inflated enough from being the best prep athlete in high school, college will certainly up the ante.

If the "problems" with celebrity culture were so prominent in a tiny college town like Champaign, it's hard to envision what it must be like in a place like Los Angeles, especially on such a storied campus as USC, where the spotlight always shines.

Picture it, the exposure, the women, the guaranteed money coming after your one year—it's no wonder the academics and morals fall to the wayside.

Of course, when those incidents do occur, the media and the NCAA are the first to jump all over it. Suddenly, guys like OJ Mayo become the poster boy of all that's wrong with the NCAA—when in reality, he's just an 18-year old kid that did what any other 18-year old kid would do if they were in his position and had his talents.

Furthermore, it's hypocritical for the NCAA to go after USC for bringing in a guy that every other team in the country wanted. If all of this had really happened while Mayo was in high school, the NCAA should have barred teams from even attempting to recruit him.

Cases like these, however, are bigger than the players or the schools involved, even if they involve arguably the best freshman in the country. They distract people from what is inherently wrong with both the NCAA and the NBA-instituted one-and-done requirement.

With the marketing revenue generated from forcing the talented high schoolers to enter at least one year of college, the NCAA has no incentive to try to convince the NBA to change the rule. Furthermore, with most of the top-tier players only coming to the NCAA to fulfill their requirement, they have no incentive to do anything other than look out for their own best interests.

With as much money as the school and NCAA make off of them for their efforts, why shouldn't they? It's painfully obvious even to the most hopeful fan that athletes get preferential treatment, so why does the NCAA waste resources to investigate a case such as this one?

It's simple. The NCAA doesn't want to look bad—not anymore than they do already. If it weren't for the fact that ESPN was able to dig up all this dirt on OJ Mayo, the investigation probably wouldn't have taken place.  The NCAA has to appear to be in control of the madness they created—a frenetic atmosphere where the top athletes are simply being groomed for the next level, both on and off the court.

I'm not insinuating that these players should be paid for participating in college sports—that would create another headache altogether. Rather, what I find disheartening is that while these young men are trying to just go on with their lives, they find themselves in the middle of a controversy that almost always does more harm than good.

While scummy coaches like Kelvin Samspon are able to bounce around the coaching ranks before eventually running out of destinations, entire seasons can be potentially erased and scholarships removed based on the actions of a select few.

So in the case of the OJ Mayo, what should the NCAA do? Honestly, the smart thing to do would be to slap USC's wrist and move on to the bigger fish that lie at the heart of this particular case. That is, eliminating the one-and-done rule, or forcing the kids to stay for all four years.

The former ruling seems to be the only likely case, as both the NBA and the NCAA have to be more responsible anyway. If general managers are willing to pay an 18-year-old millions of dollars, they should at least have the decency to protect their investment by ensuring that they're surrounded by a good group of guys so you don't have another Leon Smith on your hands.

In the case of the NCAA, they need to be realistic about things—they can't expect a guy like OJ Mayo to be completely detached from a world full of perks.

But like I said, I'm not an expert. Then again, the folks in the NCAA don't seem to be that bright either.

OJ Mayo, Tim Floyd and the rest of the USC basketball program should be looking back on this year celebrating their successes: The NCAA tournament bid, the win against K-State and the multiple top 25 appearances throughout the season.  Instead, thanks by and large to a disgruntled associate of Mayo's they'll be getting dragged through the mud by anyone not associated with the program. 

Tim Floyd won't be parlaying Mayo's stint on campus into recruiting gold, instead he'll be greeted with NCAA sanctions and forced to make lengthy explanations about his willingness to add Mayo to his team.

As an almost sure lottery pick Mayo won't be hoisted up as the Prince of Troy rather he'll be grilled and raked over the coals for actions that occurred during his lone college season. 

Its quite easy to make these two the scapegoat and watch as the USC basketball program stands at the guillotine with the NCAA as the judge, jury and executioner. But, before we condemn Mayo and Floyd to be sacrificed at the NCAA altar take a long, hard look at the third player in this delicate dance; Bill Duffy and his business enterprise BDA Sports Management.

For me this runs eerily similar to a drug deal. Yes, Mayo chose to buy the drugs [take the money] and sure Tim Floyd and his mother could've done a better job of trying to stop him from taking drugs [stopped him from taking gifts]. Robert Guillory simply offered him some really good drugs [plasma tv] at a really good price [$30,000], luring a kid down the wrong path and Bill Duffy and BDA sat on the mountain top watching another victim get addicted to their product [sign with their agency].

BDA used Guillory as their pusher, their middle man. BDA paid the money to court the young superstar. BDA is the reason that Mayo was lead down the wrong path and BDA is the culprit responsible for the NCAA rules violations surrounding USC's basketball program.

This is the same case we've seen plenty of times; Players, Coaches and Schools lose their awards, forfeit games, lose scholarships and face probation for violations while the agencies that broker the deals are allowed to operate with complete disregard for the rules.

The NCAA is a purely reactionary body in this respect as they rely on anonymous tips and self reporting to bring wrong doings to their attention. Generally this means it takes a rival school or a disgruntled entourage member to get the wheels turning on a possible NCAA task force investigation. This passive strategy allows for egregious violations to occur and go seemingly unnoticed[see UNLV and Michigan early 90's, UMass mid 90's and Miami in the 80's].

If the NCAA really wants to clean up college sports they need to take a strongly aggressive approach. Several steps that must be enacted include:

Expanding their agent watch task-force from a three person body to a major entity that is staffed in order to adequately police the agents involved in their money sports. 

Requiring both large agencies and independent agents to register with the NCAA, similar to their registration with the NFL-PA and the NBA-PA. 

Partnering with the PA's of the NFL and NBA in order to limit contact between agents and amateur athletes. This would include eliminating ground work being laid with high school kids and "runners" leading college players to specific agents.

Establish flat procedural guidelines for when, where and how often agents can contact players once they decide to enter the draft. Similar to high school athletes concerning recruiting dead periods and limited number of contacts and the method of contacts including who can call who.

With rules comes rule breakers and in order to make a situation stand up the NFL-PA and the NBA-PA would have to be fully supportive in their backing of the NCAA. Possible suspension of acquiring new clients, fines for agents contacting players during dead periods and revocation of licensing for repeat offenders would give the NCAA ruling body the teeth it needs to clean up sports.

I want sports to be clean, devoid of agents and NCAA infractions, my only problem is that the NCAA is crucifying schools, players and coaches when the truly evil players are the agents that escape unscathed. The kids are more victims than criminals or cheaters, they get lured into a lifestyle by people who they believe care about their well-being. Then they wake up one day and realize people like Guillory just latch on to the OJ Mayo's of the world for a free ride.

I'll leave you with my final thought, isn't the guy [BDA] supplying drugs far more heinous and culpable than the people he seduces into using them [OJ Mayo, Tim Floyd].

Has the NCAA fired all their investigators? I think ESPN could loan them a few if they need them.

So what are they doing these days? Because the NCAA obviously isn't worrying about amateur athletics going down the tubes one O.J. Mayo after another.

What does it take for the NCAA to actually do some real investigative work? I guess they have decided to only make examples out of teams that you've never heard of and leave the USC's of the world alone now.

And this isn't only about USC, schools all over the country are guilty, it's just that USC seems to be making a habit of it.

So why hasn't the NCAA brought the hammer down on USC yet?

Well the NCAA tried to set an example with Alabama football a few years back and they really hammered the Tide hard when a booster paid off a high school football coach for a player's services. But what happened in the wake? The NCAA was hit with a number of lawsuits from coaches involved and it turned into a 5 year mess.

Since then I think the NCAA has become a scared, little bark and no bite organization that doesn't want to get involved anymore with big time schools and their illegal matters.

They'd rather just sweep it under the rug then actually put a school like USC on probation like they deserve.

HBO and ESPN have buried USC with evidence on Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo and

what has the NCAA done?

They've said they will look into it. Well, that's good. I'm glad the governing body of college athletics has decided to look into major infractions only after someone else has done the work for them.

Oh by the way, the NCAA said they looked into OJ Mayo before he entered USC and found nothing illegal was going on. Oops.

Instead the NCAA wants to make high school basketball players go to college for not just one year, but two!

What is Miles Brand thinking?

If a kid doesn't want to be in college, then don't make him. If he wants to go right to the NBA then let him.

But apparently the NCAA doesn't want to stop the agent problem in college athletics, they want to make it worse.

Can you imagine OJ Mayo in college for two years?

By his sophomore year he would be loaning money out to kids on campus. He wouldn't just have a plasma TV in his dorm room, he'd have half of Best Buy in there.

Bottom line is the NCAA is once again not doing their job, they are letting other people do theirs, all the while not doing anything about it.

Only thing I can gather is that the NCAA just doesn't really care. If they did, then USC would be put on probation in both football and basketball.

And any other school, whether they are big time or not would get the same if they broke the rules. I'd say there's a much better chance USC's basketball program gets hit than their football program. I mean the NCAA wouldn't want to destroy a dynasty would they?

Anyone think that either happens anytime soon? Yea, me neither.

O.J. Mayo has found himself in a situation many college athletes only dream about.

He is about to become an NBA Star.

He will soon have an annual salary exceeding what most kids his age will never see.

He will be recognized all around the world for what he can do with a basketball.

Yet, there is one thing O.J. Mayo may never have: The fan's trust.

Late Sunday night, Mayo had been connected to a story that showed he had received thousands of dollars in cash and other benefits while he was in high school and during his freshman year at USC. 

According to Louis Johnson, who worked with Mayo and was considered to be in his inner circle, O.J. accepted over $30,000 in money and gifts from 43-year-old Los Angeles event promoter Rodney Guillory.  Among the gifts Mayo received included a television, plane tickets, meals, clothes, and cell phone service. 

Johnson claimed Guillory was given in excess of $200,000 to fund the gifts he would offer to Mayo by a Northern California sports agency called BDA Management.  In return for all of the gifts, Mayo would then commit to signing a contract with BDA, allowing them to represent him the moment he turned pro.

ESPN began its coverage and within hours, Mayo was verbally denying everything. 

"I had no knowledge of anything like that.  I'll find out more when I meet with Mr. Duffy and Mr. [Calvin] Andrews [of BDA]," Mayo said.

Once considered the next LeBron James, Mayo had the option of coming clean and displaying an image almost all athletes never can: a role model.

Unfortunately, this story is only going to grow, and soon Mayo will discover his name will be forever tainted, and anything he says will always be taken with a grain of salt.

O.J. Mayo will find out the consequences that come with being a high-profile college athlete.  All of the cash and gifts might have been nice in the short run, but the long-run effects will never go away.

The age-old argument of whether or not college athletes should be paid is ludicrous.  Yes, playing a sport in college requires a major commitment.  But most of these athletes are already getting extended deadlines and extra help in class. 

As a college student myself, I have attended classes with other student athletes and have physically seen professors allow each to "take an extra day" when papers are due or when a test would be administered. 

What about the average student who goes to work before or after class, and sometimes both?  Should they be compensated for their commitment or given more time to complete a scholastic task?  Absolutely not.

Someday, it would be nice to see these college athletes act more like the adults they wish to be treated (and paid) like.

Still stinging from 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush's collegiate dealings with agents and marketing reps, Southern California can expect more NCAA scrutiny if star basketball recruit O.J. Mayo becomes a Trojan in 2007.

Mayo, who is expected to sign with USC in the spring if not during the early signing period next month, is being mentored by a Los Angeles-area promoter whom the NCAA labeled as an agent's representative in 2000. That was the year Mayo's new mentor, Rodney Guillory, helped get two college basketball players -- including one from USC -- suspended for several games.

Before Mayo signs, USC would be wise to look hard -- very hard -- at the Guillory connection. Looking the other way may have helped put USC knee-deep in the Ornstein-Bush mess; sources say Ornstein found his way onto the sideline for USC football games as a guest of Dana and David Pump, Adidas kingpins who once used Ornstein as an auctioneer for their annual fundraiser.

Connect the dots. One way or another, Ornstein met Bush and ultimately became his marketing rep. Bush signed with Adidas. The NCAA is looking into what illegal benefits, if any, Bush received from Ornstein while still at USC.

Now Mayo -- the Trojans' top basketball recruit since Paul Westphal -- is being advised by Guillory. And Guillory not only was once labeled by the NCAA as an agent's representative, but helped get a former USC player (Trepagnier) suspended.

Irony doesn't begin to describe this situation.

My blog, guttylittlebruins.com, is all about objectivity.  We know when our own fans are being jackasses, we know when our rival just got screwed over a blown call, and we would know when Kirk Herbstreit is not being a complete tool, though we're still waiting to see that one.

Anyways, what I'm about to say might sound completely biased. I am about to completely rip Tim Floyd and the USC program and exalt UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland.  If you don't like it, make yourself useful and monitor whether Kirk Herbstreit has stopped being a tool while I write the rest of this piece.

To see ESPN go after O.J. Mayo is kinda sad.  The dude doesn't exactly come from a privileged background.  I don't think it's a stretch to say that only an idiot wouldn't grab that kind of cash when it's right in front of him.  Yet, this isn't about O.J. Mayo. This is about Tim Floyd.

Floyd is going to pull the "NO WAY! O.J. WAS TAKING MONEY? I HAD NO FRIGGIN' CLUE!" card and USC might get away with it. Regardless, Tim Floyd knew exactly what he was dealing with from the moment a "representative" of O.J. Mayo spoke with Tim Floyd during Mayo's recruitment.  When Floyd asked for Mayo's number, the "representative" said O.J. doesn't give out his number...apparently even to his prospective future coaches.

“O. J. wanted me to come here today,” the man told Floyd. “He wanted me to figure out who you are.”

Floyd was desperate enough to play along. His starting point guard, Ryan Francis, had been murdered two months earlier. The backup, Gabe Pruitt, was in academic trouble. The third-stringer, a walk-on, was leaving college.

“Why aren’t you at Arizona or Connecticut?” Floyd recalled asking.

The man explained that Mayo wanted to market himself before going to the NBA, and that Los Angeles would give him the best possible platform.

“Then why aren’t you at UCLA?” Floyd asked.

The man shook his head. UCLA had already won 11 national championships. It had already produced many NBA stars. Mayo wanted to be a pioneer for a new era.

“Let me call him,” Floyd said.

The man shook his head again. “O. J. doesn’t give out his cell,” he said. “He’ll call you.”

That "representative" was Ronald Guillory, the center of the firestorm himself. Floyd knew exactly what he was getting into. If you play with matches, Tim, you get burned. That little excerpt should have been warning enough. 

Now some of you are saying, "Wait...you are telling me Ben Howland wouldn't talk to O.J. Mayo, the No. 1 recruit in the country by many recruiting services, in a similar situation?"

That's exactly what I am telling you. If a guy came into Ben Howland's office and said "I'm O.J.'s representative, and he wants me to feel you out," Howland would personally kick his ass out the door.  

You see, Ben Howland doesn't do the play with fire thing.  The top recruit in the class of 2009, Renardo Sidney, has made it pretty unequivocal that he wants to go to UCLA. And UCLA has not offered him.

Why? Because there are questions about his attitude, personality, and me-first demeanor...the same type of traits that would influence players to take cash in the first place.

There was some talk from inside Morgan Center (not confirmed) that highly regarded recruit Luke Babbitt was getting a little too close to Ohio State boosters.  After he reneged on his commitment to OSU, Howland would not take him, not caring if he was, in fact, a five-star recruit.

Howland doesn't play with matches.  He believes in the sanctity of the UCLA program. Floyd doesn't give a rat's ass about the "sanctity" of USC's program, going so far as offering a scholarship to Lil' Romeo.  Talk to any recruiting expert and they'll tell you that he is simply not Division I material. Period.

Way to take away a scholarship from a player that actually DOES deserve to play in the PAC-10, Tim.  Don't be surprised when that Romeo kid does something shady.

And don't be surprised if Howland would personally kick his ass out the door, too.

The recent news about two former USC Trojans receiving benefits from agents has brought the issue to the forefront.  The question now is what can we do about it?

First, we have to decide if it's even important.  I don't know the details of the OJ Mayo or the Reggie Bush case.  Often, where there's smoke, there's fire, but I don't know for sure exactly what, if anything, they got outside of NCAA regulations.

I do know that NCAA regulations become an issue if a father coaches his son.  The son, as a player receives housing, money, food, and other benefits from the father, as a coach.  This was a case actually considered by the NCAA!  They considered fining the school and the coach because he took care of his son!  

That's ridiculous, so when rules like that are broken, it's not a big deal to me.  Most NCAA regulations border on craziness anyway, so they don't really concern me.

Should we just outright pay college athletes?  No, they already get paid.  If you think a college athlete on scholarship ever has to pay for any necessities, you are mistaken.  They get everything paid for.  All they have to do is have the patience to wait on extras until they go pro. 

However, these are young, impressionable men.  Most 18-22 year olds I know don't always make wise choices.  If they are guided by selfish agents and money-hungry parents, bad decisions will be made. 

There are a lot of factors in these situations. 

Yes, the kids have to take some blame. 

Yes, the rules are stupid.

Yes, they will be influenced by bad, money-hungry people.

Yes, they already get a lot for free.

However, in my opinion, it's not really important.  Sports is a big money business, and no one will be totally clean.  It's not that important to me.  I already know it's all about money.  As long as the agents don't buy drugs and hookers for the kids, I think I'm okay with it.

Former USC basketball player OJ Mayo has been called out by ESPN's Outside the Lines as having been the recipient of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from Rodney Guillory, who works for the sports agency Bill Duffy Associates.

Of course, Mayo has repeatedly denied the allegations. But a much larger issue here isn't whether or not he took the gifts and cash.

It's whether or not collegiate sports can solve the bigger problem of agents getting their hooks into young star athletes too early.

Between boosters, who have always been alleged to have bankrolled players to either choose their college to play with, or to keep a star player happy while enrolled, and more recently player agents, there is a real problem escalating in college sports.

And it is a serious problem for several reasons. First, there are the ramifications if yan athlete get caught.

But second, and perhaps most important, it ruins the innocence that is supposed to be the calling card of college sports.

And in this age of steroids and multi-million dollar professional contracts, where can a sports fan turn to if even collegiate sports are tainted?

And so it is. But what to do? Well, this writer, for one, doesn't believe the problem can be eliminated entirely. You will always have agents trying to gain a competitive advantage. And you will always have young athletes taking money. That cannot be stopped.

Ah, but what you must do is make the consequences so dire that it becomes a risk that only the most ruthless agent and/or team is willing to accept.

Look, it's a lot like parenting. You can't make a child stop doing bad things. You can't physically be there at all times, so the best you can do as a parent is to create consequences.  If a kid knows he can get away with something, he will. It's that simple.

And so the consequences have to be something that is not only punitive, but preventative in nature.

What I'm proposing is any agent caught giving gifts to college athletes not only lose their license, but the agency they work for (or own) gets shut down. Forever.  Do not pass Go. Do not collect, er, in this case, pay, the money.

And any college caught entertaining payments to its young athletes will be barred from postseason tournaments for ten years. That's right—ten years.

Aggressive? You bet. Tough? Damn right. But that's what it takes to create an environment where everyone knows the seriousness of cheating and how it's not going to be tolerated.

Otherwise, you may as well go with the European system and pay the athletes. The problem with that system, however, is it exacerbates the problem of young men having too much money at too young an age, leading to more of the drugs and gambling and selfishness that exists today.

It also blurs the lines of distinction between professional and amateur sports.

Like the '27 Yankees or John Wooden's UCLA basketball teams, you cannot stop it, you can only hope to contain it. And one way to contain it is to let everyone know just how serious you are.

Come to think of it, OJ Mayo is simply a pawn in a corrupt game of chess played by con men and scum. And, like addiction, it's time to admit we are powerless to stop the problem and can only hope to address it in a way that will really make the cheaters think twice.