BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Saturday Notes

  • A few Saturday notes to start the weekend:
  • Former USC basketball assistant Dave Miller predicted on twitter that forward Isaiah Mobley would commit to the Trojans on Friday. Mobley did not.

Mobley will eventually commit because his father, Eric, is now a USC assistant coach. So will Evan Mobley.

That is easy to predict. But picking the specific day carries some risk, obviously.

The fact Miller was wrong about something will not surprise anyone in the coaching profession. But it’s worth mentioning because most of the general public probably took his prediction at face value.

Here’s my prediction: USC will need to stay clear of NCAA sanctions for any big-time commitments to really matter.

  • Andrew Mageo, a 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive lineman, from Mesa, Ariz., will attend USC as a preferred walk-on. You can never have enough offensive linemen.
  • Did you know the 901 bar and grill (or 9-0) opened at 6 a.m. on Friday morning for those wanting an early start to celebrate graduation?
  • It’s a busy day for USC teams. Baseball is at Washington State; the men’s tennis team hosts UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA playoffs, the women’s water polo team hosts UCLA in the NCAA championship semifinals and the track and field teams are at the Pac-12 championships at Stanford.

20 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Saturday Notes”

  1. Glad to see you’re getting more and more active on the SC beat once again, Scottie. BTW: I know you don’t reply to comments, directly, but I’d love to hear a bit of “state of the state” – who employs you now? Totally independent? Keep up the great work!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. Haven’t a clue Mike but Helton is a known quality. He hasn’t any idea on how to prepare for a top tier opponent – Stanford, TX, Notre Dame and, assuming they win the Pac-12 So., the opponent in the Pac-12 CCG is where Helton’s future lays. I’m tired of Haden’s lazy moves as AD and the mess he left us after he got outted for plundering the Mayr Foundation.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I thought it was the California taxpayer. Wolfie is a huge supporter of Bernie Sanders

        Like

  2. Almost forgot about the Foundation stuff, Alv. Based on recent history, it doesn’t look like minding the store is USC’s strong suit.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Two weeks ago I went down to the Book Fair and after getting bored with all the ‘activist-leninist-nazi’ booths I decided to go look at the new Banc of CA soccer stadium. They had an open house – place is beautiful! On the way back to the Expo Line I walked in front of the Peristyle and thought again on how Haden got away with 10+ years of embezzling for himself, daughter and sister-in-law and nothing ever happened to Haden by Nikias in fact ‘sickly’ Pat scurried off to his (USC’s) secret office downtown to continue his re-enactment of Albert Speer’s architecture designs for the 3rd Reich – the LA Memorial Coliseum. Bush got tossed, McNair was sacked by USC, Tony Bland fired and Tim Floyd shown the door – there is Haden – nothing happens or happened to him huh?

      Like

      Reply

      1. Great to have you back here, Alv. No one else writes with your passion (well, until the first football loss of the season)!
        #ExpectScott’s#’sToGoWayUpAfterTexasGame

        Liked by 1 person

  4. When did this site resurrect itself? It has been sorely missed just as ‘Petros’ has been all this week on ‘PMS’ be good to have ‘P’ back on Monday

    Like

    Reply

    1. It’s been around pretty much since Scott left the DN.

      Same Scott, which is good, I guess. And now he gets to write “lickspittle.”

      If USC tanks this year, or, more likely, regresses to the Clay Sarkiffian mean (7 to 8 wins), oh boy, Scott, without worrying about editors, is gonna go off the hook.

      If this blog stays around that long.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I just stumbled on it today (12th May 2018) ouch! Other squads don’t have the talent USC has ‘but’ they do have better coaches.

        Like

      2. I do think Clancy is about as good a d-coordinator as you can get in the Pac-12. It’s not the “greatest” job in that the Pac-12 has by far the most varied offenses in college football. AirRaid, fast-tempo read option, power pro set, shotgun pro set, power read-option, etc. Hard to prepare for, and hard to recruit for, since when defending Stanford and Washington you want big, space-eating linemen who fill up gaps and allow big linebackers to run downhill to the ball, then against WSU and Cal you need to play in nickel the entire game, then against Chip and RichRod you need gap shooting linemen and linebackers who can run laterally and play in space, not to mention depth. Not the best place for a young, ambitious coordinator to make his mark because there will be games where your seasonal defensive stats take a pounding. I read a Peter King article a few years back about that very perception, and that ambitious D-Coordinators prefer the BigTen and SEC because they are defense-oriented leagues with little variety of offenses.

        Still a better job than being a Big12 d-coordinator.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Independent has some serious insight that I definitely benefit from. Look I know a head coach is more like a ‘CEO’ than a hands on but our ‘O’ line last year was wanting at best (man that OH St. outside tackle owned singlehandedly Darnold in the Cotton Bowl. The two defensive line men on our right side were like tarpaper on the two doors those two Irish guards used to open their left side over and over. Showed no preparation to the two toughest foes we faced last year – that’s 100% on Helton’s day game management esp. that Cotton Bowl – 5+ weeks and that’s all folks.

      Expect more of the same cept’ this year no Sam Darnold.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a reply to rusoviet Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.