<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">High school basketball standout O.J. Mayo has made his choice. It appears that O.J. Mayo will play college basketball after all. Mayo signed a national letter-of-intent to play his college basketball with the USC Trojans. Mayo made his commitment official on Wednesday ? the final day of the early signing period. "This is a great day for the program," USC assistant coach Gib Arnold told Rivals.com. "We are really excited as a Trojan family about the direction we are going." </div> http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/con....asp?CID=608487
I saw this on ESPNEWS yesterday, big catch for the Pac-10. With guys like Love, Mayo, and Bayless coming next year, the Pac-10 should get quite a bit of national spotlight & coverage.
This still seems wierd to me. Unless he is just trying to increase his draft stock with great stats, I don't understand the descision to go to USC.
<div class="quote_poster">TheFreshPrince Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This still seems wierd to me. Unless he is just trying to increase his draft stock with great stats, I don't understand the descision to go to USC.</div> This makes great sense to me. If you were more or less guaranteed NBA money like Mayo, academics wouldn't matter, and therefore you'd probably want to look for the college that was just in the most ideal location, and how more ideal can you get than Southern California? They're also a major conference school that can make him the go-to-guy right off the bat. If I were a player like Mayo, Southern Cal would be one of my final choices as well.
<div class="quote_poster">TheFreshPrince Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This still seems wierd to me. Unless he is just trying to increase his draft stock with great stats, I don't understand the descision to go to USC.</div> The Pac-10 is just as competitive as any other conference he could of went to man. He's not guaranteed to have better stats in the Pac-10 as he would of had in the Big-12 or Big East. Teams in Pac-10 play some tough nose defense, look at UCLA last year during tourney, Lute Olson bases his stategy on defense, even teams like Washington St. play physical brand of basketball that starts on defensive end, and Herb Sendek will get that Sun Devil team playing D in no time. So don't think he's coming here to get better stats, I think he's coming out here to get some nice sunshine, play in conference with many recent great recruits, and hit some LA Clubs
<div class="quote_poster">J_Ray Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Pac-10 is just as competitive as any other conference he could of went to man. He's not guaranteed to have better stats in the Pac-10 as he would of had in the Big-12 or Big East. Teams in Pac-10 play some tough nose defense, look at UCLA last year during tourney, Lute Olson bases his stategy on defense, even teams like Washington St. play physical brand of basketball that starts on defensive end, and Herb Sendek will get that Sun Devil team playing D in no time. So don't think he's coming here to get better stats, I think he's coming out here to get some nice sunshine, play in conference with many recent great recruits, and hit some LA Clubs </div> Im not saying anything bad about the Pac-10, they are a top tier conference. At USC he will more than likely be the number one option. His discision makes sense to me, but I don't agree with him is what I mean. I'm sure that USC is the best situation for him. He seems to have no concern with winning and that bugs me, why else would he go to a team where has no chance to even be a top 3 team in the confernce.
Maybe he's more concerned with developing his own game? I'm not sure, but there's Tim Floyd, so maybe he likes the emphasis on defense and the environment around that team. And, also, going to a team in the Pac-10 may not give him the hype, but he could just as easily make noise in the tournament.
I remember him saying something about wanting to play for a coach that had NBA experience, and Tim Floyd has been an NBA head coach. So this seems to be a good fit for O.J. Southern California has nice weather, women, and beaches, so can you really blame O.J. for wanting to go out there? He's only going to be there one year, so you might as well have some fun while you're at it.
<div class="quote_poster">TheFreshPrince Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Im not saying anything bad about the Pac-10, they are a top tier conference. At USC he will more than likely be the number one option. His discision makes sense to me, but I don't agree with him is what I mean. I'm sure that USC is the best situation for him. He seems to have no concern with winning and that bugs me, why else would he go to a team where has no chance to even be a top 3 team in the confernce.</div> Not trying to make you look bad, but USC has plenty of talent, experienced and young. Next year they'll probably have Nick Young and Pruitt unless they leave early, I think they won't because they both aren't going to put up unbelievable numbers and don't get any hype. Pruitt is out for awhile with academic issues, so he probably will end up staying. They have some great talent coming in this year too, Taj Gibson and Kevin Galloway are both great young players that should be in big part of rotation next year when he does come in. If the tragedy didn't happen to their great young PG, Francis, they'd probably competeing for the Pac-10 Championship. With Mayo next year, this team will be great. BTW--What happened to Davon Jefferson, he's not on the USC roster on their site......If he is on this team, they're way better than I even said.
