I had a series of reactions when I watched this video:

1. This is exactly why I keep my shirt on in public spaces
2. His ability to keep the ladies behind him from getting some crack is to be applauded
3. At least - given the song the band was playing - he wasn't wearing a red codpiece

I could have lived without the nipple rubbing though. 

There is a great post on Burnt Orange Nation about an easy way to post Fanshot’s from YouTube.

Following text taken from BON...

1) Go here and stick the Fanshot button on your browser.

2) Go to YouTube and find any USC highlight you love.

3) Use your Fanshot widget to send it to Conquest Chronicles.

4) Make sure you tag the Fanshot with 'youtube' and 'USC highlights', along with any other relevant descriptors.

And that's it. An instant vault of USC highlights, sortable by tag.

Nice Story on O.J. over at ESPN ($).

As more NBA teams watch his tape and do background checks, the more it looks like Mayo may become the consensus No. 3 pick in the draft.

Mayo's stock suffered at the start of the season based on some pretty unrealistic expectations. He's been on scouts' radars since the eighth grade, and many expected him to be a LeBron James-type dominant player as a freshman.

For all the negativity that surrounded Mayo and HIS recruitment of USC he sure has silenced his critics. he has been nothing but a gentleman on the court and off of it.

But there's another story, too, that's helping Mayo's stock. More and more teams are reporting that their background checks are coming back as positives for Mayo. Teams say that he earned good grades at USC and was a good citizen for coach Tim Floyd, and they report multiple instances of Mayo volunteering to help underprivileged kids.

Guess O.J. Isn't a thug after all. We really shouldn't be surprised, he kept his commitment to Tim Floyd and Mike Garrett about finishing the semester. Maybe Mike Wilbon should take another look at this kid and reassess his harsh words towards Mayo last fall.

Mayo represented us well and we wish him luck!

We are offiicially in the dogdays of the off season as there is not much going on out there.

Just catching up on a few things while I have been getting slammed at work.

USC and the LA Coliseum Commission appear close to a long-term lease possibly for 25 years and possibly as long as 47 years

From The LAT :

The 25-year deal, which can be extended to 47 years, is the first long-term contract in a relationship that has lasted more than eight decades.

"The fact that we could get such a complicated transaction done in 90 days shows the commitment on both sides to make this happen," said Kristina Raspe, USC's associate senior vice president for real estate and asset management.

Although the document will be submitted today at the Coliseum's monthly meeting, it is unlikely that the commission will vote on it immediately.

I will believe it when I see it. We've done this dance before.

A couple of Basketball notes...

After failing to qualify academically last year it appears  that Leonard Washington will in fact enroll in summer school making him eligible to play this fall.

A source close to the basketball program confirmed that Leonard Washington will enroll in summer school and play for the Trojans next season.

Washington signed with USC in November 2006 but didn't qualify academically and opened up his recruiting before deciding to stick with his original commitment. He gives USC another inside presence to go with Taj Gibson and is said to be a fierce rebounder even though he's only 6 foot 6.

That is great! Washington will give Taj a little extra help on the boards.

Demar DeRozan took his SAT's a second time  just to make sure that he has the minimum standards needed to enroll in the fall.

USC-bound shooting guard DeMar DeRozan took the SAT for a second time on Saturday and should receive his results in a few weeks, Compton High Coach Tony Thomas said Wednesday evening.

"He said he's confident and feels good about everything," Thomas said. "Hopefully, it works out."

Thomas said DeRozan described his first SAT score as "right there" as far as giving him the necessary standardized test score for entry into USC, but the 6-foot-6 senior wanted to take the test again in the event that he fared poorly during his final high school semester and needed a higher SAT score on the NCAA's sliding eligibility scale.

I would have felt better if he had scored higher the first time that way we wouldn't have to worry about it but thats the way it goes.

I saw this lat week but I didn't get a chance to comment on it.

We all saw how impressive Everson Griffen was last season. This kid is just a beast and fast off the line. Well now that he has had a year under his belt he will have a higher profile role to deal with in 2008.

From ESPN:

In a program in which spectacular athleticism is commonplace, Griffen stands out. He's powerfully built at 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, but he runs like a tailback -- he's been clocked under 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

"He's one of those rare kids you find every once in a while who is really big and can really run," said defensive coordinator Nick Holt, who also supervises the defensive line. "His transition to major college football wasn't too hard."

Oh, there were a few bumps in the road, most notoriously when Griffen and the upperclassman whose job he threatened, then-junior Kyle Moore, got into a fight during a preseason practice. According to reports, Moore had been teasing Griffen because the freshman was complaining about his sore back.

"It wasn't anything big -- a big brother, little brother thing," said Griffen, who added that he and Moore reconciled and are now friends (notably, Moore is projected to line up at strong end, opposite Griffen, next season).

This will be another stout USC defense this season and we are really going to need them to step up and keep opposing offenses from scoring so that our offense can get in a groove this season.

Finally...

 A lot has been made in some circles about USC's APR for the basketball. I am not really concerned about it as the penalty was dished out this past season so we can put it behind us. its disappointing that we even had the issue come up in the first place but I can lay all of this on Tim Floyd. Simply put, Pruitt, Stewart and Young just didn't care about what affect their actions had on the program going forward. I was happy with how we performed in the NCAA's last year but I am disappointed that that they didn't didn't have enough responsibility to see the semester through. I was disappointed in the way Jefferson handled his decision to leave SC, he could have been more courteous to Tim Floyd in at least letting him know what his intentions were. But I commend him for finishing his classes so that his early departure doesn't hurt USC going forward, Same with Mayo!

Of course I would prefer that USC recruit players that were more committed to the program and to their studies but that is not up for me decide. This falls on Tim Floyd and Mike Garrett and until we get burned badly I am inclined to trust their judgment.

Some of you may remember that Kenechi Udeze was diagnosed with leukemia in February. The Vikings have been good enough to put him on the reserve/non-football illness list, which means that he can pursue treatment without going broke in the process.

SBN's Vikings blog, the Daily Norseman, has noted that Udeze has the good fortune of having found a match from his brother for a bone marrow transplant, which will give him a fighting chance of recovery. The folks at the Daily Norseman also noted that maybe 30% of leukemia patients who need a bone marrow transplant are able to find a match from the National Marrow Donor Program, and are encouraging people to consider registering as a potential donor, or to donate money to support research into treatment of leukemia.

Beyond basic human concern, this is a subject that I find compelling because my father-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia about 11 years ago. He needed a bone marrow transplant, but did not match at all with any family members - however, he got as near to a perfect match as possible via the registry, and was able to undergo treatment. It's a hellacious process and kicked his ass seven ways to Sunday - he was able, just and no more, to come to our wedding a couple of months after the transplant and was being mistaken for my wife's grandfather, not her father. But he's been in remission ever since, and is active in his teaching and life in a way that I should be emulating, frankly.

If you can see your way to helping out, please do - but I will pass on the one caution that we received from the Donor Registry people back when my father-in-law was diagnosed, which is this: if you have any reservations about making a donation, don't sign up. About the only thing as bad for a leukemia patient than no match at all, is a match from someone who has changed their mind about donating.

In the meantime, our best wishes for successful treatment and recovery go out to Kenechi Udeze and his family, and a tip of the hat goes to the Daily Norseman for encouraging Vikings fans to help.

Bumped- Not really surprised but this cannot continue in the future-  Paragon

The NCAA Academic Progress Report was just released and USC men's basketball was called out for missing the mark. The team scored an 863, while the minimum score to avoid penalties was 925. The data collected represents the 4-year period from 2003 to 2007. Yes, the calculation is negatively impacted by any underclassmen who bolt for the NBA without finishing out the school year, but that can't be the only excuse. This is clearly an area of concern for Coach Floyd and Mike Garrett moving forward, since we lost 2 scholarships because of it. The bottom line is that the men's basketball team is now limited to awarding only 11 scholarships next year.

No other USC teams missed the mark, and most were way above it (kudos to women's golf and cross country for rocking perfect scores of 1000). The football team came in with a 948, which has us tied with Washington at 3rd in the Pac 10, following Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Here's a link to the story in USA Today (NCAA links included in that):

Link

UPDATE:

From All Things Trojan:

USC was informed of the punishment in the fall and given the option of taking the hit this past year or next year. They decided to take the hit sooner rather than later.

The lost scholarships were a result of Gabe Pruitt, Lodrick Stewart, and Nick Young not attending classes after the 2006-07 season.

USC officials are optimistic that things will improve next year because O.J. Mayo and Davon Jefferson did finish out their classes this semester.

Ahhhhh.......the gift that keeps on giving

(Little late on this one, but life is like that sometimes.)

USC's women's track and field team beat ucla 86 - 77 in a dual meet at ucla this past weekend. This was the first time that the USC women's team had beated the bruins since 1992.

A large part of the reason that the Trojans won was the efforts of Carol Rodriguez, who ran despite a hamstring injury. She won the 400m race, and also ran a strong third leg of the 4 x 400 relay, taking the baton a step or three behind and building a big lead for Myra Hasson to bring home.

The men's team was not able to get over the hump, losing to ucla 74 - 89. They had beaten the Bruins last year at USC, but have not beaten the bruins at ucla since 1977. Said the Director of Track and Field :

"This means a lot to us [...] As the trainers and staff can tell you we didn't have everyone available or at full health. The Dual Meet is so very significant from the standpoint of the exposure and the visibility for the fans. The difference was that we had some distance runners this year, which is not normally our flagship. This is good for morale. The men won last year and we would have liked to have seen it happen again this year, so next year the goal is to win them both in the same season"

Congratulations to the Women of Troy, and respect to the bruins for - if you'll pardon the phrase - gutting it out to win on the strength of a strong showing at the end of the meet. I'm sure they'll understand if I don't wish them good luck for next year though.

Hey Conquest Chronicles,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Conquest Chronicles from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Conquest Chronicles and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Conquest Chronicles now has all the basic information about the USC Trojans and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of USC Trojans material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

-------

There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

So Tonight CC will move to the new SBN 2.0 platform.

I have been playing with the new site off line setting up the sidebars and playing with some of the features hence the lack of posting. (we had an important 2nd birthday party this weekend as well over the weekend)

The site will be down for about 2 hours and it should be up and running in the morning. Please read the welcome statement like one on Burnt Orange Nation and if you haven't done so already claim your account. Rocky Top Talk has a great overview of the new features here and here so make sure you give them a read.

This is a great platform and it is incredibly user friendly. So enjoy and let us know what you think. Change is always difficult but this change is definitely for the best.

See you tomorrow...

So, the judge in the Reggie Bush mess played a little smackdown on the attorney's for both Lake and Bush. Frankly they deserved it.

This thing has gone on for so long I can see why there was an attempt at some humor.

But this is where the rubber meets the road, will Lake actually sit for his deposition?

There is a whole can of worms waiting for Lake if he answers questions, as he would probably criminally incriminate himself in his deposition to sustain his case against Bush. Sure, if it gets to the point of Bush having to go through his deposition any information that comes out could be devastating to Bush and possibly USC (at this point that's not likely because there has been no discussion of ANYONE at SC knowing about this but one can never be sure). Lake will have to answer questions about where he got the 300K, it has been discussed that he has no legitimate means of employment. He will have to answer about taping phone calls, which IIRC is against California state law. He would then face the possibility of a lawsuit against SC for tampering with an amateur athlete, which I also believe is against the law in CA.

So yeah he can go scorched earth but he runs the risk of getting nailed himself. Maybe he doesn't care; he has already been to jail and if its worst-case scenario of doing more time, not really likely to me he may just roll the dice and how they play.

We've said it time and again here we just want this over and done with. I really believe that at this point there may not be anything that incriminates USC, but who knows. I am simply just bored with this; you focus on other things and forget about it then it rears its ugly head over and over.

Just get it done already...

Update: I just caught this in the LA Times:

To me this is just posturing to pressure Bush to settle. Lake and his "team" are essentially trying to pressure Bush by threatening to have Carroll to testify, essentially trying to embarrass USC or shame him into settling, this tactic doesn’t surprise me.

A little bit more:

Let the games begin!!