GameDay Open Thread USC vs. North Dakota State

And let the results speak for themselves.

Still, it’s interesting that out of the two new PG recruits (Smith and Miller), the Trojans are getting absolutely nothing from them. Smith is a disappointment (what happened with Angelo Johnson anyway?), but Miller, he is/was a complete waste of a schollie. Wasn’t recruited by any other Pac-10 team (even doormat OSU) or any other major program I know of, but he comes as part of a package deal with DeRozan. Has contributed nothing this year. A schollie PG should contribute something, minutes, promise, something. But Lil’Romeo is sitting at the back of the bench with the walk-ons.

As Wolf just posted, thank god USC is not located in Chapel Hill, Lawrence, Westwood, or any place that takes basketball seriously. And I do hope Timmy drops to his knees every night and thanks God for Pete Carroll.

That’s why he should pay his own way.

Recruiting? DeRozan? What if he’s gone next year? Then should Percy Miller stay? Does that mean Sidney, Polee and Hill wouldn’t come if Lil’ Romeo wasn’t on scholarship? Nonsense.

I think we have short memories. From the Wall Street Journal, back in March:

Romeo Miller is a 5-foot-10 point guard with a bad knee. He has never played a full season of high-school basketball. This season, he averaged 8.6 points a game for Beverly Hills High School, which finished last in its league.

But next fall, the 18-year-old will suit up for the University of Southern California, a program in the tough Pac-10 conference. And he will receive a full basketball scholarship valued at $44,400 a year.

The scholarship, which is the talk of college recruiters, is a perfect L.A. story, intermingling money, show business and basketball. Besides being an average point guard, Mr. Miller is an actor and singer known as Lil’ Romeo, and the son of a wealthy music mogul. Some question whether the Millers took advantage of their resources — and their relationship with Demar DeRozan of Compton, Calif., one of the top high-school basketball players in America — to win the scholarship over more talented and less privileged athletes.

Bob Gibbons, who oversees the scouting service All-Star Sports, says he was “shocked” when he heard about USC’s offer. “It’s very rare to give a scholarship to someone who may never play.”

It gets better:

Mr. Floyd was introduced to Percy Miller years ago in Louisiana. Last April, Mr. Floyd says, Percy Miller called while driving both players from a tournament in Fayetteville, Ark. Percy Miller said “Demar and Romeo are ready to make their decision, and would you like to have them both on scholarship?” remembers Mr. Floyd. “I said absolutely.”

. . .

The scholarships were announced last November at a press conference arranged by Percy Miller’s public-relations firm. A press release for the event, held at a Four Seasons hotel, gave Romeo Miller top billing. It called him “one of the top 15 point guards in the nation,” citing hoopersonly.com. The Web site was the extension of Hoopers Only magazine, which featured Romeo and Demar on its cover last summer. The site is now blank.

. . .

Sonny Vaccaro, 68, was the longtime director of the ABCD Camp, a summer showcase for top recruits. He invited Romeo Miller to the 2006 camp, primarily as a favor to Percy Miller, whom he knew from the club basketball circuit. “If you’re looking for the profile of an athlete who plays basketball at USC, he’s not it,” he says.

There a lot more nonsense about how Miller was recruited by LSU, ASU and Cal. All three programs deny it. Then there is this about how Floyd f’ed over Ryan Wetherell.

That doesn’t sit well with Don Wetherell. His son Ryan, a 5-foot-11 guard, was one of the best high-school players in Canada and earned a walk-on spot at USC the last two seasons. Mr. Wetherell says he asked the USC staff how Mr. Miller’s arrival would affect his son, who had been told that he had a “good shot” at a scholarship next year. He says they told him Ryan may still get the award — and that Mr. Miller got his because of his relationship with Mr. DeRozan. (Mr. Floyd could not be reached for comment.) “We’re learning a lot,” says Mr. Wetherell, who owns a beverage company in Calgary.

I don’t want to come across as an unhinged partisan like Nestor, but how can you look at this incident and see it as a bad joke? Sure, it’s not illegal, but as far as i am concerned, it smells to high heaven. it says a lot about Floyd, and what it says is not good. It also says a lot about the University, which, over that past 20 years, has made huge strides over the tired old stereotype that it’s a school that values money and privilege over merit and hard work. In my mind, the Percy Miller affair sets the school back years, and all because Garrett, well, let’s go back to the article:

Mike Garrett, USC’s athletic director, says the team now turns a profit.