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!