Rain Tennis (via uscwomenstennis)

Zoe Scandalis - SchollyLife Video.mov (via schollylife2)

The Trojan men beat #13 California 5-2 at Berkley in the closest match of the young season, taking the doubles and winning four of six singles matches. Lead by senior Steve Johnson with a 6-2, 6-1 at #1 singles and getting a clinching victory by freshman Roberto Quiroz at #6 singles 6-2, 7-5 pushed their record to 6-0. Cal put up a very good fight not being a 13 ranked team with only one ranked player in the line-up. The best match was at #2 singles where Ray Sarmiento split sets and had to play a tye breaker for the deciding set because the match was already clinched, a few years back they would have played the last set.

#1 USC 5, #13 California 2

Feb. 4, 2012 -- Berkeley, Calif.

DOUBLES

(1) Hanfmann/S. Johnson (USC) def. #5 Andrews/Konigsfeldt (CAL) -- 8-3

(2) #27 Cueto/B. McLachlan (CAL) def. Nguyen/Sarmiento (USC) -- 7-6 (6)

(3) Gomez/Quiroz (USC) def. R. McLachlan/Murphy (CAL) -- 8-1

USC wins doubles point

Order of finish: 3, 1*, 2

SINGLES

(1) Steve Johnson (USC) def. Nick Andrews (CAL) -- 6-2, 6-1

(2) Carlos Cueto (CAL) def. #12 Ray Sarmiento (USC) -- 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (8)

(3) #16 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Christoffer Konigsfeldt (CAL) -- 6-4, 6-3

(4) #42 Ben McLachlan (CAL) def. #33 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) -- 6-4, 6-4

(5) #48 Emilio Gomez (USC) def. Gregory Bayane (CAL) -- 6-0, 6-3

(6) Roberto Quiroz (USC) def. Ahmed Ismail (CAL) -- 6-2, 7-5*

Order of finish: 1, 5, 4, 6*, 3, 2

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I wanted to write about this before signing day but I got side tracked.

Being in the NYC area, I have read here and there about the Ryan Boatright. You remember when Boatright committed to USC when he was 13 years old?

Then Boatright committed to UConn.

Then there were some allegations about improper benefits during his recruitment.......

Anyway, the case was resolved recently with the NCAA reinstating Boatright...but with an unusual twist.

The NCAA decided to publicly lay its "case" against Boatright right out for the public for all to see and that elicited a stinging rebuke from Boatright's Mothers attorney.

"I am astounded that the NCAA released confidential information about Ryan's case," Tompsett said. "Ryan and his mother Tanesha cooperated fully with the NCAA with the clear understanding that the information they provided would be kept confidential and would not be released to the public. The NCAA has violated the Boatrights' privacy by releasing their personal information. Moreover, the NCAA's statement contains false and misleading information."

"For example," Tompsett continued, " the statement implies that the benefits in question were provided to influence Ryan's decision either to attend UConn or chose an agent, if and when he goes pro. That is false and the NCAA knows it."

That, in turn, brought this response from the New York Times...

n its release, the N.C.A.A. neither names the third parties nor explains what they stood to gain. But one of them is already known: Reggie Rose, Ryan’s former A.A.U. coach and the brother of Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star. According to the N.C.A.A., Rose paid for Tanesha to accompany her son on four recruiting trips. He made some payments on her 2008 Impala. And Rose took Ryan on a two-day trip to California where he got to scrimmage with some top-notch players.

Why did he do this? Clearly, he wasn’t trying to steer Ryan to a particular school. And he certainly wasn’t fronting for an agent; as good as he is, Ryan is not a sure-fire pro.

In fact, he did it because he and Tanesha have a longstanding friendship. He became a mentor to Ryan, something teenagers of single moms desperately need. Indeed, he took Ryan to California because Ryan’s household was under an unusual amount of stress at the time. How is this wrong? Indeed, what exactly is the N.C.A.A. violation here? The N.C.A.A. never says.

I haven't really followed the case but the one thing that stood out to me was this...

The NCAA has penchant for telling schools not comment on investigations, yet the NCAA had absolutely no problem putting its case out there for all to see when the reinstated Boatright. That seems shabby to me and smacks of revenge.

They really couldn't nail the kid so they try to make Boatright and his mom look bad in the process.

And the NCAA wonders why they are constantly under fire.

NCAA mouth piece Ronnie Ramos took to Twitter earlier this evening to sat that the NYT righter got his facts wrong. That is not surprising, that is the standard NCAA response, shoot the messenger. But even if Ramos is right that the facts are wrong, that still doesn't explain the NCAA throwing the details out there to make the kid and his mother look bad.

Shameless...

UPDATE:

The NYT's Joe Nocera picks apart the NCAA's press release here.

Pretty heady stuff, but it is not like we haven't seen this before...The NCAA has a penchant for using convicted felons as their primary source of info even if hey have a few "holes" in their stories....Then again other times they don't interview some of the prime suspects like what happened in the Ohio State Case.

Bumped - P

For the first time in the programs history USC sweep the #6 Stanford Cardinal in mens tennis, Stanford being a top ranked team and playing at home is a big win for the #1 ranked trojans. Really I thought this match would have been a 4-3 or 5-2 score but 7-0 and in the bay area it was unlikely, since we have lost a lot of matches up there that we should have won. After taking the doubles sophomore Ray Sarmiento took the #2 singles spot with a decisive 6-3, 6-1 win over Matt Kandath. Emilo Gomez then came in with a 6-2, 6-2 win over John Morrissey at #4 singles with freshman Yannick Hanfmann clinching the match with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Robert Stineman at #5 singles. Next up is Cal Berkley tomorrow.

Yes it was a double sweep for Trojan Tennis today as the women beat #41 St. Marys 7-0 at Marks Stadium today in LA. This was a total wipeout with St. Marys only getting one set in 9 matches against USC which was lead by Zoe Scandalis at #1 singles with a 6-1,6-0 win and followed by Valeria Pulido also winning 6-1, 6-0, after they won their doubles 8-0. LA native Sabrina Santamaria clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #3 singles, nice job by the freshman. If your in the LA area the women take on Pepperdine at 12:00 saturday on the USC campus.

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Big weekend coming up for the #1 ranked Trojan Tennis team as they head to the bay area for a showdown with Stanford and California, Fri and Sat. At this moment Stanford is ranked #6 nationally and Cal is #13 and always are tough to play up in the bay area. Stanford is led by Brady Kahn, who hasn’t played due to injury so #37 Ryan Thacher and #75 Matt Kandath will lead the Indian, who are 5-0. Thacher is a senior who has always been a force in the pac-12 and Kandath a junior is a fine player also, holding his own against local atp pro 89th ranked San Querrey. This will be a great match up and should go to the Trojans but could have been much closer if Kahn was available. Then comes Cal only 13 ranked but could be overlooked so don’t count them out, either way the Trojans are in for a tough 2 days of tennis.

Ryan Thacher (Stanford) vs. Jaak Poldma (USC), March 2011 (via calbears93)

Stanford vs USC - Tennis (via igotsklz)

The USC men beat UNC-Wilmington 6-1 to capture the ITA kickoff final at Marks stadium, with #1 Steve Johnson playing his first singles match of the season. After taking the doubles matches #33 Yannick Hanfmann playing at #5 singles led the undefeated Trojan with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Hanfmann has been playing at # 3&4 singles previously but with the full line-up Steve Johnson at #1 and Dan Nguyen at #2 moved down to #5. The line-up in this match will probably be the one used most of the season, with Ray Sarmiento at #3 and Emilo Gomez at #4 and different players rounding out the at #6 singles with Robert Quiroz on Sunday.

The USC women also won there kickoff at ASU beating the Sun Devils 6-1 with the same formula (sweeping the doubles) as the men, with freshman Sabrina Santamaria starting off the singles with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. Then Senior Alison Ramos got the next point with a 7-5, 6-3 victory at #6, with the clincher coming at #5 singles behind Gabriella DeSimone with a 7-5, 6-4 win.

#1 USC 6, #43 UNC-Wilmington 1

DOUBLES

(1) Hanfmann/S. Johnson (USC) def. Blank/Cooprider (UNCW) - 8-3

(2) Nguyen/Sarmiento (USC) def. Reilly/Williams (UNCW) - 8-2

(3) Gomez/Quiroz (USC) vs. Aita/Mol (UNCW) - 6-4 susp.

USC wins doubles point.

Order of finish: 2, 1

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As it looks for Trojans basketball at this point men 6-16, women 10-9, it just might have been a mistake. Well as a Trojan basketball follower for some 42 years I think not, is it the venue, the coach, the players, no its the ADs attention to detail that lacks. If you want fans to spend money you have to provide them with a reason to do that. I first went to Galen when it open up, every game I could get to with may crappy trader joes schedule. But with that schedule I really didn't feel I would be able to make season tickets a realistic thought, also going by myself didn't compute either. So I bought them when I could make it, but what turned me away is that after the first season there were only nose blead seats left. Why because the university decided there would be founders season tickets and there is the problem, they never show up.

I guess just having the tickets to write off is why only half of them show up. Oh and I did buy tickets in the upper sections hoping to move down to the Massive amount of empty seats after the half, no so since the usher crew will not let you do that. Thanks Mr. Garrett and I will take my business elsewhere, this one many little quirks that is USC basketball , along with bad consestions never enough help and cold dogs. What could turn this all around is better seats for the true fan and less season (founders) ticket seats and of course get rid of Aramark food service, you know them king of the vending machine foods.

USC mens take out UNLV 7-0 without using Steve Johnson and Emilo Gomez in singles. With a sweep in the doubles the trojans started out like they did last week, then came another sweep in singles without giving up a set. Freshman Roberto Quiroz clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-0 win , Roberto is the cousin of Emilo and they also started the doubles off with a 8-4 win. The men had freshman at 3-6 singles matches which is amazing feet in it self and to not give up a set is great, giving up 11 total games in 4 matches.

The women also won 7-0 against Sac. State in Tempe Arizona, also not giving up a set. Danielle Lao was the first off the court with a 6-0, 6-0 win to get the ball rolling and also had a 8-0 doubles win with partner Alison Ramos.

The Trojan mens tennis team beat both LMU and UCSB 7-0 in sundays double header, with coach Peter Smith using 9 of 13 players on the roster. The guys didn't lose a match and beat a very good UCSB team that dominated the Costa Mesa intercollegiate last month. USC #1 player Steven Johnson didn't pick-up a racquet sunday the trojans losing only 2 sets in 12 singles matches and none in doubles. Up next for USC is UNLV on saturday at 11:30 at Marks Stadium, with the winner taking on UNC Wilmington/South Florida.

Well, it's that time of year again...

Barrett-Jackson is doing their thing in again in Scottsdale.

There have been a lot of great cars again this year. Lots of Mustangs, GTO's, SS's and some very special Corvette's.

But out of all of those, I saw one particular car that caught my eye...

2012 Galpin/SPX Charity Wide Body Mustang

This is a custom concept car built and sold for Charity to St. Jude's in Memphis, TN.

This is a different type of car than I usually like. Like I discussed here and here.

The modern cars are neat but they don't hold the same interest for me like the classic muscle cars do. This one though, is different.

As you can see, I am still very partial to Mustangs. And there is a nice Mustang Boss 302 Custom Fastback that I would love to have as well.

Oh well, we can all dream!

Led by freshman Zoe Scandelis and with all three freshman at #1,3 &5 slots the trojans beat UC Irvine 7-0, and sweep the doubles and only giving up only 12 games in the first 5 singles matches. Ranked # 16 while Irvine is 57th and at home it is expected that the Trojan should win and big, but 7-0 and dominating matches so much better than 16th ranked. I have said earlier that this team would be good and would make the ncaa', but now they are looking even better.

These 3 freshman are really good and have made the lady trojans even better than thought and we didn't get the forth one, who had an injury in tournament play last year. Next year USC gets another top ten in Elily Yates #1 in Mississippi, it could be the start of a ncaa championship. It was nice to Alison Ramos get a win in her first match a 6-2, 6-4 win against Brooke Schweyer at #6 singles, that is just that she started her freshman year at #4. Here is hoping she has a great Senior year being 1 of 2 seniors.

Saturday the Men open up with a double header, LMU and UCSB at 10 and 230 at Marks--Santa barbara should me a good match since they have very good team.

DOUBLES

(1) #3 Christian/Santamaria (USC) def. Byron/Holladay (UCI) -- 8-5

(2) Lao/Ramos (USC) def. Hammel/Smith (UCI) -- 8-3

(3) Pulido/Scandalis (USC) def. K. Facey/Goettsching (UCI) -- 8-2

USC wins doubles point.

Order of finish: 3, 2, 1

SINGLES

(1) #19 Zoe Scandalis (USC) def. Courtney Byron (UCI) -- 6-0, 6-0

(2) #42 Danielle Lao (USC) def. Kristina Smith (UCI) -- 6-1, 6-3

(3)#18 Sabrina Santamaria (USC) def. Franziska Goettsching (UCI) -- 6-0, 6-3

(4) #99 Kaitlyn Christian (USC) def. Kat Facey (UCI) -- 6-0, 6-3

(5) Gabriella DeSimone (USC) def. Marivick Mamiit (UCI) -- 6-1, 6-1

(6) Alison Ramos (USC) def. Brooke Schweyer (UCI) -- 6-2, 6-4