Conquest Chronicles

Why not investigate every NBA lottery pick?

anh_sc79 — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:45 -0000

It's beyond ridiculous how media is going nuts about USC being out of control and not focusing on the greater picture - the mess created by NBA, NFL, and NCAA in order to make as much money as possible from every revenue channel.

Before anyone calls me Mayo apologist, I believe with 90-95% confidence that what ESPN said was true. I believe Mayo has taken money (whether knowingly or unknowingly that it is coming from BDA) during his HS and first year at USC. But is he the only one doing it? We are already seing reports circulating in MSM that another player was signed by a certain agency after investing "3 years and 500,000".

It's ridiculous how MSM blatantly decides to ignore red flags raised all over the country by the top prospects living beyond their means. Here is Mar-11 article from Washington Post about Beasley. I am curious about the following paragraph:

As technicians work to fix the audio, the familiar cell phone buzz emanates from the right pocket of Beasley's black Adidas pants.

"All cell phones off please," the camerawoman says.

Out of Beasley's pockets come four devices: an iPhone, a T-Mobile Sidekick, a Verizon LG phone and a Sprint BlackBerry. The static disappears, and he conducts the interview.

The number of phones is emblematic of Beasley's life as he enjoys one of the best seasons ever by a freshman and his Kansas State team stands on the cusp of its first NCAA tournament appearance in 12 years.

So please explain me how a college student can afford 4 expensive cell phones? Why no investigative reporting here? So far, I could only find 1 news outlet that actually commented on Beasley's 4 phones

It's easy to be a hater and blindly accuse a rival or despised college of cheating or wrongdoing. But it takes some brains and time to figure out that something must be wrong with the system.

Centsports.com

USCLink — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:09:26 -0000

Hey everybody!

I'm now officially done with finals, which means I'm a college senior...Which is really weird for me. I wanted to do two things with this post, commend paragon for running an awesome site that sucks up at least an hour of my life daily, and provide everyone else with a means of getting through the offseason: http://www.centsports.com/?opcode=125536

Its a website where you get 10 cents for free, and then can bet it on whatever you want, NBA, MLB, soccer, doesn't matter. And the cool thing is if you get up over $20, you can cash out for real money. It requires no investment other than time and an email address, and its been helping me procrastinate through 28 pages of essays and 2 tests, so if anyone feels like trying it out feel free.

Fight on, beat allegations!

Congratulations to the bruins women's water polo team

DC Trojan — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:09:37 -0000

(Since this is not a picture post, you'll have to imagine me typing with clenched teeth...)

The ucla women's water polo team beat USC yesterday, 6 -3, to win their fourth National Championship in a row, and the 101st for ucla. By any measure, that's an incredible record of success, and while I'd rather they'd beaten someone else to achieve it, congratulations are very much in order.

Incidentally, this makes the women's water polo team the third bruin team to complete a four-peat: the men's basketball team did it in the wild-west days of the late 60s and early 70s, and the men's volleyball team in the early 80s. Frankly, given the level of sustained physical performance and outright ass-kicking required for water polo, I think this bruins team should probably vault over the men's volleyball team in the athletic pantheon of Westwood High.

All snark aside, though, again: congratulations to the Bruins Womens Water Polo team, and please, feel free to take next year off in celebration.

DC - What can you tell me about the following?

bcsbusters — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:09:48 -0000

DC -

I didn't catch on at the time but you mentioned the Trilateral Commission & Freemasonry in a response to a post I wrote when I wrongly claimed that Bellotti was coming the UCLA, which are obvious references to the New World Order conspiracy theory in your latest response to one of my diary responses.

My research in the BCS Controversy has led me to the Rockefeller empire, following and connecting the dots from the Oil and Gas empire. What can you tell me as far as what you know from the Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group and the New World Order. So far I have connected 15 business model characteristics that are strikingly similar in comparing the business models of the BCS and the New World Order.

Can Anyone lend a hand

Jon Tollerud — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:30:42 -0000

I am writing a piece for the Denver Broncos Fan Page MHR here on SB Nation on the History of the PAC 10 and then more importantly our beloved Trojans. Can anyone provide me with links to Information regarding both the History of the PAC 10 and the History of SC in football? Also if you are interested Check out the Mile High Report for information of football tactics and schemes titled MHR University. Thanks folks and GO Trojans!

Slick Rick’s Delicate Sensibilities

Paragon SC — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:59:36 -0000

Funny story over on Wolf’s Blog

A recruit said Monday that UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel is alerting recruits to this USC walk-on tryout video and emphasizing the amount of profanity used as a negative characteristic.

Brennan Carroll Video

Sure Rick you have never dropped an F-bomb in practice. Negative characteristic? Maybe if you used a few more F-bombs and kicked a little ass your players wouldn’t have “gone over the wall” and blown a practice off.

Yes, this is negative recruiting and everyone does it, but couldn’t you have used something more emphatic? I mean come on, the F-word as a negative characteristic?

Riiiiight…

A list we DON'T want to be on next year

Defender90 — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:56:04 -0000

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

Welcome to the new Conquest Chronicles and SB Nation

clockwerks — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:54:36 -0000

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.

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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:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
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Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
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.

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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.

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What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

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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.

Petition for Tradition

Paragon SC — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:29:05 -0000

All Things Trojan is asking both USC and UCLA fans to sign a petition that lobby for both teams to wear home jerseys when we play each other.

What I haven't seen enough of is the tradition where both USC and UCLA wear their home uniforms when they play for the Victory Bell. Both used to host home games in the Coliseum, so naturally they would wear cardinal and powder blue when they faced off. Shortly after the Bruins moved to the Rose Bowl, the NCAA changed the rules and visiting teams were forced to wear white.

710 ESPN's Dave Dameshek recently got Pete Carroll and Rick Neuheisel on the record to support a return to the good ol' days. Unfortunately, there's more to it. The schools will need to ask the NCAA for a waiver, and you know how red tape can be. Instead of sticking cheerleaders outside of some administrators door, Dameshek (with help from Joyless Joey) is building support with a petition. I'm on board.

You can fill out the petition here.

There is nothing to buy and there is no special code...just go and sign it.

'SC officially Clinches Lexus Gauntlet [UPDATE]

USCLink — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:23:25 -0000

Lots of people say they don't care about it, but I do, and I'm glad we finally won it after building up a seemingly insurmountable lead early in the year. Although the bruins kept chipping away at it, we held serve and, short of losing men's and women's track, women's rowing (we've never lost to them since the gauntlet was founded), AND playing them in men's baseball in the postseason (very low probability), we've got it back at USC.

Congrats to a great year for USC athletes and athletics!!!

Update [2008-5-3 14:34:46 by USCLink]:Women's rowing beats the bruins to clinch the gauntlet!

Blogs and traditional media

soundchaser — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:11:26 -0000

There was a segment on blogs and their place in sports media on Bob Costas' HBO show last night. Old Media wasn't well represented, from the accounts I've read. Anybody see this? If you're interested in blogger accounts of it, Fire Joe Morgan has a post as does Dodger Thoughts. Deadspin, too, I guess, but that shouldn't shock you....

Wazzu looses Six Schollies

Paragon SC — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:37:09 -0000

Ouch...that's going to hurt.

Due to a poor Academic Performance Rate, the NCAA is ready to levy sanctions against the WSU football team, Jim Sterk and Paul Wulff said on Thursday.

The APR, which is a compilation of statistics on graduation rates for Division I teams, was created in 2005 as a way to punish athletic programs that fail to graduate approximately 50 percent of their players. In WSU's case, attrition during the Bill Doba era could potentially haunt the Cougars for the next few seasons.

"When I got the job we knew we were going to take a hit this upcoming year," Wulff said. "We have to go in with a mindset that this next year we're going to play with 79 instead of 85."

Good luck with that!

ucla's Pat Cowan out for the '08 season

frak — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:08:27 -0000

Well this is sad news. While Pat Cowan plays for our arch-rival, he has my respect as a true warrior out there on the field. The kid just absorbs punishment, and I'm sure if he could be out there, he would want to play through the pain and sacrifice his body for his team.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. The task of rebuilding the bruins is going to take a couple seasons. The offensive line is average at best, and whoever plays QB is bound to be taking a lot of punishment. Ben Olson will probably return to the starting job after losing it to injury last season. It remains to be seen if the injury prone Olson can make it through an entire year without getting hurt.

I'm very sorry that he won't be taking the field with the bruins this coming year. Good luck and get well Pat Cowan.

Gibson Returning!

Paragon SC — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:09:36 -0000

From Adam Rose at All Things Trojan:

Taj Gibson's father, Wilbert, told LA Times reporter Ben Bolch that the USC forward will return for his junior season.

Fox Sports is reporting that Davon Jefferson is entering the NBA draft and will hire Arn Tellem as an agent. That's about all to the story right now. Draft Express has him going 5th in the second round and NBADraft.net will probably update their list on Monday (they currently have him going in 2009).

While the losses of O.J. Mayo (who declared a few weeks ago) and Jefferson will be tough, retaining Gibson is huge for the basketball team -- literally. At 6'10", he's the largest and most physical of USC's experienced players. Had he left for the NBA, you might have seen a lot of small line-ups and some fast paced ball. If he keeps on pace, Gibson could leave USC on top of the school's career blocked shot list.

That is good news as it will offset the loss of DJ but we still have some work to do.

Jefferson Leaving??

Paragon SC — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:37:43 -0000

Caught this on the WeAreSC Hoops Board.

Davon Jefferson's stay at USC was a short one.

Jefferson will turn pro and sign with agent Arn Tellem, sources close to the situation confirmed.
The athletic 6-foot-8 freshman forward, who initially said he wasn't going to declare for the NBA Draft, has decided to not only to declare but has hired an agent, meaning he can't return to the college game.

Jefferson started 25 games and averaged 12.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the Trojans, who lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Kansas State.

Jefferson's teammate, star frosh O.J. Mayo, also decided to turn pro earlier this month.

I can't find confirmation yet I will update when I do!

Fox Sports has it now.

Bye Bye DJ…

Dawkins to Stanford

Paragon SC — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:04:33 -0000

With Trent Johnson suddenly leaving Stanford there were a ton of questions as to Stanford's plan was to replacing him.

Well, after being shell shocked, not having a back-up plan and possibly losing a recruit they seem to have done well in hiring 11-year Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins.

Johnny Dawkins has accepted Stanford's offer to become the school's next basketball coach, sources have told the Mercury News.

Dawkins, 44, is a former Duke star who has served on the Blue Devils' coaching staff since 1998. He replaces Trent Johnson, the Pacific-10 Conference coach of the year who left this month for Louisiana State after leading the Cardinal to the Sweet 16.

This is a solid hire for Stanford and it helps the Pac-10 with having another strong coach.

Is Weis talking about USC?

Paragon SC — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:58:54 -0000

I caught this on WeAreSC.

Hard to say if he was talking about SC based on this article: (emphasis mine)

"You have to establish a plan and stick to it," Weis told a crowd of Notre Dame alumni and supporters Wednesday at The Pike Restaurant in Gettysburg. "We're on the right track in those aspects."

Something the Irish fans probably want to hear, coming off a disappointing 2007 campaign.

"I buy it," Notre Dame Club of Gettysburg president and alumnus Brendan Cushing-Daniels said about Weis' message. "I think were on the right track and I'm looking for a dramatically better performance on the field this year."

His plan has worked so far. Weis mentioned that he has had very little social problems to deal with in his three years as coach of Notre Dame.

"I could get hoodlums and thugs and win tomorrow," Weis said. "I won't do it that way."

As one commenter noted Weis has some issues in his own house so I'm not sure he is coming clean with that statement.

Here are a few of many recent Irish hoodlums and thugs under Charlie's watch:

2004 - Safety Garron Bible and Isaiah Gardner arrested and charged with diorderly conduct, fighting, resisting arrest.

2005 - 3 players suspended - Hoskins, Bonelli, Talley - for violating team rules.

2007 - DT Derrell Hand arrested for soliciting a prostitute.

2008 - TE Will Yeatman charged with criminal recklessness and drunken driving driving car along campus sidewalk without headlights.

Open Mouth insert foot right Charlie!

If he meant it towards USC than he is a clown and a fraud who has ruined a pretty good football program with his ineptness.

O'Neill Reassigned

Paragon SC — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:05:29 -0000

God, what a mess in Tucson.

Arizona assistant basketball coach Kevin O'Neill has been reassigned to duties within the athletic department.

The 51-year-old O'Neill was hired last spring and took over as interim coach when coach Lute Olson took a personal leave of absence last season. After Olson returned in March, he announced that O'Neill would no longer be a part of his staff.

Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood said O'Neill would serve as an assistant athletic director until June 30, the end of the department's fiscal year.

Yeah sure, let me do some fund-raising for you while you kick me to the curb. Whatever you say Sherlock! You know come June 30th O'Neill is gone; I sure as hell wouldn't stick around.

Meanwhile, Lutes divorce proceedings took an interesting turn

Allegations that Lute Olson improperly transferred all the money from a financial account he shared with his estranged wife, combined with a dispute over a prenuptial agreement, potentially could turn the Arizona basketball coach's divorce into a nasty battle.

Olson, who took a leave of absence this past season, last week was ordered to appear May 7 before Judge Sarah Simmons of Pima County Superior Court after he allegedly transferred the couple's money into his personal account, according to court records.

The transfer of funds from a Charles Schwab account came to light earlier this month, court records say, although Olson is accused of moving the money Dec. 7, a day after he filed for divorce from Christine Olson and the same day he asked the a University of Arizona for an indefinite leave of absence.

I could really care less about his divorce that's a personal issue, but if this is true when coupled with how he treated O'Neill it just makes Lute look bad and any sympathy he expected to garner over this mess just went south.

Like, I said what a mess.

Great Pete Carroll article in LA Times

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:03:19 -0000

Bumped, anhsc79 beat me to it. This really goes to heart of what Pete Carroll is all about. Just goes to show that his detractors really have no clue as there is more to Pete Carroll than just football. - Paragon

We all know about PC's involvement in "A Better LA" foundation which helps inner city kids turn their lifes around.

Kurt Streeter from L.A. Times recently joined Pete Carroll on one of his common visits to inner city L.A. and wrote a great article describing his experience.

You can read the entire story, but here is the best part. Streeter:

Last month in this space I wrote about Jamiel Shaw, an L.A. High football star whose bright future was snuffed out in a drive-by shooting. I pledged to do a bit more reporting about the intersection of sport and the inner city and asked readers to get involved in our troubled neighborhoods -- by tutoring, supporting charities, maybe pressing politicians for change. Most of all, I argued, we need to care more, even about people in gangs. They can change. We can help them.

After he read what I'd written, Pete Carroll invited me to come with him to the 'hood. Now, I'm not recommending that you do as he does, putting yourself in harm's way for the cause. But next time you consider whether you should get involved, or whether your efforts would be worth it, think of this column and Carroll down at Jordan Downs. (You can also find out more about his foundation by visiting abetterla.com.)

If the USC coach -- wealthy, famous, dealing with off-the-charts job pressure -- can find a way to help calm the violence that plagues this city, any of us can.

I know the clowns across town like to poke fun at PC by calling him "Humanitarian". Well, I dare those armchair-humanitarians to step-up and do 1/10th of what Pete is doing for his hometown. And by the way, "A Better LA" is not the only thing Pete actively involved in - don't forget about "Swim with Mike" - an event that melts the "hearts" of even the biggest idiots on the web.

Trojan Huddle

frak — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:06:49 -0000

Bumped...Thanks for the review Frak! - Paragon

Well I have now seen all 3 QB's play in the scrimmage, and what was funny was that Corp seemed to be the fan favorite.

Corp was very efficient moving the ball when he was under center, completing several passes to Damien Williams, and Travon Patterson. I look at it a bit differently since Sanchez was up against the 1st string defense, and Corp was not.

Here are some of the highlights for the day:

Sanchez

First play for the day is a 30 yard completion to Ausberry. Sanchez rolls out to the right and hits him in stride for a big gain.

Sanchez stalls before finally scoring in his second series.

Sanchez throws an interception after a flea-flicker that seemed a little clunky.

Sanchez's play of the day was a 40+ yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to Ronald Johnson. Johnson was double covered, and Sanchez hit him perfectly in stride. The pass was right on the money.

Mustain

Mitch Mustain had a bad day in my opinion. He overthrew a lot of his receivers, but was never picked off. His big play was a 60+ touchdown pass to Brandon Carswell. The pass was low and the receiver had to dig it out of the dirt. The touchdown was all the receiver reversing his field and turning the right corner of the defense. Mustain hit Garrett Green for a touchdown in the first overtime period that was very nice.

Corp

Corp did very well hitting Patterson, and Williams for touchdowns, but his biggest play came at the end of the day. Coach Carroll decided to play 2 overtime series at the end of the day since the scrimmage ended in a 27-27 tie. After Mustain and Sanchez each scored a touchdown in the 1st OT, Sanchez returned in double OT and scored a field goal. Corp came in, and on the 1st play threaded an absolute needle of a pass through 3 defenders to Travon Patterson for the game winning touchdown.

My overall impression is that USC has 3 very capable quaterbacks. I honestly would be comfortable with any of these guys under center.

OK now for the bad part, the turnovers.

Sanchez- 1 INT on a blown flea flicker play

Ronald Johnson- Stripped for a fumble on a kickoff return.

Marc Tyler- 2 very costly fumbles. 1 fumble on his own 3 yard line, and 1 fumble on his own 20 yard line. Both fumbles resulted in touchdowns.

Defensive hit of the day came from Taylor Mays who completely leveled Patrick Turner in the 1st OT period. The good news is that Patrick walked off the field on his own, however he walked off gingerly. The even better news is that he held on to the ball after the crushing hit.

The running game

Stafon Johnson was by far the most impressive to me. Bradford did well, and CJ Gable had a few impressive runs. Marc Tyler needs to take care of the ball though. Broderick Green had an impressive run in a series led by Corp. Its hard to tell how our running game is going to be without Joe McKnight in the scrimmage, but he will be back in the fall. I think we are going to see large doses of Bradford, Gable, and Johnson this year.

Sorry forgot my camera in the car, so no photos.