So now that life has resumed a more normal schedule and the water has been removed from the basement its time to catch up on some of the things that I missed. A big thank you to DC Trojan for holding down the fort while I was tending to the storm damage.
Baseball
UCLA swept USC last weekend in baseball at Dedeaux Field giving the bruins a share of the lead in the Pac 10 and supposedly winning some "vaunted" gauntlet. Coach Savage has done a great job at ucla after taking over last season so kudos to the former USC Coach.
The Bruins (18-16, 8-1 Pacific-10 Conference), who have won 11 of 13 games, swept the host Trojans (19-18, 2-7) for the first time since 1987.
Disappointing for sure but lets give Coach Krueter a chance to get his system and players in place. I did not have high expectations for the baseball team this season so I'm not surprised and I'm not upset.
USC also lost to #18 UC Irvine on Tuesday 4-3 at Irvine. SC came up short in the 9th inning.
The Trojans dropped to 19-19 overall, suffering their sixth straight loss. Starter Tommy Milone (2-4) took the loss despite one of his best efforts of the season with seven innings of work where he allowed three runs (one earned) on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts.
SC is at .500 at 19-19 overall and 2-7 in the Pac 10. SC has a 3 game set at Washington this weekend.
Basketball
By now we all have heard about Nick Young declaring for the NBA. We wish him all the best. I think it's the right decision, he has made his mark at SC and short of winning the big prizes he has done all he can so it's time to move on.
We know that Gabe Pruitt is going to test the waters as well but it appears that he will be back for his senior season.
From The Daily Trojan
And although Pruitt stood inconspicuously in the back of the room, letting his long-time friend have the spotlight, the media attention given to Pruitt following the news conference amplified the situation: The ball now lies in his court.
...Pruitt has until April 29 to decide if he will follow Young's path. That's the deadline for underclassmen to declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft, and according to Pruitt, it may take him up until the deadline to decide.
"I still have a lot of thinking to do," Pruitt said. "It could come to the last day. It's a big part of my life, it's a big decision, and I want to make sure I make the right one."
This is becoming the "IN" thing not to hire an agent so you can leave your options open. I think he needs another year but we'll see.
On the basketball recruiting front I know this is old news but SI.com reported this week the De-commitment of Brandon Jennings from USC. You'll understand if I don't get all worked up about this as there is a long way to go before he signs anything so I will worry about it later. It's hard to say what's in the kids thought process so I won't pass any judgment until all the details are in.
I will also take the same approach with the recent commitments of Demar DeRozan, Angelo Johnson and Percy Miller aka lil Romeo. There is just too much time before signing day so I will not get too excited about any commits until we get close.
Football
As we all know by now Mitch Mustain will be coming to USC in the fall. There was a lot of speculation but the obvious signs were there. The LAT reported but now The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is chiming in as well, via SI.com, so to me that completes the circle. That's going to be a lot of QB's competing in 2008 but I have faith that Pete Carroll knows what he is doing so I'm not worried.
Miscellaneous
Our friends over at USC Sports Talk picked up an interesting item on ucla recruit Kevin Love. It seems that Love a run in with another player during a recent game.
I won't speculate on it, but I won't ignore it either as it just goes to show that ANYTHING can happen to ANY player who has a high profile regardless of the accolades he has received. Do I think it's a pattern? No, I don't but you never know what's going to happen at any given time. I would think this is different from a player showboating in his last game or having a ref take a "dive" in order to make an example of said player. Everyone has lapses in judgment so lets leave all the finger pointing at the side of the road.