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LSUFreek: Mark Richt & Matthew Stafford Makin' It Rain

Mark Richt's face is priceless.

Photo of the Day: Sean Parker Sporting SC Gear at Rising Stars

Good sign that he showed up on the 2nd day.  It'd be a waste to see this guy go to Notre Dame.  We need to lockdown South LA.

USC Rising Stars Camp Day One: Jesse Scroggins Gets Offer

From WeAreSC.com:

The biggest names in attendance during the morning session were Ronald Powell, Jackson Jeffcoat, Jesse Scroggins, Dion Bailey, Dietrich Riley, Tony Jefferson, Ricky Heimuli, Dak Smith, Dontae Williams, Dillon Baxter, Trajuan Briggs, George Uko, Tyler Bray, Chase Rettig, Anthony Jefferson, Joshua Shaw, DeMarco Cobbs, Shaquille Richardson, Troy Niklas, Dak Smith, Anthony Brown, D.J. Morgan (did not participate), Justin Maclin, Josh Harper, Greg Townsend Jr., Victor Burnett, Tevin McDonald, Victor Blackwell, Jalen Grimble Tehvyn Brantley, Nick Rowland and Christian Westerman.

Prospects slotted to attend, although noticeably absent Wednesday morning, included Robert Woods (who did stop by), George Farmer, Lache Seastrunk, Erik Kohler, Trovon Reed, Cassius Marsh, Toney Hurd Jr., Demetrius Wright, Hayes Pullard, Giovanni DiPoala, Antwuan Woods, Soma Vainuka, Devon Blackmon, Marquis Flowers, Owamagbe Odighazuwa and Chris Martin.

Very disappointed to hear that Demetrius Wright and Sean Parker weren't at the camp.  Both have gone on record saying they would attend RSC, but maybe they'll show up for the other days.  Apart from Demetrius and Sean, it's good to see that all the key recruits were present.  Lache, Trovon Reed, and Chris Martin are all long shots at this point, so I'm not very disappointed to see their absence.

The biggest news coming out of today's camp is Jesse Scroggins picking up his long-awaited offer.  UT (Vols) has been recruiting Jesse heavily and made up a ton of ground.  With Mitch Mustain seemingly checked out after losing the Spring QB battle, it makes a lot more sense for us to pick up a QB in this class.  Jesse isn't spectacular, no one in this QB class is, but has a lot of upside that can develop in the right system.  He definitely needs to work on his mechanics, but he has the tools to succeed.

In other news, George Uko, a raw but high upside DT out of Chino also picked up an offer.  As much as I think Robert Woods is overhyped, I'm disappointed to see he didn't participate.  A surprise player that I really didn't know SC was recruiting much was Dontae Williams, the RB out of Texas.  From the reports I've read, many say he was one of the more impressive guys on day one.

Moving forward, SC absolutely needs to take a hold of Tony Jefferson this week who I think is straight beast mode, Dietrich Riley another elite prospect with great versatility, and Ronald Powell with all the recent Florida talk. It would also be great to see SC close on guys like George Uko, and Dion Bailey who are the non-attention-grabbing-but-solid-players that really fill out classes.  Another guy to keep an eye on is Shaquille Richardson who's a nice system guy.

There'll be more updates to come so stay tuned.

Miami Used Rivals.com to Recruit Players

From SunSentinel.com:

Recruiting misfires factored into the Hurricanes going from playing for consecutive national titles in 2002-03 to a 19-19 record the past three seasons. Much of it occurred under coach Larry Coker, who was fired after the 2006 season. The Hurricanes landed several highly rated recruiting classes during his tenure, but even outsiders noticed they were focusing solely on recruiting sites.

"I used to go in the coaches' offices and sometimes they would literally have Rivals.com up on their screen," said Matt Shodell, who covers UM and its recruiting for CaneSport.com. "I won't name the coaches, but they would be writing names down on pieces of paper. I don't know how much film they were looking at."

That is hilarious.  Oh how far the mighty have fallen...

Joke of the Day: USC Hires Kevin O'Neill as New Head Basketball Coach

Good one MG - good one!

If we're going to make a temporary hire, which I'm guessing (and hoping) is the strategy here, we might as well taken a chance on Jim Cleamons, who repeatedly showed interest in the job.  At least there you can play the Lakers angle and ride off their momentum, instead of trying to sell recruits on an old fashion tomato-head coach who got laughed out of Arizona.

Under Armour Pulls Offer From Markeith Ambles

From ESPN.com:

Wide receiver Markeith Ambles (McDonough, Ga./Henry County) has had his offer to play in the 2010 Under Armour All-American game withdrawn and will not play in the game.

With Ambles' absence, it leaves the door open for players like Antonio Goodwin (Atlanta, Ga./Douglass) and De'Joshua Johnson (Pahokee, Fla./Pahokee) to potentially get invited to the game.

This isn't the first piece of bad news for Ambles this recruiting cycle. Southern California withdrew its scholarship offer earlier this spring and Georgia has not offered the talented receiver. Auburn also has elected not to recruit Ambles.

Ambles still has plenty of options in recruiting, though. He recently visited UCLA and several other West Coast schools and camped at Tennessee earlier this year.

Only getting worse for Markeith.

Reggie Theus? We Bringing the Bibby Era Back?

Hello?  Who's at the door?  Mediocrity?  Thought we were trying to shake you off. Wait, you got LA and AAU ties? Hm, that's nice and all, but can you coach? Yeah, I know you're from the SC area, but can you coach?  Yes, I heard you starred on the Bulls, but again, can you coach?  ...Hello?

Bring Jeff Van Gundy to USC

I've officially jumped on the JVG bandwagon.  Whether it's realistic or a complete pipe dream, if JVG is in contention SC must absolutely close.  Names like Theus, Bennett, Eustachy (they joking w/ this one?), and Robinson need not apply, JVG runs circles around those coaches.  Jamie Dixon?  Yeah, he'd be another great selection, but he still rides passenger seat.

Forget his recent NBA stint, which was still pretty damn good, anybody that followed NBA basketball back in the mid-90's knows what JVG is capable of:  he is flat out the hardest working coach when he's on his game and one of the brightest basketball minds in the business.

Take that hard work-ethic and straight-forward/non-BS approach and you got the makings of a great college coach.  The man genuinely lives and breathes basketball; the talk that he's made strictly for the pros is absolutely true, but I think his love for the game would perfectly suit the college level.

Make it happen MG.

LSUFreek: Lane Kiffin With Lamarcus Joyner

LSUFreek never fails.

Hey Tim Floyd, You Know TNYC Can See the Future?

From ESPN.com:

Embroiled in controversy, Southern California coach Tim Floyd resigned on Tuesday, The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Miss., reported.

The newspaper obtained the contents of a letter that the coach submitted to USC athletic director Mike Garrett.

"Unfortunately, I no longer feel I can offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal," the letter said. "I always promised myself and my family that if I ever felt I could no longer give my full enthusiasm to a job, that I should leave it to others who could. I intend to contact my coaching staff and my players in coming days and weeks to tell them how much each of them means to me. I wish the best to USC and to my successor."

Let me give the warning now, this post is going to be absolutely self-serving (when has it not?) cause props are due when you've gone against the grain this entire time and predicted this junk months in advance.

Here's what I wrote about Renardo the day he committed:

I don't think I've ever been upset over getting an elite recruit till now. My feelings regarding Renardo have radically changed in the last couple of years and with all the heat we've faced lately, I find it absolutely mind-boggling that Mike Garrett is allowing Tim Floyd to take a player that:

1)  Carries enormous amounts of baggage and begs for a NCAA investigation (or Yahoo Dan Wetzel Exclusive!) which will inevitably lead to negative attention.

This was during the time when most people were drinking kool-aid.  Of course what happened afterwards?  The administration finally intervened and decided Renardo's baggage was too much and made the decision to pull out of the deal.

Now here's what I wrote about Tim Floyd the day the rumors came out about the Arizona job and later on after the Renardo deal fell apart:

My interest tapered off because Floyd kept recruiting questionable players with sketchy pasts, the latest, and the worst of all, being Renardo Sidney, who I hope will reopen up his recruitment with this news.  If Floyd moves onto Arizona, he will have built the program up to a national level and left before his actions came back to haunt SC.  It's a win-win situation.

...Just like most SC fans got too hyped when Renardo committed while ignoring the consequences, I think lot of fans are being blinded by the recent success and failing to see the tight-rope Coach Floyd has us walking on.  Much like his coaching style, he's gambling on players with our program's reputation on the line.  It's not worth the risk.

This was also during a time when most people were up at arms about possibly losing a great coach.  Of course now you got Floyd leaving a program in limbo with potential NCAA sanctions in the horizon.

Moving Forward

So am I proud of predicting this turbulence?  Of course not.  I'm grateful for Tim Floyd taking our program to the national level, but where I believe he messed up was not changing up his recruiting strategy after taking in the gains of his earlier risks.  It's perfectly fine to recruit some questionable players, but when your entire portfolio of recruits are mostly gambles in one way or another, it's going to blow up in your face at some point at a high-profile university like SC.  That stuff might fly in Iowa, but not in LA where the media will pick up on a star player farting in the bathroom.

To be quite honest, I wouldn't even be surprised if Tim Floyd is the victim in all of this recent news.  Even Andy Katz' source believes Floyd is innocent.  But it's all moot at this point, perception is reality in this business and you become the bud that gets nipped early in the name of preemptive strategy.  Tim Floyd may genuinely be telling the truth about giving up on the program due to the fact that even his employer is giving him flak, but again, you dig too deep of a hole, you're bound to get stuck at some point.  My point is this is cumulative and there were plenty of outs for Floyd along the way.

Next Coach

Moving forward, at least my early thoughts are, that SC needs to get on the coaching hunt right away.  I actually think the SC Hoops program is still a desirable position to take.  The way I'd sell it is, on one hand you got a program that has hit rock bottom, but on the other you still have a program that has a ton of talent.  With a high-profile coach with a clean track record that can absorb the aftershocks of negative publicity and heat from the NCAA, you've got a program that is sitting on a gold mine.  Success is not years away, it's here now with the '09 class still salvageable by bringing back the recruits that asked for releases (good shot), giving Marcus Johnson a ring if he hasn't signed with an agent already, and building on an already talented starting line-up.

Taking a program that is on the brink of collapsing, even if it's basketball, at a school like SC means a ton of exposure and bucks in your bank account down the road.  This is a truly a sleeping giant program that has just hit the snooze button, I still believe with the right coach, like a Jamie Dixon or Mike Montgomery, it can fully awake and become elite.