I heard it in a Dream

I can hear it now....

Petros:

And now the starters for your USC Trojans!

At forward, a 6'8" sophomore from LYNWOOD, California. Wearing the #5... Daaa-von Jefffferson!

At the other forward position, a 6'6" freshman from COMPTON, California. Wearing the #24... Demar Deroooozan!

At guard, a 6'5" junior from Pesaro, Italy. Wearing the #13... Daniel Hackett!

At center, a 6'9" junior from Brooklyyyyn, New York. Wearing the #22... Taj Gibsooon!

And at the other guard position, a 6'5" sophomore from Huntington, West Virginia. Wearing the #32...... OJ Mayooooo!!!

The Trojans are coached by Tim Floyd!

Assisted by Bob Cantu, Gib Arnold, and Phil Johnson.

What a starting lineup that would be. The Trojan faithful cannot help but hope that freshman sensation OJ Mayo decides to return to for his sophomore season. The Trojans would field the most talented starting lineup in the conference, if not the entire country. The lethal combination of Davon Jefferson & Demar Derozan would cause tremendous mismatch opportunities, leaving opposing teams searching for defenders athletic enough to keep up with these two high fliers.

The ball however rests in OJ Mayo's hands. According to a recent LA Times article fellow freshman Davon Jefferson is planning on returning for his sophomore season. And Taj Gibson made his intentions clear at the Trojans award banquet, where he announced his plans to stay for his junior year. The Trojans will also get back 6'7" redshirt sophomore Kasey Cunningham and 7'0" redshirt freshman Mamadou Diarra both of which spent the 2007-2008 season recovering from injury. The Trojans also add Donte Smith, a 5'11" sophomore transfer from Mt. Sac Community College.

If Mayo does decide to declare for the NBA draft, the loss will be softened by the addition of Derozan, Rivals #2 ranked player in the country. However I'd much rather see Mayo dishing out alley oops to Derozan than have to dish out $200 for an authentic OJ Mayo NY Knicks jersey.

Fight On!

USC 46 fUCLA 56

There's only one picture to sum up last night's game:

A teabag?

The Galen Center was electric last night as the crosstown rivalry was renewed for another game between our schools. USC came out with black jerseys, which looked pretty tight. Unfortunately for us, USC was on the losing end. OJ Mayo was held to only 4 points and committed 10 turnovers. It was a shame because the rest of the team was fighting and clawing their way all over the court, but Mayo just didn't show up tonight. Taj Gibson had a big game with 16 points, 12 rebounds and an effort that we hadn't seen all season. Jefferson was in early foul trouble that didn't allow him to get into any rhythm. I understand that we can't expect Mayo to shoot lights out every game, but even superstars have bad shooting nights. All of us at USC Sports Talk were critical of Mayo because it looked like he just wasn't trying out there. Case in point, we present you Exhibit A:

A great effort on defense.

If his shot wasn't on tonight, the least he could do was play ferocious defense or make smarter passes. There were at least 200 errant passes by Mayo last night.

Another thing I blame for this loss is the lack of intensity by the scumbag students who were sitting over the UCLA tunnel. We got there kind of late, so we didn't get the tunnel seats that we had been longing for all season. Part of the home court advantage is having those handful of students who make the night miserable for opposing coaches and players by yelling every obscenity they can think of. The assholes around the tunnel were in their seats the whole fucking game. The fUCLA players weren't assaulted with a barrage of insults when they were walking in or out of the tunnel. We needed people who would remind Love that the Beach Boys suck and that he's fat. We needed people who would berate Shipp for being a piece of shit. The scumbags around the tunnel failed in that mission. It was also bullshit how the students right above the tunnel were none other than Kevin Ellison, Kevin Thomas, Cary Harris and Marc Tyler, all of them part of our football team. If anything, the rivalry should mean a lot more to them as players, but instead they were fucking sitting down the whole fucking game.

Our shitty seats didn't stop us from going down to the tunnel when the game was over. We were able to get front and center over the tunnel to yell all of that hate down onto the fUCLA players. We know they all heard us because of the smiles and acknowledgments we got from Mbah a Moute, Keefe, Westbrook, Collision and Shipp. I also have a new most hated player: Michael Roll. I was too busy calling Shipp a fucking cunt, when Roll straight up stopped and yelled something at us. I really wish I knew what that piece of shit had said, but I didn't catch it. If he's reading this, please comment on the post.

Fuck you, Michael Roll.

It was a tough loss, but our players need to bounce back and regroup in the remaining Pac-10 games if they want to have any chance of making the NCAA tournament in March. Fuck Michael Roll.

Weekend Recap

USC 24 - Cal 17
The USC Trojans fought the rain, the Cal Bears and the rest of the hippies up north en route to a victory this past weekend. Chauncey "The First President" Washington wrecked the Cal defense and finished with a career best 220 yards rushing and 1 TD. The rain made for a sloppy game, but the Trojans were able to hang on to the lead and gave another reason for Jeff Tedford to put a gun to his temple after one of the most disappointing seasons of his career. Me-sean Jackson remained a douche and finished with 61 yards receiving and was a non-factor. The victory gives the Trojans the possibility of going to the Rose Bowl if they can beat ASU on Thanksgiving Day in a few weeks. There's also the bi-annual rape of the Bruins at the Coliseum to look forward to on December 1st.

Illinois 28 Ohio St. 21
The Buckeyes were "Juiced" on Saturday at the Horseshoe by the Fighting Illini. Juice Williams is a favorite here at USC Sports Talk and he gutted Ohio St. with 4 TDs in an impressive performance to take down the No. 1 team in the land. It was nice to see Ron Zook emotional after the victory during the post-game interview. That guy is a class act, a great coach and a decent human being. Kudos to Zook and the rest of the Fighting Illini.

There were a lot of other games this weekend, but no one gives a shit about any of them. Michigan is still a joke, Miami got shutout in their last game at the Orange Bowl and Mark Mangino is still a fat piece of shit.

In other news, OJ Mayo had his regular season debut for the Trojans at home against the mighty Mercer Bears... and we lost. Mayo finished with 32 points but the team looked out of sync and lost at times. I really hope Floyd can set the team right once everyone gets healthy, but we shall see.

I know we've been lagging lately with posts and updates, but we're all students and midterms are shitty. We'll get back into rhythm soon. Until then, "Jagger Bombs!"