SB Nation Blog: Ajax

Love to Timberwolves at #3?

Ajax — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:28:35 -0000

At least according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Wolves could take Love at #3 if they decide to go with a C. It's also interesting that the Wolves have Love or Brook Lopez.

Either way, we know that 2 Bruins are going to make alot of money on 6/26. Hopefully there is a team out there who recognizes LRM's unique defensive abilities and takes him high enough to provide some financial security as well.

Jose Arredondo

Ajax — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:59:16 -0000

Did we just get a glimpse of Franky's replacment tonight? The kid has the stuff with his 95 mph fastball and developing split finger. It is going to be interesting to see how JA develops as a pitcher both physically and mentally while he is getting these types of opportunities.

I love Franky, and his stuff has looked a lot better in the past few weeks, but we sure could use the money that he's going to demand to put towards Vlad's heir apparent.

Thoughts?

Bruins Sweep Saturday

Ajax — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:41:15 -0000

The Bruin baseball and softball teams were in action Saturday, and both came up with meaningful W's behind two stellar pitching performances. The Bruin softball team is squaring off against UGA at Easton Staduim in the super regionals with a berth in the CWS at stake. The Bruins turned to their ace, Angelica Seldon, who baffled UGA hitters with a dominant performance to lead the Bruins to a 6-1 victory:

Selden allowed just one run and four hits with no walks in her team-leading 24th complete game of the season to improve to 27-3. The 11 strikeouts marked her 12th double-figure strikeout game of the year and the 66th of her career.

In case you missed it, the game was televised nationally on ESPN. Check out the details of the game here.

Meanwhile, the UCLA baseball team seems to be heating up at just the right time. Today, it was Charles Brewer's turn to lead the Bruins to a huge late season W:

The UCLA baseball team registered its second shutout at No. 15 California in as many days, posting a 7-0 victory Saturday afternoon at Evans Diamond. Bruin right-hander Charles Brewer (8-4) earned his team-leading eighth win, scattering just three hits while striking out four in 5.2 scoreless innings.

...

The Bruins, who have won each of their last five Pac-10 contests, took advantage of 10 walks and three hit-by-pitches issued by the host Golden Bears. Shortstop Brandon Crawford led UCLA's offensive charge, going 3-for-4 with one double, three RBI and two runs. Catcher Ryan Babineau was 2-for-4 with two RBI, and second baseman Alden Carrithers went 2-for-4 with two runs. Center fielder Blair Dunlap went 2-for-5, and designated hitter Cody Decker reached base safely in three of six plate appearances.

The official site has the whole recap and box score.

Go Bruins!

Flashback-- October 17, 2006: "Burned by Bush, Southern Cal should be wary of Mayo"

Ajax — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:59:18 -0000

Way back in October, 2006, presumably while OJ Mayo was finalizing arrangements with the BDA agency, Gregg Doyel at CBS Sportsline penned the above entitled article stating a fact that was obvious to everyone involved in the college basketball scene: OJ Mayo and his "mentor" Rodeny Guillory were poison.

Remember, this was written almost 2 years ago:

Still stinging from 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush's collegiate dealings with agents and marketing reps, Southern California can expect more NCAA scrutiny if star basketball recruit O.J. Mayo becomes a Trojan in 2007.

Mayo, who is expected to sign with USC in the spring if not during the early signing period next month, is being mentored by a Los Angeles-area promoter whom the NCAA labeled as an agent's representative in 2000. That was the year Mayo's new mentor, Rodney Guillory, helped get two college basketball players -- including one from USC -- suspended for several games.

Guillory told CBS SportsLine.com his relationship with Mayo is blameless. The relationship has, however, helped put money in Guillory's pocket, with the potential for a much larger profit down the road.

Guillory wants to become Mayo's marketing rep. Sound familiar? It was another marketing rep -- Mike Ornstein -- whose relationship with Bush triggered an NCAA investigation into USC.

Though the USC football team faces the possibility of having to vacate its 2004 national championship, pending the results of the NCAA's investigation, the USC basketball team faces the possibility of adding a player sure to draw the NCAA's attention. And people at USC don't want to talk about it.

USC athletic director Mike Garrett didn't return numerous calls and e-mails for this story. But Garrett did get the message to the USC coaching staff -- and eventually to Guillory himself -- that CBS SportsLine.com was investigating Mayo's relationship with Guillory.

How do I know? Guillory told me. Guillory also told me that he doesn't work for an agent, and that he has done nothing to compromise Mayo's eligibility.

...

Given Guillory's history, USC -- or whichever school signs Mayo -- will want to worry just a little bit.

...

Before Mayo signs, USC would be wise to look hard -- very hard -- at the Guillory connection. Looking the other way may have helped put USC knee-deep in the Ornstein-Bush mess; sources say Ornstein found his way onto the sideline for USC football games as a guest of Dana and David Pump, Adidas kingpins who once used Ornstein as an auctioneer for their annual fundraiser.

Connect the dots. One way or another, Ornstein met Bush and ultimately became his marketing rep. Bush signed with Adidas. The NCAA is looking into what illegal benefits, if any, Bush received from Ornstein while still at USC.

Now Mayo -- the Trojans' top basketball recruit since Paul Westphal -- is being advised by Guillory. And Guillory not only was once labeled by the NCAA as an agent's representative, but helped get a former USC player (Trepagnier) suspended.

Irony doesn't begin to describe this situation.

Read the whole article here. It's quite entertaining given what we now know.

Now USC athletic director Mike Garrett and head basketball coach Tim Floyd claim to have had no idea as to what was happening with OJ Mayo, Guillory, and BDA . If the OJ/Guillory/BDA arrangement was common knowledge in the MSM two years ago, Southern Cal's claim of plausible deniability is laughable on its face.

Sports Hub LA: "USC Deserves Some Blame"

Ajax — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:39:11 -0000

Eric Patten at Sports Hub LA arrives at the obvious conclusion based on the facts that have been unveiled regarding Southern Cal's engagement of OJ Mayo's services:

But shouldn’t USC face a heap of criticism as well?

It was less than a year ago that we were excusing the university from any misconduct in the Reggie Bush-Lloyd Lake case. If Bush took money and the school didn’t know about it, how can they be punished?

However, now it appears likely that Mayo also took money while he was a student.

Once again, USC denies any wrongdoing.

But how many times, with how many high profile players, are they to be excused? The university prides itself on running pro style programs, but it’s still collegiate athletics. There are rules, and Mike Garrett and Co. should understand that if they’re going to have elite athletes on campus, they have to ramp up their compliance efforts, not shrink back to better avoid responsibility if anything should go wrong.

Plausible deniability isn’t a good defense. At least not the second time around.

For the record, the NCAA hasn't "excused" Southern Cal or Bush over that whole arrangement quite yet. I'm optimistic that we have not heard the end of Bushgate. However, Bushgate should only serve to bolster the NCAA's case against Southern Cal. Something about a complete lack of institutional control.

Stay tuned.

Scott Wolf: "USC was aware of the risks associated with Guillory"

Ajax — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:24:00 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

USC knew Guillory's reputation from 2000, when the NCAA identified him as a runner for an agent and said he illegally provided airfare to former USC guard Jeff Trepagnier. The compliance office was so scared that it banned Guillory from receiving Mayo' s tickets to home games.

But the basketball office was a different story.

This is where Floyd perplexed even some of his admirers. After Guillory told the Daily News that Floyd was "heartbroken" over the ticket ban, Floyd claimed he never spoke to Guillory.

This is the same Guillory who was practically allowed to live in the USC basketball offices, had his run of the school's basketball facilities last summer and accompanied Mayo on his official and unofficial campus visits.

There can be no denial of the cozy relationship, all in the name of securing the player billed as the best in USC history.

A few more examples of that relationship: When USC point guard Angelo Johnson became eligible, Guillory told the Daily News first because he said Floyd told him. If you watched Guillory escape an ESPN reporter during Sunday's report, he does it by slipping into the basketball offices.

USC was aware of the risks associated with Guillory. But that is the business of basketball these days. The potential for winning outweighs character or ethical risks.

Emphasis added throughout. Read Wolf's whole article here. I'll throw this part in just for comedy:

Rap star Romeo Miller gets a scholarship despite the fact no other college offered him one because he is best friends with blue-chip recruit DeMar Derozan. It's a package deal, but Floyd denies it.

ROFL at the gap closers. Is there a more pathetic, desperate excuse for an athletic program in all of the NCAA? As for the NCAA coming down on Southern Cal, here is what we know:

1. OJ took money from a BDA bag man before and during his time at Southern Cal.

2. While attending Southern Cal, OJ could be seen around campus wearing expensive clothes and shoes, and had a flat screen TV in his on-campus dorm room.

3. The bag man, Guillory, was implicated in a previous inappropriate agent-student athlete relationship.

4. Southern Cal's basketball offices provided Guillory, the previous offender who was known to Southern Cal's compliance office, unfettered access to the basketball program.

5. Mayo immediately signed with BDA after declaring.

What more does the NCAA need to know to prove that Southern Cal knew or should have known that OJ was getting paid?

Flashback--November 7, 2006: Nikola Dragovic Suspended for 10 Games

Ajax — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:07:42 -0000

Los Angeles - The UCLA Athletic Department has announced that freshman forward Nikola Dragovic (Belgrade, Serbia) has been ruled ineligible to compete in the first 10 regular season games of the 2006-07 season.

The ruling of ineligibility is because Dragovic competed on a team that the NCAA defines as a professional team due to the fact that some of the members of the club team, Mega Ishrana, received compensation.

While Dragovic never received compensation for the 10 games in which he played, an indeterminate number of members of the team did receive money.

Dragovic will be reinstated in time for the Bruins' 11th game of the season, a home contest with the University of Michigan on Dec. 23, 2006.

"Nikola (Dragovic) and his father (Vitomir Dragovic) tried to do everything the right way to keep his amateur status," UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. "They were unaware that anyone on the team had accepted money. This is very unfortunate, but we will comply with the NCAA's ruling."

So, the NCAA's definition of a professional team is one where "some of the members...receive compensation?"

You mean like houses, cars, and bling? You mean like clothes and flat screen TV's?

How exactly are the Southern Cal FB and BB programs different than Mega Ishrana?

Hypocrite much?

Luke Winn of Si.com: "USC deserves to fry for this."

Ajax — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:16:29 -0000

Bumped. Go Bruins. -M

Both Mayo and the Trojans issued pathetic denial statements on Sunday. Sadly, Mayo is by now beyond the arm of the NCAA; he declared for the draft and signed with Andrews in April. USC, on the other hand, deserves to fry for this. A postseason ban, loss of scholarships, and a complete voiding of the 2007-08 season is in order. Even if no money was ever exchanged between the USC camp and Guillory -- and you have to at least wonder, if he was on the take from BDA, why not the Trojans as well? -- the Mayo saga is worthy of that dreaded NCAA label, "Lack of Institutional Control".

Luke Winn lays it all out

Winn also blasts Floyd for feigning ignorance of Guillory, who Southern Cal had allegedly blacklisted from the program:

Floyd, in that Times story [see bluestreet's post above] in March 2007, conveniently portrayed Guillory as a mystery man. This was comical. Not only had Guillory already been making above-board cash off of the nation's No. 1-ranked recruit as a promoter, he had also been busted in 2000 for serving as a runner for another agent. One of the players for whom Guillory had impermissibly purchased airfare was a 6-foot-4 guard named not Mayo but Jeff Trepagnier. The school he played for was none other than USC.

Even though he wasn't in L.A. during the Trepagnier trouble, Floyd isn't dumb enough to not have connected the dots and known that Guillory-arranged goods would be dirty. Nor is the Trojans' coach naive enough not to know that agents had been hovering around Mayo since middle school. Floyd invited Mayo and Guillory into his program -- the latter was seen hanging around the USC locker room during the '06-07 season, a year before Mayo arrived -- and hoped the situation would not implode. Now it has, and a plea of ignorance from Floyd and the Trojans, even if they deliberately tried to ignore the dealings between Mayo, Guillory and BDA, is not an acceptable excuse.

Nice to see the MSM finally acknowledge what we have been saying for years.

UCLA v. Memphis: 2008 National Semi-Final Open Game Thread

Ajax — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:33:39 -0000

It's finally go time. This week didn't drag on, did it?

Last time the Bruins met the Tigers in the Tournament, the nation (small "n") stood witness to the beauty of Coach Howland's in-your-shirt defense and how it completely shut down the more athletic Memphis squad. After the game, we had to hear the pundits, some of which still won't go away, about how "ugly" the Ben Ball Warriors made that game.

To the Nation it was a thing of beauty, and you certainly cannot argue with the result:

Bruins embracing the ugliness

Here is to more "ugliness" and more of the same results.

Let's stick with the same MOJO combination from our last game:

It's great to be a Bruin right about now.

This is your official National Semi-Final open-game thread. Have at it.

Go Bruins!

2 for 1 tix to UCLA Baseball

Ajax — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:09:45 -0000

http://sdm3.com/viewmsg.cfm?n196s543c580263t543