SB Nation Blog: DC Trojan

Amy Rodriguez selected for US Women's Olympic Soccer Team

DC Trojan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:15:13 -0000

A little change of pace: USC women's soccer forward Amy Rodriguez has been selected to the US Women's Olympic team and will be playing in Beijing this summer. Rodriguez, who was the MVP of the Final Four on USC's national championship team on the strength of a performance that included two goals against ucla in the semifinals, has had a good showing in the recent Peace Queen Cup*, scoring the only (and winning) goal against Brazil in group play as the US women's team moved on to beat Italy in the semi-finals and Canada in the finals.

Rodriguez is the first Trojan to play Olympic soccer for the US, and joins with Stephanie Cox of Portland College as the lone collegiate players on the team.

US Women's coach Pia Sundhage selected Rodriguez on the strength of her recent form: "The way she's been playing and actually running at people has been very good."

This is fantastic news: the US is not short on talented women soccer players, so to be selected for the national side for the Olympics on the merits is a real vote of confidence - Fight On Amy! And best of luck in Beijing.

*In case you were wondering, the Peace Queen Cup is an eight nation tournament organized by the Unification Churh (of the Reverend Moon fame) which is intended to facilitate cultural exchanges and promote world peace... it also has a $200,000 prize to the winning team, in case fostering peace isn't incentive enough.

Putting Sam Gilbert behind us

DC Trojan — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:06:56 -0000

The LA Times today published a story with the highlights of Rick Neuheisel's contract with ucla. There are a variety of performance incentives and perks, all of which seem well chosen, and then this :

Neuheisel will not be eligible for performance bonuses if the program is put on NCAA probation and must return previous bonuses if the team is "subsequently sanctioned for NCAA violations in which coach was directly involved, that coach facilitated, condoned, or ignored about coach knew or reasonably should have known."

You know, bruins often say that USC fans should just drop the guff about Sam Gilbert - it was a long time ago, he wasn't doing anything untoward by the standards of the time, etc., etc. I think they may be on to something.

More specifically, I think that ucla has just created an enormous incentive for shenanigans by Trojans to interfere with Neuheisel's various bonuses. After all, if we're as unprincipled and corrupt as certain members of the ucla community would have others believe, then we must have some expertise in this area - right?

So if you've got any creative ideas - and paying for player's parents' rent etc., is off the table, it's too obvious - drop them in the comments*.

*Just in case the no-humor brigade is reading this, we are not suggesting that anyone actually commit any NCAA violations with ucla student athletes. That would be wrong, and we do not countenance any such thing or accept any liability for the actions of people who are no more subtle than Lake or Guillory.

When playing dumb isn't enough: a proposal to strengthen amateur athlete compliance

DC Trojan — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:58:41 -0000

Due to the ruckus about the alleged payments to OJ Mayo, following in the wake of Reggie Bush and his shenanigans, I've been giving some thought to what kinds of activities might be required to do a better job of preventing issues with agents or other interested parties making payments to players against NCAA rules.

It seems to me that there are two ways to look at this, which both require focusing on the demand side. The challenge in a demand-side focus, as will become clear, is the degree to which surveillance and enforcement are possible, and meaningful. The first dimension that I considered was Athlete Demand, and some of the issue associated with enforcement against Athlete Demand prompted me to consider Agent Demand.

If all else fails, play dumb

DC Trojan — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:57:22 -0000

After due consideration, the Athletic Department has developed its opening gambit for addressing the Mayo situation: play dumb .

School officials said the NCAA might speak with the school this week, according to the report, and USC is preparing its initial defense, including telling the NCAA that it previously had banned the promoter, Rodney Guillory, from receiving tickets to Trojans games.

"Right now, we're just trying to weather the storm," a USC official said in the Daily News report.

According to the Daily News, however, Guillory was seen often at the USC basketball offices, around the locker room, and at pickup games at the Galen Center, where Mayo played last summer.

Paragon and I have been emailing back and forth about this (he's stuck in a training class), because we both had the same reaction: this really couldn't be any more feeble.

Intellectually speaking, I'd describe the gambit described above as the equivalent of playing dead in front of a bear, except that playing dead in front of a bear is a plan with a reasonable chance of success.

Even without the benefit of a law degree or a background in NCAA compliance, I'm seeing a couple of flaws in this plan. Relying on the narrowest possible reading of what constitutes "controlling" Guillory, in combination with plausible stories that show your version of events is a bit limited in scope, doesn't seem like a recipe for success.

Last time I checked, there are a fair few lawyers among the ranks of USC alumni. Surely someone from the Athletic Department could ask for a little free help on this?

Heck, despite the aforementioned lack of relevant experience, I'll chip in with five alternative approaches off the top of my head:

Stonewall: "Prove we failed. Good luck documenting that!"
Pre-empt: "We blew it, here's our remedial plan"
Pre-empt & Self-flaggelate: "We blew it, here's our remedial plan, and here's the names of the heads that are going to roll"
Year Zero: "Basketball program? What basketball program? Also, we've decided to make men's soccer a proper team!"
Horsetrading: "You can have the basketball program if you let us keep football intact."

Any other bright ideas are welcomed in the comments.

R Bush Lawsuit: Making Politics Look Good

DC Trojan — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:14:34 -0000

I haven't got the energy to write a complete recap; suffice to say that the lawyers for Reggie Bush and Lloyd Lake are squabbling over deposition dates. Apparently the judge has issued a warning which is the legal equivalent of my grandfather's standard warning: "You two need your heads knocked together if you don't stop it." (Not an idle threat.)

This is the kind of general douche-baggery that I expect to see in say a political party primary, perhaps a West Virginia Douche-off ? Certainly from the standpoint of wanting this nonsense over Bush to be resolved one war or another, this is another pathetic episode.

Incidentally, was there some kind of requirement of alliterative names to be a principal in the New Era start up? Lloyd Lake, Michael Michaels - suitable, I suppose, for a Mickey Mouse operation, although the alliteration falls apart when you get to Reggie "Scrooge McDuck" Bush swimming in his coin.

Reggie Bush

Scrooge McDuck

Incidentally, if you want more pictures of Scrooge McDuck like the fine example above, go to Allposters.com .

Historic Bust of Pete Carroll Found in France

DC Trojan — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:30:49 -0000

As some of you will have noticed, Scott Wolf has a little running joke of calling Pete Carroll "Caesar." As it turns out, this is more accurate than Wolf might have imagined. The BBC reported this week that a bust of Caesar was found in France in the River Rhone, prompting speculation that it was pitched by someone in the immediate aftermath of Caesar's assassination.

Take a look at the pictures after the jump and decide if you see the same similarity that I do:

Congratulations to the bruins women's water polo team

DC Trojan — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:01:47 -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.

Everyone Expresses Themselves Somehow

DC Trojan — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:01:04 -0000

I had a series of reactions when I watched this video:

This is exactly why I keep my shirt on in public spaces
His ability to keep the ladies behind him from getting some crack is to be applauded
At least - given the song the band was playing - he wasn't wearing a red codpiece

I could have lived without the nipple rubbing though.

Kenechi Udeze and the National Marrow Donor Program

DC Trojan — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:02:05 -0000

Some of you may remember that Kenechi Udeze was diagnosed with leukemia in February. The Vikings have been good enough to put him on the reserve/non-football illness list, which means that he can pursue treatment without going broke in the process.

SBN's Vikings blog, the Daily Norseman, has noted that Udeze has the good fortune of having found a match from his brother for a bone marrow transplant, which will give him a fighting chance of recovery. The folks at the Daily Norseman also noted that maybe 30% of leukemia patients who need a bone marrow transplant are able to find a match from the National Marrow Donor Program, and are encouraging people to consider registering as a potential donor, or to donate money to support research into treatment of leukemia.

Beyond basic human concern, this is a subject that I find compelling because my father-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia about 11 years ago. He needed a bone marrow transplant, but did not match at all with any family members - however, he got as near to a perfect match as possible via the registry, and was able to undergo treatment. It's a hellacious process and kicked his ass seven ways to Sunday - he was able, just and no more, to come to our wedding a couple of months after the transplant and was being mistaken for my wife's grandfather, not her father. But he's been in remission ever since, and is active in his teaching and life in a way that I should be emulating, frankly.

If you can see your way to helping out, please do - but I will pass on the one caution that we received from the Donor Registry people back when my father-in-law was diagnosed, which is this: if you have any reservations about making a donation, don't sign up. About the only thing as bad for a leukemia patient than no match at all, is a match from someone who has changed their mind about donating.

In the meantime, our best wishes for successful treatment and recovery go out to Kenechi Udeze and his family, and a tip of the hat goes to the Daily Norseman for encouraging Vikings fans to help.

USC splits dual meet in track and field

DC Trojan — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:16:02 -0000

(Little late on this one, but life is like that sometimes.)

USC's women's track and field team beat ucla 86 - 77 in a dual meet at ucla this past weekend. This was the first time that the USC women's team had beated the bruins since 1992.

A large part of the reason that the Trojans won was the efforts of Carol Rodriguez, who ran despite a hamstring injury. She won the 400m race, and also ran a strong third leg of the 4 x 400 relay, taking the baton a step or three behind and building a big lead for Myra Hasson to bring home.

The men's team was not able to get over the hump, losing to ucla 74 - 89. They had beaten the Bruins last year at USC, but have not beaten the bruins at ucla since 1977. Said the Director of Track and Field :

"This means a lot to us [...] As the trainers and staff can tell you we didn't have everyone available or at full health. The Dual Meet is so very significant from the standpoint of the exposure and the visibility for the fans. The difference was that we had some distance runners this year, which is not normally our flagship. This is good for morale. The men won last year and we would have liked to have seen it happen again this year, so next year the goal is to win them both in the same season"

Congratulations to the Women of Troy, and respect to the bruins for - if you'll pardon the phrase - gutting it out to win on the strength of a strong showing at the end of the meet. I'm sure they'll understand if I don't wish them good luck for next year though.