SB Nation User Blog: Laughing Stock

USF @ USC: Post Game Thoughts

Laughing Stock — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:29:21 -0000

I think a lot of people may be dissappointed with the outcome of this game, despite the fact that the Trojans picked up the win. USC entered the game as a double digit favorite and was down by as much as 12 points in the first half. In fact, SC had its first lead of the entire game with just seconds to go in the first half. But while it may be fair to be a bit disappointed, I think that those fans would be missing the greater point entirely.

This game was the first game of the entire season where both Dwight Lewis and Daniel Hackett overcame their early struggles and came back with dominant performances. So far this year Taj has been playing extremely well and San Francisco's game plan was basically to take him out of the game, forcing Hackett and Lewis to make the plays happen on offense. At the beginning the shots were just not falling and when USF built a double digit lead I was certain those two would go into a funk and that the game was lost. Instead our veteran guards showed great leadership and gritted out a tough win against a better than expected opponent.

I may be getting a little over the top here, but I really think this game may serve as a turning point for this team. Taj has certainly shown the right stuff during the early part of the season, and now Dwight and Daniel have also shown the toughness to take over and pull out a win in a close game. This is doubly important considering that SC currently has three first year players (Derozan, Washington, and Smith) who are seeing serious minutes on the court. Hopefully the veteran players can maintain this same poise and effectiveness against a very good Oklahoma team this Thursday night. Fight On!

Solomon Hill Commits to USC

Laughing Stock — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:17:37 -0000

Kind of strange timing, coming after the initial signing period and all, but top 100 prospect and former Arizona commit Solomon Hill is now a "solid verbal" for the Trojans. A very nice pick up considering that the Trojans lost out on Mike Moser to UCLA. This may or may not be the last recruit for USC though, as the Trojans may have anywhere from two to five scholarships for next season, but the only player left that I see SC making a push for is Renardo Sidney (and even that is iffy).

I have to say though, it is kind of a strange class. All of the players are about 6'6"-6'8" and while Noel Johnson is more of a prototypical SG, the other players are kind of hybrids with Williams playing the 4 as much as the 3 and with Hill often being described as a point-forward. It will be fun to see what Floyd is able to do with this group!

Making Progress with Rick Neuheisel

Laughing Stock — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:56:13 -0000

It has become clear to all but the most sycophantic Dorrellistas that Neuheisal has already taken the bruins to new heights in his first year as head coach. Just refer to this table showing how the first year under his coachness compares to the last year under he-who-shall-not-be-named:

	"Progress"
.		This Year	Last Year
.	Total Offense	293.6	333.6
.	Total Defense	344.9	343.2
.	Turnover Margin	-8	-4
.	Win-Loss	4 - 7	6 - 7

Ah, the numbers truly speak for themselves, but they do not tell the whole story. Neuheisal has brought an added dimension to the team by way of passion and enthusiasm. Would we have ever witnessed Karl Dorrell verbally berate a player on national television? Never, as he was far too much of a sniveling coward to stand up to kids just barely out high school. Neuheisal, or as I like to call him "Coach" Rick Neuheisal or CRN for short, shows true dedication and love for the team by yelling at QB Kevin Craft on the sidelines after major mistakes but then shows his true support and belief in him by sending him out to play again and again. Only those without a grasp of the the higher philosopho-logical hierarchies of football would ever be able to defend Dorrell's clearly inferior coaching style.

But enough with the present, now it is time to consider the blindingly bright future. Despite the fact that Dorrell brought in three classes ranked in the top 25 according to scout there is nowhere to go but up for the proud bruin program. With the coaching brain trust that CRN has put together the recruiting will practically take care of itself. What recruit wouldn't want to come play for the dream team of Neuheisal, QB guru Norm Chow, and defensive mastermind Dewayne Walker (the best DC in the Pac 10)? Forget Pete Carroll and his so called "track record of consistent success", soon every top flight prospect in Southern California will be beating down the doors on the admissions office to dawn the blue and gold.

Of course some myopic nitwits are already claiming that the coaching situation is untenable knowing that multiple coaches are still drawing pay from professional teams and the fact that both Chow and Walker are being considered for head coaching jobs elsewhere, but this is a minor quibble at best. Certainly the arguments and infighting that have been coming to surface are exaggerated, and besides, who would want to work for anyone else when they could work for Rick Neuheisal? Even though it was a rhetorical question, if you answered nobody then you are correct.

So everyone at USC better watch out. Year 1 of the master plan has already been executed to perfection and it is clear that the monopoly is over even before this years rivalry game has been played. Yes, as long as ucla continues on this path then they will reclaim their rightful spot on the top of the college football world before anyone knows what has happened.

Black Friday

Laughing Stock — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:14:13 -0000

Bad news for two Trojan players this weekend:

A day after returning to practice and being medically cleared to play against Notre Dame, the USC safety left Wednesday’s session early when his surgically repaired right knee didn’t feel right during warmups. Neither Trojans coach Pete Carroll nor secondary coach Rocky Seto could forecast Ellison’s availability for Saturday.

Since this was reported it has been decided that Ellison will not play in the Notre Dame game. This is crappy for Ellison on so many levels. As a senior not only this would have been Ellison's last opportunity to play in the coliseum, but he also must be thinking about the NFL draft. Hopefully he'll get everything feeling right again with some rehab and be ready to go against ucla and whoever our bowl opponent is.

USC’s frontcourt depth took another hit Wednesday night with the loss of redshirt sophomore forward Kasey Cunningham for the season because of a knee injury.

Cunningham underwent an arthroscopic procedure to remove torn cartilage in his left knee. An examination of the ACL showed that it needed reconstruction, and it was repaired at that time.

What a star crossed career it has been for poor Kasey. After injury during his senior season caused him to take a redshirt, he missed the next season due to an ACL tear. Apparently the fall he took against Missouri turned out to be about the worse case scenario as Cunningham will now miss the remainder of the season. It seemed pretty clear that Kasey could have made an impact this year after a nice showing in the exhibition and solid numbers off of the bench against Missouri, but I guess he will have to wait for next year once again.

Good luck Trojans and Fight On!

*Quotes taken from the OC register USC Blog

Pac 10 Basketball Preview: USC

Laughing Stock — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:41:51 -0000

Wow, it has been a crazy couple of weeks, and this whole series kind of got pushed on to the backburner. Anyways, let's take a look at USC

Key Returners: Taj Gibson (10.8 PPG, 7.8 RPG), Daniel Hackett (8.6 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.2 APG), Dwight Lewis (10.8 PPG, 2.4 RPG)

Key Losses: OJ Mayo (20.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.3 APG), Davon Jefferson (12.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG)

Key Recruits: Demar Derozan (5/5 Rivals, #1 SG), Leonard Washington

It would be dishonest to say that USC hasn't gotten off to a bit of a disappointing start. After leading by 15 at halftime the Trojans fell to Seton Hall after turning the ball over twice very late in the game in a very tight 63-61 loss. The team then fell to Missouri, after beating hapless Chattanooga, in the final game of the tournament for SC.However, all is not lost and USC is still poised to finish high in the Pac 10.

Luckily many of USC's problems are easily fixable. Simply put, there is no way this team will be successful if they continue to turn the ball over on average 16 times per game. SC is also shooting poorly in free throws, making only 64% on the season. Both of these issues are easy to coach up quickly though, and hopefully will not be as big of an issue by the time conference play rolls around in January.

The real problem, though, is the distinct lack of outside shooting. USC is hitiing on less than 30% of its three point attempts which is unnacceptable if the Trojans want to open up the court to get the most out of players like Dwight Lewis and Demar Derozan. Both Hackett and Lewis have been cold so far this season compared to their shooting in previous years, so we'll have to hope that they tighten up their game and that Donte Smith can step in and hit a 3 when we need it.

But there are a lot of positives. Taj is playing like the player everyone thought he would be last year and is averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds so far. Leonard Washington has also looked very good coming off the bench and may find himself starting more than a few games as the season continues. And although Demar Derozan has looked uncomfortable at times, but has shown flashes of great athleticism and has played solid D so far. Finally, USC has had a double digit lead in every game they have played, and it seems like the team just needs to find a way to close out games. Despite the denial of eligibility for Stepheson and a shaky start the trojans should still develop into a very good team as conference play draws closer.

Prediction: 3rd

USC Love Affair Over?

Laughing Stock — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:58:10 -0000

One of the strangest articles I have read in the past couple of weeks:

It seems the college football world has simply lost interest in the Trojans. It's like they've been eating the same flavor ice cream for five years and they're ready to try something new. USC's own fans are suffering a similar apathy.

"The fans have seen this play out before the past few years," said Abraham. "Oregon State was like the last straw. Fans were like, 'I'm sick of losing to teams that aren't all that good.' "

It seems the public's blind faith in Carroll and his stockpile of five-star recruits simply isn't there this year. The mileage he earned from that 34-game winning streak in 2003-05 has finally worn off.

The prom queen's still pretty hot, but there are a couple of new girls on the scene that everybody's talking about.

Wow, I guess I really don't know what to say. I enjoy reading Stewart Mandel's mailbags from time to time, but an article about how the media doesn't like USC anymore? I guess the point of the whole thing eludes me.

Is Mandel trying to criticize Pete Carroll for being outspoken about the BCS? If so it seems a little hypocritical as I did not hear anyone make any remarks about Les Miles laughable "we didn't lose a game in regulation" angle he was working last year.

Is he trying to say that Pete Carroll is overrated? I guess he lost me in the part where he paired "blind faith" along with "stockpile of 5 star recruits" and "34 game winning streak".

Is he trying to say the fans are spoiled? Please, are there actually fans of other teams actually enjoy losing to "teams that aren't all that good" (or even teams that are all that good)?

Oh well Stewart. Probably no BCS title game this year, so I guess us poor SC fans are just going to have to settle for being consistently among the top teams in college football year after year and go to another one of those high paying BCS bowls.

Pac 10 Roundtable: Week of November 17th

Laughing Stock — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:16:28 -0000

With the start of college hoops and the fact that four football teams are on a bye this weekend, this Pac 10 roundtable is loaded with basketball questions, but we lead off with some bowl questions to get things started:

1. The Pac-10 has 7 bowl contracts to fill and currently only 5 spots filled. Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona State all sit in the middle of the Pac with 6 losses. Out of those three teams, which, if any, will make it to post-season play?

Its pretty clear that Stanford has the best chance. They are already at five wins and their last game is against Cal and rivalry games can often end up being a toss up anyways. Luckily for the Cardinal, their team is actually decent and if they play to their strengths I do not think it would be completely shocking to see Stanford win this game and head to one of the Pac 10's lower tier bowls. Of course, California may simply load up the box and stuff Stanford's running game, but I guess we will just have to wait and see. ASU and ucla, however, basically face a bowl elimination game against each other and then must play Arizona and USC respectively. Although Arizona State has a somewhat realistic shot, right now I would be surprised if either of these teams find themselves in the post season.

2. Is there anybody NOT rooting for OSU to win out and go to the Rose Bowl? Anybody? I think even Pete Carroll has to have a spot in his heart for this story. And if OSU does win the Pac10, pushing USC to 2nd, do you think USC will make a BCS game or find itself in the Holiday Bowl?

Actually i wouldn't mind Oregon State winning out and heading to the Rose Bowl. USC would probably end up in the Fiesta Bowl against a Big 12 or SEC team and a lot of fans would like to have a trip somewhere other than the Rose Bowl as a change of pace. I know that personally I would love to see SC play one of those big bad SEC teams (ha!), and I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who would not mind a little bit of a west coast beatdown.

3. Let's take a stroll down b-ball lane. What are your Pac10 rankings for B-Ball?

I am currently working on a preview, but here is how I think the final standings will look:

1. ucla
2. Arizona State
3. USC (tied for 1st if Alex Stepheson is eligible)
4. Washington
5. Washington State
6. Arizona
7. Cal
8. Oregon
9. Stanford
10. Oregon State

4. Now that we've seen your B-Ball Top 10 (with assuredly UCLA at the top and OSU at the bottom), who is your surprise team this year? And why is it Cal?

The easy pick is Washington here (due to a solid recruiting class, underachieving talent, and Jon Brockman), but I think a lot of people will overlook WSU. The Cougars return a solid core of players including likely all conference center Aaron Baynes along with their most efficient scorer in sharpshooter Taylor Rochestie. They also bring back solid bench player Daven Harmeling and added an excellent adn highly underrated recruit in Klay Thompson. Despite the loss of a lot of their stars, Washington State can still rely on its stingy defense and their ability to control the pace of the game. They will be a much better team then people will give them credit for in the preseason.

5. With the legendary Lute Olsen out at Arizona, what are their chances of making the tournament this year?

Let's see... No Bayless, no Jennings, no Whitey* and an appaling lack of depth. Then again they also return future first rounders in Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill along with an experienced PG in Nic Wise. But they just lost to UAB too, so I guess in the words of the immortal magic 8 ball, "Reply hazy, try again".

*And no Gaddy, Moser, or Hill, but thats for next year.

Mike Moser Update

Laughing Stock — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:45:09 -0000

Apparently former Arizona Commit Mike Moser will likely decide between USC and UCLA on Wednesday night. Moser is an elite SF prospect and was impressed with SC's facilities on his recent visit to campus. Although it appeared that Moser may have ended up at one of his home state schools of Oregon or Oregon State, the two universities are now out of the running. Let's hope that Moser lands with us! Fight On!

USC Womens soccer advances to the Sweet 16

Laughing Stock — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:23:19 -0000

USC advanced to the third round of the NCAA Women's Soccer tournament after defeating BYU in overtime

After a 1-1 lockup held through two overtimes, the teams lined up for a penalty kick shootout to decide who would advance to next week's NCAA Third Round. BYU took the first shot against Olsen and put it away. Janessa Currier lined up next and drilled hers to keep it even. Up against Alyssa Vander Veur, Olsen dove for the ball and gathered it in to silence the crowd. Stacey Strong set up USC for the go-ahead strike and nailed it for a 2-1 advantage in the shootout. Facing her third Cougar shooter, Olsen put a stop to that attempt as well. Karter Haug knocked in her opportunity to make it a 3-1 lead, and although BYU made good on their next PK, Megan Ohai's blast to the top right corner decided the game for the Trojans with a 4-2 edge in the shootout.

It looks like USC will once again face ucla, although the bruins must first defeat San Diego in a mtach that was delayed to Monday due to the rampant outbreak of fires. Although USC has failed to beat our crosstown rivals for many years during the regular season, they beat them in the tourney last en route to a championship Good luck to the Women of Troy and fight on!

** Also, as an aside, how is it that the NCAA can hold a tournamnet in the middle of fall semester for women's soccer, but cite it as an academic issue for other sports?

Pac 10 Basketball Preview: UCLA

Laughing Stock — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:16:55 -0000

Key Returners: Darren Collison (14.5 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 3.8 APG), Josh Shipp (12.2 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.1 APG)

Key Losses: Kevin Love (17.5 PPG, 10.6 RPG, 1.9 APG), Russell Westbrook (12.7 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 4.3 APG), Luc Richard MBah a Moute (8.8 PPG, 6.0 RPG)

Key Recruits: Jrue Holiday (5/5 Rivals, #1 PG), J'mison Morgan (5/5 Rivals, #4 C), Drew Gordon (4/5 Rivals, #15 PF)

With the loss of two lottery picks and a second rounder it is fair to argue that no team in the Pac 10 lost nearly as much talent as ucla after the end of last season. Additionally, in a conference that is generally lacking in the front court ucla may have more questions to address at the power forward and center than nearly ebry other team in conference as they do not return a single big that has made large contributions. There are role players to be sure, but no proven dominant scorer or rebounder. It is clear that the Bruin's face a lot of problems, but thinking that this may drop them out of the top of the Pac 10 would be a serious mistake.

UCLA returns a number of strong players despite the aforementioned losses in personnel. First and foremost is Darren Collison who returned after being Derrick Rose'd in the NCAA tournament semifinal. Despite the dominant performance by Rose, Collison is a very quick and strong, and will bring a huge boost of experience to arguably the most important position on the court. Although there are questions surrounding his lack of assists last year despite the presence of Kevin Love down low, it is clear that Collison has the athleticism and talent to be a great PG as evidenced by his being voted as a preseason All American. In addition the Bruins bring back senior sharpshooter Josh Shipp and a plethora of front court reserves including former McDonalds All American James Keefe and forward Alfred Aboya.

The Bruins also welcome the consensus number one recruiting class headlined by local prospect Jrue Holiday. Holiday along with Collison and Shipp form one of the nation's best back courts, and his Holiday's should help tremendously to offset the loss of scoring from Russel Westbrook. In addition, two high major prospects at the PF and C positions in Drew Gordon and J'mison Morgan, respectively, should help out ucla's interior woes. Morgan in particular may be the bruins only true option at center and if he develops physically and learns Ben Howland's defensive system then it would not be surprising to see him crack the starting lineup at some point in the season. Regardless, either of these players speedy development could help set ucla farther apart from ASU or USC in the race for the conference championship this season.

So despite major losses and tough problems ucla is still the likely favorite to win another conference championship. And although the bruins have earned the benefit of the doubt thanks to excellent coaching and three straight final four trips, there is honestly not much doubt to begin with thanks to the return of a number of key players and an elite recruiting class. Although it pains me to say it, until USC hears about Alex Stepheson's eligibility, ucla is still best in the west for now.

Prediction: 1st (but not quite as far ahead of the pack as in previous years)