SB Nation User Blog: Paragon SC

Kevin O'Neill on Mason & Ireland 7/2

Paragon SC — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:04:46 -0000

It will be 15-20 seconds before the interview starts..

USC LB Campbell getting his confidence back

Paragon SC — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:14:48 -0000

USC LB Campbell getting his confidence back

This is a nice write-up on Jordon Campbell. He could have a big impact if he is healthy!

A Photo Montage of USC Football

Paragon SC — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:55:32 -0000

A commenter over on The Peristyle dug this up. This is some real neat stuff!

USC athletics official, Nick Pappas (L), talking to the McKeever twins, Mike and Marlin USC football stars.

WOW!!

You can see the rest here.

Some rebuild, USC reloads

Paragon SC — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:48:32 -0000

Some rebuild, USC reloads

We have seen this written before but it is nice to see it come out of SEC country!

Doc Saturday: "Don't hold your Breath"

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:44:43 -0000

Doc Saturday breaks it down perfectly...

If the Trojans are meant to be just an example, well, the Association had a chance to knock Alabama back into the Dubose era as a repeat repeat offender, and didn't take it.

Yeap...we have pretty much said similar things in the past.

Maybe they will and maybe they won't but the only reason this is getting more play now is because of the alleged linking of both the Bush and Mayo investigations. There will be no death penalty. The lack of institutional control charge will be tenuous at best because a school can't investigate a families individual finances any more than the NCAA has subpoena powers.

There are people out there that really have a hard-on to punish USC as we see in this article. (in which Doc was refering to in his piece)

Watch out, USC. Some influential folks in the NCAA are yearning to hammer a school that has strayed from its rules on recruiting and/or academics. So if what's published about Reggie Bush turns out to be the truth, the Trojans will be the first major football program in at least five years to face serious sanctions.

History would say otherwise. Recent examples, especially the Florida State academic fraud and the Alabama textbook cases, show the NCAA has spared the rod on its top programs. Probation and vacation of victories have replaced significant scholarship losses and postseason or television bans as popular punishment.

Once again we have another writer trying to connect the dots to make a conspiracy theory out of the Reggie Bush mess.

What many people seem to miss is that after 3 years of trying to sort the Bush mess out the NCAA still has nothing to report. If this was so cut and dry SC would have been hammered by now. The NCAA has to be careful NOT to come down too hard because they could find themselves in court over it.

If we are to believe the Sporting News writers contention that the NCAA "spared the rod" on FSU and Alabama then that is on the NCAA. FSU's scandal involved multiple players in multiple sports and Alabama was a repeat offender so how does the NCAA justify punishing USC hard for one rogue player WHOSE PARENTS were the ones that initially broke the rules. There maybe other issues that come up in regards to Bush but we haven't heard a lot on that other than unsubstantiated claims made by the accuser(s).

The battle lines have been drawn on this. No one knows just how it will shake out but many think SC will get minimal punishment unless some incredible earth shattering news comes to light. I mean after three years we have seen nothing leaked that could be damning...no investigation can keep things under wraps this long, sooner or later something is going to come out.

Chalk up another hater...

Uh Huh...Right

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:01:53 -0000

Uh Huh...Right

The Chicken or the Egg? Does the USC AD really know how to build a successful and profitable sports program?

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:10:52 -0000

Price Of Success

The smashing financial success of football under Pete Carroll actually works as a deterrent to spending an arm-and-leg on a basketball coach. If USC lose money in football or barely made money, there would be pressure to pay Jamie Dixon $2 million or more per year to get basketball going.

But with football bringing millions in profit, there's no urgency to make money on basketball, so that's why there were not any marquee names that almost got the job.

What?

I realize that I am not a Marshall School Grad let alone a college graduate but I think I am a pretty good businessman. I have been pretty successful in most of the sales jobs I have taken since I left the service so the thought process above makes absolutely no sense to me. If true, it takes another layer off the onion in how Mike Garrett really doesn't get the big picture.

Gordon Gekko said the following in the movie "Wall Street"...

"A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place."

This is one of my favorite movie lines of all time and I use it all the time...it also describes Mike Garrett perfectly.

If we are to believe what Scott Wolf writes above (and I do) then USC athletics is like a rudderless ship that jjst happened to make it to port.

I have have always been taught that you always reinvest many of your profits back into your business. Personnel first, equipment second, etc. So, it would seem to me that reinvesting our football profits into securing a top flight coach in basketball would be priority #1. I understand that the NCAA investigations are hurting us by scaring some away who might be interested in the job. But what has Garrett been doing in order to secure the future? If Floyd was the guy then why wasn't he locked up long term? By not doing that Floyd's eyes wandered over towards Tucson. That was the straw that broke the Camel's back and we saw our recruiting class explode and two of our underclassmen declare for the NBA (DeRozan was a foregone conclusion).

It is now clear to me that in the way the school handled the Floyd/Guillory allegation that they were fine with Floyd leaving. That they let Floyd twist in the wind denying his ability to stand up for himself in the wake of a pretty damning charge. Garrett looks at mens basketball like Steve Jobs looks at Apple TV...as a hobby. He has no real interest in making it a a top notch, top of the line product. (I am a HUGE Apple TV fan BTW).

I understand that the USC fan base in general is lethargic when it comes to basketball but if Garrett put more of a commitment into it he would see a huge amount of growth. Garrett tried to cut corners by allowing Floyd to go through with the Mayo recruitment. As I have stated ad nausea, Garrett knew who Guillory was and he still let him hang around the basketball program. He did nothing to protect the program when things were starting to grow. He didn't want Floyd bad enough to lock him up long term.

He instead took the attitude that it is a privilege to coach at USC...

That may be true for football but not basketball.

Floyd of course, is not blameless. His hypocritical statements that his players should stay to finish the task at hand as he is about to get on a plane to Arizona to interview for the head coaching position there didn't endear him to a whole lot of people...and we started seeing the results BEFORE the Floyd/Guillory allegation broke.

I have a hard time seeing how USC is taking basketball seriously with all the weird moves or non-moves that they have made.

Garrett is showing he out of his league on some of these things.

Yes, there are some who want to give Garrett credit for other USC coaching hires he has made in the 2nd tier sports. That's fine, I can see where those hires and their success on the field/court build up a sense of pride in the USC faithful but those sports don't pay the bills. Football and Basketball do!

Like DFW said in the comments...So, if football made less, basketball would invest more?

Is that really how Garrett and the AD think?

Heck, Garrett allowed the most storied baseball program in NCAA history to disappear from view with his hiring of Chad Kreuter. I mean they are not even competitive.

There are couple of great comments in the piece linked above...they are well worth the read.

I understand that Garrett is in a bit of a tough spot, but he did bring some of this if not all of this on himself. No one really knows what the future holds in regards to USC basketball. Kevin O'Neill is not a long term solution. There is nothing on his resume' that would indicate otherwise and until the NCAA hands down their findings Garrett will have a hard time marketing the virtues of the USC basketball program. And once the NCAA black cloud does depart the real work begins...rebuilding.

The question is will there be anything left to rebuild. Garrett and the AD have done in a few short weeks what the NCAA would never or could never do...completely decimate a program into a nuclear wasteland. Garrett's moves have set us back YEARS and I mean more than the token couple of years that the NCAA will probably hit us with.

So, back to my original question...the Chicken or the Egg?

Conquest Chronicles Links for July 2nd

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:23 -0000

Just throwing a few things out there today. More later...

Scout.com: 2010 Draft Spotlight: An "aMaysing" One
Great Write-up on Taylor Mays

USC's Mays and O'Dowd also earn Playboy All-American honors - Pac-10 - ESPN

Greg Hansen Sunday Notebook : USC, O'Neill a good fit | www.azstarnet.com ®
Some positive thought on Kevin O'Neill

Fault USC for the negative perception of the Big 10 " The Trojan Empire

Pac-10 commish Hansen opens up as he steps down - Pac-10 - ESPN
Meh...Miller seems mesmerized by Hansen. But he has shown us this before.

Jets Rookie QB Sanchez Feels He’ll be the Opening Day Starter " NFL Gridiron Gab
The Mark Sanchez-Kellen Clemens Jets QB battle that is set for training camp is expected to be one of the better QB battles to watch this summer.

BULLS: Bulls introduce James Johnson and Taj Gibson

Top 25 Intel: No. 4 USC ($ InSider)

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:36:33 -0000

Top 25 Intel: No. 4 USC ($ InSider)

The Trojans lose remarkable talent almost every year, but new players always await

Patrick Turner signs 4-year deal with the fish

Paragon SC — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:26:11 -0000

Patrick Turner gets a nice contract with the Miami Dolphins...

Rookie Patrick Turner arrived in South Florida with a lot to prove and immediately showed in rookie mini-camp he had a chance to develop into the big target at wide receiver the team needs.

The Dolphins have rewarded their third-round pick with a four-year deal worth roughly $2.3 million, including a signing bonus of $714,000, an NFL source confirmed.

Turner, who turned 22 last month, still has to sign the papers, but said today he’s glad to get his contract negotiations out of the way.

"Now it’s just football," Turner said during a youth camp at the NFL Rookie Symposium in Palm Beach Gardens. "That stuff is over and done with; it’s a good feeling."

Good for him!

Nice to see our guys get signed so they can focus on the football side of things..

Congats PT!

SB Nation User Blog: Paragon SC

Kevin O'Neill on Mason & Ireland 7/2

USC LB Campbell getting his confidence back

USC LB Campbell getting his confidence back

A Photo Montage of USC Football

Some rebuild, USC reloads

Some rebuild, USC reloads

Doc Saturday: "Don't hold your Breath"

Uh Huh...Right

The Chicken or the Egg? Does the USC AD really know how to build a successful and profitable sports program?

Price Of Success

Conquest Chronicles Links for July 2nd

Top 25 Intel: No. 4 USC ($ InSider)

Top 25 Intel: No. 4 USC ($ InSider)

Patrick Turner signs 4-year deal with the fish

FIGHT ON!