The Trojans’ first Midnight Madness event in five years, held last night at the Galen Center in front of approximately 5,000 fans, included a defense-less intra-squad scrimmage, a slam dunk contest, and more. Freshman OJ Mayo chose not to participate in his the dunk contest–and his team actually lost the scrimmage–but otherwise impressed fans, who gave him and sophomore Taj Gibson the loudest ovations during introductions. The most impressive player on the evening, however, was redshirt freshman forward Kasey Cunningham, who won the dunk contest and whose team dominated in the scrimmage thanks to his 16 points. Freshman big man Mamadou Diarra also scored 18 for the winning squad. Some additional notes:

• The Trojans have a third injured player, in addition to Daniel Hackett (broken jaw) and Davon Jefferson (knee):  Dwight Lewis was held out of Friday’s events with a bruised quadriceps, which he sustained last week when he was repeatedly kicked in the same place during some pickup games (and no, not by Mayo). He should be back in a few days.
• Hackett expects to have the wire removed from his jaw in about a month. At that point, it will probably take him at least several weeks to get back into game shape and get some practices under his belt.
• Mayo was forced to deny some completely groundless rumors circulating (mostly on UCLA websites) that his elbow to Hackett’s jaw was intentional.
• The Times reports that Galen Center has some additional scoreboards and new signage this year, although half of the luxury suites are still incomplete.

Trojans throw in some chaos with the madness (LA Times)
USC shows off freshman OJ Mayo at Midnight Madness (AP via SI.com)
Midnight Madness Recap (All Things Trojan)
Plenty of points in USC scrimmage (CSTV)
OJ has arrived (CSTV)