Updates from October 15th, 2007

USA Today’s special college basketball preview section features USC’s OJ Mayo and UCLA’s Kevin Love on the cover, and an article on the two heralded freshmen inside. There’s no new information, but the profile does a good job recounting Mayo’s basketball career to date.
Big lights, big hopes for Mayo, Love in Los Angeles (USA Today)

ESPN has posted Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook’s detailed, player-by-player preview of USC’s 2007-08 men’s basketball squad. (Note that while the content is indicated as being available to ESPN Insiders only, it appears to be viewable by non-Insiders as well, at least for now.) Their analysis predicts this year’s team to finish with similar results […]

USC freshman Marcus Simmons turned an ankle during Saturday’s practice and was held out of Sunday’s session. Coach Tim Floyd, according to the LA Times, has set no timetable for his return because Simmons can’t put any pressure on the ankle at this point.
Floyd puts focus on defense (LA Times)

Ben Block of the LA Times profiles USC’s freshman cetner Mamadou Diarra, who hails from the West African country of Mali by way of basketball factory Stoneridge Prep of Simi Valley.  The seven-footer can no doubt make an uncontested dunk, but facing Kevin Love (UCLA) or Brook & Robin Lopez (Stanford) will test his underdeveloped defensive […]

It certainly is an off year for one of college sports’ greatest intersectional rivalries. Saturday’s 79th matchup between USC (5-1, 3-1) and Notre Dame (1-6) pits a Trojan team that is sinking in the polls against a woeful Fighting Irish squad having one of its worst seasons in recent memory. Both teams have been struggling […]