Updates: OJ Mayo

The Daily Trojan’s Peter Simones profiles freshman guard OJ Mayo in Tuesday’s edition, and like others who have written about the new Trojan recently, he comes away impressed with Mayo’s dedication and character after observing him in the gym over the summer. The writer’s conclusion:
“For someone with as much natural talent as Mayo, his work […]

Though it’s not necessarily groundbreaking news, Ben Bloch of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that O.J. Mayo intends to return for a second year with USC unless he is guaranteed to be a lottery pick in the NBA draft, which just about everyone thinks he will be. As he’s stated previously, coach Tim Floyd […]

On Monday at the Galen Center, the Trojans’ held their first practice of the year to include their full roster (save for freshman PG Angelo Johnson, who still awaits word from the NCAA Clearinghouse), as the incoming freshmen participated for the first time. Naturally, all post-practice attention was on freshman OJ Mayo, and his new […]

Running in Monday’s LA Times is the first of what will no doubt be many OJ Mayo profiles, as today the freshman guard officially joins his teammates in practice for the first time, and begins his first–and probably last–fall semester at USC. In the article are a few more tales of Mayo’s professionalism, work ethic […]

CSTV.com has published an interview between that site’s Steve Brauntuch and Trojan head basketball coach Tim Floyd. The coach answers questions about building up the USC program, recruiting, playing at the Galen Center, and coaching OJ Mayo. He also addresses the controversy surrounding his recruiting of junior high school players.
Coach’s Q&A: Tim Floyd (CSTV)

Although Brandon Jennings is a year away from running a college basketball team, he has already started running his mouth. The highly-recruited point guard, who originally committed to play for the Trojans, only to change his mind and agree to play for Arizona, had this to say recently:
“I don’t […]

HoopsVibe.com has published an article speculating on the marketability of freshman guard OJ Mayo, noting that recent NBA draft pick Kevin Durant just signed a $60 million deal with Nike, and LeBron James secured $90 million from the shoe company before he was even drafted. Analysts are predicting similar numbers for Mayo, suggesting that he […]

Scott Wolf reports on his blog that O.J. Mayo is taking his position as the leader of the young Trojan hoops team seriously by “mak[ing] sure all four freshman show up every morning at 7:30 to lift weights and also makes sure they attend afternoon skill sessions.” So if Mayo is, in fact, only going to be with […]

KCBS ran a story on Kobe Bryant’s academy this week, which the Laker (for now) star held to teach basketball skills to elementary schoolers. You may want to jump ahead to the last 20 or so seconds of the video, when Professor Kobe’s special guest, Trojan freshman guard OJ Mayo, takes on Bryant in an […]

Mark Saxon of the OC Register has a nice profile of Trojan freshman OJ Mayo. There’s not a whole lot of new information, but we learn what classes he’s been taking at USC over the summer (Geography and “Race, Class and Gender in American Film”) and, more importantly, that he is “changing the culture” of […]