I Can't Complain (but sometimes I still do)

Ucla beat USC last night 70-65 in Men's Basketball last night, largely thanks to a discrepancy in free throw shooting in the amount of 31-5. What this means is that the game officials determined that a USC player was fouled in the act of shooting just twice in a span of 40 minutes of basketball.

Twice.

Two.

2.

How this happened, I have no idea. USC attempted 52 field goals in the game, and had 13 turnovers that may or may not have been the result of non-calls. That's roughly 65 times down the court, and only twice did a shooting foul call go USC's way. It would be interesting to find out how the Pac10 Office of Officiating could explain this. Compounding this problem was Lod Stewart's technical as a result of anger after a teammate was called for a foul. Usually technicals are assessed on the player who complains about a foul they are personally charged with. Rarely does a teammate complain about another teammate being charged a foul. Unless it was bullshit. And the whole night was full of it.

Quick analysis:

Ucla attempted 13 free throws in the last 1:12 of the game as a result of USC's intentional-end-of-the-game fouling strategy. USC attempted 0 free throws in this time. Therefore the meaningful discrepancy is 18 to 5. If USC had 13 more free throw attempts at a (measly) 60.0% FT shooting percentage, it would have resulted in 7-8 points.

To go a step further, had the free throw attempts been equal, USC might have been leading 62-59 with 1:12 left in the game, and Ucla would have had to foul. USC may or may not have hit their foul shots to secure the win, like Ucla did do (to their credit). Still, it would have been nice to not have officials factor so heavily into a loss.

It's a very exciting time in the world of college football: National Letter of Intent Day.

A big Fight On! to RB Joe McKnight for having the courage to ignore hometown pressure in Louisianna and travel across the country to play at the University of Southern California. Same to RB Broderick Green for reaffirming his earlier commitment to leave the State of Arkansas to go to USC.

And an even bigger Fight On! to recruits like LB Chris Galippo, RB Marc Tyler, DE Everson Griffen and LB/FB Jordan Campbell who committed early and devoted themselves to convincing their peers to join them at USC.

The excitement about Pete Carroll's program is infectious. I'm jacked up right now! Maybe I'll go tackle my boss ...

My personal theory about what actually happened in the "Reggie Bush Situation":

LaMarr Griffin (Reggie Bush's stepdad) knew Lloyd Lake (the felon) because they grew up in the same neighborhood. At some point, Lake and Griffin get together and Griffin says starting a agency would be a good idea - even though nobody involved knows what the hell they are doing. So Lake says he knows a guy named Michael Michaels who has resources (because he invests in Real Estate and is a member of a Tribe that runs Indian Casinos). So these bumbling idiots try to start an agency and fail, because they can't get extra funding from a San Diego-area Indian Tribe, and their job offers get turned down by real, NFL-certified, agents. They have a sports marketing company in name only. If they ever employed an actual agent, they would have called it an agency instead. No employees. No office. No company transactions. Then Lake does something stupid and goes to prison. Reggie and the Griffins decide they can't mess around, and go with a top-notch agent. Instead of these clowns - who could never get to the point where they could have represented Reggie anyway.

So Lake cries foul and starts making wild accusations to Yahoo! Sports, grossly overestimating money owed to him. Griffin says, hey these were personal loans between friends (credit card debt and housing situation), not part of a failed business venture. Lake says his money is always business and threatens to sue. The Griffins and Bush say it is extortion and call the Feds to investigate. Lake/Michaels threatens to keep tarnishing Bush reputation until he pays up. Then at some point Lake and Micheals find out that if they call any loans are business and not personal, jeopardizing Bush's NCAA eligibility, then they could go to jail for violating the state's Agent Law. Michaels was always more of a financial investor, doesn't want to go to jail, hires his own attorney and separates himself from Lake.

So now it seems they just want a lower settlement, and are still using Yahoo! Sports to pressure Bush. Yahoo! Sports is overjoyed at continuing to be puppets for a convicted felon's attempts to extort money from Bush and ruin his reputation. Bush and the Griffins maybe are listening to offers, or maybe they are telling Lake's attorney and Micheals' attorney to perform an anatomically-impossible sexual act.

As some of you may know, I spend a considerable amount of time over at WeAreSC.com's football message board. However, recently the Scout.com network determined that a switch had to be made and the old EzBoard site that I have grown to love over the years had to die off.

I'm feeling very nostalgic about the old football message board. It's not that I fear change, or that I want to elicit a spanking from female posters Kitana and uscvball (this is what they are threatening posters with who refuse to move over to the new board - Well, everybody but me, probably because I don't flirt with them since I actually encourage The Wife to read what I post on the message boards). I just like this old site, and I'm sad to see it go.

Since I started posting over 3 years ago, alot of good posters have come and gone, and alot of good threads have come and gone.

Many memories have gone too. It won't be long before there is a new bunch of posters who don't even remember the old system.