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Very exciting news on the Rivals end …

Ryan Young
I’m just waiting for him to officially announce it himself, but Rivals has landed a major hire to be our new recruiting analyst in Texas/mid-central region. This guy has specifically been very on top of USC recruiting and been a thorn in my side the last two years, often breaking most of the June visitor reaction news and the like. Now he’s on our team. Couldn’t wait to share the news — should be officially announced soon.
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Football More perspective on the plan for Duce Robinson's two-sport juggle

Ryan Young
Here's everything Andy Stankiewicz told me about Duce Robinson's two-sport quest and how it's going to work this spring, as well as Lincoln Riley's comments on the matter.

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TrojanSports - Insight on the plan for WR Duce Robinson's two-sport juggle

Perspective from football coach Lincoln Riley and baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz on Duce Robinson's two-sport quest.
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TRUMPY USES "N-WORD" IN CAMPAIGN SPEECH YESTERDAY....!

rhinsd
You think BIDEN'S senile ......???? The Republican frontrunner in the race for his old job lashed out at his mounting legal woes during a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan Saturday. The guy is an unending source of entertainment and Jimmy Kimmel late night jokes ..... unbelievable.

“My whole life I didn’t know the "N-word"— I didn’t know what indictment actually meant,” Trump quipped at one point, veering off script.

🤣 🤣 🤣
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Football Trojan Talk (new feature): Lincoln Riley's QB comments only further signal 'Miller Time'

Ryan Young
As teased earlier, I want to start a semi-regular -- not saying it will be daily but as often as I have ideas for it -- feature that could be a quick column (like today), a focused analysis on something or someone, a strong take/opinion that is on my mind, could be a mini Roundtable focused on one specific matter, etc. Basically a conversation starter piece fairly regularly.

This is the first one ...

usc.rivals.com

Trojan Talk: Lincoln Riley's QB comments further signal 'Miller Time'

Launching our Trojan Talk series with a column on USC's QB situation and our takeaway from Lincoln Riley's comments.
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My notes on SC’s 92-89 2OT loss to Colorado

S
University of Colorado (CU) was founded in 1876, 5 months before statehood for our Centennial State. Two cities competed to be home to CU, the loser to be awarded the new Colorado State Prison. Boulder became the CU hub and Canyon City became the site of the Colorado State Prison. At the time, few Colorado high schools could adequately prepare students for university work, so a preparatory school was also formed on campus. In the fall of 1877, the student body consisted of 15 students in the college proper and 50 students in the preparatory school.

Today CU sits on 786 acres, has an enrollment of 37,153 (30,707 undergrad) and an endowment of $2.13B. USN&WR rank No. 105 for public schools, WSJ No. 246

Famous alumni include – 18 NASA astronauts incl: Scott Carpenter (2nd American to orbit Earth), Jack Swigert (Apollo 13), Kalpana Chawla (1st Indian-born American, died in Space Shuttle Columbia re-entry disaster), Ellison Onizuka (1st Asian-American in space, died in Space Shuttle Challenger launch disaster), Stuart Roosa (Apollo 14), Academy award winning actor Robert Redford, Actors Jonah Hill, Larry Linville (M*A*S*H), Joan Van Ark, Rise Against drummer Brandon Barnes, South Park & Book of Mormon co-creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone, Golfer Hale Irwin, Chipotle founder Steve Ellis, ESPNs Chris Fowler, 10x National Sportswriter of Year Rick Reilly, US Supreme Court justices Wiley Rutledge & Byron ‘Whizzer’ White (consensus AA, and 1940s NFL All-Decade Team) and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak- expelled for hacking university’s computer system - haha

CU Athletics: 29 NCAA championships – 20 Skiing, 5 Men’s & 3 Women’s Cross Country, 1990 Football, 1994 Heisman RB Rashaan Salaam, 9 Olympic Gold medals, 4 Silver, 7 Bronze

Colors- Silver, Black & Gold, nickname Buffaloes since 1934 (aka Frontiersmen, Silver Helmets), live mascot is female American Bison named Ralphie, costumed mascot is ‘Chip’, band: Golden Buffalo Marching Band, 3 Fight Songs: Glory Colorado, Go Colorado, Fight CU

Basketball started in 1901-02 (1294-1197, .519), 2 Final Fours (1942, 1955), 6 Elite Eights, 5 Sweet Sixteen, 15 NCAA appearances (last 2021), 14 Mountain States Conf. championships, 5 Big Eight championships, 2012 Pac-12 Tourney title, No Naismith Memorial HOF inductees, 2 retired numbers: 20 – Cliff Meely, 22 – Burdette Haldorson, two 2nd Team AP AA’s, 10 1st Team All-Pac-12 players, 36 NBA draft picks – Nine 1st rd (Derrick White, Andre Roberson, Alec Burks, David Harrison, Chauncey Billups, Shaun Vandiver, Jay Humphries, Scott Wedman, Cliff Meely), 3 current NBA players(Burks, White, Jabari Walker)

Winningest coaches: Russell ‘Sox’ Walseth 261-245 (.516), Tad Boyle (19th head coach) 288-179 (.617)

Tad Boyle (14th season): 6 NCAAs & 5 NITs, Previous: Northern Colorado (56-66, .459)

CU all-time vs. USC (17-10, .629). First met in 1940 (SC won 38-32), CU has won 7 of 10

Currently: 16-9 (7-7), W: MSU Denver, Towson, Grambling, Milwaukee, Richmond, Iona, Pepperdine, Miami, Northern Colorado, Utah Tech, UW, WSU, USC, Oregon, OSU, ASU: L: Florida St, Colo St, AZ 2, ASU, Cal, WSU, Utah, UCLA. Colorado is 1-7 in true road games!

CU NET 42, KenPom 37 (SC NET 105, KenPom 103)

CU scores 79.8 ppg (+7.8), 49.3% FG (Pac No. 1), 38.7% 3FG, 6.6 3’s/g, 79.0% FT. Rebs 37.2 rpg (+7.1), Assists 16.0 pg, 13.2 TO (-1.8), 15.5 ppg off TO, Steals 6.3, Blks 2.4

CU Leaders

Scoring: KJ Simpson 18.8 ppg (Pac No. 4) (48.6% FG, 42.6% 3FG, 89.0% FT), Tristan da Silva 15.5 ppg (48.6% FG, 38.2% 3FG, 82.1% FT), Cody Williams 14.3 ppg (58.2% FG, 48.5% 3FG, 71.2% FT), J’Vonne Hadley 11.3 ppg (55.0% FG, 44% 3FG, 83.9% FT), Eddie Lampkin, Jr 10.0 ppg (55.2% FG, 0 3FG att, 69.4% FT)

Rebounds: Lampkin 7.2 pg, Hadley 5.7, Simpson 5.5, Assists – Simpson 4.6 (Pac No. 4), Steals – Simpson 1.8 (Pac No. 3), Blks – Williams 0.8

SC scores: 74.1 ppg (-0.8), 44.5% FG, 34.5% 3FG, 7.7 3’s/g, 68.6% FT, Rebs 35.6 rpg (-1.1), Assists 15.9 apg, TOs 12.8 pg (+0.2), 14.6 ppg/TO, Steals 6.7, Blks 5.3 (Pac No. 1)

SC Leaders

Scoring: Boogie 16.1 ppg (42.1% FG, 40.4% 3FG (Pac No. 1 - 2.9 3’s/g), 73.4% FT), Collier 15.7 ppg (48.6% FG, 30.9% 3FG, 66.7% FT), Kobe 10.2 ppg (37.2% FG, 27.3% 3FG, 71.7% FT)

Rebounds: DJ 5.0 pg, Kobe 4.3, Vince 4.2, Assists – Collier 4.1 apg (Pac No. 5), Kobe 3.3, Steals Kobe 1.8 (Pac No. 2), Blks – Josh 2.4 (Pac No. 1)

Pregame

The founders were treated to a repeat visit from Chris Capko – says he’s superstitious so showed up in the same outfit, adding we were lucky he had washed it - laughter. He said, “until we lose, you are stuck with me.” Last time in the FR, Capko said “we talked about rebounding and guarding the 3 pt line, and it’s amazing how that worked. We held them to only 4 2nd chance pts, and 4-19 threes and we only had 8 TOs, the only thing we talked about that didn’t work was FTs.”

We are starting the same lineup - all players are available. We are trying to build momentum as we get to the Pac-12 tournament. We moved to Q&A:

On Boogie, he noted that he is the focus of every team’s defense, and it is hard to score against that. Trying to get him to score w/o the ball - set screens, cut to the basket, get to the FT line.

On whether any leaders had emerged, he (surprisingly) said Kijani and Harry, who he said are mature, speak well, play hard and are respected by their teammates.

On why our bigs get stripped of the ball so much. He said their rule of thumb for the bigs is “both feet in the paint, just go up, don’t need to dribble” - to encourage them to get better post position and not put the ball on the floor.

The arena is filling up to an announced 6142 fans, many CU fans are here for KJ Simpson (attended nearby West Hills Chaminade). NBA scouts are here to see projected lottery picks Cody Williams & Collier, also da Silva, Boogie, Kobe and of course Bronny.

Trent Perry, Trinity Rodman, Drew Peterson, Big O, both Mobley’s are in attendance. The crowd welcomes our former players with ovations.

ESPN analyst Sean Farnham visits with his family a few rows in front of me. Sean was a UCLA walk on, who upon graduation was hired by Pepperdine coach Jan van Breda Koff and became nation’s youngest assistant. After one yr, he began a 10-yr stint at Fox Sports West & Fox Sports Radio before joining ESPN in 2010. His wife’s uncle is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, and in 2012, he launched Hoops From Home, a non-profit organization that brought basketball camps to children of military personnel on military bases.

Game

SC started well with Kobe looking like Kobe and the Big 3 performing like they did in the first Stanford game. It was a back-and-forth affair and SC led 39-33 at half. SC shot 51.6% FG, CU 50%. CU outrebounded SC 19-8. SC outblocked CU 5-0.

In the game, SC led for 34 minutes of regulation and held a 16 pt lead (65-49) after a Collier alley-oop to Bronny for a spectacular bucket-and-one with 9:52 left in regulation. But Bronny missed the FT, the start of missed FTs by several players at critical times, the last being a Collier miss at 11 secs that would have won the game. Still, SC led until CU tied it up 73-73 with 3 secs left in regulation. Kobe missed a 3 at the buzzer and we headed to OT.

In the last 9:52 KJ scored 14 pts as CU outscored SC 24-8 to force the 1st OT.

When SC was up big, Collier seemed to put the offense in cruise control with no sense of urgency, needlessly running the clock down only for the team to throw up bad shots with the clock expiring. They also missed 5 or 6 layups in the final crucial minutes.

Josh fouling out (questionable call) in the 1st OT was a big blow. It softened our defense and allowed KJ to penetrate repeatedly with no fear of getting blocked.

SC was outrebounded 54-27. CUs extra rebounds led to 17 2nd chance pts to SC’s 10. Why this team can’t rebound is beyond me. Vince had 0 rebs in 13 mins! Josh, Kijani, Arrinten combined for 7 rebs. Vince was passive and looked lost. His minutes should have gone to Kijani. I kept yelling for Enfield to put Kijani in, but he must see something in Vince that I don’t, because he kept using him first.

Final stats

CU shot 52.5% FG (31-59), 45% 3FG (9-20), 72.4% FT (21-29) - 6-6 FTs in 2nd OT; 47 rebs, 15 assts, 21 TO, 2 blks, 5 stls

KJ led with 30 pts, da Silva 18, Williams 14, Hadley 13. Hadley had 10 rebs, KJ 9, da Silva 8.

SC shot 46.6% FG (34-73), 42.9% 3FG (9-21), 70.6% FT (12-17); 22 rebs, 22 assts, 8 blks,11 stls

Boogie scored 30 pts (4th 30-pt game of his career), Collier 25, Kobe 14. 3 players had 4 rebs, Collier had a career high 9 assts, Josh 5 blks (8th game with 4 or more), Kobe 4 stls - giving him 134 in his career, tying Sam Clancy for 10th on SC’s all-time list.

Boogie’s 5 made 3’s moved him past Desmon Farmer (203) to 6th all-time at SC (205), Brandon Granville is 5th (218).

With the 92-89 2OT loss, USC falls to 10-16, 4-11, Colorado moves to 17-9, 8-7. SC is 0-3 in OT games this season. Hopefully, this is the last time SC plays CU, because I cannot stand Tad Boyle, who was last seen jumping up and down after the win. I just wanna punch him in the face!

Up next: Feb. 24 at ucla (14-11, 9-5, game vs Utah still in progress), 7:00 p.m. on ESPN. That game will be followed by the WA roadtrip and the season finishes with SC hosting the AZ schools. Will SC put things together in time to win a few games in the Pac-12 Tournament. I wouldn’t bet on it.

Fight on! Beat the bruins!
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My notes on SC’s 68-64 win over Utah

S
The University of Utah (UU) was established in 1850 as University of Deseret by General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, a proposed U.S. state by the leaders of the LDS church. A provisional state government operated for ~ 2 yrs but was never recognized by the U.S. government. UU received its current name in 1892, 4 yrs before Utah became a state. Moved to its current location in Salt Lake City in 1900.

UU sits on 400 acres, enrollment of 37,121 (32,014 undergrad), $1.31B endowment. USN&WR rank No. 115 for public schools, WSJ No. 43 (highest ranked public school in west)

Famous alumni include– Robert Jarvik developer of artificial heart, cardiothoracic surgeon William DeVries performed 1st artificial heart transplant, Jim Clark founder Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Simon Ramo father of the ICBM, John Warnock co-founder Adobe Systems, Nolan Bushnell founder Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, Ed Catmull co-founder Pixar, J. Willard Marriott founder Marriott International, David Neeleman founder Jet Blue, Alan Kay father Object-Oriented Programming, Gordon Gee past president Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Brown, Colorado, Evelyn Wood speed reading innovator

Utah Athletics: 25 NCAA championships – 15 Skiing, 9 Women’s Gymnastics, 1 Men’s Bball

Colors- Red & White, nicknames Utes, Runnin’ Utes (bball), Red Rocks (gymnastics), mascot originally an American Indian, replaced in 1996 by Swoop (a body-suited red-tailed hawk), Marching band is Pride of Utah, Fight Song is Utah Man

Basketball started in 1908 (1,858 -1,052, .638), 1944 NCAA Champs, 1998 NCAA runner-up, 4 Final Fours, 6 Elite Eights, 16 Sweet Sixteen, 29 NCAA appearances (last 2016), 29 Conf. championships (incl: RMC, MSC, WAC, MW), 3 WAC & 4 MW tourney championships. Naismith Memorial HOF coach Jack Gardner, AP National POY Andrew Bogut, No. 1 pick in 2005 NBA Draft (making UU only school in NCAA history with No. 1 pick in Bball and Football (Alex Smith) in same year. 7 retired numbers (4- Bogut, 12- Billy McGill, 22- Arnie Ferrin, 23- Danny Vranes, 24- Andre Miller, 33-Vern Gardner, 44-Keith Van Horn), 5 AP 1st Team AA’s, 10 Conf POY (Jakob Poeltl 2016 Pac-12), 7 1st Rd NBA draft picks (since ’93), 3 current NBA - Delon Wright, Kyle Kuzma, Poeltl

Winningest coaches: Vadal Peterson 385-230, Jack Gardner 339-154, Rick Majerus 323-95, Larry Krystowiak 137-96

Current coach: Craig Smith (3rd season): 43-44, .494. At Utah St 74-24 (2019 MW COY), .755, 3 NCAAs, South Dakota 79-55, .590, NIT, Mayville State 72-29, .713, 3 NAIA Div II appearances, 2007 NAIA D-II COY.

All-time vs. USC (26-26, .500), SC won last 5

Currently: 15-9 (6-7), W: Westminster, EWU, UCR, Wake Forest, St. Mary’s, Hawai’i, So. Utah, BYU, Utah Valley, Bellarmine, WSU, UW, UCLA, OSU, Oregon, Colorado; L: Houston, St. John’s, ASU 2, AZ 2, Stanford, WSU, UW

Utah NET 47, KenPom 44 (Note: SC NET 108, KenPom 104)

Utah scores 79.2 ppg +6.0), 47.0% FG, 36.4% 3FG, 8.9 3’s/g, 65.5% FT. Rebs 39.6 rpg (+2.6), Assists 17.6 pg, 11.8 TO (-1.0), 13.2 ppg off TO, Steals 6.3, Blks 4.5

Utah Leaders

Scoring: Branden Carlson 17.0 ppg (47.1% FG, 33.3% 3FG, 69.2% FT), Gabe Madsen 13.1 ppg (45.7% FG, 40.9% 3FG, 75.0% FT), Deivon Smith 10.7 ppg (43.0% FG, 36.1% 3FG, 60.0% FT),

Rebounds: Branden Carlson 7.0 pg, Keba Keita 6.4, Assists - Smith 5.8 (No. 2 Pac), Steals – Madsen 1.6, Blks – Branden Carlson 1.4 (No. 3 Pac)

SC scores: 74.4 ppg (-0.9), 44.7% FG, 35.2% 3FG, 7.8 3’s/g, 68.9% FT, Rebs 35.7 rpg (-0.9), Assists 15.7 apg, TOs 13.0 pg (+0.0), 14.8 ppg/TO, Steals 6.6, Blks 5.3

SC Leaders

Scoring: Boogie 16.4 ppg (42.9% FG, 42.3% 3FG, 76.3% FT), Collier 15.8 ppg (49.2% FG, 32.7% 3FG, 65.8% FT), Kobe 10.2 ppg (37.2% FG, 27.7% 3FG, 71.7% FT)

Rebounds: DJ 4.9 pg, Kobe 4.3, Vince 4.3, Assists – Collier 4.0 apg (No. 5 Pac), Kobe 3.4, Steals Kobe 1.9 (No. 2 Pac), Blks – Josh 2.4 (No. 1 Pac)

Pregame

I was sure most people would have better things to do than sit thru another loss, but after watching SC basketball for >40 yrs, I have seen worse, so I headed to Galen to support the team, because that’s what real fans do.

Founder’s Room is mostly empty. Who will Enfield send to address the embarrassing loss to mediocre Stanford? He sends crowd favorite Chris Capko to defuse any potential pent-up hostility.

After thanking people for still showing up, he says the team was told practice would be tough this week, and if they weren’t ready to go hard, they should go home. No one quit. They had 3 spirited practices that he hoped would be a leading indicator of their play tonight. At this point in the season, it’s no secret we aren’t playing good defense, man or zone, or rebounding well and he hoped the work they were putting in at practice would finally show up in games.

They will return to the original starting lineup of Boogie, Kobie, Josh, DJ and Isaiah, hoping that experience pays off. He says, ‘I will throw it open for suggestions, I know someone has some for me, c’mon who has suggestions?’ He gets questions instead. Regarding Utah, they are very experienced (Sr Carlson served a 2-yr mission and is 25!), they shoot well and are big, playing two 7-footers. Watch for 3-pt shooter Madsen shoot-first PG Smith. We want to take away their 3-pt shooting, after Stanford made a school record 19. He says it may not look like it, but they are really emphasizing rebounding in practice. Boogie is still hobbled but healing and needs to be better with moving without the ball and setting screens. Last question is “how often do you practice FTs?” (laughter from the room). Capko said ‘honestly every other day, because you can only really work on fixing one thing each practice.’

Going into the arena, it appears pretty empty, but a late-arriving crowd boosts attendance to 5211. I spot former Assistant Jason Hart (G-League Ignite coach), Drew Peterson, Demar DeRozan, Trinity Rodman and incoming PG Trent Perry. At halftime, DJ Malski calls up LA hip-hop artist r3chilibearz to make a ‘Shot for a Shirt.’ FT missed - no shirt for Mr. chilibearz – haha.

The Utes look overconfident in warmups, especially Madsen who has a smug face that you wanna punch. You know the saying “on any given night”, well I’m hoping tonight they get their comeuppance!

Game

Right off the bat (wrong sports idiom?) SC comes out with energy and looks ready to compete. It’s a welcome change, as is Kobe emerging from his funk and scoring the first 2 SC buckets. SC is playing tough defense and moving the ball on offense. The game was tied at 6-6, but SC would take the lead at 15:30 and stretch it to 24-11 at 8:00, on a Kobe 3FG, the largest lead of the game. UU wasn’t shooting well, but managed to cut the lead to 5 pts, 34-29 at the half.

SC clamped down on Madsen, holding him to 2 pts and 0-2 3FGs. Carlson was also a non-factor with only 5 pts, all coming in the last 1:58 min. PF Keba Keita and Smith supplied most of UU’s points.

SC was led by Kobe and Collier with 7 pts each. SC played an 8-man rotation, and all scored. They had 13 assists on their 14 baskets.

For the half:

UU shot 34.4% FG (11-32), 8.3% 3FG (1-12), 85.7% FT (6-7), 21 rebs, 5 assists

SC shot 42.4% FG (14-33), 28.6% 3FG (4-14), 40% FT (2-5), 16 rebs, 13 assists

2nd Half

SC scored the first 4 pts for a 38-29 lead and maintained a 9 pt lead until 45-36 on Vince’s jumper at 16:17. A 15-4 run by the Utes, capped by Cole Bajema’s three at 13:05 gave them a short-lived lead at 51-49. SC went on a 9-0 run to go up 7 pts 58-51at 8:33 and looked to have a comfortable 8 pt lead at 3:46, but nothing comes easy for SC. UU cut the lead to 2 pts 66-64 at 2:01 and after back and forth missed shots, Boogie was at the line with 11 secs remaining for a 1 and 1, and a chance to put the game away. He missed the front end and Smith grabbed the rebound and sped down the court for a game tying lay-up, except Josh Morgan swatted the shot off the glass from behind, without fouling and with 6 secs left the long rebound was grabbed by Rodman who tore down the court for a layup at the buzzer.

Trojans win 68-64! Man it feels great to win!

Final Stats

UU shot 36.7% FG (22-60), 19% 3FG (4-21), 75.2% FT; 39 rebs, 14 assists, 13 TO, 4 blks, 5 stls

SC shot 40.6% FG (26-64), 20% 3FG (5-25), 61.1% FT (11-18), 34 rebs, 20 assts, 8 TO, 7 blks, 10 stls

The Trojans played the type of defense Andy Enfield’s teams are known for but haven’t been able to find much this season. After giving up 19 threes to Stanford, they allowed only 4 tonight. A lot of struggling teams would have quit after the 31-point loss, but for SC this game was about pride.

For UU, Smith scored 19, Carlson 15. Smith led with 9 rebs & 7 assts, Keita led with 2 steals & 2 blks.

For SC, Collier scored 15, Rodman 12 pts & team-high 7 rebs, Collier led with 6 assts, Josh with 4 blks, Boogie with 4 stls.

SC moves to 10-15 (4-10), while Utah drops to 15-10 (6-8).

Next up for SC is Colorado 16-9 (7-7), at 7 pm Saturday at Galen. It’s rumored that SC basketball alums on NBA All-Star break may attend this game.

Fight on! Beat the Buffs!
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Football Press conferences with Lincoln Riley and new defensive coaches TODAY

Ryan Young
The order is …

10:30 Lincoln Riley
11:00 D’Anton Lynn
11:30 Eric Henderson
12:00 Matt Entz
12:30 Doug Belk

Every outlet was limited to bringing two people so Jeff and myself will be there, with Matt chipping in from home.

We aim to have a YouTube livestream for you. And we’ll drop notable updates in the thread here.

All videos will be posted afterward too, and I’ll work on transcripts and stories.
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