Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be rolling out our profiles of several of the top expected prospects in the 2008 NBA Draft. Figuring that we’re not the only ones who’ve thought of this, we decided to enlist some help by asking several of the best school-specific bloggers in the land to give us the up-close-and-personal profile of the players they’ve spent all year watching. For example, we probably watched OJ Mayo play 12 times this year, but we were limited by his games that were on national television and other competing games at the same time. These bloggers know these players – their strengths, their weaknesses, whether they become Black Mamba or channel C-Webb in the clutch, and what kind of team they would best fit with at the next level.

With that said, our first submission is from the most excellent USC blog, Conquest Chronicles. They’re clearly a football-centric blog over there at CC, but they do a solid job supporting and analyzing Tim Floyd’s program in addition to Pete Carroll’s.  Here is their post on the always-controversial OJ Mayo.

Player Profile – Ovinton J’Anthony (O.J.) Mayo

Ht: 6-4 / 6-5
Wt: 190-200lbs
Position: PG, SG
Date of Birth: 11/05/1987

OFFENSE –

Positives:

* Consistent in 3-Point Range.
 
* Ability to create and make big plays.
 
* Good ball handler and a great passer.

* Strong Basketball IQ.   

Negatives:

* Mid-Range Game – Solid, but could use improvement.

* Can be turnover prone – more turnovers than assists.

* Sometimes forgets he is on a team, tries to do too much on his own.

* Takes a lot of shots.

DEFENSE –

Positives:

* He has solid lateral movement and a nice wingspan, which helps him stick with quicker guards.

* His size allows him to guard bigger PG’s and SG’s. He will become a lock-down type of defender.

* His extensive AAU experience makes him a seasoned vet against top-notch players.  

* Knows how to play aggressive defense without getting into foul trouble.

Negatives:

* Tends to gamble and play over aggressively at times.

* Not strong off picks.

* Tends to float at times and let his player gain positioning for put-backs.

* Can struggle against physical/aggressive guards.  

ANALYSIS –

Not since LeBron James has a player been as hyped as much as O.J. Mayo has. The amount of press and exposure that Mayo garnered in the years before he ever set foot on a college court is staggering. Playing high school basketball from the time he was in seventh grade, Mayo had been dubbed by the media as the next big thing. As a high school senior, he averaged 29.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

He is an immediate impact player that can play both PG and SG. As a freshman at USC in 2007-08 Mayo averaged 20.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He recorded a 44.2 percent field-goal percentage and shot 40.9 percent from behind the arc. Mayo routinely makes highlight plays as he can seemingly score at will. He possesses poise and great all around skills; he is a fierce competitor. Mayo plays the game with a tremendous amount of confidence, desire and intensity. He has a great knowledge of the game, as it comes naturally to him.

Mayo led the Trojans in scoring, steals (51), three-pointers (88 ) and assists (109), while setting the single-season USC freshman record for points (684) and three-pointers. His total points were the second-most ever in a season for a USC player, and he ranks third in three-pointers in the school’s history. Mayo’s 20.7 ppg average is the second-highest in history for a freshman in the Pac-10, trailing only California’s Shareef Abdur-Rahim who netted an average of 21.1 ppg in 1995-96. He failed to score double-digit figures just once in his 33-game career.

Mayo is capable of guarding either the one or two position at the NBA level, and is particularly effective on the perimeter where he can force the issue. He proved himself on the defensive end of the court in a Dec. 4 overtime loss to Memphis, where he limited Derrick Rose to just nine points and four assists. Sometimes Mayo gets tunnel vision and wants to break down the whole defense by himself. Granted, he can get on a hot streak, but as the point guard, he needs to remember his teammates. He can sometimes get too enamored with the three-point shot.

Most feel that Mayo is a physical specimen with the ideal NBA body that most every team covets. He possesses the athleticism, versatility, and, most importantly, the talent needed to succeed at the next level. Most notable was the fluidity in which he executes his step-back and pull-up moves, particularly the agility and power in which he glides around with his sharp cuts, hops and strides to create space for himself on different parts of the floor, showing very little wasted movement and looking absolutely natural and incredibly confident executing very difficult sequences that will make him extremely difficult to defend at the next level.

Because Mayo has been hyped for such a long time, expectations at the next level could be unrealistic, so expectations should be tempered and his coaches at the next level need to keep Mayo from overextending himself to do too much. Those who watched him closely at USC say he could be one of the elite scorers in the NBA right off the bat and has the potential to become a special player for years to come.