1. First things first — more on the Shabazz Muhammad saga. Yesterday, the Muhammad family released a statement to the LA Times expressing their displeasure with the NCAA in this process. Probably the most interesting nugget out of this statement was the family’s claim that the NCAA previously promised the family it wouldn’t release a statement on the situation a week prior to ruling that Muhammad is ineligible for competition, and then saying that the NCAA’s accompanying statement on the matter was inaccurate in its portrayal of the investigation. Their main gripe is that they say Benjamin Lincoln (the financial advisor in question) received permission by the NCAA for Lincoln to pay for airline tickets and hotel rooms for Muhammad to take his unofficial visits to Duke and North Carolina. Allegations of shady activity on the NCAA’s part is nothing new, and it has been tough to decipher exactly what is going on for the most part, but it will be interesting to see what effect, if any, this latest Muhammad family statement will have on the situation. This is the first time we have heard from the Muhammad family, which did not want to face more repercussions from the NCAA. A direct response by to this statement is highly unlikely, but perhaps it will expedite things in terms of getting Muhammad cleared to play for UCLA.
2. More good recruiting news came for the Pac-12 when Long Beach Poly prospect Jordan Bell verbally committed to Oregon over Auburn yesterday. Bell is a 6’7’’ three-star power forward who is known for his shot-blocking ability and overall freakish athleticism, but is considered to be very raw with a limited offensive skill set. Another way to judge a recruit, albeit completely unscientific and wholly superficial, is to see which other schools were vying for his services. Auburn isn’t a school that will impress anybody, but Connecdticut and Kansas State were also reportedly in the mix before Bell narrowed it down to the Ducks and Tigers. It could very well be the case where UConn and K-State have better prospects at the “4” and over-recruited the power forward position, but a quick check at their prospect lists reveal that neither team currently has a power forward commitment. Bell now joins twins Tyrell and Tyree Robinson (Tyree is a four-star prospect according to Scout) and unranked shooting guard Fred Richardson as part of the Class of 2013 for Dana Altman; the Robinson brothers also plan on playing football for Chip Kelly.
3. An injury update in Corvallis: Oregon State sophomore forward Daniel Gomis is still not cleared to play after suffering an ankle injury a few weeks back, though the team should have a better idea on when he will be good to go once Oregon State returns from New York for the 2K Sports Classic. Although Craig Robinson cannot comment directly on the injury, the report suggests that things are looking up for Gomis. The article also mentioned that Gomis was walking around practice earlier this week and helping out in a drill, and it would be good to finally see this kid play after missing last year recovering from a broken leg. He was ranked the 22nd-best power forward and 95th^–best player in the nation by Scout out of the famed Oak Hill Academy, so it will be interesting to see what the native Senegalese post can do at the collegiate level. However, it might be tough for him to immediately break into a frontcourt that features Angus Brandt, Eric Moreland and Joe Burton up front.
4. Pat Forde recently released his 25 most interesting non-conference games to watch in November and December, and it featured a few games involving Pac-12 constituents: the Legends Classic final (which could be between UCLA and Indiana), Florida at Arizona, Missouri at UCLA and San Diego State vs. UCLA. It’s no shock that the non-conference games national writers are most interested in involve the teams that are predicted to go 1-2 in the Pac-12, but there are plenty of other huge non-conference games out there for the Pac-12, some of which we detailed on the Pac-12 microsite weeks ago. That said, it’s of the most benefit to the conference for UCLA and Arizona to win against the big boys of the other power conferences, because these are the games that most people around the country will be watching. As such, these are the games that will largely make or break the reputation of the Pac-12 in 2012-13.
5. Well there goes the dream of a perfect November and December. It took five days of real competition, but the Pac-12 became the last conference to lose a game this year. It wasn’t a good loss either; Washington lost at home to Albany last night by one point. The Great Danes were picked to finish fourth in the America East, fresh off a 19-15 record as part of a league that finished 29th in conference RPI (out of 32). Granted, you can’t make too much out of one non-conference game — especially one in which Scott Suggs lasted just two minutes before leaving with an apparent head injury — but this certainly isn’t a good look for a league that is desperately trying to repair its national reputation. Our Adam Butler will have more on the story later today, but this isn’t the first time Washington has pulled this stunt.

Coming out of another slow weekend on the news front…

• This NY Times story about Bol Kong, a Sudanese expatriate and college basketball player in British Columbia who has lived in Canada since age 7, shows once again the ridiculous of some of our leaders’ anti-terror measures.
• Following up on the Orlando Predraft Camp, DraftExpress gives their wrap-up takes here and also takes a really interesting look at some historical tidbits of the predraft measurements (yes, Shaq was always a beast).
• Chad Ford has his updated draft list – OJ Mayo is movin’ on up (maybe because of Lebron’s agent?)…
• Gary Parrish writes something about buying a BMW at the NBA Draft… whereas Luke Winn breaks down the top eight fence-sitters as the early entry deadline to return to school approaches on June 16.
• Echoing what we were wondering about the media’s culpability on the OJ Mayo situation, BruinsNation takes the LA Times to task for completely dropping the ball on what is going on over at USC. Keep up the pressure, fellas.
• From the what-else-is-new category, South Carolina’s Devan Downey’s assault charges were dropped. Curtis Lowery, the assaulted, must have gotten got to.
• Longtime Big East commish Mike Tranghese, who wiht Dave Gavitt shepherded the league into the ESPN era in basketball, created a football conference where there previously was none, and is responsible for the current 16-team abomination in hoops, is retiring at the end of the 08-09 school year. The lesser-known but very effective Pac-10 commish, Tom Hansen, will also be retiring next summer.
• Speaking of the Big East, the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, wants to once again host NCAA Tournament games beginning in 2012.

In the effluvia of the OJ Mayo report from Outside the Lines (you remember, he took money and gifts from street runner Rodney Guillory, acting as a proxy for the Bill Duffy Agency) the other night, there has been a cacophany of predictable kneejerk reactions from every corner of the media universe. 

Tim Floyd and USC are to blame!

The NBA’s 1-and-done rule is to blame!

The NCAA’s lax enforcement is to blame!

AAU basketball, or even worse – the system – is to blame!

There’s a lot of culpability being thrown around by the various pundits, and with good reason on many counts, but we’d like to proffer another culprit that few in the MSM have been willing to indict – their own 4th Estate, the so-called watchdogs of the community.  We in the blogosphere have been told repeatedly by those in pedigreed positions of media power that what separates us from them is the simple concept of access.  While we can riff on the same televised game that a USC beat writer for the LA Times can, he has a level of access to players, coaches and administrators that we do not (from our parents’ basement), thereby rendering his reporting more valuable than ours.  Or so the story goes.

While we completely agree that level of access of which the MSM has to sports figures makes our job different than theirs, there also must exist a certain amount of responsibility for said journalists to follow up on rumors, whispers and innuendo that such access enables.  Because of the difficulty for a blogger to gain entree into a circle of coaches willing to speak off the record to a trusted journalist, we expect that the writer will not simply wink and nod with the rest and ultimately let it slide into oblivion.  After all, isn’t the journalist’s role to not only report the news, but investigate it? 

Gregg Doyel wrote nineteen months ago that USC should be wary of Mayo due to his relationship with Rodney Guillory – that’s a great start.  Did anyone else follow up on this accusation of impropriety?  Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times recounts a conversation with two prominent coaches he had about recruiting Mayo during his prep days:

“It’s not even a consideration,” one coach said.  “You don’t even understand how many problems that could cause,” the other said.  Back then, there was much fear about Mayo’s large circle of friends. There were whispers that he had already been bought, a common rumor about prep basketball stars.

If there were whispers among prominent coaches about Mayo, and the writers knew about it, why didn’t anyone investigate it?  Where was the local watchdog, the award-winning LA Times investigative staff on this story?  It’s not like outing Mayo, the “next Lebron” at one time during his HS career, wouldn’t have been a prime catch.  How hard could it have been? – the Big Lead even gave the MSM a roadmap in March 2007 – you have Mayo associated with Guillory; you know that Guillory is a runner for an agent who already got USC player Jeff Trepagnier and Fresno St. player Tito Maddox in hot water several years ago; and you know the weird circumstances of Mayo’s “recruitment” to USC.  What more do you need to look deeper into this steaming hunk of  brown mess??

And yet, to our knowledge, until the OTL piece on Sunday by ESPN’s Kelly Naqi after Mayo’s college career was all-but-finished, the MSM’s inertia effectively made certain that Mayo will never face any sanctions over this scandal.  As for USC… well, we’re still waiting to hear their penalties from the Reggie Bush situation a few years back.  Just keep in mind among all the yelling about blame this week that if someone, anyone, in the MSM had been doing their job a year ago, Mayo would have never suited up for USC in the first place.  The NCAA plans on watching college basketball recruiting a little more closely, but given its limited enforcement resources, perhaps all the doomsday rhetoric being thrown around as a result of this fiasco will inspire our MSM friends to include a little more self-awareness of their watchdog role next time.