Lil’ Romeo Takes A Shot At USC On His Way Out

Posted by nvr1983 on May 30th, 2010

When Percy Miller (aka Lil’ Romeo) announced that he was leaving the USC basketball team earlier this month it was more of an entertainment story than a college basketball story. The rapper/actor currently has already released six albums with a 7th album coming out later this year, but his college basketball career, which we never expected to amount to much, has been significantly less profilic. In two seasons with the Trojans, Miller (a Tim Floyd “recruit”) appeared in nine games for a grand total of 19 minutes scoring five points on four field goal attempts (1.25 PPS!!!). After Miller left USC, Trojans coach Kevin O’Neill issued the following statement: “Percy thought it was in his best interest that he pursue his (entertainment) career rather than play basketball. . . I was able to evaluate him. I think his future is more off the court than on the court, which I think he understands. . . He’s a great guy and was a pleasure to have around. I think he made a decision that was in the best interest of his future.”

While that seems like a fairly benign (and true) statement, Miller was a little less than graceful when he issued the following Tweet: “College Bball is all politics…I’ve never quit n never will.If my scholarship is wanted thats wat Yahoo should clarify.” [Ed. Note: We don’t even know where to begin with grammar on Tweets so we’ll let this [sic] cover the entire Tweet.]  Although that may be the final shot that Miller fires in his college basketball career (bringing him down to 1 PPS) we would be remiss if we did not provide you with what will be our lasting image of Miller playing “defense” against J.R. Smith at Vince Young’s Celebrity All-Star Game.

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Morning Five: 05.25.10 Edition

Posted by rtmsf on May 25th, 2010

  1. Some transfer news from the weekend…  Two of the bigger names in college basketball from a celebrity perspective are leaving their respective schools.  Guard Jeff Jordan (MJ’s son, in case you hadn’t heard) is leaving Illinois for his senior season a mere year after he quit the team and returned the first time.  We’re not sure what exactly the deal is with the somewhat indecisive Jordan, but the word is that he’s looking for more PT than the fourteen minutes per game he received last year for the Illini.  The other big transfer name belongs to Percy Miller, aka Lil Romeo, the hip-hop star who presumably sold a lot more albums than he scored points (5) in his two-year USC Trojan career.  The subject of one of RTC’s first-ever posts (#3 actually), it’s not clear whether he will try to continue playing college basketball elsewhere or give it up completely.
  2. Moving to players that actually matter at this level, former Washington guard Elston Turner will re-surface at Texas A&M beginning in 2011-12 and LSU star guard Bo Spencer will be ineligible for the fall semester next season as a result of academic problems.  Turner will have two years of eligibility in College Station, while Spencer will have an opportunity to return to his team next winter if he can get his books in order.
  3. The final notable piece of news with players leaving is that Florida’s Nimrod Tishman is leaving the Gator program after only one year in Gainesville.  He is returning to Israel to play professionally, causing mass lamentations throughout the SEC fanbases from Fayetteville to Columbia.
  4. Is the one-year renewable scholarship a bigger problem than we, or anyone, knows?  If you buy USA Today’s report that over 20% of athletes on the 65 NCAA teams leave the program in a given year, it just might be.  We’d never really given it much thought other than when a new coach comes into town and runs everyone off (see: Calipari, John), but maybe we should start paying attention to this a little more.
  5. We always thought something didn’t smell quite right with the universally-liked and respected Tyler Smith being caught with a firearm in a rental car on New Year’s Day.  Smith finally came out and said that he purchased the gun based on death threats that he was receiving about his three-year old son.  He didn’t go into details as to whom was making the threats or why they would be making them, but he’s now back in Tennessee after playing professionally in Turkey for a few months and waiting to see if his name is called next month in the NBA Draft.
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