The Audible: On USC's 'probation,' ageless LeBron, and Paul George vs. Clippers fans

11/14/2024 04:04 PM

Jim Alexander: Only in the NCAA can you get in trouble – if you want to call it that – for violating a rule that has since been rescinded. Which is why we woke up Thursday to stories of USC's football program being put on probation.

Or, as the Fox News website headlined it: "USC football fined and put on probation for major NCAA violations," Uh-huh, sure. Major. Right.

This was hardly "Reggie Bush's parents get a new house" territory. It wasn't even "O.J. Mayo's recruitment" territory, to recall another of USC's greatest hits.

It was – stay with me, now – Lincoln Riley allowing, or encouraging, guys hired as "analysts" to participate in "on-field and off-field activities and instruction" during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. That's such an egregious rules violation that … the rule was wiped off the books this spring.

It's such an egregious rules violation that … USC is on probation for a year and was fined – get this – $50,000. (One low-level booster probably took care of that with one check.)

It's such an egregious rules violation that a bowl ban … nah, the NCAA didn't come down that hard, but it didn't need to. Nebraska, UCLA and Notre Dame have opportunities over the next three weeks to enforce their very own bowl ban, in a USC season that has pretty much gone into the tank thanks to all those close losses over the course of the season.

(Remember what I said in a recent column? "Good teams find ways to win close games. Bad teams find ways to lose them, and then rationalize that they came, oh, so close.".)

This rule is – actually was – one of those "Oh no, somebody must be getting a competitive advantage somewhere, and we can't have that" regulations that makes the NCAA Division I rule book the truly impressive doorstop that it is.

As our Luca Evans wrote, the NCAA removed restrictions this past summer on what are termed countable coaches, "permitting any staff member to provide 'technical and tactical instruction' to athletes, as written in a release over the summer. Previously, however, staffers labeled as 'analysts' weren't able to work with players directly – the basis for USC's violations as investigated by the NCAA."

Still, the silliness continues. Mirjam, did you break out in laughter when the true scope of the Trojans' transgressions came out?

Mirjam Swanson: Yeah, this was but an itch on Riley's wrist compared with some of the other stuff going on over there at the university more broadly, from the ongoing admissions scandals to scientists getting called out for research misconduct, etc.

So, probation + a $50,000 fine + keep your goshdarn special teams analyst out of practice and film review for – and this is very important, or at least specific, sort of – six consecutive days during two weeks of the 2024-25 season? And for the crime of … too much coaching, a little teaching, a bit of football education outside of class hours basically?

The horror!

Delivered via the slow drip of NCAA's infraction wire? Like, "we’ve had that behind us now for multiple months and have been past it," Riley said. Makes me wonder if the Trojans could have mentioned it themselves earlier, not that they would have, but whether that was an option.

But like Riley said, you knew it was no big deal because they didn't even suspend him! And these days coaches get blamed for everything, he'll tell ya: "In this day and age, that the head coach responsibility thing has really … it’s a big deal, and we get it. If it’s something really big, they’re going to suspend the head coach, so I think that kind of says what it is."

USC fans surely are more wound up in the mystery of how new QB Jayden Maiava is going to perform when he takes the field this week against Nebraska, and debating where things went wrong with Miller Moss.

Not to mention the ongoing exodus of recruits to other programs – far from a slow drip.

USC commit Julian "JuJu" Lewis, a five-star QB prospect, is now said to be eyeing Colorado, and Oaks Christian's Hayden Lowe, a four-star defensive lineman, this week told On3 that he flipped his commitment from the Trojans to Miami – just days after Riley visited Lowe at his game the previous weekend.

That is a much scarier situation for Trojans fans than the NCAA's sufficiently gentle scratch of the wrist for what was once too much instruction – though all put together, a headache.

Jim: Don't expect USC football to release any information it doesn't absolutely have to. I'm almost surprised the university actually released the news of president Carol Folt's upcoming departure.

Meanwhile, the battle between LeBron James and Father Time continues to be a fair fight. Wednesday night, Bron became the oldest player in NBA history to record back-to-back-to-back triple doubles in the Lakers' victory over Memphis. Right now he's averaging 24.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 9.4 assists, shooting 52.4% from the field and 45.9% from 3-point range, and averaging 35 minutes a game.

However, for what it's worth, his plus-minus right now is a minus-1.0. In other words, he can't do it all by himself.

Right now the Lakers are 7-4 under JJ Redick and in sixth place in the Western Conference, which beats coming back from a 2-10 start like they did a couple of years ago in Darvin Ham's first season as coach. They're also 6-0 at home and now have a road back-to-back Friday night in San Antonio and Saturday night in New Orleans.

They could use another big man, first-round choice Dalton Knecht (19 points off the bench Wednesday night) is showing why he might have been the steal of the draft, and Anthony Davis continues to resist wearing goggles even after getting poked in the eye again. I really think the elders, Kareem and James Worthy, need to sit him down and have a good, long talk.

Oh, and I'm ready to begin the D'Angelo Russell campaign for Sixth Man of the Year. (They really do seem better with him coming off the bench.)

Mirjam: The ol' familiar chorus: The Lakers need to get LeBron some help.

No, but really.

They're so thin on the bench, even with Knecht contributing and an uptick in production from Russell. Otherwise, you nailed it, they need size; Christian Wood is out for who knows how much longer, Jaxson Hayes is out for now, and AD – with how often AD gets hit in the face and his foot aching too – just feels tentative even if he's upgraded to probable before every game.

Otherwise, Gabe Vincent and Maxwell Lewis and Max Christie and Jalen Hood-Schifino and Bronny James are their options?

Yeeesh. That's not a serious cast of role players in support of LeBron, if we're being asked to seriously try to picture the Lakers as playoff contenders.

And yet they have LeBron, still great. And AD, also great. And yet it's hard to imagine they'll have even a puncher's chance in the playoffs without halfway-sufficient depth in support. I'm going to assume Rob Pelinka will have to make moves to address that.

Right?

Jim: I think it's evident that roster construction is not Pelinka's strength. And do you trust him to use those future draft picks he has in his pocket wisely? I think – think – he understands the importance of waiting for the right deal, and not squandering them on the NBA equivalent of trinkets. But is the right deal out there?

Meanwhile … a couple of thoughts on the city's other franchise. I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Intuit Dome on Wednesday for a future column, and I will say this: It makes the arena I still call Staples Center look like a two-room shack. (Also, there's a Starbucks on the opposite side on Prairie, conveniently located next to the dome's parking garage. Yes, I did patronize it, but no, I didn't check their operating hours. For their sake, I hope they're open late on event nights.)

And what is up with this fissure between Clippers fans and Paul George? This sounds like something beyond just a fan base being spurned when a player accepts a free-agent deal elsewhere. The response when he was in town last week was pretty harsh, and evidently there were accusations that he dissed the Clippers on his way out of town, calling them the "B team."

Maybe he should have explained he meant "B" for (Steve) Ballmer.

Anyway, PG fired back on his podcast this week, including this:

“What did I say that was wrong? I did not call (the) Clippers ‘the B team.’ I said it felt like the B team just because of, everywhere you go people in L.A. say, ‘You should be a Laker. You should be a Laker.’ That wasn’t minimizing, that wasn’t downplaying … I was a Clipper. That’s who I chose to play for. … I wasn’t comparing them and saying that they were underneath the Lakers. It was just how L.A. interprets that or how L.A. treats players that are in L.A.”

Ah, but then there was this: “But they proved me right. They didn’t pack out, and they aren’t packing out Intuit Dome. That’s y’all home, that’s y’all team, go f—ing support them.”

Good thing the Sixers aren't back in L.A. till next year. But you've been around Clippers fans long enough to understand where they're coming from, better than most of us. What's your take on this?

Mirjam: Probably that it should've been predictable. I quite enjoyed covering PG as a Clippers beat writer, because he says what he thinks without thinking about how it sounds. That makes him authentic and interesting and likely to annoy people.

Like, now, his former fan base – who appreciate his role in the team's first-and-only Western Conference finals appearance in 2021, but who are largely dissatisfied with the results of his five-year tenure with the team, in which he had a lot of influence on and off the court. And he's not really owned that.

Instead, he talked about feeling betrayed by the organization for not meeting his cumbersome demands and about how it felt like he was playing for the B Team the whole time and also one of his podcast co-hosts dissed the team on social media after the news broke that PG was leaving … it's a whole thing, which made for a very weird return that I wrote about last week. You're right, it's probably better for everyone involved that Philly isn't back here till next season.

As for Intuit, can't wait to hear your thoughts when you catch a game there.

The Clippers, as George mentioned a couple times now, have not been playing to packed crowds. The sparkling and impressive new building is not yet the raucous center of the basketball universe that Ballmer envisioned – yet.

I can envision it happening. But for now, the Clippers are averaging announced crowds of 16,827 – which ranks 25th in the NBA. Last year at Crypto.com Arena, they averaged 18,945 per game, which ranked 10th in the league.

And I'll admit, I'm surprised, because I kept hearing Clippers fans express excitement about a home of their own. But also, there's this: Location, location, location.

Nobody from, say, Pasadena looks forward to driving to Inglewood in rush-hour traffic to make a 7 p.m. game, and definitely not 41 times a year. Not unless you HAVE to. Or you really, really want to because the team is so exciting that you'll put yourself through that awful commute to watch them. This Clippers team – a good team that plays hard – is not that brand of must-see, though.

And the Clippers, from 1984 when they moved to L.A. from San Diego, had established a base of paying customers that were used to going to games in downtown L.A., whether it was at the Sports Arena or Staples Center/the Crypt. I know a few Clippers fans who gave up their (now more expensive) season tickets because they can't imagine making that trek all the time.

But I get it. Inglewood availed itself, so it makes sense why they built it there. Just I think it's going to take time – and winning – to cultivate a new customer base on that side of the city.

And the $70 parking hasn't helped, either, of course.

Can't wait to hear your impressions – and to talk the Wall!

Jim: We'll get to that, and I'm looking forward to seeing that cheering section close up. As for that commute … well, as much as I grouse about having to wade-through rush hour traffic for weeknight NFL games on the other side of Prairie and Century, I certainly get it if Clippers fans are equally reluctant.