Here's a class-by-class breakdown of the 13 scholarships and current walk-ons for 2008-09.

SENIORS

1. RouSean Cromwell
2. Keith Wilkinson
Terence Green (walk-on)

JUNIORS

3. Taj Gibson
4. Dwight Lewis
Marcus Johnson (walk-on)
Daniel Hackett (walk-on)
Ryan Wetherell (walk-on)

SOPHOMORES

5. Kasey Cunningham (redshirt)
6. Marcus Simmons
7. Angelo Johnson
8. Donte Smith

FRESHMEN

9. Mamadou Diarra (redshirt)
10. DeMar DeRozan
11. Leonard Washington
12. Romeo Miller
13. Nikola Vucevic
James Dunleavy (redshirt walk-on)

From Rivals.com:

2. USC

Star of the class: O.J. Mayo. After a much bally-hooed high school career that was played under the national microscope, the former five-star prospect moved from a small pond in Huntington, West Virginia to the bright lights of Los Angeles. He helped the Trojans return to the NCAA tournament and raised the program's reputation on a national level. Mayo was a first-team All-Pac-10 performer after scoring 20.7 points per game. His next move is likely to the NBA.

Steal of the class: Davon Jefferson. His road to college took a little longer than he may have wanted, the athletic forward went to work when he finally made it. The former prep schooler's crowning moment this season came in a 72-63 win over UCLA, where he scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds. With Mayo likely leaving for the NBA next season, don't be surprised to see Jefferson have an all-conference type of year next year.

In hindsight: Mayo did what everyone thought he would do, score the ball, raise the profile of the team and make an impact right away. Jefferson should come into his own even more as a sophomore. Outside of Mayo, Jefferson and Angelo Johnson, the other two signees Marcus Simmons and Mamadou Diarra didn't factor too much into the big picture mostly to injury. Johnson should factor more into the plans next season and beyond. He started 11 games and was third on the team in assists.

Grade: A-

Very fair grade for a solid class.  The future will look as bright as can be if O.J. and Davon return next season, but even if they depart, the rest of the class should contribute for many years to come.  Marcus Simmons is a player that will continue to develop and become a Kyle Weaver type of player.  Mamadou Diarra certainly has the skill-set to become an impact big man.  Finally, Angelo stepped it up when needed and looks like a player that can at the very least provide quality minutes at the PG spot.

For the first time since Dec. 17, 6-foot-6 freshman guard Marcus Simmons got into a game. In fact, he got eight first-half minutes and now is enjoying a similar stint the second half, giving USC a perimeter defender who, like the rehabbing Daniel Hackett, can defend and rebound.

Simmons has been out with a severe ankle sprain that would not heal, then was reinjured, requiring him to wear a boot as late as the beginning of the week.

Lot of people are making a big deal out of the exhibition loss against Fresno Pacific, so I thought I'd give my thoughts on the topic:

1.  Why didn't Coach Floyd play his starters?

• Well it's obvious he didn't start the starters because he wanted to give them much needed rest.  O.J. has been suffering from turf toe and has been playing near 40 minutes per game, Daniel's calves are still deeply bruised from the Oklahoma game, and Taj's ankle has been bothering him since the start of the season.  All of those injuries require proper rest to fully heal.  So when you have the option of resting your players for nearly two weeks or having them play a meaningless exhibition game and slow the healing process down (or possibly reaggravate the injury), you have to go with the former. 

Also, Coach Floyd has stated that he wanted to evaluate our bench players in a game type setting.  Players like Mamadou Diarra and Marcus Simmons can be solid contributors in the future and it was necessary to see them get meaningful minutes to decide whether they were ready to see minutes this season.

2.  ...But what about the fans that paid money to see the starters?

• First off, why does anyone have any expectations going into an exhibition game against Fresno Pacific?  If the starters played it would have been a blow-out and the stars would have played 20-25 minutes tops.  Expectations couldn't have been that high. 

Secondly, Coach Floyd wasn't hired to entertain fans, he was hired to turn the program around and win games.  CF has to make the decisions that better the team's future and clearly that was to give them rest for what will be a brutal conference schedule. 

3.  ...Well, Coach Floyd is still classless for not playing his starters...

• How often do you see a team playing an exhibition game in the middle of a non-conference schedule?  It's rare.  If anything, Coach Floyd showed class in honoring the game for former interim coach Jim Saia.  Again, CF was not hired to entertain NOR put favors before the well-being of the team. 

Imagine if O.J. played in the game, fell awkwardly, and either sprained his ankle or, even worse, tore some ligament, everyone and their moms would be asking why Coach Floyd played his star player in a meaningless game.  Can't win either way right? 

We made a ton of mistakes, played piss-poor defense, and couldn't hit our free-throws, but it really was one of those games where the opposing team couldn't even miss a circus lay-up and seemed to get every bounce, while SC couldn't get a tip-in for the life of the team.  Anyways, here's the positives/negatives from the game:

Positives

• Hard to take a positive from this one, but I thought the freshmen (Mayo, Simmons, Cunningham) played pretty well.  Mayo put up 30+ as I predicted (I'll get to the negatives later), Angelo scored 17 pts and showed nice confidence penetrating to the basket, and Kasey was active and made a few big rebounds in his limited play.

• The team showed glimpses of how explosive they can be when they cut a 17 point lead down to 3 in a span of roughly 4 minutes. 

Negatives

• For one we were absolutely careless with the ball; we ended up with 19 turnovers and many of them came at pivotal points in the game extinguishing any momentum.  I thought Mercer did an excellent job swarming Taj and OJ the moment they received a pass; they harassed Taj and stripped him of the ball at least 3 or 4 times as he tried to back down a defender and trapped OJ forcing him to make 2 or 3 boneheaded passes across court.  The two combined for 13 of the 19 turnovers. 

• We shot a miserable 56% from the free-throw line.  It came to a point where you could hear the fans groaning after each miss.
  

• Our defense was almost non-existent.  The concept of defensive rotation was completely lost and Mercer did a great job exploiting it by finding the open man on the perimeter.  It really felt like they were getting open jumpers the entire game.  The Bears finished the game shooting 59.4%!
  

• The first half, I felt we were trying too hard to get the ball down low to Taj.  It really broke the flow of the offense and often left us with 10 seconds on the play-clock and a player jacking up a shot off a one-on-one play. 

I understand that we were trying to establish Taj down in the post, but it was almost like pulling teeth trying to get the ball in his hands.  Last year, we saw Taj getting the ball at the top of the key, which allowed him to pivot and face up the defender; it almost looked awkward watching Taj trying to battle for low post position.  IMO, it was no coincidence that the offense finally got it going to start the 2nd half when they ran two successive plays through OJ off simple screens (he converted both).

• We saw shades of OJ imitating Kobe in the 2nd half after the offense failed to capitalize on a run that brought a 17 pt deficit down to 3 pts, as he tried to do too much on his own and forced a few shots with multiple defenders in his face.  This will be the personal growing pain of OJ in learning to trust his teammates.

Deep down inside I had a bad feeling about this game, but in the end I felt that SC would be able to get over a rough start and bring it together for a victory - little did I know that Mercer would be on fire for almost the entire game!  Am I now bearish on the team's chances?  Not a single bit.  Let's remember that we didn't have Daniel Hackett (would have been HUGE to have him), Davon Jefferson, and Marcus Simmons the entire game and that our star "veteran" is a true sophomore.  There will be growing pains, but I still believe, in terms of potential, the sky is the limit for this team...

USC - Team Preview

Probable Starting Five:

1 - Angelo Johnson, FR:  Lightning quick guard that can penetrate and is active defensively.  Played a little hesitant in the intrasquad game, but that's expected from freshmen guards.
2 - OJ Mayo, FR:  Might see a lot of time at the PG spot if Angelo struggles.  Lights out scorer that plays a very mature and methodical game.  Already has a NBA caliber jump shot that is nearly unblockable.
3 - Dwight Lewis, SO:  Most underrated player on the team.  Penetrates surprisingly well and can hit the three, but needs to quicken up his release.  Can score in bunches when given the chance.
4 - Davon Jefferson, FR:  Still isn't 100% from a sprained knee injury, so you might see a Gibson/Wilkinson combo.  Davon can jump out the gym and plays primarily a face-up game but can also finish around the rim.  Very dangerous in transition.  
5 - Taj Gibson, SO:  Not much I need to say here, Taj was one of the best freshmen in the country last year.  He added ~15lb of solid muscle to his frame in the off-season which will help his inside game.  Also has a surprisingly consistent outside jumper.  

USC vs. Mercer - Game Preview

When:  Saturday, Nov. 10 @ 1 PM (PST)
Where:  Galen Center
Watch:  TrojanTV

Mercer's strength lies in the backcourt with the all-conference duo of James Florence (Atlantic Sun FOY) and Shaddean Aaron (Claremont High); both players averaged over 15 ppg last season and went 23 and 15, respectively, in their opening exhibition game.  Should be entertaining to watch their backcourt match up against Angelo/OJ.  This should also be our 1st opportunity in seeing Marcus Simmons working his lock-down defensive skills against a primary scorer.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Marcus start at the 2 and OJ at the 1.

On the wing, we'll see Dwight Lewis who might be the difference maker in this game.  We all expect OJ and Taj to get their points, but Dwight might be that 3rd player that opens this game up.  As I mentioned earlier, DL is the most overlooked player on our squad and has the ability to really put points on the board.  He will match-up against Calvin Henry, a versatile forward that can play inside/outside.  

When looking at Mercer's frontcourt, the first thing you notice is their size down low:  Brian Pfohl (6'7 230lb SR), Sam Dolan (6'8 245lb SR), and Justin Davis (6'9 240lb FR).  None of the three are big scorers, so I see this being a big advantage for SC since Taj and Davon will be able to give them fits on the offensive end and not have to worry so much defensively.

In terms of a prediction, I'm going to say that this game will likely be closer than people think.  I think most SC fans expect OJ to go off and the team to win in a blow-out, but let's keep in mind that the development of this team has been slowed due to injuries and you can never expect things to go perfectly when you start 3 freshmen.  I see a rough 1st half with the team putting it together late and pulling away for the win.  I got OJ going for 30+ this game.    

A 20-year-old that already has the media skills of a savvy veteran?

"I'm just a ballplayer. Am I a competitive ballplayer? Yeah. Do I want to win? Do I really want to work harder than anyone? Yeah... I just have a God-given ability to play basketball, and I want to use that to the utmost to support my family and support myself. I'm no better than you. I'm no better than the man on the corner with a 'Hungry' sign. I just have a talent, and I want to use it."

O.J. Mayo's basketball skills will be evident from the get-go when USC tips off this Saturday at the Galen Center (1 pm).

Player bios after the jump.

Mayo bringing a positive vibe to Southern Cal [USA Today]

O.J. and Davon both had 29 points and USC won 102 to 82.  I really like the clip of Marcus Simmons (#20) locking down defensively; I can't wait to see him on Derrick Rose, Darren Collison, etc.  Also liked the way O.J. handled the ball and controlled the tempo, he looks like a veteran out there.  All I can say is, this team has scary potential and, in my personal opinion, looks better than last year's team at this point in the year. 

It's been all football with the start of Fall camp this week. But USC sports fans will have something to look forward to (even after the football season).

The Return of Taj:

He was one of just five freshmen to record 11 or more double-doubles during the season, with two of the others being the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in the 2007 NBA Draft -- Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.

The #1 recruiting class in the nation:

"O.J. can play the point or the two-guard position. Given our lack of returning firepower, I'm not sure what his role will be, but we will probably use him at both positions. I love his poise, instincts, maturity, toughness, understanding of the game and ability to make baskets," says Tim Floyd.

"Davon (Jefferson) is a versatile player," said Floyd. "He seems equally comfortable whether he is facing the basket or posting up which will give us the opportunity to take advantage of different matchups. He has an uncanny ability to score and rebound the ball."