Answer Tuesday! (Part 2)

Basketball questions in this segment.

Q: superlaker24 said:
With Marcus Simmons great play especially on defense down the stretch, this brings to mind if he had played earlier USC could have been better. Do you think Marcus Simmons will get more playing time next season and is former commit Malik Story considering USC when transferring from Indiana?

A: I think Simmons deserves more playing time. I’m not totally sure he won’t transfer. He decided to leave in midseason and then changed his mind. He might decide he needs to go somewhere where he really will get more playing time. One of the excuses for not playing him sooner was that he was injured. But Tim Floyd often said during the season that he would play Simmons more each week and then did not. I never got the impression USC was too sorry to see Story go to Indiana so I don’t anticipate him transferring here.

Q: Peter Parker said:
UCLA did not recruit Renaldo Sidney due to the off-court issues surrounding him. Why did USC recruit him when they have a problem with one-and-done to their scholarships and the O.J. Mayo investigation looming?

A: There is a grey area here as with most recruiting situations. UCLA did recruit Sidney and then backed off late. Now did they back off because their administration nixed the idea of signing Sidney or did they back off because they knew Sidney would commit to USC?

Now to the second issue, which is why did USC recruit him considering the Mayo investigation? As I mentioned before, USC took the highly unusual step of making a university lawyer attend a meeting with Sidney’s family and Tim Floyd right before he committed. That tells you there is a concern about something. Nothing might ever happen but no one knows at USC or there would not be a lawyer involved. So we’ll just have to see how it develops. Of course, USC recruited Sidney because he is one of the top players in the nation, so they felt it was worth whatever potential risk exists.