Talking USC basketball with Matthew Kredell

MATTHEW KREDELL

Matthew Kredell broke into the Daily News in 1998, working part time at the paper while going to USC. The basketball teamâ€™s Elite Eight run in 2000-01 was USCâ€™s athletic highlight in his time at the school, when the football team was stuck in the Paul Hackett-era. After graduating in 2001, he started writing for the Daily News full time. Heâ€™s in his second year covering USC, which coincides with the rise of the program. Heâ€™ll take credit for the success, though Tim Floyd may have more to do with it. A third-generation Los Angelean, he grew up reading the Daily News while at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills.
E-mail Matthew

Daily News
Subscribe to RSS feed

Archives

Here's a consolidation of the latest information on USC commitment O.J. Mayo, who was ejected from his Huntington High (W.Va.) game Friday for getting two technical fouls and may receive further punishment for bumping a referee.

Here's a Charleston Gazette story on how Mayo will be ineligible to play in his team's next two games because of the ejection.

A news station in West Virginia, has video of the incident. Go to the page and click on "OJ Stays home" to view the video. From the clip, it appears that, after a slam dunk, Mayo gets his first techinical for taunting. He's upset with that call but ultimately walks away to calm down, then walks back by the opposing team's players without saying a word and gets called for another technical. Mayo then chases the ref to the scorer's table and appears to give him a slight bump from behind. The ref goes sprawling to the floor.

The news station has an update today that Mayo is considering taking legal action.

The Charleston newspaper wrote in today's edition that Mayo won't be the only Huntingon player to miss two games. Five of the team's reserves were suspended for leaving the bench during the ruckus.

The immediate aftermath of the incident is Mayo will miss Tuesday's national showdown with Southern California's own Artesia High at Duke University. Artesia has Malik Story, who has given an oral commitment to USC for 2008. Without Mayo, Huntington's 15-0 record and top national ranking will be in jeopardy.