<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cyclonedrew @ 07-06-06 11:23 am) [post=6533]Quoted post[/post]</div><div class='quotemain'>
Mayo has been kicked out of school and expelled a few times. He is a huge b-ball talent. Don't get me wrong. Just not the type of kid you want representing your school...
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Read this article from an SC fan...
IF O.J. Mayo commits as rumored that is terrific news. He is the consensus number 1 BB player and witha GPA North of 3.0 woll easily qualify and could easily bring Bill Waker and Aaron Pouge along with him, thereby giving the SC BB program an instant upside breakout.Now the bad news.
When Mayo was on campus on June 29th he gamed with some SC BB players and a few former STONERIDGE PREP players. One was Taj Gibson a Brooklyn prospect that committed to SC early last year when Gibson played for the INFAMOUS Stoneridge Prep. At that time Stoneridge's BB program was controlled by RON SLATER. The school was run by MARIA ARNOLD - - same last name as USC assistant coach GIB ARNOLD who coached the JC College of Southern Idaho team and who brought Abdoulaye N'diaye along with him to SC as a JC transfer last year. As will be seen from the expose in the Washington Post that was first published on March 12, 2006, former Stoneridge Prep coach Slater had a falling out with Maria Arnold last Fall and took the entire Stoneridge Prep BB team with Slater to Calvary, where Gibson purportedly "graduated" from last semester. Gibson has yet to qualify and Maria Arnold admitted in the Washington Post article that the former Slater BB players did not attend classes before they departed for geener pastures.
The stench surrounding Stoneridge from being exposed in the Post forced the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil NCAA compliance people to launch an investigation of phony prep schools and prep schools like Stoneridge that are high-jacked by shady promoters that often syndicate atheletes(particularly from West Africa) like others syndicate race horses. An NCAA preliminary report on its investigation was issued in June, a final report which promises to ban recruits from dipolma mills is due this month. Stoneridge is considered a target of the investigation because right after ousting Slater, Stoneridge brought in Babacar SY, the former assistant coach at Southern Idaho to USC assistant Gib Arnold, when Arnold was head coach at Souther Idaho.
Babacar had brought a group of West African BB players to a Lake Suzy Florida prep school called Florida Prep and got in trouble with FLA State educational authotities when they smelled fraud in the falsification of Florida Prep submissions to the State of Florida. Left with a BB team and no school, not to mention potential immigration fraud issues Babacar SY with the help of Arnold and a private investor from the South Bay moved the team to Stoneridge and then housed the players in third world conditions in a small Simi Valleyhouse because Stoneridge had no dorms. Ron Slater was ousted from Stoneridge and moved on with his team to Calvary..
It seems that when Gib Arnold headed to SC in Spring 2005, Babacar SY headed back to West Africa to recruit BB prospects who wanted to realize big money as pros by preping at a diploma mill, grabbing national attention and getting a BB scholarship to showcase their BB talents for the NBA. If you read the Post article you have to wonder why SC ,which apparently attracted O.J.Mayo, to its school would ever want to risk so much potential upside with top shelf recruits and the new Galen Center by associating with Babacar SY, the other ARNOLD(Maria) or the outside investor - - Mahoney - - who bankrolls the Stoneridge Prep BB program for his own personal profit. Now the plot thickens.
On June 29, 2006 another Stoneridge Prep player, MAMADOU DIARRA, announced that he would officially commit to USC this week after speaking To Babacar SY who was reportedly in France. Diarra can hardly speak English. How could he complete course work in a small school like Stoneridge with 50 pupil other than foreign BB players. Most of the Stoneridge BB players speak French like Sy who hails from Senegal. Should we all kid oueselves and turn a blind eye to the Gib Arnold- Babacar SY connection or should Sample, Garrett, and FLoyd stay away from shady prep schools like Stoneridge, particularly when kid like Mayo seeks us out, a great School with a great and CLEAN atheletic tradition? Does SC need to recruit like GWU and Bobby H at KSU? these are importamt issues that until now have remained under the ethical and moral radar. Does academic integrity mean anything in big time college basketball? I think the Stoneridge connection needs to be fully aired out now lest USC suffer possible grave harm in the future. What say you?
FIGHT ON.
