Usc Team

When first generation rapper Doug E. Fresh, former Roots beatmaker Rahzel or "Yo Gabba Gabba" rapper Biz Markie learned to mimic a hip-hop rhythm using only their voices, chances were they had little idea what they were actually doing with their mouths. "Beatboxing,” as it came to be known, includes laryngeal lowering and lingual retraction, labial approximation, velic raising (to seal the nasopharynx off from the oral vocal tract, of course) and rapid raising of the tongue dorsal.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is coming home. The Los Angeles Locke High alum who played on two NCAA championship teams at USC and competed in the WNBA was hired as USC's women's basketball coach, the school announced Thursday. Cooper-Dyke, who coached last season at Texas Southern, replaces Michael Cooper, whose USC team finished 11-20 last season. "If you were to ask me what my dream job was at any point in my coaching career, I would always have said my dream is to come back and lead the USC women's basketball team," Cooper-Dyke said in a statement.

Re "History Scrambles Past Trojans," Jan. 5 May I just say how proud I am of our Trojans? They conducted themselves like true gentlemen against a tough opponent, Texas. They played tough and they played clean -- and honored us on the field Wednesday night. JASON J. POSTON Los Angeles Our two Trojans (grandma, 1947, and daughter, 2007) led this family in cheering the Trojan football team through a nail-biting Rose Bowl game. This time the greatest team in college football happened to lose, leaving it 34-1 and the greatest team in college football.

— It should be noted that USC's basketball team did have a four-game winning streak this season that included victories over UCLA, Washington State, Washington and Stanford. It should also be noted that the Trojans (14-17 overall, 9-9 Pac-12) finished off the Pac-12 Conference season with consecutive losses at Washington and Washington State and then had two players, starter Dewayne Dedmon and backup James Blasczyk, be involved in a series of brawls in downtown Spokane early Sunday.

Mike McGee should be congratulated for hiring George Raveling as USC's new basketball coach. The hooting, hollering, ranting, raving, motor-mouth Raveling is the perfect choice for the hooting, hollering, ranting, raving, motor-mouth team he's inheriting. FRANK BISHOP Santa Monica

Computers can't crash this. Polls won't pollute this. Biases don't break this. Not now, not after three years of whiny debate and nagging doubt ended Tuesday in bloodied faces and busted perceptions. USC stuck a four-hour fist into an Oklahoma mouth. USC slapped a grass-stained, padded forearm around a national consciousness. Amid grinding and whirring and banging, USC lowered a cardinal-and-gold dome upon a deep foundation. Welcome to the college football's new capital.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is coming home. The Los Angeles Locke High alum who played on two NCAA championship teams at USC and competed in the WNBA was hired as USC's women's basketball coach, the school announced Thursday. Cooper-Dyke, who coached last season at Texas Southern, replaces Michael Cooper, whose USC team finished 11-20 last season. "If you were to ask me what my dream job was at any point in my coaching career, I would always have said my dream is to come back and lead the USC women's basketball team," Cooper-Dyke said in a statement.

Renaldo Woolridge, a 6-foot-9 forward who played at Tennessee, said he was transferring to USC and is looking forward to playing in the 2012-13 season with the Trojans. Woolridge, the son of former NBA player Orlando Woolridge, will "walk" as a Tennessee graduate this spring and then complete a few hours of coursework during a mini-term that will enable him to play for the Trojans without having to sit out a season. Woolridge, who played at Studio City Harvard-Westlake High, averaged 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds last season.

Congratulations to Paul Hackett. Because the NCAA is forcing Cal to forfeit all of its football victories in 1999, the USC team from that year has had its record changed from 6-6 to 7-5. The 1999 Trojans are now bowl-eligible. Randolph Ziskin Los Angeles

Let's hope Ted Tollner's boss, Mike McGee, was as embarrassed as the rest of us. Just how can a USC team be so poorly prepared? The arm-tackling by the defense was not vintage USC football. The only hit that the secondary mastered was the late hit. If McGee is satisfied with Tollner's performance, then maybe USC President Zumberge should consider replacing them both. JERRY SAUNDERS Monterey Park

As USC's interim basketball coach, Bob Cantu has a modest record of 4-3 — a mark that looks a lot better considering that the Trojans were 7-10 when Kevin O'Neill was fired and Cantu promoted about a month ago. Before the switch, USC not only was losing more than it was winning, it was doing so by scoring an average of 64.4 points per game. Since Cantu has taken over, the Trojans are averaging 72 points per game — a scoring figure they surpassed only twice with O'Neill. Guard J.T. Terrell says Cantu has taken "the leash" off the team.

When first generation rapper Doug E. Fresh, former Roots beatmaker Rahzel or "Yo Gabba Gabba" rapper Biz Markie learned to mimic a hip-hop rhythm using only their voices, chances were they had little idea what they were actually doing with their mouths. "Beatboxing,” as it came to be known, includes laryngeal lowering and lingual retraction, labial approximation, velic raising (to seal the nasopharynx off from the oral vocal tract, of course) and rapid raising of the tongue dorsal.

USC, which opened the season ranked No. 1 in several polls, had hoped to spend its bowl week in South Florida preparing for the Bowl Championship Series title game. But a 7-5 finish will send the Trojans to Texas. USC will play Georgia Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas, it was announced Sunday. This will be USC's second appearance in the Sun Bowl. In 1998, a USC team favored by 16 points lost to 6-5 Texas Christian, 28-19. Georgia Tech, which plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference, finished 6-7 after Saturday's 21-15 loss to No. 21 Florida State.

Dear Tennessee, It wasn't right for USC to take Lane Kiffin from you. You can have him back. Ted Bartscherer Pasadena :: Bill Plaschke's column after the USC-UCLA game included the phrase "embarrassing 38-28 loss to UCLA. " Excuse me, but since when is losing to a far superior team an embarrassment? The rudderless and defenseless Men of Troy should be proud they were able to keep it that close. The Bruins dominated every phase of the game … but then they didn't spend the past few months reading about how invincible they were.

Outside, amid the swaying and chanting of thousands of fans in soggy blue ponchos, shock pelted the Rose Bowl like the cold rain. Inside, in an equally stunning turn of events, Lane Kiffin was safe and warm. In answering a question about his job security moments after an embarrassing 38-28 loss to UCLA on Saturday, the increasingly embattled USC coach said his position for next season had been assured and later told me to call Athletic Director Pat Haden to confirm. I did, and he did, Haden delivering the news that will stun many Trojans fans as much as their formerly top-ranked team's absorbing only its second beating by the Bruins in 14 years.

Handshakes and helmet stickers go out to the two schools known as USC in this week's top 10 — we could not be more thrilled for the players and their families. The USC at No. 3 lost the legal right to be called USC, so it will heretofore be referred to as South Carolina, "Southern Car" or "Spurrierville. " The USC at No. 9 in the latest USA Today coaches' poll has been known for years as the University of Southern California. Both Southern Car and USC displayed the kind of extended-weekend grit that earns you resilience red ribbons from our blue-ribbon platitude panel.

The storm may have passed, but the rumblings persist. You could feel them in the frustrated waving of Matt Barkley's arms. You could see them in the balls dropping from Curtis McNeal's and Robert Woods' fingers. You could hear them in whistles for helmet hits, late hits, and one lost soul who actually ran off the wrong side of the field. The damage may have been done, but the remains are rickety. One week after their season's first loss, on a day when everyone expected a glittery homecoming parade, the Trojans' muddy and difficult march continued.