Usc Team

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Former USC running back Joe McKnight declined to comment Friday about recent allegations that he took improper benefits while he was a player for the Trojans. Approached after a New York Jets practice, McKnight walked out of the locker room at the team's facility, retreating to an area off-limits to media. The Times has reported that Scott Schenter , a key figure in the ongoing corruption scandal at the Los Angeles County assessor's office, said he gave cash and perks worth thousands of dollars to McKnight and former basketball player Davon Jefferson while they were still in school.

Only 10 college football teams in history started the season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll and finished in the same spot. Of them, only USC's 2004 team and Florida State's 1999 team have gone wire to wire, maintaining their ranking week to week throughout the season. Could the 2012 Trojans do the same? After emerging from a two-year bowl ban, top-ranked USC enters Saturday's opener against Hawaii at the sold-out Coliseum amid huge expectations. The Trojans are ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason poll for the first time since 2007.

USC will open its men's basketball season Nov. 9 at the Galen Center against Coppin State - but the going gets considerably tougher from there. The Trojans, coming off an injury-plagued 6-26 season, play 18 games against teams that won 20 or more games last season. USC's home schedule includes nonconference games against Long Beach State (Nov. 13), San Diego State (Nov. 25), Minnesota (Dec. 8), UC Riverside (Dec. 15), UC Irvine (Dec. 20) and Dayton (Dec. 30). The Trojans will participate in the Maui Invitational and also have nonconference games at Nebraska (Dec.

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.

Tony Ciarelli did not set out to be the king of aces. Too one-dimensional. USC's 6-foot-6 senior outside hitter spent most of his life honing a number of volleyball skills: serves, an array of powerful spikes and well-placed shots, intimidating blocks and efficient passes. Yet when Ciarelli is behind the service line for the top-ranked Trojans, the anticipation from teammates and fans is palpable. So is the dread on opponents' faces. Midway through the first set of USC's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinal victory over Cal State Northridge, for instance, Ciarelli boomed a salvo of four consecutive serves.

UCLA shook off a woeful first half to advance in the Pacific Life Pac-12 tournament with a 55-40 victory over USC on Wednesday. Lazeric Jones scored 15 points and Travis Wear had 12 for UCLA. Byron Wesley finished with 13 for USC. The Bruins will play Arizona at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. UCLA went on a 17-4 run to start the second half to put away a USC team that has been through a injury-marred season. The Trojans have only six scholarship players healthy, but it was the Bruins who looked unfamiliar with playing basketball on the college level.

USC opens spring practice Tuesday. The Trojans will work out 15 times, concluding with a scrimmage at the Coliseum on April 14. All practices except the April 14 scrimmage are closed to the public. Here are five questions facing the Trojans: Is there anything left for Matt Barkley to work on? The senior said he would spend his fourth spring practice refining his footwork and throwing mechanics and becoming "a coach on the field. " That's fine with Coach Lane Kiffin.

It was just one word, one brief thought from a dreamy kid about an upstart university, seven taps on a rattling typewriter, one word stuck deep in the first sentence of a thick first paragraph. But for both the school and the sports columnist, it was one word that changed their worlds. His name was Owen R. Bird, he was 25, and he had been with the Los Angeles Times barely five months when one of his influential readers made an unusual request. He was asked by Warren Bovard, USC's athletic director, to end the circus of monikers given the school's athletic teams — Methodists, Wesleyans and Cards — and find one powerful nickname that would stick.

Kevin O'Neill, who has been coaching basketball for more than 30 years, cannot explain the injuries that have befallen USC this season. "I've never been through something like this," he says. Guard Maurice Jones, in his second year with the Trojans, also is at a loss. "I really don't know what it is," he says. Newcomer Greg Allen stopped trying to figure it out. "I haven't been able to put my finger on it," he says. "I feel like we're cursed. " Seemingly snakebit USC goes into a game Wednesday night against UCLA in the midst of one its worst seasons.