Gus Ruelas / AP O.J. Mayo, back right, who is entering the NBA draft after one season at USC, is alleged to have received $30,000 and other benefits from a Los Angeles event promoter while in high school and at USC.

No one should be surprised about the allegations coming out now about former USC basketball player O.J. Mayo. The only surprise is that they didn't come out sooner.

Before Mayo ever got on campus, there were rumors about all these shady characters around him. Now that he's done his one year of service in college, we're hearing about them again.

The only real surprise is that somehow Mayo managed to make himself look relatively clean while he was a Trojan. Yes, there were the NBA tickets he accepted from Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets where he was forced to pay the ticket value to charity, but otherwise, Mayo looked pretty clean-cut during his time at USC.

But now that his one-and-done season with the Trojans is over and he's declared himself eligible for the NBA draft, a former associate of Mayo's claims the player received cash and other gifts that would violate NCAA rules.

Louis Johnson told ESPN "Outside The Lines" reporter Kelly Naqi that Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles event promoter, gave Mayo about $30,000 and other benefits during the player's time in high school and at USC.

It's possible these allegations, if proven, could cause USC problems with the NCAA.

Shouldn't USC have seen this coming?

First of all, USC coach Tim Floyd never recruited Mayo; Mayo recruited USC. Mayo's associates — and why does a kid in high school have "associates" in the first place? — contacted Floyd and told him Mayo was thinking coming to his school.

That in itself should have been enough for USC to look long and hard at this magnanimous offer and perhaps say "No, thanks."

But USC gave Mayo a scholarship, made some money off the No. 32 jerseys it flooded the Galen Center with, made a brief appearance in the NCAA Tournament and then said goodbye to him.

Chances are USC will survive this crisis pretty much the same way it will survive the Reggie Bush crisis: by claiming ignorance. That's all well and good and the university is entitled to do that. But in the court of public opinion, it makes USC look sullied and tarnished. One ESPN.com pundit on Monday was calling for the firing of Athletic Director Mike Garrett and stopped just short of saying the NCAA should slap USC with the same "death penalty" it gave SMU.

In the short term, there won't be any damage. But over the long run, it will hurt the Trojans' image.

* * *

Now, a few images from the week just past:

• This is one time the Lakers and their fans should be happy the NBA stretches out the NBA Playoff so long.

Kobe Bryant will need all the way to Wednesday to rest that back of his and get treatment for it.

For all their success this season, the Lakers still get this "deer-in-the-headlights" look when things start going sour. They could do absolutely nothing — nothing — but stand around flat-footed in overtime when Bryant was trying to play through the pain and steal the win from the Utah Jazz.

During a couple of particularly painful episodes — more painful for Lakers fans than for Kobe — Bryant stood at the top of the key and we just watched about seven seconds of nothing, until he finally decided the only thing that would work was to try to drive down the middle and miss layups.

The Lakers have talent beyond their MVP, but at times they appear about as animated as statues in a garden.

• Sergio Garcia won The Players Championship on Sunday, beating Paul Goydos in a playoff. That takes away Garcia's dubious distinction as the best player never to have won the best tournament that is not a major.

Goydos may not have won the tournament, but he was by far the best quote.

"Look at the shot Sergio hit in the playoff," Goydos said afterward. "I got beat. I played good golf. That doesn't mean you win. There's no defense. I can't tackle the little guy. There's no knee-capping. You have to accept the guy beat me.

"The key is to have the lead with no holes to go."

Goydos doesn't have a sponsor and so he wore a baseball cap from his alma mater of Long Beach State, complete with the word "Dirtbags" on it. He reportedly turned down a six-figure hat offer from a recruiting firm just the before The Players, but the talks are continuing.

• It was certainly a lost weekend for the Dodgers and Angels.

The Dodgers missed golden opportunities to gain ground on the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks, but were swept by the Houston Astros. Particularly galling was the team turning Hiroki Kuroda's bid for a no-hitter in the seventh inning into an 8-5 loss.

The Angels fell out of first place in the American League West by being swept by the Tampa Bay Rays. It particularly hurt to have former closer Troy Percival get saves in two of the three games.

n ESPN announced Monday it will share U.S. Open cable TV rights with Tennis Channel starting in 2009.

Let's hope those networks can find places for Tracy Austin and Ted Robinson, who have been calling the Open on USA.

Let's also hope that by 2009, it'll be easier — and perhaps cheaper — to find Tennis Channel on our TVs.

— Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com.