Outside the Lines, USC guard O.J. Mayo received hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper benefits from people working to hook him up with a certain NBA agent.

Mayo reportedly received:

• Several thousand dollars worth of clothes
• Cell phone service
• An Infiniti QX56 (sticker price: $52,000)
• A flat-screen TV
• and approximately $200,000 in cash

In return, there was an understanding that Mayo would sign with Bill Duffy Associates -- an agency that represents several NBA stars, including Steve Nash and Carmelo Anthony... which casts the controversy from earlier this season, when Mayo landed in hot water for accepting tickets to a Lakers game from Anthony in a whole new light.

The "bag man" in the deal was a Los Angeles event promoter named Rodney Guillory. Guillory ran afoul of NCAA investigators once before, due to a pay off involving USC guard Jeff Trepagnier. As such, it's sort of remarkable that USC and coach Tim Floyd allowed players anywhere near Guillory, but according to the ESPN report, Guillory was sitting in the USC basketball office with members of the coaching staff when Mayo's letter of intent arrived via fax.

If this all sounds familar... it should. This scenario is remarkably similar to the controversy surrounding USC football star Reggie Bush.

Not a good time to be the USC athletic director.

Last week, I blogged about an interview super-agent David Falk gave to CNBC, in which Falk referred to a "very powerful" figure and a college hoopster getting paid off. The powerful figure that immediately sprung to my mind was William Wesley.

Apparently, I wasn't alone.

In reaction to all the "whodunit" reactions in the sports blogosphere, Falk explained his comments to Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop. It wasn't Wesley. It also wasn't Sonny Vaccaro. And he's not saying who it was.

He's also not backing off the real point of the original interview, which was, "if you're a top player, everyone in the food chain expects to be paid."

I still think we haven't heard the last of this story...

I came up with two potential introductions for this post on Luke Winn's profile of Maryland recruit Tyree Evans on SI.com. Choose whichever one you prefer:

Option One: Gary Williams and the Maryland Terrapins are attempting to climb back to the upper echelon of college hoops. This season, they'll be led by a player who knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles -- guard Tyree Evans.

Option Two: Tyree Evans has bounced from school to school since, and court appearance to court appearance, since his days as a highly-rated prep back in 2004. Now 23 years old, he'll join the Maryland Terrapins this fall -- proving once again that there's never a shortage of second chances for anyone with a talent worth exploiting.

Which do you prefer? Option one or option two? Inspired? Or appalled?

Truth be told, I fall somewhere in between -- which is why I'm taking the cowardly way out and letting you decide.

Once again, Pro Basketball Guide Dennis Velasco and I tag-teamed on a mock NBA draft.

We'll do at least two more versions before the actual draft... one after the draft lottery on May 20th finalizes the draft order, and another after the June 16th deadline for players to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility. The draft is on June 26th.

Our current projections for the top five picks:

1. Miami: Derrick Rose (Memphis)
2. Seattle: Michael Beasley (Kansas State)
3. Minnesota: Brook Lopez (Stanford)
4. Memphis: O.J. Mayo (USC)
5. New York: Jerryd Bayless (Arizona)

Visit the pro basketball site for our complete first-round mock and analysis.

Notes from a surprisingly busy week in college hoops:

• Former Hoya Vernon Mackin will land with the Florida Gators. As a transfer, he'll need to sit out the 2008-09 season before suiting up for Billy Donovan and company.
• In another high-profile transfer, Ben Hansbrough (Tyler's brother) is headed to Notre Dame.
• We're still waiting to see where Connecticut's Curtis Kelly and Doug Wiggins will end up, though the latter is reportedly considering several Atlantic 10 schools, including UMass and Fordham.
• The Tennessee Volunteers dismissed two players, including sometime starting point guard Ramar Smith. According to reports, Smith and forward Duke Crews failed drug tests.
• That's not the only "roster change" in Tennessee, where coach Bruce Pearl is splitting with is wife of 25 years. And just days ago, Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt finalized her divorce. Apparently it's tough to keep a marriage going on ol' Rocky Top.
• After an excellent season and NCAA Tournament run that included a victory over second-seeded Duke, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins got an eleven-year contract extension and fat raise. Huggins' salary will reportedly jump from $700k to $1.5 million per year. It's not terribly surprising that the Mountaineers would be eager to lock up a coach long-term -- not after losing their basketball (John Beilein) and football (Rich Rodriguez) coaches to big-money offers from the Michigan Wolverines in back-to-back years.

Speaking of coaches, ex-St. John's and George Washington coach Mike Jarvis is a finalist for the job at Florida Atlantic. Note to the administration at FAU: you do remember that Jarvis essentially ran the once-proud Red Storm program into the ground, no?

Who is the other candidate? Isiah Thomas?

My father-in-law, who is in the real estate business, has often commented on how much easier it is to "build new" than to renovate. It sounds like new Indiana coach Tom Crean is going to find out for himself -- there's basically nothing left of last year's Hoosiers.

On Friday, Indiana announced the departures of Armon Basset, Jamarcus Ellis and DeAndre Thomas. Basset and Ellis were suspended by interim coach Dan Dakich; Crean upped the suspensions to dismissals. No explanation was given for Thomas' departure.

Combined with Eli Holman's dramatic exit, Eric Gordon's entry into the NBA draft and the fact that D.J. White and and Lance Stemler are out of eligibility, and the Hoosiers are down to just three returning scholarship players for 2008-09:

• Jordan Crawford
• Brandon McGee
• Kyle Taber

Soon-to-be sophomore guard Crawford is the best of the bunch, coming off a freshman season in which he averaged just shy of 10 points per game in just over 25 minutes -- he's the only one of Indiana's top six scorers from 2007-08 to return for the fall. Forwards McGee (another soph) and Taber (a senior) didn't play much in 2007-08.

They'll be joined by a five-man incoming class that includes one recruited walk-on -- for a total roster of just eight players.

Crean will really need to scramble to find another player or two this spring.

Meanwhile, the man largely responsible for all this chaos is landing on his feet: Kelvin Sampson will join the staff of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. Sampson was hired as Indiana coach despite a history of recruiting violations -- he was caught making improper phone calls to IU recruits and forced to resign in February.

Remember that headline when the next big college basketball scandal breaks.

Super-agent David Falk -- the matchmaker who connected Michael Jordan and Nike -- talked to CNBC's Darren Rovell about the state of the sports agent business. The most ominous passage:

I wanted to meet a college player who I really enjoyed watching this year. So I asked a friend of mine, who is a very powerful man in the game, to introduce me to him. And he said, "I'd like to help but I can't." And when I asked why. He said, "You are three years and $500,000 short."

(I tip my hat to Henry Abbott at True Hoop for the link.)

Who do you suppose Falk is talking about? I have no specific information. But when I hear "very powerful man in the game," I can't help but think he might be talking about William Wesley...

In case we needed another reason to think steroid testing is a good idea...

It can help players survive cancer.

Tennessee guard Chris Lofton told ESPN.com the remarkable story: a random drug test taken during the 2007 NCAA Tournament revealed elevated levels of a body chemical that can indicate steroid use. Or, as in Lofton's case, testicular cancer. Just days after the Vols' 2007 season ended, Lofton was in surgery. He spent last summer in radiation treatments, then returned to the Vols for his senior season.

Lofton's story is very similar to that of Denver Nuggets' center Nene, who was also diagnosed with testicular cancer as result of a random drug test.

When Indiana announced that respected head coach Tom Crean, formerly of Marquette, was taking over their scandal-scarred program, most observers thought the season of drama, featuring recruiting scandals, player walkouts and the resignation of Kelvin Sampson was finally put to bed.

Eh, not so much.

Thursday night, little-used freshman Eli Holman had a meeting in Crean's office. Holman was reportedly intending to transfer and was seeking a release... but the conversation became heated and police had to intervene. According to the official statement released by the university:

The conversation was very cordial but unfortunately, it did not end that way. His behavior took (Coach Crean), along with the other people in the office, by surprise. We saw him as a danger to himself and wanted to take precautionary measures to help him. We felt bad for Eli and hopefully were able to help him.

I do not anticipate Eli being back at Indiana. We will do our best to help him move forward and wish him well.

Just a guess... but I have a feeling Holman won't be swamped with offers from new schools after this.

In the transient world of college basketball, where coaches take new jobs mere days after signing contract extensions, it's nice to see a coach display long-term thinking.

But this is ridiculous.

Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie got a jump-start on his 2012 recruiting class by offering a scholarship to an eighth-grader.

Gillespie reportedly noticed Michael Avery at a youth basketball event in Akron, Ohio last weekend. Just a week later, the 15-year-old guard from Lake Sherwood, California, officially committed to play for the Wildcats.

Even though he's yet to select a high school.

Avery's AAU coach, Dinos Trigonis, wins the understatement award for calling the commitment "very premature."

Ya think?

That a college coach would offer a scholarship to an eighth-grader is, unfortunately, not all that surprising. That it's Gillespie gives the story some additional flavor -- a little ironic "special sauce." See, Gillespie doesn't even have a formal contract with Kentucky -- he's working under a "memorandum of understanding." That uncertain status all but guarantees that Gillespie's name will come up in every high-profile coaching search over the next few years -- as happened recently with Oklahoma State.

So while you might be thinking that Avery's chances of actually landing in Lexington in four years are pretty slim... the odds that Gillespie will be there to greet him on move-in day might be even slimmer.