To the shock of no one, O.J. Mayo claims that he is clean and that he has received absolutely no money or goods from anyone seeking to influence him.

Mayo also said he paid his own way when he went shopping and ate with Guillory.

"I understand compliance and I understand the rules," Mayo said. "Any meal, I wouldn't pay for everybody but I would at least pay my end. When I went to go shop every once in a while, [Guillory] might have taken me to the store in his vehicle, but he didn't pay for any clothes for me."
...
Mayo said he didn't feel betrayed by Johnson but that he was "mad at the fact that he said I accepted some money. I never have received money from Rodney, Louis, BDA or anything. All I got was a monthly $450 check from USC or I have friends and family that send me money."

It's that last bit, though, that leaves the wiggle room: "...friends and family that send me money." The question becomes, where did they get the money?

As recently as last week, it seemed that at least USC was going to replace the talented one-and-done O.J. Mayo with another top talent one-and-done in DeMar DeRozan. Well, not so fast if the Mayo scandal looks like it will impact USC's season. DeRozan and his family are talking about taking his game elsewhere for his one season.

DeMar DeRozan, one of the nation's most highly sought high school players, signed with USC in November, but his father and older half-brother said Tuesday he might consider other schools if the Trojans sustain a quick and heavy penalty.

"This is a good wake-up call," Jermaine DeRozan, DeMar's half-brother, said. "I'm just hoping SC doesn't get put on probation [If it does], I would get . . . out of there."

DeRozan's high school coach says he has already been contacted by assistants on two of the Final Four teams to let DeRozan know they would still be happy to take him.

Of course, DeRozan already signed a National Letter of Intent with USC, so the Trojans would have to agree to let him out of the NLI. It's not like DeRozan is really going to just sit out a year before playing college ball which would be his only other recourse if USC refused. DeRozan is heading to the NBA after this season.

No word if USC commit Lil' Romeo will also ask out of his NLI.

In the wake of the USC-O.J. Mayo-BDA-Guillory affair (I'm still trying to figure out a catchy scandal name for this that excludes the use of "-gate."), are the expected condemnations of one-and-dones being the root of this evil. That's bull. There's a lot to dislike about the 1-year NBA restriction that is in effect, including the impact on the programs afterward with the Academic Progress Rate, but the problems began long before the present restrictions on entering the NBA draft.

You might as well blame Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and others. High school players who successfully made the leap over 10 years ago. Arguably, their success encouraged many to look for the talent to whom they could attach when the access and ability to influence would be easier.

Marcus Camby got mixed up with a street agent while at UMass. The problem was always there, it just seems that now it starts earlier.

It seems likely that Rodney Guillory saw himself as a future player. Someone who might become a sort of kingmaker or force in basketball behind-the-scenes. That or someone who figured he could at least make a lot of money glomming onto teenage boys and running as the middleman for agents.

At this rate, he'll be lucky to avoid jail and O.J. Mayo kicking him out of his entourage.

Not only does it seem that he was operating a fake charity as a front, but other people past and future are talking about him. And not in a good way.

There was a former Fresno State and Houston Rockets basketball player, Tito Maddox, who recalls when Guillory came calling as a runner for Ron and Ken Delpit of Franchise Sports.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association is very concerned about allegations that O.J. Mayo had been receiving cash and gifts from a street agent over the past four years. Mayo starred (along with Kansas State's Bill Walker) at Cincinnati's North College Hill High School for three seasons ... bringing home the 2005 and 2006 Division III state championship.

The OHSAA wants to know more about what happened:

(OHSAA assistant commissioner Bob) Goldring said Sunday that he believed NCH would not be penalized, based on an OHSAA bylaw that mandates any eligibility concerns must be brought forward within 42 days following the last day of the state championship in that sport. On Monday, Goldring backed off that statement a bit. He said the OHSAA may revisit whether NCH might have to forfeit any games or championships from the Mayo era.

"In digesting things for a day and talking to other staff members, it is more accurate to say that we cannot answer that (forfeits) question at this point," Goldring told The (Cincinnati) Enquirer via e-mail Monday. "We would have to know the exact details of the findings, have proof that they were indeed true and then determine if any of the bylaws would be applicable."

Just as always, a star player receives some perks under the table and leaves a trail of damage behind. Unlike a college program like USC, it's tough for a high school to monitor all these kinds of activities ... even if they have a guy like Mayo who did have some red flags along with him.

It's all O.J. Mayo, all the time in this corner of Fanhouse today. This is playing out like a cynic's wet dream. It's even better for those who write about college basketball, as it is the down-cycle of news.

High profile one-and-done player getting plenty of extra cash and goodies through his confidant's and advisors who act as conduits for others. Check.

Takes place at a program in a major conference. Check.

Coach and athletic department somehow unable to notice anything amiss the entire time, despite reportedly investigating issues beforehand. Check.

Columns questioning the nature of one-and-dones as contributing to this sort of mess. Check.

Truly cynical (and right now eminently believable) view that this is going on everywhere, it's just that Mayo and his conduit Guillory were either complete amateurs or just didn't care about it getting out there after the season. Check.

O.J. Mayo and his people cannot be happy about all of this.

On October 17, 2006, Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports wrote a column headlined, "Burned by Bush, USC should be wary of Mayo." After what has been reported about former USC basketball star O.J. Mayo in the last 24 hours, Doyel's column is shockingly prescient -- and USC's failure to listen to warnings about Mayo is shockingly negligent.

Doyel wrote:

Mayo, who is expected to sign with USC in the spring if not during the early signing period next month, is being mentored by a Los Angeles-area promoter whom the NCAA labeled as an agent's representative in 2000. That was the year Mayo's new mentor, Rodney Guillory, helped get two college basketball players -- including one from USC -- suspended for several games....

Guillory wants to become Mayo's marketing rep. Sound familiar? It was another marketing rep -- Mike Ornstein -- whose relationship with Bush triggered an NCAA investigation into USC....

Before Mayo signs, USC would be wise to look hard -- very hard -- at the Guillory connection.

And now, a year and a half later, the reports about Guillory's relationship with Mayo suggest that USC is going to feel the wrath of the NCAA. Tim Floyd and company can't say they weren't warned.

Previously on FanHouse:
Should We Blame Myles Brand for O.J. Mayo?
Mayo Fallout: ESPN.com's Forde Suggests USC Has a 'Lack of Institutional Control'
Report: O.J. Mayo Took $30,000 in Cash and Gifts in High School and at USC

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports has a thought-provoking column about the O.J. Mayo mess, and he believes that when the NCAA is tarnished by allegations of runners for agents handing out cash to star athletes, one person deserves a heaping helping of blame: Myles Brand.

If you didn't see this one coming, don't feel bad, you're no more naive and gullible than NCAA president Myles Brand. ...

the entire circumstance was created when Myles Brand decided to sell the NCAA's soul to David Stern's 19-year-old age limit.

Brand welcomed the one-and-done phenom for whatever ratings bump they provide. In doing so, he stomped on everything his organization claims to stand for – education, amateurism, fairness, et al. He made the likes of O.J. Mayo inevitable.

Wetzel makes some good points here, and there's no question that Brand, the NCAA and the schools that field big-time football and basketball teams try to have it both ways when they insist that their players are students as much as they're athletes while basically operating as a minor league for the NFL and NBA.

But really, Brand has no control at all over the NBA's and NFL's minimum age rules. The truth is, Brand and the NCAA member schools ought to hold themselves to a certain set of standards irrespective of what the NFL and NBA do.

And that's the point here: If the NCAA had the courage of its convictions, it would go back to the days of freshman ineligibility and tell the Mayos of the world that they weren't going to treat college as a place to play ball for a few months before moving on. But the NCAA would rather have the money the Mayos of the world can generate.

Lemme ask you a question: Were you honestly shocked to hear that O.J. Mayo has allegedly taken cash and gifts during his high school and college career? I wasn't.

And neither was ESPN.com's Pat Forde who is putting major blame on USC and coach Tim Floyd:

Especially with a player everyone in Hoopsworld strongly suspected was no amateur before he set foot in Los Angeles. You had to search hard to find a soul who didn't think O.J. Mayo had been prostituted for years as his prep legend grew, starting in seventh grade. (Put it this way: When early Mayo confidant Sonny Vaccaro gets muscled out of the scene, somebody's bringing some serious juice to the table.)

So you take the (Reggie) Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of "lack of institutional control"?

Forde even throws around the "death penalty" as an option (even he acknowledges it wouldn't happen).

What riles up many people is the fact that Tim Floyd is flat out denying that Mayo couldn't have done these things. The allegations have a guy named Rodney Guillory -- a guy who was linked to former USC player Jeff Trepagnier's troubles -- financing this deal, which means he is still rooted in the program.

What made other people skeptical was the fact that Mayo chose to play at USC in the first place. Why weren't the North Carolinas, UConns, UCLAs, Kansases, etc of the college hoops world going after him? None wanted any part of the red flags that were thrown up. No offense to USC for bringing him in, but how could they not keep an eye on a guy that was treated like a hot potato?

ESPN is reporting that a former associate of ex-USC basketball player O.J. Mayo says Mayo violated NCAA rules by accepting $30,000 in cash and gifts from a Los Angeles event promoter before and during his one season playing for the Trojans.

The report, which first aired this morning on Outside the Lines, says the gifts Mayo received from a man named Rodney Guillory included cash, a flat-screen TV for Mayo's dorm room, cell phone service, a hotel room, clothes, meals and airline tickets for Mayo's friends and a relative.

Mayo issued the following statement:

"I am focusing on the process of making my dream come true, which is to play professional basketball. I will not allow these allegations to become a distraction to me and my family. I have been through investigations by the NCAA, the Pac Ten and USC before I attended school and during the time I have been here. I have not engaged in any wrongdoing. If these claims were true I would suspect they would have been discovered by one of these organizations."

Mayo, who is done at USC and has declared for the NBA draft, is the second high-profile USC athlete to be accused of taking improper benefits; an investigation of similar accusations involving Reggie Bush is ongoing.