Not relishing O.J.’s arrival

I was thrilled to hear about O.J. Mayo coming to USC, especially with his high GPA and SAT scores, his love of the university’s renowned business school, about the courses he hopes to major in, about his love of learning and his thankfulness for getting a full-ride scholarship.

What? He’s just a jock in the NBA’s farm system, looking for an agent and publicity in L.A. and The Times and Tim Floyd are obliging him? Never mind.

RON WELLS

Corona del Mar

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Is it me, or is the arrogance of the USC football program oozing into the basketball program?

First, we have Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt saying they’re going to stick around because of O.J. Mayo. Pruitt said in The Times: “With the additional guys coming in for next year, I think we’ll be a very strong team and contend for a national title.”

Contend for a national title? How about getting to the NIT for a goal? Maybe getting to .500 in your conference for the first time in five years?

Then in Saturday’s Times, we have Mayo declaring that USC provides “the best chance to win a national title,” and “if we come really, really close next year and are a player or two away and go out that [spring] and grab the pieces that we’re missing, then of course I’ll come back.”

Really, really close? Has he seen the USC program?

Go out and grab the missing pieces? Does he think this is the NBA, where you can throw money at a free agent, and fill holes on your roster?

Oh, wait, it’s USC: Maybe that is the plan.

RICHARD BRISACHER

Los Angeles

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I smiled a little as I saw the juxtaposition of O.J. Mayo’s braggadocio next to Ben Howland’s humble comments about his next opponent. While Mayo, who has absolutely no clue what it takes, describes how many championships he will bring to lowly USC, Howland, who through a lifetime of basketball hard knocks knows exactly how tough it is, sweated how his team could defeat Chaminade.

WILLIAM DAVID STONE

Beverly Hills