Criticism of USC football schedule is off by Miles

Text messages from press row....

One curious thing about Louisiana State football Coach Les Miles’ belittling USC’s schedule is that a demanding slate of road games -- at Nebraska, Washington, Notre Dame, Oregon, Cal and Arizona State -- could derail the Trojans’ hopes of reaching the BCS championship game for the third time in four years....

The Trojans haven’t lost in the Coliseum since 2001, winning their last 33 home games, but they’ve lost two of their last three on the road....

Former Indianapolis Lawrence North High and Ohio State teammates Greg Oden and Mike Conley, the Nos. 1 and 4 picks in the NBA draft last month, are believed to be the first high school teammates selected among the top 10 since 1979, when former Verbum Dei and UCLA teammates David Greenwood and Roy Hamilton were taken second and 10th, respectively....

Until Sunday, when Rafael Nadal’s spirited play altered the conventional wisdom, Roger Federer seemed a better bet to end Nadal’s championship run at the French Open than Nadal did to end Federer’s reign at Wimbledon....

Pete Sampras, who will play in a World TeamTennis match tonight in Newport Beach and will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame this weekend, might have won eight consecutive Wimbledon titles if he hadn’t lost to eventual champion Richard Krajicek in the quarterfinals in 1996....

According to a study by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn., surfing is a $7.5-billion industry and every state is home to at least one surf shop....

Grab your boards, Iowans....

BTW, David Beckham or no David Beckham, soccer probably will always be a niche sport in this country, but what’s wrong with that?

Chris Kaman’s participation in the NBA Summer League at Las Vegas -- a year after he signed a five-year, $52.5-million contract extension -- signals that he agrees with his coaches and Clippers fans that he wasn’t very good last season....

When Hank Aaron hit the 755th home run of his career in the seventh inning of a 6-2 Milwaukee Brewers victory over the Angels on July 20, 1976, establishing the all-time record that Barry Bonds will soon break, the Angels’ right fielder was Bobby Bonds, Barry’s late father....

A crowd of only 10,134 saw Aaron hit his last home run....

Monday’s home run derby provided further evidence that reaching McCovey Cove is not as easy as Bonds usually makes it look....

Now that NFL coaches have been given the OK to wear suits and ties on the sidelines rather than the more casual gear provided by a league sponsor, how long before Armani, Hugo Boss and others step in to outfit the coaches?....

Can you imagine Isiah Thomas dressing like Bill Belichick? ...

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly, scheduled to play July 19-22 at Long Beach and Aug. 9-12 at Manhattan Beach in his final season on the AVP Tour, towered over volleyball the way Tiger Woods towers over golf....

Wouldn’t it be a natural to have the L.A.-based pop duo Sparks, whose songs include “Cool Places,” “Beat the Clock” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us,” sing the national anthem before a Sparks game in Staples Center? ...

Mike Bolt of Toronto, a full-time “Keeper of the Cup” who is making the rounds with the Stanley Cup and the champion Ducks this week in Southern California, says one of the great perks of his job is that “I only hang with winners.” ...

Dodgers fans who remember Tom Niedenfuer only for giving up the game-winning home run to Jack Clark of the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the 1985 National League Championship Series might be surprised to learn that the former reliever made at least one successful pitch....

Niedenfuer’s wife of nearly 20 years, actress Judy Landers, is a former Playboy cover model, and the couple’s teenage daughters, Lindsay and Kristy, form the pop-dance duo 2 Girls, which recently signed a recording contract with Warner Bros....

Doesn’t Kobe Bryant owe an apology to Andrew Bynum too?

jerome.crowe@latimes.com

T.J. Simers is on vacation.