http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3212316
USC men's basketball coach Tim Floyd says if anyone should be penalized in the O.J. Mayo-Los Angeles Lakers tickets incident, it should be he, not his star freshman.
Floyd told The Los Angeles Times he informed Mayo it would be all right to accept Carmelo Anthony's offer of free tickets to Monday night's Denver Nuggets-Lakers game. Mayo and Anthony are friends, and have known each other since Mayo was in seventh grade.
"My feeling is that if there's a mistake made, it was made by me," Floyd told The Times. "If they want to suspend me for a game, suspend me for a game, but not the kid. He did the right thing."
Anthony, for his part, expressed surprise that this was drawing attention, especially from the NCAA. "I don't know how in the heck it got that serious," he told the Rocky Mountain News on Wednesday. "It should be nothing against [Mayo]."
Both an NCAA spokesperson and USC sports information director Tim Tessalone said there would be no comment on the situation.
Mayo said he and Trojans freshman guard James Dunleavy also had gone to a Los Angeles Clippers game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in November. Dunleavy's father, Mike, is the Clippers' coach.
James Dunleavy said USC assistant Bob Cantu told him he could take any of his teammates to a Clippers game once a semester as a guest, according to The Times.
"I just had to make sure [it was OK] because obviously I didn't want to get my dad, or the Clippers, or anyone on our team in trouble," Dunleavy said.
NCAA bylaw 16.11.2.2.3 states that student-athletes may not receive "free or reduced-cost admission to professional athletics contests from professional sports organizations, unless such services also are available to the student body in general."
Floyd said college players frequently were guests of NBA friends at United Center, when Floyd coached the Chicago Bulls.
"Would it be available to another student?" Floyd said. "Well, I would assume if another student at SC has a friend in the NBA that they went to high school with and that guy offered them a ticket to the game that they could go to the game.
"It's [a] secondary violation, it's one of ignorance on my part, if it was a mistake, and I'll take the responsibility because I told the kid he could go to the game," Floyd told the Times. "I assumed he could go to the game. He did the right thing and I did the wrong thing. If he has to pay restitution or give money to a charity or whatever, so be it."
