Romeo to USC, Oden Sr. v. Conley Sr. , Piracy leaders

By David Isaacs

Welcome to this week's edition of the Monday Awards, where lacrosse can now safely go back to being the sport that no one pays attention to and Tim Tebow's poor performance with in Florida's spring game (only 3 TDs) means that the Gators will not repeat.

The "When I Get Grown" Award

Percy Miller Jr. -- pictured here during the NBA's 2002 All-Star Weekend -- will attend USC next season and play basketball for coach Tim Floyd.. AP

O.J. Mayo. The future Trojan wasn't able to recruit Michael Jordan as joked about last week, but instead, he'll be teammates with a former television star and rapper next fall. Percy "Romeo" Miller Jr., the son of rap artist Master P, committed to USC and will be putting his film and recording careers on hold for the next four years. The 5-foot-10 point guard averaged 13.9 points and 5.6 assists for Beverly Hills High, and will be joined by his brother Vercy at Southern Cal. His brothers, Hercy and Mercy, have not yet formally committed, either. (Oh, and no, that wasn't a poor excuse at a joke. Master P actually named his sons Percy Jr., Vercy, Hercy, and Mercy). The humor in the situation can be summed up by a couple of lines from Romeo's 2001 hit song My Baby: "I'm that R-O-M-E-O, and after high school I'm goin' straight to the pros."

The Custody Battle Award

Greg Oden Sr. vs. Mike Conley Sr. It's the battle of the seniors. As in fathers, not college kids in their final year of eligibility. On Friday, Oden Sr. told the Indianapolis Star that his son shouldn't risk getting hurt and that he should go to the NBA, so it had been assumed that Oden was officially making the jump to the pros. A day later, Conley Sr., a future sports agent who will likely represent the younger Oden in the NBA, claimed that Oden hadn't even started talking about it. In fact, he still had yet to bring it up with his mother and coach. This is quickly turning into an "I'm more in this kid's life than you are" media war, which means that it's dangerously close to regressing into a battle that's similar to the one over Anna Nicole Smith's daughter. Short of Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead claiming they're the actual father and have true knowledge of Oden's draft status, this story is plenty bizarre.

King of the Pirates Award

Columbia, Penn, Boston University, UCLA, and Purdue. These schools top the MPAA's list of unauthorized use of copyrighted materials." Columbia leads the list with 1,198, but Vanderbilt's 860 might be slightly more impressive. Vandy has housing for 4,915 students, and assuming that each student is only downloading one movie, one in every 5.7 students is downloading a film. One has to wonder how the network doesn't crash. One download has to take at least three days to complete, which ironically, is as long as it takes for Georgetown to bring the ball up the court and take a shot.

Team of the Week

Michigan. Even with a 12-game winning streak, Michigan's baseball squad had a difficult challenge going into this weekend, as the Wolverines had to match up against an 18-5 Ohio State team on the road. The Wolverines only had four Big Ten games under their belt, knocking off lowly Northwestern for four easy wins, but this was their first real in-conference test. The Buckeyes buckled, however, losing all four games by a combined score of 41-14. Michigan 1B Nate Recknagel led the hitting charge for Michigan, batting 9-20 in six games, scoring 12 runs with 13 RBIs and five doubles. The Wolverines improved to 8-0 in Big Ten play, two games ahead of second place Minnesota.

The Unnecessary Way to Earn a Doubleheader Split Award

Central Michigan. The Chippewas blew an early 6-0 lead in Game 1 of a doubleheader against Akron, giving up seven runs in the final three innings, but made sure it wouldn't happen again in game two. The Chippewas smacked 25 hits for a 28-12 victory. Kurt Lauscher picked up the win despite allowing 12 hits and five earned runs in five innings and Ben Humphrey went 4-7 with five runs scored and five RBIs.

Think a team or player is deserving of an award next week? Have a stat of the week? Disagree with the way things stack up? E-mail mondayawards@gmail.com