Like Miller, McElrathbey wasn't the best player available, but Bowden made a massive miscalculation if he assumed his choice was strictly a football decision. The negative PR -- Bowden has been ripped throughout the nation, and high school coaches in McElrathbey's home state of Georgia are questioning whether they should send players to Clemson -- far outweighed the consequences of keeping McElrathbey on an athletic scholarship.

Still, Miller's living situation is vastly different than McElrathbey's. Miller's father is a millionaire, and Romeo himself has banked plenty of scratch after several albums and a Nickelodeon television show (Romeo!). He can certainly afford the tuition at USC. But Master P, who first hit it big with 1998's Make 'Em Say Uhh before branching out into the realms of video games, publishing and custom rims, didn't get rich by turning down freebies. Also, the street cred Romeo will receive by being a scholarship player instead of a walk-on might be more valuable than the dollar amount of the scholarship itself.

Romeo will have to prove he deserved the scholarship, and given his current ability level, he probably won't get that chance until after DeRozan has moved on to the NBA. (To watch a clip of Romeo and DeRozan, go here.) That could make things interesting, since DeRozan served as Miller's go-to sample on the basketball court while the pair played for the AAU team P. Miller Ballers. Don't know what a sample is? You must not listen to hip-hop. Sampling is the act of taking part of a previously recorded song and using it as the backing beat and/or lyrical base for your own song. Lil' Romeo's biggest hit, My Baby, sampled liberally from The Jackson 5's I Want You Back. A minor hit, My Cinderella, sampled Shai's If I Ever Fall in Love, a tune that provided the soundtrack for many an awkward teenage moment for those of us hovering near age 30.

If Romeo can win a spot in the Trojans' rotation, it would be an achievement equal to him reaching No. 1 on the Billboard chart with a song that didn't include an already memorable sample. No matter what happens on the court, Miller plans to use that scholarship to attend USC's film school, because, naturally, what he really wants to do is direct.

So where does this leave Wetherell, the lightning-quick walk-on from Alberta, Canada? The Journal story implied Wetherell's father, Don, was upset about Romeo's signing. Reached Wednesday by phone, Don Wetherell said that couldn't be further from the truth. He said his words were taken out of context. He said his son, a sophomore, walked on with his eyes open, and he knew that no matter how hard he worked, he still might not play his way into a scholarship. He also said Ryan is excited to play with Romeo and DeRozan. The elder Wetherell didn't want to say much more, because the fallout from the initial story has made life difficult for his son.

Ryan Wetherell will be fine. Like most successful walk-ons, he's no whiner. He will continue to leave everything on the practice court floor with the hope that someday he can earn more than a few stray minutes of playing time on game day. Is he a better basketball player than Lil' Romeo? At this point in their careers, he probably is. If it were all about basketball, Floyd could roll out a ball and make Miller and Wetherell play one-on-one -- winner takes the scholarship.

Unfortunately, at this level, it's never all about basketball.