O.J. Mayo (Official Thread)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

A better question is who is paying for all these trips to California.....

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Foxsports.com

8/14/06

Mayo reportedly still plans to go to USC

It's long been rumored that prep basketball star O.J. Mayo was headed to USC. And more than one report had Mayo making that rumor official on Sunday. But that announcement was put on hold again.


Mayo has called off what was scheduled to be an afternoon newsconference to announce his plans to attend USC. Fox Sports Radio host Ben Maller is reporting that sources close to the situation say he has still commited to playing for the Trojans. NCAA rules don't allow the school to set up a newsconference.

Mayo, who has been widely acknowledged as the top prospect in the Class of 2007, was on the USC campus Saturday on an unofficial visit. During that visit, he stopped by the Trojans football practice, where he was serenaded by chants of "O.J.! O.J.!"

Link

8/14/06

Hold the Mayo: No commitment to USC yet
<!--subtitle--><!--top author info--><TABLE width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleByline><!-- overline-->BY SCOTT WOLF, Staff Writer</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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O.J. Mayo, considered the No.1-ranked high school basketball in the nation, abruptly canceled a news conference to announce he would attend USC on Sunday.

Mayo and his advisors let it be known Saturday night that he and 6-foot-9 center Aaron Pogue would announce they would attend USC the following day at a Marina del Rey hotel. However, less than two hours before the news conference, it was canceled.

A high school source close to Mayo said the planned news conference by Mayo was a "misunderstanding." The same source said Mayo went back-and-forth several times Saturday before deciding to announce he would go to USC. "He's all about making a statement," the source said.
Mayo has told USC athletes since July that he would become a Trojan, but getting him to officially commit is another matter.


This is the second time Mayo canceled his announcement to commit to USC. He originally told friends he would announce he was attending USC during a summer basketball camp last month in New Jersey, but then changed his mind.

One possible scenario is that Mayo will not announce until he passes his college entrance examination scheduled for the fall. Pogue, who continued his campus visit Sunday, is not expected to come to USC without Mayo.
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[osugrad21]

Link

Mayo inquired about transfer back home
BY TRAVIS HUBBARD | GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT--> SOUTH POINT, Ohio - O.J. Mayo, one of the nation's best high school basketball seniors, at least inquired about a possible transfer out of North College Hill but will remain at NCH, according to South Point High School's athletic director.
"I'd say he'll be back at North College Hill again," said Jan Keatley, the Pointers' athletic director. "That's what I was told today by one of his family members."
Keatley confirmed rumors this week that Mayo was thinking about transferring to South Point after fellow Huntington native and NCH teammate Bill Walker was denied his final appeal by the Ohio High School Athletic Association Wednesday and declared ineligible. She said Mayo contacted the school, but his family decided he should stay at North College Hill.
<script language="JavaScript"> OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1');</script>"I think it was wishful thinking on his mother's part," Keatley said of Mayo transfering. "I'm sure it would have been nice for Ms. Mayo to have all of her kids in one school."
Mayo's mother, Alisha, and siblings live in South Point.
Mayo's younger sister, T'Ann, is a junior and plays basketball and runs track at South Point, and brother Todd will be a freshman on the Pointers' basketball team.
South Point coach Gary Norris on Wednesday wouldn't comment on the possibility of O.J. Mayo joining the Pointers except to say he had heard the same rumors.
Keatley said both younger Mayo children are excellent athletes and often are overshadowed by their older brother, who has been in the media spotlight since he was in middle school.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

8/18/06

South Points' Keatley puts Mayo rumors to rest
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=780 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=455><!-- ARTICLE BODY TEXT --><!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Travis Hubbard
The Herald-Dispatch[/FONT]


SOUTH POINT, Ohio -- O.J. Mayo at least inquired about a possible transfer back to the Tri-State, but the nation's top-ranked high school basketball senior will remain at Cincinnati's North College Hill according to South Point High School's athletic director.

"I'd say he'll be back at North College Hill again," said Jan Keatley, the Pointers athletic director. "That's what I was told today by one of his family members.

It would have been great for all his family and friends who rarely get to see him or have to travel to see him play, but it just wasn't meant to be."

Keatley confirmed swirling rumors this week that Mayo was thinking about transferring to South Point after fellow Huntington native and NCH teammate Bill Walker was denied his final appeal by the Ohio High School Athletic Association on Wednesday and declared ineligible. She said Mayo contacted the school, but his family ultimately decided he should stay at North College Hill.

"I think it was wishful thinking on his mother's part," Keatley said.

"I'm sure it would have been nice for Ms. Mayo to have all of her kids in one school."

Mayo's younger sister, T'Ann, is a junior and plays basketball and runs track at South Point. Todd Mayo is a younger brother and will be a freshman on the Pointers basketball team.

South Point coach Gary Norris said Wednesday that he expects Todd Mayo to play immediately as a freshman this season. But he wouldn't comment on the possibility of O.J. Mayo joining the Pointers except to say that he had heard the same rumors.

"(Todd) is just a ninth-grader, but he's very skilled and will likely move up," Norris said. "Todd is an individual and I don't know if it's fair to do that (compare him to O.J.). He needs to grow up and develop his own identity."

Keatley said both younger Mayo kids are excellent athletes and often are overshadowed by their older brother who has been in the media spotlight since he was a middle schooler.

O.J. Mayo was originally from Huntington, but his mother, Alisha, and his brother and sister live in South Point. He played basketball at the Huntington YMCA and at Cammack Middle School before transferring to Rose Hill Christian Academy in Ashland as a seventh-grader so that he could play varsity basketball in Kentucky, which allows middle schoolers to play at the varsity level. He played two years at Rose Hill and transferred with Walker to North College Hill in the spring of 2003.

But Walker was declared by the OHSAA to have been a freshman when he transferred, thus exhausting his eligibility because he played his freshman season at Rose Hill.

That sparked rumors that Mayo might leave Cincinnati and return home to live with his family and play with his brother for his senior year. And Keatley said there was some truth to the rumors, but that they did not ultimately come to fruition.

"We have some really good kids and it's time to get to the business of taking care of the kids we have," Keatley said.

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[MiamiRedHawks]

Report from WSAZ in Huntington says Mayo will transfer back to Huntington HS from NCH.

 

[HabaneroBuck]

Would make sense. He'd be back home for his last year, and the team would still be nationally ranked, with Mayo and PF Patterson. Don't know if they would still have time to schedule a national-power type of schedule, but the team would be considered one of the best regardless.

 

[osugrad21]

Scout $

8/28

More reporting on the rumored transfer to Huntington High.

 

[sandgk]

Well, maybe there was a mistake in the earlier reporting:
LINK

O.J. Mayo still enrolled at North College Hill High


From staff reports


Monday August 28, 2006

Huntington High School's basketball team was considered a very strong candidate to win a third consecutive Class AAA state championship this season.
And that was before O.J. Mayo.
WSAZ-TV reported Sunday that Mayo, considered by some scouting services to be the best senior prep player in the country, planned to enroll at Huntington High today. Mayo is a Huntington native.
Huntington High School Athletic Director Steve Morris said this morning that Mayo had not yet enrolled at his school and that he didn't know whether the star basketball player planned to.
Highlander head Coach Lloyd McGuffin told the Huntington Herald-Dispatch that he has heard reports that Mayo is transferring to Huntington, possibly later this week, but said he has not spoken with Mayo or his family.
"I can't say anything about it at all right now," McGuffin said. "It's like a non-story."
As of this morning, Mayo was still enrolled at Cincinnati's North College Hill, according to the school's athletic director, Joe Nickel.
"I'm sitting here talking to him right now," Nickel said from his office.
Nickel said as far as he's concerned, Mayo will be a student at the school for all of this year.
The addition of Mayo, a 6-foot-5 guard, would immediately transform Huntington from a state to a national power.
Mayo would join four players on the Highlander roster who are considered by many to be Division I-level talents: center Patrick Patterson, West Virginia's Player of the Year last season; high-jumping guard Jamaal Williams; Chris Early, who has verbally committed to Oklahoma; and point guard Mike Taylor.
Mayo has spent the past three seasons at North College Hill, where he teamed with another Huntington native, Bill Walker, to win back-to-back Ohio Division III state titles.
Walker was recently ruled ineligible by the Ohio High School Athletic Association to play as a senior at North College Hill.
Mayo and Walker began their prep basketball careers together five years ago at Rose Hill Christian Academy in Ashland, Ky., where they played on the high school team as middle schoolers.
As a freshman at North College Hill, Mayo averaged 31 points a game. He scored 28 a game as a sophomore and averaged 28.9 last season, along with 7.8 rebounds and 7.7 assists.
George Washington Coach Rick Greene, whose Patriots have defeated Huntington the past two seasons in the Mountain State Athletic Conference championship game but lost to the Highlanders in the 2006 AAA final, said everyone would be playing for second if Mayo ends up at Huntington. "I think they're going to cake-walk through the season," Greene said. "Who's going to really challenge them in 22 games?"

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Following Mayo is like riding a roller coaster......who knows what really is the story.

 

[sandgk]

Following Mayo is like riding a roller coaster......who knows what really is the story.

Well I am pretty sure that when the real truth comes out it will sound something like this:

<HR></HR>
It never was OJ Mayo who was going to transfer to Huntington High School. There was a transferee, he was coming from a day academy just North of the only college in town, his name is LJ Whipp, or to his friends, L.J. "Miracle" Whipp.
It's easy to understand how, in a town that still relies on oral history and word of mouth reporting that L.J. "Miracle" Whipp becomes distorted to O.J. Mayo.
So let's clarify matters and tell you a little more about the "Miracle" Whipp.
He is not a 6-5 African American HS basketball phenom.
In fact L.J. is a dwarf whose greatest skill consists of his near perfect round form in dwarf bowling competitions, in which, as a projectile, he knows no peers. He always "pins" his opponents.
Short in stature though L.J. is he remains big in heart. In fact, L.J. earned the moniker "Miracle" when he recovered from the crippling effects of infantile gigantism at an early age - which most doctors estimate at around 4 and half years old. How could the doctors of the Mercy Mercy Me medical center have known then that L.J.'s victory over this childhood disease would be cut so cruelly short?
To his credit L.J. remains largely unfazed by the unfortunate case of mistaken identity that falsely raised hopes in Huntington High for the ultimate ringer on the round-ball court. Says L.J. "I can understand folks getting their hopes up, you know "Miracle" Whipp sounds so much like Mayo that when they heard I was coming across town they put two and two together and came up with four thousand. It'd be easy to be unhappy with them, but well, you've got to be bigger than that - even if that is hard at my height."

That's L.J. "Miracle" Whipp for you - all heart, no height.

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[babybuck]

Mayo to Huntington

It was published the Enquirer this morning.

O.J. Mayo attended his last classes at North College Hill on Monday. When the bell rings today, he'll be in a whole new school.
Mayo told USA Today on Monday he'll transfer to Huntington (W. Va.) High and be in class there today.
"It's exciting to go home, but it's sad leaving North College Hill," Mayo told the paper. "I consider Cincinnati a second home."
Mayo, originally from the Huntington area, did not elaborate as to his reasons for the move. His mother, Alisha Mayo, lives in South Point, Ohio, near Huntington. O.J. Mayo has lived in Cincinnati with Dwaine Barnes, his AAU coach and legal guardian.
North College Hill athletic director Joe Nickel told The Enquirer he knew of no plans for Mayo to transfer, and said Mayo had attended classes at NCH on Monday.
Mayo, entering his senior year at NCH, is a two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball who averaged 28.6 points a game last season, and is rated the top high school player in America by most scouts.
NCH, which was expecting Mayo and fellow star Bill Walker to contend for a third consecutive Ohio Division III championship this season, probably will scale back its schedule without either. The OHSAA declared Walker ineligible for his senior year.
Nickel said some of NCH's games this season are contingent on Mayo's appearance.
"We have three or four games that we're looking at, and two that his name is absolutely written into the contract," Nickel said. "If he is not here, then the games will not be played. There are two others I'm not quite sure about. ... We're not going to set anybody up to rent out a big facility and then not come in with O.J."
At Huntington, Mayo joins a program that has won two straight West Virginia Class AAA (large school) state titles. Huntington returnees include West Virginia player of the year Patrick Patterson and fellow seniors-to-be Jamaal Williams and Michael Taylor, all longtime teammates and/or competitors with Mayo on the offseason AAU circuit.
"Arguably we have the best (high school) team in the nation," Mayo told USA Today.
At NCH, Mayo teamed with Walker to deliver two Division III state championships, raising the school's profile. The Trojans finished last season No. 3 in USA Today's Super 25 rankings.
"If in fact it's true, we had a great few years with him that can never be replaced," Nickel said. "He and Bill have done so much for us, you can't even begin to explain it. A lot of people will benefit from what they did."
USA Today contributed to this report.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Cincy

8/30/06

Mayo returns home
No. 1 hoops player seeking 'fresh start'

BY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Citing his troubles at North College Hill and the ineligibility of former teammate Bill Walker as deciding factors for his transfer, O.J. Mayo enrolled Tuesday at Huntington (W.Va.) High School.
"It's a chance to come home for my last year in front of my family and friends,'' Mayo said Tuesday. "Maybe down here, things will calm down, and I'll have a fresh start.''
Mayo, who enters his senior year rated the No. 1 high school basketball player in America by most scouts, was referring to his troubles at NCH. He was suspended three times by the school in the past year - once for an altercation before the 2005-06 basketball season, then for an Ohio Division III state semifinal game in March after he missed some classes, then again after the season for an altercation with a female student.
"I've been thinking about it for two years, but what happened with Bill was the icing on the cake.''
In July, the Ohio High School Athletic Association declared Walker ineligible for the 2006-07 season.
And now, the NCH basketball team, which grossed $120,000 last year because of the duo, expects a fraction of that this year. NCH athletic director Joe Nickel said, "Our goal is to make $10,000 to $12,000.''
Still, the good Mayo and Walker did outweighs any negatives, he said.
"They'll be remembered fondly, period. Not just for the finances.''
Walker remains at NCH as a student, Nickel said.
E-mail [email protected]
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Cincy

8/30/06

It was championships, chaos
Mayo's stay at NCH was unlike anything we've seen

BY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->O.J. Mayo arrived at and departed from North College Hill in a blaze of national headlines.
The three years Mayo spent here probably will go down as the most bizarre, frustrating, fascinating story in Cincinnati high school sports.
Start with April 2003, when word leaked that the nation's No. 1-rated eighth-grade basketball player was transferring from Rose Hill Christian in Ashland, Ky., to North College Hill. The story made front-page headlines in The Enquirer for a solid week, and USA Today and ESPN also reported on it.
Three years later, Mayo again is front-page and ESPN ticker news. He's leaving for Huntington (W. Va.) High School, ostensibly because his buddy Bill Walker is ineligible, and also for a clean slate. Mayo hopes things will "calm down" in West Virginia, after three school suspensions at NCH the past year.
Not to mention, he's going to a team with most of its players back after winning two West Virginia big-school championships.
Why did Mayo come to Cincinnati in the first place?
He and his entourage, led by hs AAU coach and "grandfather," Dwaine Barnes, were not happy with Rose Hill in spring 2003. The media fishbowl, the lack of 24/7 access to the Rose Hill gym, the style of coach Jeff Hall.
Also, Rose Hill a few weeks before had refused to reclassify Mayo's friend Walker from ninth-grade to eighth grade. Walker quietly preceded Mayo to NCH by about two months.
The Barnes-Mayo clan had family in North College Hill. With a young coach, Jamie Mahaffey, in charge, it seemed a good situation for Mayo. NCH had a 2-18 record the year before Mayo arrived but traditionally was a strong program.
When Barnes came to town, he clearly was the man in charge. Go through Barnes for any interviews with Mayo, the media was told. North College Hill officials, then and now, deferred everything through the family.
"We haven't done anything yet," Barnes said upon arrival in Cincinnati, surprised at the national tumult surrounding Mayo's transfer.
Well, the only thing Mayo had done as a seventh- and eighth-grader at Rose Hill was average 23 and 20 points a game, respectively. On the varsity. And he led little Rose Hill to the pinnacle of Kentucky high school basketball, the Sweet Sixteen state tourney.
ALL THROUGH THE FAMILY
It soon came to light that Barnes was not Mayo's blood grandfather. He was a family friend who had helped Mayo, who calls Barnes his grandfather. No matter. The media still had to go through Barnes to get to Mayo.
Certain reporters who tried to interview Mayo and Walker were stonewalled. ESPN's Pat Forde wrote a scathing column about the frustration of trying to get an interview with Mayo, prompting Barnes and NCH to let it be known the Trojans never would play on ESPN.
It was a constant soap opera at NCH. Athletic director Joe Nickel, a 30-year veteran administrator, did his best to manage the situation. So did NCH principal Kelly Hughes. But things tended to get away from NCH at times.
There was the buildup to the big game between Oak Hill Academy (Va.), ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today, and No. 2 NCH last February. The media were told all NCH players but Mayo and Walker were off-limits for pregame comments. Why not Mayo and Walker? That's what the family wanted, Nickel said. "The family" pretty much meant Barnes.
When something went wrong, as it did with Mayo's suspensions for behavioral issues and missing classes, the school did not comment because of privacy laws.
NCH officials still won't comment about Mayo. Multiple phone calls Tuesday to Hughes were not returned. Barnes has not returned a phone message since the state tournament.
THREE SUPERSTAR YEARS
Mayo, it must be said, always has been engaging in interviews. But he has fallen under sway from outside influences, including Los Angeles-based promoter Rodney Guillory, who many believe is steering Mayo toward a commitment to Southern Cal.
There was a reported rift between Barnes and Mayo, but they were together Tuesday when Mayo enrolled at Huntington.
Key events during the 2003-06 Mayo era:
As a freshman, Mayo and NCH drew sellout crowds most every game. When the unbeaten Trojans were ousted by Reading in a Division III sectional, it was one of the most stunning upsets in local tournament history.
Transfers began to trickle into NCH, including 6-foot-11 Keenan Ellis of Indianapolis. Just a glorified AAU team, critics said.
As sophomores, Mayo, Walker and Ellis won their first Division III state title, but not without controversy. Walker tangled with a Ripley player during the sectional tournament, with a Ripley fan coming onto the court during the melee.
The controversy continued last season. There was an alleged preseason fight involving Mayo and Walker against instigators from outside the school. There was Ellis' dismissal from the team two days before the monster game with Oak Hill. There was the unexplained absence of rising sophomore star Courtney Davis for the final four games of the playoffs, which NCH won.
There was Mayo out with a stress fracture, then pneumonia. Then Walker out with a stomach virus. Was that really why the stars missed a few games? Or were they suspended? That kind of doubt was the aura created around this team - never take anything at face value.
In February, there was the Oak Hill-NCH game. It attracted a Cincinnati prep basketball record 16,202 fans to U.S. Bank Arena.
The worst of it came the past five months, since NCH won its second straight Division III state title.
A local TV station reported Mayo had been suspended 180 days for a fight at school. He'd choked a female student, it was said. Turns out he was suspended just a few days, and Mayo acknowledged an altercation.
Frustrated with his off-court woes at NCH, Mayo looked into a transfer to, of all places, Oak Hill Academy. Oak Hill declined after learning of Mayo's latest suspension at NCH.
Then came the AAU season, including Mayo declaring on national TV - after a game in Akron - that he would return to NCH this season.
Then came the "Mayo commits to USC!" fiasco in July. ESPN and others reported he had committed, but when a press conference was held, there was no announcement.
Then came another "Mayo commits to USC!" fiasco. He was at a USC football practice a few weeks ago and was serenaded with chants of "O.J., O.J." by Trojans football players. A press conference was set for the next day, then canceled.
Along the way, there was the July bombshell that the Ohio High School Athletic Association had declared Walker ineligible for the 2006-07 season. He'd been a freshman at Rose Hill, not an eighth- grader, in the 2002-03 season and his eligibility had been used up.
LESS STRESS, TENSION
Without Walker, Mayo wanted out. He looked into South Point (Ohio), his mom's hometown, then crossed the bridge to Huntington.
Mayo was at his most charismatic Thursday when a Huntington reporter and I found him at a local fitness center. Big smile, handshake, the quip, "What, did you all come here to work out?"
He discussed the reasons why he moved (Walker is gone, mainly). But after three suspensions, Mayo indicated it also is the chance to get away from more possible stress and tension at NCH.
I left Huntington Herald-Dispatch reporter Travis Hubbard with a line that was delivered to me three years ago. It was from Ashland Independent reporter Mark Maynard, who had spent some time in the Mayo wringer. Mark gladly handed over the reins to me by saying, "Good luck to you."
Good luck, Travis.
E-mail [email protected]
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Cincy

8/30/06

Three years, lasting effects
Mayo and Walker's stay leaves financial, community impact on NCH
BY RYAN ERNST | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->O.J. Mayo, the No. 1 high school basketball player in America by most scouting services, might be gone but will not be forgotten - at least not in North College Hill - for a very long time.
Mayo, enrolled at Huntington (W. Va.) High School Tuesday, returning to his hometown. But NCH school and city officials say his impact will be felt there financially and socially for years.
Mayo and his superstar sidekick, Bill Walker, who is ineligible for his senior season, helped generate approximately $215,000 to go with their two state titles in three seasons at the school. That money has been earmarked to build a new track and prevent the adoption of "pay to play" programs in the school district.
When you have someone like O.J. Mayo on your team, everyone wants to see him play, and they're not afraid to pay," said NCH athletic director Joe Nickel.
Nickel said last year's basketball team grossed around $120,000, a figure he had hoped it would match in 2006-07. Now, Nickel said, with a pared-down schedule, "Our goal is to make $10,000 to $12,000."
The Trojans already have backed out of a trip to California and also will forego trips to Cleveland and Detroit, where event organizers specifically wrote Mayo into the contract: No Mayo, no deal. And although it wasn't yet scheduled, Nickel said there will be no rematch with Oak Hill (Va.), the only team to beat NCH in 2005-06.
Still, according to Nickel, the good Mayo and Walker were able to do in their NCH careers far outweighs any negatives resulting from their aborted senior seasons.
"They'll be remembered fondly, period," Nickel said. "Not just for the finances. They'll be remembered for the way they played on the court and the way they brought the community together. They won't be forgotten. The financial aspect is just a small thing."
Dan Brooks, who has served as North College Hill's mayor for 23 years, agrees.
"The biggest impact was sociologically," he said. "People who didn't know each other would come to the games and talk. The whole community became closer. And at basketball games, they began talking about other things. That's a big impact. The team was our common thread."
The team put the little town and Division III school on the national basketball map, and even on the cover of Sports Illustrated in December 2005. Media outlets from all over the country wanted to know more about North College Hill, or at least its most famous residents. The school might miss the athletic talents of Mayo and Walker, but many in the district won't miss the phenomena those talents created.
"Basketball is not the mission of our district," NCH superintendent Gary Gellert said. "At times it distracted us from our mission and we had to spend some of our time and efforts away from our mission, which is to educate."
Brooks saw the buzz as a positive.
"Five years ago, people didn't know where North College Hill was," Brooks said. "Now, everyone knew where it was. That's a big impact."
The impact will be visible at the school - and not just on the track, targeted to be completed in the spring. A picture of the 2004-05 championship team, along with a banner, hangs in the gym. A picture and banner for last season's team soon will follow.
"They'll be remembered. When you come into the gym, there will be the pictures and banners," Nickel said. "For years, every time kids come in, they'll see it."
E-mail [email protected]
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Now that O . J . Mayo has transferred from North College Hill to Huntington (W.Va.) High, the coach there is talking about trying to get out of some local games he had scheduled so the team can play several teams with national reputations.
Lloyd McGuffin told the The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington that he is in discussions with three top-5 teams this year, even though he has only one open date on the schedule.
He also said the school will approach teams about moving some dates to larger venues but that the school would still like to play some of its games at its home gym. It?s all about the high school experience, you know.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

O.J. Mayo Hype
[SIZE=-2]Posted Wednesday, September 6, 2006 ; 02:46 PM[/SIZE]



The hype surrounding O.J. Mayo and Huntington High School's Boys Basketball team is growing
Story by Leeza Glazier Email | Bio

(Huntington, WV)
At Tuesday night's Board of Education Meeting, Cabell County Superintendent Bill Smith said ESPN has contacted him about airing one of the Highlanders Basketball Games featuring OJ Mayo. Smith says the board is looking for larger venues to hold the games due to larger crowds expected. The board has been contacted by entities who hope to line up games with top ten teams in the nation.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

USAToday

Oak Hill, Mayo headline prep basketball slate on national TV

By Chris Lawlor, USA TODAY

O.J. Mayo, the nation's top-ranked senior, and Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), America's high school boys' basketball team, will enjoy plenty of air time this season.
Mayo, a 6-5 guard from Huntington (W.Va.) High, and perennial powerhouse Oak Hill will make appearances on the ESPN networks beginning in December.
"Typically high school basketball games are driven by individual stars," says Burke Magnus, ESPNU's vice president and general manager. "Everyone knew LeBron James, Sebastian Telfair, Greg Oden and Dwight Howard, and this year they'll see O.J. and some great teams."
Ten games highlight ESPN's Old Spice High School Showcase schedule:
Eight teams likely in USA TODAY's Super 25 preseason rankings will be televised: Oak Hill, North Central (Indianapolis), St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.), DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.), Huntington, Norcross (Ga.), Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) and Simeon (Chicago).
Michael Jordan's sons, senior Jeffrey and sophomore Marcus, who play for Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.), travel to North Central (Indianapolis) Feb.1 on ESPN2.
Oak Hill makes three appearances, including the season tip-off on Dec. 7 against Norcross, Georgia's reigning Class 5A champion. DeMatha and Huntington each appear twice.
"We're perceived as the nation's No. 1 high school (basketball) team and we play a top schedule to prove it," Oak Hill coach Steve Smith says.
When Mayo transferred schools last month, Rashid Ghazi of Paragon Marketing in Skokie, Ill., quickly booked Huntington for home games against DeMatha on Jan. 6 and St. Patrick on Feb. 22.
"Luckily Huntington's schedule was flexible to add both games and the publicity surrounding O.J. (Mayo) makes them a slam dunk," says Ghazi, who coordinates the games in conjunction with ESPN.
St. Patrick makes its second ESPN2 appearance ? the first came vs. Oak Hill in 2005 ? in a game that pits New Jersey's reigning state tournament of champions winner against Mayo and Huntington.
"A lot has to happen (with the national rankings) for both teams to still be in the Top 10," St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle says. "If we're both having dream seasons, it could be No. 1 vs. 2."
Additionally, Fox Sports Net has an extensive package of almost 50 games, featured on eight regional networks. FSN will air state championship games from Florida, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, Michigan, Texas, California and Colorado.