We have been greatly amused the past few weeks at all of those people out there who thought that USC should be slated to play in the BCS title game.  Where are you guys now?  We can’t hear you anymore.  In fact, we’re not sure you all of you out there were clamoring about with this Trojan team anyway.

They said that USC was banged up against Stanford; that the game was a fluke and not reflective of how good USC actually was.  Well what do you think now?

We were glad to see the final nail driven into the coffin that was the USC national championship hopes.  The team that everyone thought was entitled to be ranked in the top 10 no matter what they did on the field finally played their way out of contention.  And it couldn’t have made us happier.

We knew all along that USC was not deserving of its lofty ranking, or even a top-15 ranking.  Following the Trojans loss to Stanford, they struggled with a sorry Arizona team.  Then, after whipping a worthless Notre Dame team, everyone wanted to put them back in the title game.  People wanted them ranked ahead of undefeated teams like Arizona State and Kansas.  And ahead of other 1-loss teams like LSU and Oregon.

But where are all those people now?  Oregon made USC look like just another average Pac-10 team on Saturday.  And the Trojans were shown to nowhere near worthy of a shot at the BCS championship - even though you all thought they were a championship caliber team just one week ago.  Well, they’re not.

And yes, we’ve heard people out there who still think USC is the best team in the country.  Well we have news for you - they are not even the best team in the Pac-10 anymore.  No matter what you might think.  USC has two losses, both in conference, so there is no way they are the top team in that conference.

We think it’s most appropriate to finish up this piece with our own modification of the great lines uttered by Ice Cube: Freaking brothers everywhere like m.j./ USC lost, today was a good day.

After reading this story about the ongoing USC/Reggie Bush saga, we had only one thought…

If Phil Fulmer coached a rival team in the PAC-10, USC would already be on probation.

Wonder why?  Check here.

We would like to announce a special event we are throwing together here at Complain In Vain.  This week will be designated as “Write Like Todd Boyd Week.”  Boyd, an occasional guest columnist on ESPN’s Page 2, just so happens to be one of our least favorite sports journalists around.  You can check here for our previous comments about Boyd.

But what will this special week entail?  Well, for each of the next four days, we will post one column written in the same way that Boyd writes.  He has one major angle that he uses that we will focus on - “they.”  See, Boyd likes to set up the fictional “they” to have an opinion he disagrees with.  Once Boyd has decided what he wants “they” to think, then he argues against that and shows how offended he is that “they” could even have such views in the first place (even though he is the one who attributed those views to his fictional counterparts).

So, our plan is to find issues that we can make more controversial then they actually are, then argue against some mythical societal force that inexplicably believes the opposite of what we think

And Tuesday, we will start off with a topic close to Boyd’s heart - USC football.

We decided when we started this site that, as a general rule, we would avoid using any profanity during any complaining.  We just did not feel that adding any extra four-letter words would enhance what we were trying to say.  And then comes Eddy Landreth.

Eddy [bleeping] Landreth who writes during amateur hour at The [bleeping] Chapel Hill News.  Having read this guy’s column, we feel as if we could go into a Jim Calhoun-style tirade.  Or, better yet, echo the sentiments of Tommy Lasorda when asked about Dave Kingman…  What do we think of Landreth’s column?  What the [bleep] do you think is our opinion of it?  We think it was [bleeping] horse[bleep]!  Put that in, we don’t [bleeping] care!

Eddy [bleeping] Landreth.  For starters, click here to read this idiot’s article.  We had to take breaks during our reading in order to calm ourselves and not jump through the computer to take this guy down.

Essentially, Eddy thinks that the UNC player known as Psycho T gets unfairly treated by the refs.  That the man called Psycho T gets bumped in the lane too often.  That the man called Psycho T gets hacked more than any player ever, with the exception of Eric Montross and Shaquille O’Neal.  (Specifically, Eddy wrote, “In 20 years of sports writing and a lifetime of watching basketball, I have only witnessed Shaquille O’Neal and Eric Montross take this kind of consistent punishment.” And yes, you can ascertain the level of this guy’s intellect by the fact that he mentioned Eric Montross in the same sentence as Shaq.)

We are not afraid to admit that Tyler Hansborough is a terrific college player.  We are also not afraid to admit that he looks stunningly handsome when he wears his yellow-and-navy-striped shirt with his gelled hair.  We are also not afraid to admit that Eddy [bleeping] Landreth should no longer be allowed to write in a forum that other people are allowed to read.

Where to begin?  Well, for starters, we think it’s pretty common knowledge that the ACC ranks as no higher than 3rd in most physical conferences.  The Big East is as close to football as you can get, and the Big 10 is pretty brutal as well.  The ACC, at best, is in the mix with the Pac 10 and Big 12.  But this is certainly the first we have heard of ACC officials allowing the play to get too physical.  Usually, the ACC is at a disadvantage because its style of play is far less physical than what occurs in the NCAA Tournament.

But Eddy disagrees.  In fact, Eddy thinks that if Hansborough continues to play in the ACC, “he will be risking life, limb and his career to hang around college basketball any longer.”  By Eddy’s estimations, had Psycho T chosen to go to Iowa or Syracuse, he would be dead three times over.  If he risks life and limb in the ACC, God only knows what he would be putting on the line in a conference that really is physical.

We watched UNC play North Carolina State on Sunday in the ACC Championship game.  When the game got tight down the stretch, UNC ran the same play about 4 times in a row… throw inside to Hansborough, he jumps into a guy who is stationary, ref calls the defensive foul, Hansborough hits the free throws.  Generally, if Hansborough’s elbow hits the defender’s arm, then Hansborough will be shooting free throws.

So don’t sit there and ask us to feel sorry for Hansborough.  He can dish it out, so he damn well better be able to take it.  Now we’re not saying he deserved a late elbow to the face or a broken nose, not at all.  We are saying that he’s plays a physical style and his opponents have to match the type of play.  If a defender is afraid to bump inside with Psycho T, then that defender will allow Hansborough to grab every rebound.  In fact, we think Psycho T prides himself on his physical play.  If the refs did call every single bump inside, Hansborough would only average 12 minutes per game because he would constantly be in foul trouble.  He benefits from any rough play allowed by the refs more than any other player, we promise.

Eddy had this to say at one point in regard to Gerald Henderson’s elbow: “I’ve never seen anyone grab a rebound with a forearm.”  Then apparently he has not watched Psycho T as carefully as the rest of us.  His forearms play a major role in most of his rebounds.  And if he is not called for it, then good for him. 

Also on the topic of Henderson, Landreth thinks, “When Henderson hammered him, a fracture in Hansborough’s nose was the least of what could have happened. What if he had hit the court head-first? He could have sustained a career-ending injury. He might have suffered a concussion.”  We could go on… what if Hansborough received a concussion on a drive to the basket after a foul where he landed awkwardly?  What if Hansborough was pushing a guy out of the way for a rebound and slipped and banged his head for a concussion?  What if Hansborough tripped in the steps on his way to class and suffered a concussion?  What is he was hit in the head by a 90-mph ping pong ball during a game of extreme ping pong at his apartment?  Give us a break there, Eddy [bleeping] Landreth.

Moving on from Hansborough for a moment, Eddy then decides to attack Coach K for a bit.  Wow, that sure is original.  Never seen that done before, especially not by a Tar Heel homer like Eddy [bleeping] Landreth.  First, Eddy nit-picks at K for referring to Psycho T as “that kid” in a quote from the press conference.  Whatever.

Here’s his next complaint on Duke’s coach: “Mike talks a good game about relationships and people, but, no matter what one of his players does, he never fails to rationalize it and find justification for it.”

Good for Mike.  Nothing wrong with a coach standing up for his players.  No matter how you interpret the Henderson incident, Krzyzewski stating that Henderson is a good kid and not a cheap shot guy is what you want to hear from the coach.  We have never heard K rationalizing some off the court criminal incident, or some classroom problem.  He stands up for his players at all costs, and that’s why his players bust their butts every time they take the court.

And then Eddy brings us all back home with a little more disdain for the refs and the ACC front office.  He writes, “Had they blown their whistles more often this year and let it be known that brutal play would not be tolerated, Hansborough might not have a broken nose today.”  That’s about as idiotic as we have heard.  What does a foul underneath the basket in any of the games UNC has played have to do with Psycho T ending up with a broken nose?   He ended up with a broken nose because (a) Henderson was frustrated at the end of game his team was losing, (b) a freshman made a bad decision to go in for a hard foul late in the game, (c) UNC’s star was still on the court fighting for rebounds against walk-ons, and (d) Henderson’s elbow landed in the exact right spot to break Psycho T’s nose.  This play had nothing to do with whether or not an FSU players bumped Hansborough’s elbow while he was shooting.

So, give it a rest, Landreth.  If you could see us right now, we are all rubbing our thumb and forefinger together.  That’s right, playing the world’s smallest violin just for you and your whiny little column.

And you know what, we hope that Pyscho T does not go pro, as you suggest.  If he takes your advice and leaves for the NBA after this season, he will likely be playing with former UNC star Joe Forte in about two years.  What team is he on?  Oh, that’s right, it’s Montepaschi Siena in the Italian league.

What’s truly amazing is that we wrote that many words dogging this writer witout even mentioning his name is “Eddy” with a “y.”  Wow.  We didn’t even mention it once.

(One final note: We have never heard word of Hansborough being upset over the rough play or refs letting things go a bit inside.  We may not like the guy, but damnit, we respect him.  Kinda.)