O.J. Mayo grabbed a rebound and turned to pass before accidentally hitting teammate Daniel Hackett on the jaw, breaking it in 3 places during a pickup game at the Galen Center. Mayo wrote him a note of apology and has checked in with him repeatedly since the accident. Hackett will be out 6 weeks.

The upcoming season is just around the corner with a lot of potentially great matchups. Which one are you most excited to see?

December 2nd – USC vs. Kansas
O.J. Mayo and USC have their first true test against top competition as they take on Brandon Rush and highly ranked Kansas.

December 4th – USC vs. Memphis (Jimmy V Classic at MSG)
O.J. Mayo vs. Derrick Rose… the last time they met was full of highlights

January 19th / February 17th – USC vs. UCLA
The battle of L.A. Mayo and Kevin Love. Bruins and Trojans.

SLAM ONLINE has posted an exclusive video of O.J. Mayo’s covershoot including footage of the photoshoot, the interview, and of course, O.J. Mayo.

O.J. Mayo is the Fresh Prince of Los Angeles according to SLAM Magazine, as he will be featured on the cover of SLAM issue 112. While the article focuses on Mayo’s potential, his background and what makes him tick, Slam’s Ryan Jones gives a breakdown of why O.J. Mayo was chosen for the cover, among other things.

OJ Mayo’s story combines the all-too-familiar cliche of the young black ballplayer — poor, single-parent household, etc and so forth — with almost unparalleled levels of media hype and a run of image-shaping circumstances that’s almost too strange to believe.

Peter Simones has an article in today’s Daily Trojan: When nobody’s watching: O.J. Mayo not who you think he is

Check out this story of Mayo’s work ethic:

After the first night’s competition was all said and done, seven games had been decided – Mayo’s side had won five. The players walked over to their duffle bags, threw on jean shorts, changed shoes, sat down and joked about their summer experiences.

Everyone, that is, except Mayo.

Mayo never left the court. While everyone else was lounging, Mayo was practicing step-back 3-pointers. He would gather the ball, take one slashing dribble forward, hop backward so he was just behind the 3-point line and then shoot.

He missed his first two shots, cussed under his breath, then made 13 shots in a row. Most people would start getting excited at five or six consecutive threes. Mayo made 13, then cussed again after he missed an attempt at 14.

Andy Katz has a great article on the maturity of O.J. Mayo.

Some pictures of O.J. Mayo playing in the exhibition game in Mexico last weekend from USChoops.com

O.J. Mayo scored 29 points in helping lead the USC Trojans to 102-82 victory over Caballeros de Sinaloa in an exhibition game in Mexico. Davon Jefferson, another USC freshman, also added 29.