The valet parking station featured 20 guys ready to park cars. That’s
so LA, where they even have valets at Bed, Bath, and Beyond — at the location that already has a sizable parking structure.

Valets
didn’t matter much to University of Southern California sports fans —
aside from the fact that the South Los Angeles university now runs
probably the last valet parking spot before you get to Orange County.
These folks were here to see hoops and, hopefully, hear the USC band
play "Tusk."
Still, the brown men appeared out of place, as though they had missed
their bus to Hollywood. The resulting discombobulation counts for a lot
as the Galen Center is not just a key component of USC’s non-football future, but an anchor in the revival of downtown LA’s southernmost tip.

I'd never been to a game at this arena. A serious step up from former digs, the Clip Joint,
the interior of the $147 million facility struck me as unremarkable.
Galen is techy, but not offensively so. Even the “cheap seats,” such as
the three me and my sons occupied, offer clear views, but the design by
HNTB feels sterile and anonymous.

Unavoidably, like Staples
Center — Galen’s neighbor arena to the north — there’s still that
discomfiting new-car smell to the place. Nothing you can do about that;
facilities like the Forum in Inglewood, the pre-Staples Lakers’ home,
and UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion maintain a palpable air of sweat and victory
that comes only with decades of accomplishment. Until the Galen Center
can offer that attraction, it will have to settle for valet parking to
earn serious alumni support.

Paradoxically, the arena actually
suits the new feel of downtown Los Angeles. Where once the area was
defined by skid row and volumes of artists’ spaces, the new move is
toward multibillion dollar dealies like the Grand Avenue development and LA Live. It’s folly to pretend the old ways were better. Back in the back of the day, I saw Prince
at the Clip Joint, and it was transcendent. That doesn’t mean the LA
Sports Arena was better. LaDainian Tomlinson ran for more yards last
season, but that doesn’t mean the Chargers aren’t better this season. Sometimes, it’s merely the transitions that are difficult.

As
for the substance of the game that so few opted to have their cars
parked for? Official attendance was listed at 9,551, but the actual
number of asses in seats was probably 80 percent of that figure. No
surprise there; the visiting Washington team is no great shakes and not
even a rival. And the Trojans entered the contest previously winless in
the Pac-10. What’s more, OJ Mayo is a national name, but the nation’s biggest college contest had been played across town a few hours earlier.

Regardless, USC gutted out the kind of win
that the team will need more of if it is to gain admission to the NCAA
tournament. If they are indeed admitted to the field of 24, though,
don’t look for the Trojans to progress very far. The team's depth is
suspect and its front-court play, like the new arena, is at best,
unremarkable.