In Sports Illustrated parlance, call this item one of the signs of the apocalypse: Southern California men's basketball coach Tim Floyd has offered a full-ride scholarship, or as close to a full ride as you get these days, to Percy Romeo Miller Jr., otherwise known as rapper Lil Romeo.

Miller, the son of Master P, the erstwhile rapper/basketball player, is 5 feet 10 and averages 8.6 points a game for Beverly Hills High, a last place team. That, on its face, would hardly make him worthy of receiving a $40,000 scholarship to play in a conference like the Pac-10.

That is, until you consider that Miller is the best friend of Demar DeRozan, a 6-foot-5 guard from Compton High, who is universally acclaimed as one of the top high school seniors in the country. DeRozan, not surprisingly, also signed with USC, giving the impression that Floyd signed the two as a package deal and kept a scholarship away from a walk-on player, who could have used it.

Ah, college recruiting.