FanHouse RonaldJohnson

While the basketball-loving world is completely distracted by the start of free agency, the NBA quietly tried to sneak a relatively major development under the radar. They've created the office of Senior Vice President, Referee Operations to oversee (wait for it ...) all things pertaining to referees, including "recruiting, training and development, scheduling, data management and analysis and work rules enforcement."

Those responsibilities previously fell on the shoulders of Stu Jackson, the league's VP of Basketball Operations, but the NBA is clearly hoping that the creation of a new office will convince everyone that officiating decisions are not being made by the same people whose job it is to ensure the game stays competitive and marketable. The office will report to NBA president Joel Litvin, David Stern's right-hand man.

So who is heading up the new position? U.S. Army Major General Ronald Johnson, who has 32 years of combat engineering experience and recently retired from heading up the Army Corps of Engineers. Is that outside the box enough for you?

Johnson admittedly has no basketball experience outside of being a fan, but no one can deny that someone with his resume has the ability to train, manage and lead large groups of people in mission critical projects. After helping coordinate billion dollar reconstruction efforts in Iraq, surely making sure that a couple of guys with whistles know to stand in the right spot to see the difference between a blocking foul and a charge will be a cake walk, right? Here's to hoping that's the case.

While looking at the Pac-10 impact freshmen category, it would have been simple enough to take the top 5 or so USC recruits and simply list them below. But, obviously that's the easy way out. While USC has the two best frosh to hit the field for '07, there actually are other programs with young talent that will be on display this fall. Without further delay, check out FanHouse's view of the top impact freshmen of the upcoming season:

1. Joe McKnight, RB, USC

If you like to watch people in football uniforms running really really fast and doing fast things, this is your video.

In it, Muskegon (MI) receiver Ronald Johnson just torches some hapless opponent with several long receptions and punt returns. Johnson would later spurn the homestate Michigan Wolverines in favor of USC, shocking a lot of recruitniks.

The pure speed on display reminds me a little of Ted Ginn's videos from a few years ago. As soon as the ball is in Johnson's hands he's just gone, no doubt about it. It's all the more remarkable considering he was still recovering from torn knee ligaments at the time. That tends to rob guys of some of their explosiveness but apparently Johnson's doing just fine.

The scuttlebutt with him now is figuring out how USC will use him. The early talk is wide receiver, a la Ted Ginn. However, USC is loaded with receiver talent including several top 10 national recruits like Patrick Turner and Vidal Hazelton to go with the monstrous David Ausberry and speedy Travon Patterson. Did I mention USC also has Jamere Holland who broke his leg busted his shoulder just before fall camp last year but is otherwise one of the fastest players in the country (10.3 range in the 100 meters)?.

USC has numbers at receiver Ohio State simply couldn't match, which makes me think that Johnson finds his way to the defensive backfield within the year unlike Ginn who became a permanent offensive fixture in spite of his background as a defensive back. However, his speed and ball skills are hard to ignore. Look for him to moonlight as a punt or kick returner early in his career until that whole offense/defense thing is permanently sorted out.