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C Greg Oden (All B1G, All-American, Defensive Player of the Year, Butler Assistant Coach)

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Slumbering Giant

Top High School player fears college-issued twin bed

Posted: Tuesday April 18, 2006 11:44AM; Updated: Tuesday April 18, 2006 12:06PM

By Matthew Waxman
Imagine looking out your window and seeing Greg Oden mowing your lawn. The 7-foot Goliath may be the top high school player in the country and the best center since Tim Duncan, but he's also a high school student dealing with senioritis and working a part-time job to earn some extra dough. We sat down with Oden, who under the old rules could have been the No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft if he was allowed to go pro, and talked about his desire to go to college, gearing up for his first season at Ohio State, and his favorite desperate housewife.
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Head and shoulders above the competition, Oden shot over 70% from the field.
Robert Beck/SI


SI On Campus: What are you up to?
Greg Oden: I have to get back to a photo shoot with Mike (Conley) and coach that I just ran from. When I left, Mike was looking pretty aggravated.
SIOC: What was the shoot for?
GO: I really don't know.
SIOC: How did you and Mike decide to go to Ohio State together?
GO: We never talked about it. We made the decisions for ourselves and we just happened to be going to the same school.
SIOC: You recently picked up some hardware (Gatorade Player of the Year, Indiana Mr. Basketball) and played in the McDonald's All-American game. How did that go?
GO: My team had Mike (Conley), Gerald Henderson, Lance Thomas, and Wayne Ellington and we lost by 20 to a team with Chase Budinger, Daequan Cook, Darrell Arthur, the Lopez twins and Kevin Durant. We all forgot it was an all-star game and just wanted to go out there and win, but it was just a bad game for our team.
SIOC: How are you keeping yourself busy now that the basketball season's over?
GO: There's four weeks until finals; all I do is sleep and watch TV. I like to sleep maybe 10 hours a day, but we just had a time change and the past couple of days have been killing me. I've been going to sleep around two and I wake up at six to go shoot jump shots and free throws and work on post moves.
SIOC: Is it hard to get up and motivate at that hour?
GO: I don't even hit the snooze because the ten minutes does nothing for me. I just change my alarm to 6:25 and then I rush over to school, which is only three minutes away. When I get home, I take a little nap though.
SIOC: What are your plans for this summer?
GO: I start my job today cutting grass. One of our (basketball) assistants runs his own landscaping business called Hoosier Lawn Care and I've been working for it since my freshman year. I trim around the trees and close to the house where the mower can't get to.
SIOC: Hard to imagine. When do you pack your bags for Columbus?
GO: First day of summer school is June 19. All the younger guys go to get used to college life. I'm just hoping I get an extra long bed rather than one of those twin beds.
SIOC: Even before the rule changes, you said you wanted to go to college. What was your motivation? There are no twin beds in the pros.
GO: I don't feel like I'm ready to jump to the NBA. I can go to college and get better and then hopefully make it to the NBA. I played against Al Jefferson and he beasted me at Nike camp my freshman or sophomore year. I didn't know he was that good. Man, he's strong. I couldn't stop him.
SIOC: How's senior spring going? Are you in charge of plotting the senior prank?
GO: Nah. I like going to the movies. I'm going to see Scary Movie 4 tonight and I'm excited about that one. I've also been watching a lot of TV: CSI, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives.
SIOC: Which housewife has Greg Oden's heart?
GO: I'd have to say Eva.
SIOC: You should kick the crap out of Tony Parker and make a play for her.
GO: I couldn't handle her. Plus I'm too tall for her.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/sioncampus/04/18/oden.qanda/index.html
 
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USAToday.com

4/19/06

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Greg Oden was named the All-USA Player of the Year for the second consecutive season after he led Lawrence North to an undefeated season and the school's third consecutive state championship.

All-USA basketball The 2006 USA TODAY All-USA prep basketball team:

Greg Oden
7-0, center
Lawrence North, Indianapolis

By the numbers: Averaged 22 points and 10.5 rebounds. Shot 74% from the floor. Also named Naismith, Gatorade and Parade magazine player of the year. Helped his team to three consecutive state titles. Got personal invitation to practice with the U.S. Olympic basketball team and possibly play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

College choice: Ohio State.

Why do you wear No. 50? "It's the jersey I was assigned as a seventh-grader."

In 10 years, you want to be doing what? "Playing in the NBA, but more importantly being happy and successful with my life."

Favorite meal: Sweet barbecued chicken wings.

If you could have dinner with anyone, who? "A family reunion back in Buffalo that would include more than 100 people."

The world would be better if: "People stopped smoking. It's messing up the atmosphere."

First dunk: "It was after practice when I was in the seventh grade."

NBA players I admire most: David Robinson and Dwight Howard. "People say my game resembles theirs."

If I couldn't play basketball: "I'd go into accounting."

Going to the prom? "No, I don't have any interest."
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IndyStar

4/19/06


It's a Keefer-Oden sweep
USA Today picks Lawrence North's boys coach, center as best in nation


Greg Oden was named USA Today Player of the Year as expected Tuesday, but he shared the spotlight this time with his coach.

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Jack Keefer highlights
• Age: 62.
• Family: wife Jan, sons Joel, 31, and Jake, 8.
• Record: 522-201 in 30 seasons at Lawrence North, 583-227 in 34 seasons overall.
• State championships: 1989, 2004 (Class 4A), 2005 (4A) and 2006 (4A).
• McDonald's All-American Game coach: 2005.
• Indianapolis Star Indiana All-Stars coach: 1992.
• Players named Indiana All-Stars: Reed Crafton (1985), Derwin Webb ('88), Todd Leary ('89), Eric Montross ('90), Jeff Layden ('93), Tom Geyer ('97), John Stewart * ('99), Chris Hill (2001), Brandon McPherson ('05), Greg Oden # ('06).

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Jack Keefer, whose team reached legendary heights in his 30th season at Lawrence North High School, was the USA Today national Coach of the Year for boys basketball.

"When you've been a coach as long as I have, you get some honors, but this is a pretty special one," Keefer said. "There are a lot of great high school coaches out there, and they chose me and I appreciate it, but it certainly helps to have a great team to make me a great coach."

Behind Oden and point guard Mike Conley, both headed to Ohio State, the Wildcats went 29-0 this season, became only the third Indiana team to win three consecutive state titles and matched Crispus Attucks' state-record 45-game winning streak.

Keefer is 584-227 in 34 years as a head coach, 523-201 as Lawrence North's only coach. He joins Bill Green, who led Marion to three straight state titles, as the only Indiana coaches named Coach of the Year by USA Today.

This is the fifth Player of the Year award for Oden, who previously won the Gatorade, Naismith, Parade magazine and Morgan Wootten awards.

A Marion native and Ball State graduate, Keefer began his coaching career at Oak Hill High School in Converse, going 61-26.

Keefer's four state titles put him in a tie for second-most in state history with Everett Case (Frankfort, 1925, '29, '36, '39), Marion Crawley (Washington, 1941-42; Lafayette Jefferson, 1948, '64), and Glenn Curtis (Lebanon, 1918; Martinsville, 1924, '27, '33). Green, who won five with Marion and one with Indianapolis Washington, holds the record with six.

Call Star reporter Jeff Rabjohns at (317)-444-6183.

Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com. All rights reserved
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tribstar.com

4/20/06

Amey Takes Aim: Maybe Indiana Mr. Basketball voting wasn’t a clear choice
By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — There was at least one voter for the Indiana high school Mr. Basketball award who had the same idea that I did, and there may have been as many as 15. The number of like-minded voters was an odd one, at any rate.

Greg Oden of Lawrence North finished with 1771/2 votes and his friend and point guard teammate Mike Conley had 71/2. Therefore at least one voter split his ballot between the two, giving half a vote to each.

That’s probably the route I would have taken, except I didn’t get a ballot this year (or it’s near the bottom of the pile of things to be taken care of on my desk). If I hadn’t gone that way, I was actually leaning a little toward Mike.

Which isn’t to say, by the way, that I disagree with the people who are saying that Greg is the best high school basketball player in the nation.

Confused? Well, you have a right to be, but here’s my reasoning.

Greg Oden is the most amazing big man I’ve ever watched play high school basketball (although Rasheed Wallace, of Philadelphia Simon Gratz, is pretty close). I love to watch him because he gives me a jaw-dropping moment or two just about every time, and he does little things here and there that make me shudder in awe — shudder at the fact that we are seeing just the tip of a very big, Titanic-sized iceberg.

We are seeing just a small fraction of Greg Oden so far. Al McGuire, whom I trusted implicitly, used to say you never knew how good a player could be until he stopped improving, and I sense no self-satisfaction in Greg. He has great size and phenomenal skills now, and is going to keep getting better.

It’s taken me several minutes to put this next sentence down on paper, because people are going to read it and tell me I’m nuts. That may be true, but I’m also old enough to have seen, in grainy filmed highlights, the player Greg Oden reminds me most of at a similar age. It’s not Rasheed, but it’s another guy from Philly — Wilt Chamberlain (although I’d like to advise Greg not to go after Wilt’s non-basketball records).

This is a pretty good argument for Mike Conley so far, isn’t it?

Mike isn’t, of course, Wilt Chamberlain. What he is, however, is the reason Lawrence North won three straight state championships, which is why I would have given him at least half my Mr. Basketball vote (if I’d only found that mail).

In the four years that Greg and Mike played together, I actually saw the Wildcats in a couple of close games, most notably Terre Haute South’s home opener in December of 2004. The Braves were able to surround Greg and had fought back from a 10-point deficit to tie the score, so Mike stole the ball for layups on successive possessions and Lawrence North was ahead to stay.

Every time I saw the Wildcats play, the same thing would happen. When they needed a big play, Mike Conley would make it — a steal, an assist, a basket, a rebound. In this year’s semistate against Bloomington South, he played with an injured left hand (he’s a southpaw) and shot right-handed — looked about as good doing it as I would have — and still led his team in scoring.

This is a leader. This is a guy who will find a way to beat you. So he would have had at least half my vote.

I was planning to explain this to both players, but particularly to Greg, but they’re understandably a little tough to get next to after a game. I have a hunch, however, that this column will get to them before long.

I have a hunch, also, what Greg will say — that I’m absolutely right.

Mike’s going to be a little harder to convince.
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DDN

4/24/06

GIMME FIVE
Oden is a blue-chip Buckeye

By Cox News Service

Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta gives us five reasons why Naismith Award-winning high school player of the year and Buckeyes recruit Greg Oden has the potential to be a great one:

Character Greg is a tremendous young man with his priorities in order.
Talent He has been gifted with size (7-0, 245) and athleticism, as well as a great feel for how to play the game.

Winner He has won at every level of his young career (three state titles at Lawrence North in suburban Indianapolis).

Skill He has a nice touch around the basket and tremendous timing on defense.

Work ethic He is dedicated on a daily basis to improving his game.
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After the competition he gets here, the Big10 season's gonna feel like rec-league :biggrin:

An offer too good to refuse
Prep star Oden to participate in Team USA camp
- Marty Burns

Add Greg Oden to the list of players who will participate in this summer's Team USA tryout camp.

Oden, the 7-foot Ohio State-bound center considered the best high school player in the country, has agreed to join 23 NBA players in the camp to be held July 19-25 in Las Vegas, USA Basketball Managing Director Jerry Colangelo confirmed Wednesday.

The tryout camp will be used to select 15 players that will compete in this summer's World Championship in Japan. Colangelo said Oden's pending college enrollment would likely prevent him from competing in those games, but he could be part of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"The purpose in having him there this summer is to expose him to USA Basketball, give him a chance to compete with [international-level players] and get a feel for what he needs to do," Colangelo said.

"This is really for a couple years from now. Let's see how far he progresses. Maybe he's ready for '08."

Oden is expected to be the No. 1 overall draft pick in '07 if he decides to enter the NBA Draft, which is the earliest he could come out under new league rules. The former Indiana high school standout has won virtually every national Player of the Year award. He might even be the best pure center on Team USA right now.

Colangelo said he met with Oden at the McDonald's All-American Game in San Diego in March, and then again at the Roundball Classic in Chicago in early April to discuss his taking part in this summer's camp.

"He was a little leery about it at first. Maybe a little intimidated," Colangelo said. "But he's fine. He came around.

"His focus right now is on college. [But] this is really a head start on his college program. To be able to have the coaching and competition he'll get in that setting is beneficial. The people around him are really encouraging him. Number one, they all recognize it's a great honor. And number two, it's a great opportunity."

Colangelo said there would be no NCAA issues at stake with Oden's participation. He also said Ohio State is on board.

"They like it," Colangelo said. "We certainly have an invitation to [Buckeyes coach Thad Matta] to attend and be around. We think it would be great."

Oden will join a camp that will include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade and Elton Brand among other NBA stars. The team also includes two former college players, Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and Duke's J.J. Redick.
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I'm back again -- had a busy few months with my own kids playing AAU ball. I saw Greg a couple of weeks ago and talked to him about the Olympic workout invitation. At that point, he said it would interfere with him getting to Ohio State early so he would probably not be able to do it this year. The point being --- he is so excited to get started at OSU that he would have passed up that opportunity if Matta had wanted him on campus! What convinced him to change his mind was Matta giving his OK for Greg to go.

As humble as Greg is, this will be a great experience because he will see that he really is THAT GOOD! He is so excited about college, I don't think 2 or 3 years are out of the question although the money thrown at him by Reebok will be incredible!

EDIT: I meant to add to this -- Greg had an MRI on his wrist last week - a very slight chip in it but will need nothing more than rest. He is keeping it in a brace for a couple of weeks but will be 100% very soon. He actually thinks he chipped it on his first dunk in the McD game.
 
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