• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

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

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
link

12/16/05

Just 1 minute

Almost: Oden-Conley stats would have been a first
Greg Oden and Mike Conley came close to a high school basketball first this week -- perhaps.
clear.gif
clear.gif



Both Lawrence North High School basketball players nearly had a triple-double in the Wildcats' 81-55 victory over Arlington. Would they have been the first high school teammates to record triple-doubles in the same game?

The Indiana High School Athletic Association said it has no record of that happening. Garry Donna, who has been publishing Hoosier Basketball Magazine for 36 years, said he's never heard of it.

And the National Federation of State High School Associations has no record of it. Even in the NFHS record book, which includes oddity type occurrences in boys basketball, has no mention of it.

Oden had 23 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocks while Conley had 11 points, 10 steals and seven assists.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
scout.com$

12/18/05

Oden dominated Brian Carlwell (#40 player in the 2006 class). Oden had 31 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks. Carlwell finished with just 9 points and 8 rebounds. Lawrence North won 72-59. Earlier in the week, Carlwell boasted to the Illinois media he was faster and more athletic than Oden, BIG MISTAKE.

link

12/18/05


Future battles

Oden and Lawrence North point guard Mike Conley, both headed to Ohio State, will be facing Carlwell next year. If Oden stays in college for more than a year, they'll play against Gordon as well.

Carlwell made a splash in the Illinois media with claims that he thought he was faster and more athletic than Oden.

In Lawrence North's 72-59 victory over Carlwell's Proviso East squad, Oden dominated Carlwell in points (31 to nine), rebounds (16 to eight) and blocked shots (four to one).

Carlwell admitted Oden outplayed him, but gave the reigning national high school Player of the Year bulletin board material for the future.

"I can guarantee the next time it won't be like this," Carlwell said. "It's going to be totally different." (This kid doesn't learn :)
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Saw this quote by Oden on an Illinois board. I know it's the politically correct thing to say, and probably a pipe dream for us Buckeye fans...but still feels nice to read:

"It was a great challenge," said Oden, who limped off the court and was out briefly in the first quarter after getting tangled up under the basket. "What I'm looking at now, when I think about him, is that I'm going to see him for the next four years because he's going to Illinois."
Click to expand...

Can't find a link to the actual article.
 
Upvote 0
if there ever was a diaper dandy who would turn down big bucks to stay in school, it is oden. I'll be ecstatic with one year, beside myself with two, and my grin may stick to my face like the joker if he stays for 3+.
 
Upvote 0
OilerBuck said:
Can't find a link to the actual article.
Click to expand...
Here's the article you're referring to from the Indy Star.
By Jeff Rabjohns
[email protected]
Another center barked about challenging Greg Oden. Another center went home humbled.
Lawrence North's 7-footer dominated his latest antagonist, 6-11 Brian Carlwell, an Illinois recruit from perennial power Proviso East in the Chicago suburbs.
The reigning national high school Player of the Year scored 31 points to go with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots in a matchup of future Big Ten centers. Carlwell, ranked No. 40 in the senior class, had nine points, eight rebounds and one block as Lawrence North won the marquee matchup 72-59 in the Challenge of Champions Showcase.
Earlier in the week, Carlwell boasted to the Illinois media he was faster and more athletic than Oden, headed to Ohio State. The Lawrence North coaches posted the quotes on Oden's locker.
"I had to read it," said Oden, who shot 13-for-19 from the field, including hitting his developing hook shot. "They highlighted it for everybody to see. But I really didn't worry about it. I just wanted to come out and play a good game and get a win."
Approximately 6,500 fans filled most of Southport High School's gym for the final two games of the 12-team event, including large groups of orange-clad Illinois fans and Illini coach Bruce Weber.
Proviso East (6-2), ranked No. 6 among Illinois large schools, played to take away Oden's jumper, and Class 4A No. 1 Lawrence North (7-0) countered with lobs inside. Oden powered past defenders at times, and when they played behind him, he often used his quickness to spin around them for dunks.
"It was a great challenge," said Oden, who limped off the court and was out briefly in the first quarter after getting tangled up under the basket. "What I'm looking at now, when I think about him, is that I'm going to see him for the next four years because he's going to Illinois."
At the end of the third quarter, Lawrence North led 59-42. Carlwell had five points and five rebounds. Oden had 24 and 11.
"He dominated," said Lawrence North point guard Mike Conley, who added 14 points and 11 assists. "I don't know if anybody can stop him. I don't know why anybody would say they're faster than he is or anything because that just motivates him even more."
"He did everything they said he was going to do," Carlwell said. "It wasn't anything different. I have to continue to get better. If I don't, then this will happen again next time I play him."
Call Star reporter Jeff Rabjohns at (317) 444-6183.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
is that I'm going to see him for the next four years because he's going to Illinois.
Click to expand...

can you imagine four years of Oden?

it's like you can't even get this guy riled up...he is so even-tempered. Yet he still goes out and dominates the kid running his mouth. I am so excited about the future of OSU hoops with a guy like this coming in.
 
Upvote 0
the NCAA is just lucking Sullinger and Foster are graduating. Twiggs is stepping it up bigtime, which is huge while Bell matures.

I can't wait to hear an interview from oden after he gets a triple double, and says all of his teammates were better than him out there :)
 
Upvote 0
link

12/28/05

Any way you slice it, Oden huge

7-foot prep standout from Indy impresses everyone but himself

By Brian Hamilton
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 28, 2005


INDIANAPOLIS -- Three picked-over pizza boxes lay on the table, and three student managers for the Lawrence North High School basketball team engage in a fierce Xbox 360battle on the television overhead. Seven feet of trouble then ducks through an adjacent doorway.

"What are y'all doing?" Greg Oden asks.

"Don't worry about it, Greg," a manager replies, an eye on the grub and an eye on the game.

It is already too late. One of Oden's kite-size hands snares a room-temperature slice of pepperoni. After a feigned look of disgust at the snack hoarders, he unfurls across three chairs for a chat with a visitor. The reigning national high school player of the year gets lots of visitors.

Now, though, answers come easier because others have narrowed questions into a neat rope line. In June, the NBA instituted an age minimum for entry. Thus, whatever tide-bucking Oden's desire to attend college seemed to be, in light of being the likely No. 1 pick in the June '06 NBA draft, the issue is now moot. Future Ohio State accounting major Greg Oden can eat his pilfered pizza in relative peace.

"Somebody told me it was just like every year, there has to be that special player," Oden says. "You got LeBron [James], you got Josh Smith, you got Dwight Howard and then you got O.J. Mayo, a grade younger than me. You have to have somebody in my grade.

"I'll take the pressure, but I know I have a lot to improve on. I just want to work on my game and be the best player I can be because I know I'm nowhere on the list with those guys. Those guys are great. Me, I'm just an average player who's a 7-foot guy."

Now there's something for Oden to work on in college: his sense of irony.

Finally relaxed

It is late in a Dec. 14 game against Arlington High broadcast on local television and Indianapolis' ESPN radio affiliate. Two cutters, guarded well, move past Oden in the high post so he dribbles, spins and--covering 10 feet in maybe a stride and a half--dunks two-handed.

Kneeling at the scorer's table, Arlington center James Brewer shakes his head.

"He does that when everybody's there," he says. "It's ridiculous."

Playing for the first time in six days--he cut his mouth two games earlier--Oden posts 23 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocks. The age minimum came in June, Oden signed with Ohio State on Nov. 9, and observers believe relieving those pressure points freed the 7-footer to, you know, play basketball.

"It was terrible before he made the decision," Lawrence North Principal Lynn Lupold says. "All the anticipation, what he was going to do and where he was going to go. Now he's a kid who's still good and still getting attention, but he's going to Ohio State. That has been a positive."

Says Oden's best friend, fellow Ohio State signee Mike Conley Jr.: "It's a lot easier decision: go to a college, have fun for that year or however long he's there. It's just a lot easier on him. [He's] just focused on the state title and high school and being able to be a normal kid, for him."

The qualifier--"for him"--is superfluous inside the walls of Lawrence North. Four years of celebrity buildup has numbed Oden's peers. ESPN cameras followed him from class to class for half a day last year, but that's as glamorous as the hallways got.

"He's just Greg," says Rachel Ehret, a Lawrence North track standout and Oden friend. "Of course everyone knows him, but he's a good kid, he's very humble. . . . Everyone likes him, and he's nice to everyone."

Such is Oden's philosophy on managing the gravitational pull of his stardom: Don't act like a rock star and people won't throw themselves at you on stage.

So he sometimes eats lunch alone in the athletic office. As a junior he was nominated for homecoming king, which carries with it two or three appearances. Oden asked several times, in vain, to have his name withdrawn from the voting.

"I'm just a regular student," Oden says. "My classmates, they treat me like that. Every now and then you get a couple of freshmen who act childish and immature. But everybody else, they're real cool, they treat me like a regular guy. Because that's what I am."

This is evident when the subject turns to movies. Then Oden's eyes shed their premature world-weariness and light up. His runaway favorite flicks: "American Pie 2" and "Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back."

And then there is the DVD collection, 50 or 60 deep. A recent unlikely purchase is "Sky High," a piece of fluff about a child attending a superhero high school.

"I don't know why I liked it," Oden says. "But I liked it."

Man-child, indeed.

"Nowadays, everybody's growing up quicker than they're supposed to," Oden says. "Instead of people skipping [steps], being thrown into that `man' stage, just develop, become a young man, and then you'll get to that `man' stage. I feel college will help me. I'm still an immature young guy, watching `Sky High.'"

All eyes on him

The doors to the Indianapolis Southport High gym open and heads swivel in unison away from the on-court action. Digital cameras and camera phones click away. Oden walks up stairs, pulling eyes toward him all the way.

Later, he will skewer Proviso East for 31 points and 16 rebounds in the Circle City Classic on Dec. 17. Game MVP trophy in hand, he is torn away from groups of autograph seekers three times. No one is convinced what they're seeing is average.

"He's the best shot blocker I've seen since Bill Russell, that I have personally ever witnessed," Indianapolis North Central coach Doug Mitchell says. "He runs the floor like I've not seen many big men run. Throw anything to him, he's going to catch it. Just the laws of big men he defies. People talk about his offensive skills. Well, he's 18 years old. Just hang on a minute."

Oden lived in an impatient universe for years. Then the very specter that haunted him--the NBA--provided some salvation with the minimum entry age.

That in mind, Oden is asked if, as he falls asleep watching the Disney Channel, he ever considers what life would be like minus six or seven inches. A look of long-ago surrender filters from drowsy eyes through his wire-rimmed glasses.

"It doesn't matter to me," Oden says. "This is all that I know. I really don't know anything else. Right now I'm just living my life and I'm happy."

----------

[email protected]
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top