C Greg Oden (Portland Trailblazers)

[akronbuck]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

Bballjunkie said in his post at the top of the previous page he thinks Oden will be ready by the start of conference play. I value his opinion.

The trouble is that people want definitive answers when there are none--and they even say they know there are none--and yet they keep asking...

the best thing for him is that its ligament not bone like mine. That can heal to a point IN SOME CASES like it never happened or be just like mine. JERRY LEWIS HAND.

[Best Buckeye]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

Well then, if "no one" knows for sure, how can you expect a definite answer...why even ask if "no one" knows? And you wonder why you get the crap dinged out of you...

This looks like a pretty valid question to me.
", Helwagen used the term when/if when asked when oden would play. So what are the real chances He will never play a game for the Bucks."

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Helwagen used the term when/if when asked when oden would play. So what are the real chances He will never play a game for the Bucks."

Obviously, no one has an answer of when Oden will be cleared to play, but it is not a question of if he will play this year, it is when he will play.

The general feeling based on the injury, Oden's rehab and input from the medical team is that it is not out of the question he will be back in Jan. It could be sooner or later. Its a matter of how quickly Greg responds to the rehab and obviously, that will be a day to day thing. The bottom line is simply he will see the court this year.

[Ttown]

Originally Posted by Best Buckeye

This looks like a pretty valid question to me.
", Helwagen used the term when/if when asked when oden would play. So what are the real chances He will never play a game for the Bucks."

I believe Oden's injury is to the scapholunate ligament, the main mechanical stabilizer of the wrist. Recovery from reconstructive surgery often means immobilization in a cast for 10-12 weeks and can include the insertion of pins, followed by physical therapy. He should be ready to play around the first of the year, as noted by others. If however he has further problems with it and can't play and goes to the NBA next year he might possibly never play for the Buckeyes. I think that is what Helwagon was considering.

[BuckeyeFan_InTx]

Greg Oden is going to be the bread and butter for this Buck team!! Good luck this season bucks!

[TRON]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeFan_InTx

Greg Oden is going to be the bread and butter for this Buck team!! Good luck this season bucks!

Im going with J Butler, and R Lewis as are bread and butter this year

[BuckeyeFan_InTx]

Well Greg will be another weapon including them!

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

USAToday

Ohio State's Oden to begin rehab on wrist, eyes start of conference play for returnPosted 10/29/2006 6:12 PM

By Marlen Garcia, USA TODAY

Greg Oden is expected to resume physical therapy this week for his surgically repaired right wrist, Ohio State coach Thad Matta said Sunday at the Big Ten's media gathering in Chicago.

The target date for Oden's return for the fourth-ranked Buckeyes remains no later than Jan. 1. The 7-foot freshman center from Indianapolis, who had wrist surgery in June to repair ligament damage, should be in the lineup in time to begin Big Ten play against Indiana on Jan. 2.

"Obviously we would take him earlier," Matta said.

Matta said a screw in Oden's wrist recently was removed, but his wrist has been immobilized.
"Getting the screw out was a major step," Matta said. "Now Mother Nature is in control. Thursday we'll begin the moving process."
Ever the optimist, Matta sees a silver lining in Oden's injury, noting that Oden has been working on using his left hand. "In the end, this could be a blessing for Greg," Matta said. "It's forced him to develop a left-handed hook shot and a left-handed jumper."

[hoopsfan]

From the time the pins were removed (a week ago Thurs, I think) Greg is not able to do much if anything with the wrist for 2 weeks. After that he can do whatever he can tolerate -- obviously they will begin the rehab sllowly and progress from there. Greg is still shooting for the Cincy game on December 16 as his return -- everybody is still saying January to be cautious. It could still be Jan, but 12/16 is what is in Greg's mind right now.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Hoopsfan, thanks for the insight as always.....sounds positive. The Buckeye nation is waiting patiently for his debut.



Link

Buckeyes' Oden Casts Long Shadow; He Leads Heralded Freshman Class

By MARK STEWART
Chicago The Big Ten is already buzzing about Greg Oden.
When you think of the impact Ohio State's 7-foot, 270-pound freshman could have in the Big Ten, think big, coaches say. Magic Johnson big. Isiah Thomas big. Chris Webber big.
"Oden is a freak," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said Sunday during the Big Ten's media day at the O'Hare Marriott Hotel. "I'm not even sure if Michael was in that state. Magic was. LeBron would have been."
Johnson and Thomas led their teams to a conference titles as freshmen. Can Oden, the best player of an Ohio State freshman class that is considered the best in the country, do the same?
That's the million-dollar question this season and the Wisconsin Badgers, the league's most experienced team, will play a large role in the answer.
The Badgers and Buckeyes are 1-2 or 2-1 in the league depending on who you believe.
Ohio State was ranked fourth in the pre-season coaches poll; Wisconsin was ninth. The Buckeyes were also voted the favorite in the Big Ten's pre-season media poll. But in another media poll, 17 of 22 Big Ten beat writers picked the Badgers to win the conference just as Street and Smith's Magazine did.
Can talented experience trump the extremely talented?
"They're going to be very gifted, very talented and young," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said of Ohio State. "And that youthful enthusiasm and exuberance can be very contagious, very exciting, but I think the success they had a year ago was based on they had four or five fifth-year seniors."
Ohio State won the regular-season and conference tournament titles last season with a team that included six players older than 22 by season's end. Led by senior Terence Dials, the Big Ten's player of the year, they'd seen and done it all and they provided coach Thad Matta with a security blanket he admits he no longer has.
Matta is surprised by some of the attention Ohio State was the only team in the coaches poll to receive a first-place vote beside defending national championship Florida but he isn't shying away from the high expectations. At the team's first meeting, he showed the players a pamphlet of Atlanta, site of the 2007 Final Four, and told them they could get there.
At the same time, he knows there is a lot of work to do.
"We still have issues with the shot clock," Matta said. "I've got four guys that have never played with a shot clock and we're getting shot clock violations in practice. I think those are the things that are kind of unknown. Experience. You can't teach it. As hard as we're trying every day in practice, you cannot teach it."
It doesn't help that Oden won't be available until January. In June he had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist. A screw used to immobilize the joint was removed last week, but Oden still isn't cleared to practice.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, is at full strength and has Alando Tucker, the league's pre-season player of the year (Oden was pre-season all- conference). With Tucker and Kammron Taylor, the Badgers are the only team in the league that has its top two scorers back. And no team in the league returns a greater percentage of its scoring, rebounding or minutes played.
Ohio State is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It ranks ninth in the percentage of points returning and last in the percentage of rebounds and minutes played returning.
What will win out? Stay tuned.
"All of sudden just because a guy is a year older, are you that much better?" UW coach Bo Ryan asked. "Progress, improvement are measured in so many different ways, but the tangible things I can refer to are with the drills.
"For the most part we have some experience back that understands why it is we're doing the things we're doing in practice so I think that helps. It doesn't guarantee anything, but it helps."
Big Ten women: UW junior Jolene Anderson was named pre-season all conference by the coaches and media. She averaged 17.3 points last season and was a second-team all-conference pick.
Ohio State was voted the favorite by the media and coaches followed by Purdue and Michigan State. The Badgers, who finished ninth last season, were picked sixth in both polls.
"It's not where you start, it's where you finish," Anderson said. "That's something as a team we keep our focus on. Don't look at polls and where they put us. We just have to continue with our focus whether it's practice or a game."

[osugrad21]

Link

All Oden, all the time

Charlie Kautz - The Daily Iowan

Have you ever met Greg Oden? What do you think about him? Have you washed your hand since you last shook his? Do you, by any chance, have his autograph?

OK, so maybe nobody asked the last two. But judging by the questions presented to both players and coaches at Big Ten basketball media day last weekend, some would have you believe the 7-0, Shaq-sized Ohio State big man is the second coming of Wilt Chamberlain.

Buckeye head coach Thad Matta might as well have recruited and signed an 18-year-old Zeus, a Greek god trapped in a freshman center's frame, arguably too almighty to be locked down by a recent NBA eligibility ruling.

The crisp white poster standing at the entrance to the Chicago Ballroom reading, "Welcome to the Big Ten basketball media day," could have boasted, "Welcome to The Greg Oden Show: Series Premi�re Jan. 2."

Truth is, the Indianapolis native wasn't even in the Windy City on Sunday. Oden was back in Columbus, nursing a broken shooting wrist that will likely force him to miss the first two months of the season.

Wait. If he's out until 2007 with an injury, how was he selected preseason first-team All-Big Ten? You mean he won't start a game, take a shot, or log a single minute until New Year's week, and he's already garnering honors as one of the five best players in a conference that has two top-10 teams?

A rare situation, indeed. I feel there are two logical explanations.

One is the league's better returning centers, including Wisconsin's Brian Butch, Minnesota's Spencer Tollackson, and Michigan's Courtney Sims. Their experience and accomplishments in Division-I basketball do not live up the excitement surrounding the blue-chip athletic ability of Oden.

The second is he's a glass-hitting, rim-rocking, shot-swatting freak of nature, the guaranteed No. 1 pick in whatever draft he enters and the guy capable of averaging 20 points and 10 boards when finally penciled in the lineup.

While some discussed his health status, his capabilities, and his recruitment, one fellow All-Big Ten teammate seemed tired of answering questions about a player practically nobody has seen, yet.

"I'm worried about my team, right now," said Indiana forward D.J. White. "I'm not worried about how he plays or whatever. I'm focused on Indiana, right now, and what I need to do to compete."

Unfortunately, for both White and the rest of the conference, media day seems only the start to a two-month barrage of questions, projections, and hundreds of in-game camera shots to the Ohio State star in street clothes. Seniors who have fought three years for starting jobs will be overshadowed by a kid who will play all of three months of college hoops, and they better get used to it quickly.

For the Buckeye fans holding their collective breath, the agonizing wait for greatness will likely be worth the reward.

As for everyone else - get ready for Greg Oden, because last weekend was only the beginning.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Here is a couple of pics of Oden before the first exhibition.....

Ohio State Strength and Conditioning coach Dave Richardson, left, stretches freshman center Greg Oden before a exhibition college basketball game against Findlay in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)


Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden,right, watches teammates Jamar Butler shoot before a exhibition college basketball game against Findlay in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

cnnsi.com

Luke Winn's Top 10 Instant-Impact Freshmen
2Greg Oden, C | Ohio State

Oden, who's a near-lock to be the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft, is this college season's biggest question mark. Will his wrist have fully healed in time for the Big Ten season? If so, the Buckeyes will be a top 10 team.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

SUNDAY FOCUS | COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Sunday Focus | An age-old question

Will the college game get hurt by the NBA's new age restriction for entering the draft, with elite players leaving after just one season?

BY MICHELLE KAUFMAN

mkaufman@MiamiHerald.com


AP PHOTO
TIME TO KILL: Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden, a 7-1, 255-pound Indiana native, will have to wait at least a year before being eligible for the NBA.

Greg Oden -- the most dominant high school center since Shaquille O'Neal -- is a freshman at Ohio State. He takes classes, attends practice, eats dorm food and plans to suit up for the Buckeyes once his ailing wrist heals. Whether he unpacks his luggage remains to be seen.
He might be better off keeping his stuff in boxes.
Oden, a 7-1, 255-pound Indiana native, is a member of the first freshman class held back from the NBA Draft for a year under the league's new age rules. Players must be 19 and one year removed from high school to be eligible for the draft. Unlike 2004, when a record eight high schoolers were drafted in the first round, the Class of 2006 has to wait until summer 2007 to cash in.
Oden, Seattle prep star Spencer Hawes (University of Washington), and all-everything forward Kevin Durant (University of Texas) are among the NBA-bound youngsters biding their time in college this season because their only other choices are going to Europe, spending a year riding buses to NBDL games or getting rusty.
AN ELITE CLASS
Other top freshmen who would likely be in the NBA under the old rules are Paul Harris (Syracuse), Thaddeus Young (Georgia Tech) and Ty Lawson (North Carolina).
So, for five months anyway, college basketball can boast the most talented freshman class since 1995, when Kevin Garnett went directly to the Timberwolves and opened the floodgates. That last great college class featured Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce, and Chauncey Billups.
After that, the elite high school players followed Garnett's route. Kwame Brown skipped college and was the No. 1 overall pick in 2001, LeBron James was No. 1 in 2003 and Dwight Howard was No. 1 in 2004. Most experts say Oden would have been the top pick this year had the new rule not been in effect.
Though fans might be excited to see the top prep players in college uniforms, albeit for just one season, many college basketball coaches are not convinced the rule is a good idea. If players are allowed to declare for the draft after their freshman year, why not just let them turn pro out of high school?
''It's like the kid has one foot in college and one foot out,'' University of Miami basketball coach Frank Haith said. ``He's not really committed to the team or academics, he's just there counting days until the draft, so how seriously is he going to take his college experience?
``The NBA wanted to do the right thing, but I'm not really in favor of the rule as it is because I think if a kid's good enough to go out from high school, he should go. It's not fair to those kids to hold them back and force them to go to college if they don't want to.''
That said, if a player such as Oden wanted to play for the Hurricanes for one season, Haith would take him.
''Heck, yes,'' Haith said. ``Absolutely I would. I won't lie. Look what Carmelo Anthony did for Syracuse. But I don't think that will be an issue for us here at Miami, at least not yet. And it would take a very special kid.''
Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said he's not so sure he'd take a player for one season.
''If a kid comes in, plays amazing as a freshman and has a chance to go, he should go,'' Greenberg said by phone. ``But to recruit a guy knowing he's going to go after one year? I'm not inclined to take a guy like that. For my program, I need to recruit to build continuity. It would take an extraordinary situation.''
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina coach Roy Williams also have expressed reservations about the new rule, even though both stand to gain one-year wonders.
Williams, who probably wouldn't have much-hyped freshmen Brandan Wright and Wayne Ellington were it not for the age rule, said he worries college basketball will become a ''bus stop'' for some NBA-bound freshmen. Krzyzewski would rather see players make the leap from high school, or make a college commitment of at least two years.
The NFL requires football players to be three years removed from high school graduation before they can enter the draft. Professional baseball drafts right out of high school, but if a player chooses to attend college, he must stay three years before he's eligible for the draft again.
''Frankly, I'd rather have it the way it was , or have it [a mandatory] two years in college,'' Krzyzewski told reporters recently. 'Nobody has to go through this thing of `I think I want to go to school' when they really don't.
``We have a 16-year-old girl [golfer Michelle Wie] winning money. [Basketball players] should be given the same opportunity. It's not going to hurt the college game. We're going to be OK no matter what.''
Greenberg agreed, and said the fuss is overblown because it affects so few athletes.
''This new rule affects a very few number of schools and kids,'' Greenberg said. ``The few programs that can recruit those kids are able to get the next-best guys, too, so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. I don't see this having a long-term effect on college basketball.''
NBA WILL GAIN
The new rule was a gesture by the NBA to limit the number of teenagers in the league and help college basketball, but, in fact, it could be the NBA that benefits more.
Under the new system, the NBA gets a full year to watch 18-year-olds compete against a higher level of competition than they faced at the McDondald's All-American game. Someone who looked great against high school players might not look so great against college seniors, so NBA teams will be able to make more educated draft choices.
Maryland coach Gary Williams likes the rule, and would like to see it extended to two years -- or more.
''I think it's good for anybody to spend a year on a college campus,'' Williams said by phone. ``I'd rather see it be longer, but it's a step in the right direction. If a kid's a great player, I'd take him for a year. We had Steve Francis for a year, and he helped us a lot. Carmelo Anthony helped Syracuse win a championship. I see nothing wrong with that.''
Texas coach Rick Barnes agreed. He is eager to coach Durant, a 6-9 forward from Rockville, Md., who is so good, he could lead the Big 12 in scoring as a freshman. After that, he's likely to turn pro.
''I think what the rule did was take pressure off parents from having to make that difficult decision while the kid is in high school,'' Barnes said by phone. ``I tell the kids not to come into college with a timetable of one or two years, but to come in, develop physically and mentally, and when the opportunity presents itself and the time is right, then make the jump.
``If we have him only one year, and that kid is ready to go to the next level, we shouldn't hold him back. It's his right to go.''

[Buckskin86]

Next big thing
How good is Ohio State freshman Greg Oden?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter

Chicago -- Purdue coach Matt Painter watched Greg Oden's entire high school career, and as soon as the Ohio State freshman center gets healthy, Painter said Oden will be the best player in college basketball. What stands out most about the 7-footer?

He's polite.

What? Either Oden's basketball talent is so immense and widely known that his dominance has become a given even before his first college game, or, extraordinary athleticism without attitude is so rare anymore that a guy who'll swat a shot without a taunt actually deserves more props for his manners than for his mad skills.

Either way, the centerpiece of Ohio State's freshman class stands out, even though he'll be on the bench when the Buckeyes open the season on Friday against Virginia Military Institute, still recovering from right wrist surgery. All his absence will do is build the drama for his first college "please," which should take place during his first game sometime around Jan. 1.

Painter marveled at the stories he heard after Oden attended a basketball camp at Purdue long after he'd established himself as the best high school player in the country and committed to Ohio State.

"Every single one of our managers said that any time he got water or a towel or someone directed him to the shower, whatever, every time it was, Thank you,' " Painter said. "Some people have it, and some people don't, and he's got class at an early age."

The rest of Oden's attributes Painter rattled off in a list.

"He's unselfish, he's humble, he's huge, he's quick, he changes the game defensively, you throw it to him and he's doubled and he's passing it right back, he can back you down and dunk on you or make a baby hook, he's running the court, he closes in on angles like a defensive back. . . . I think he's special," Painter said.

It's not just Painter. For the rest of the Big Ten coaches asked about the most difficult matchup they'll face this season, Oden's potential doesn't start with his skill set. It's the idea that he's mature enough to make sure he doesn't waste that once-in-a-decade type of talent.

"I think he's a special kid, and that's why I think it's such a sure bet with him if he's healthy," Painter said, "because he's a humble kid, and he's going to treat everybody with respect."

"I had the opportunity to recruit him, and I know what kind of kid he is," Michigan State Tom Izzo said. "I know he's intelligent; I know how grounded he is. He won't get caught up in the things, I don't think, that most kids do."

Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson said, "I remember reading reports when he was 15, 16 years old, and you could tell the kid was special from his responses. You learn to appreciate kids' maturity levels, and you could tell his was high. I probably respect him even a little bit more as person than as a player."

Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said, "I don't read boisterous comments from him that I'm going to come in and I'm going to do this - I'm, I'm, I'm. He's a very good basketball player, obviously, but I think he handled all this very well. It's unusual, because usually kids are going to tell you what they're going to do. It's unusual, but from maybe the best player in the country coming out this year, it's very refreshing."

As for the other stuff, Izzo compared Oden's effect as a freshman to what Magic Johnson did at Michigan State, what LeBron James would have done if he'd gone to college, and what even Michael Jordan didn't quite do his first year at North Carolina. Illinois coach Bruce Weber chose Shaquille O'Neal as a comparison.

"He's tremendous," Weber said. "In my mind, he's in that elite class. I've watched for 28 years, and I saw Shaq play in high school. He's in that class. And I've been around him, and he's a great kid. He's very coachable, and that makes him even better."

Ohio State coach Thad Matta knows exactly what he has, but his job is to downplay expectations, especially with the injury.

"I think he's going to need time to develop," Matta said. "When he gets back, he won't have played basketball for seven or eight months."

Oden may have to work fast. He's almost sure to the be the first pick in the NBA draft whenever he leaves Ohio State, and that could be after one season.

"Everybody in the league probably hopes he's gone in one year, except for Thad," Weber said.

For most players with his talent, the NBA jump would be a no-brainer. That's not the perception with Oden. The expectation is that he'll treat that decision the same way he treats the game.

"Oden is just a different bird," Izzo said. "When I recruited him, he always acted like he was going to college and he was sticking around for a while. Things change as you get older, but this kid is a grounded kid. If he goes early, if he goes after one year or two years, whatever he does, it'll be for good reasons. It'll be an educated decision. It won't be just because of millions of dollars.

"This kid, you're going to love him."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

dlesmerises@plaind.com, 216-999-4479

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plai...170.xml&coll=2