Odom

[PhDeac]

Yeah, but Antwan Scott was 50% better than AJ ever was.

Oh no question. More athletic and some semblance of a shot and better shotblocker.

 

[Biff Tannen]

Especially since his name was Joseph.

 

[tripledeac838599]

Heard from a friend that Buzz and Odom are back at the BLL again tonight.

 

[devi8]

Odom recruited well at the beginning and the end but horribly in the middle. A lot of that I blame on Ricky Stokes. After Stokes left, and Haith came in, that's when we landed that ROK class and JoHo.

I think Odom's recruiting was actually pretty consistent throughout.

Here's a snapshot of the players he brought in (with help from Charlie Board) and my recollections of rankings. Both are open to corrections.
Bold = All ACC, Italics = committed but did not qualify.

91 Additions - Rogers (5-star), Childress (top 60), Trelonnie (top 100), Blucas, Doggett, StanKing
92 Additions - Scooter, Derrick Hicks (JuCo entered as JR), David Rasmussen (JuCo entered as JR), Cordell Llewellyn
93 Additions - Steve Rich (top 40), Charlie Harrison (GTown transfer entered as JR, top 60),Castle, Canty, Fitzgibbons,
94 Additions - Duncan, Schoone (redshirt), Mahktar (top 40)
95 Additions - Rutland, Peral (entered as SO) Braswell, Goolsby, AJ, Allen (JuCo entered as JR, injured in game 4/redshirted)
96 Additions - Stringfellow (top 100), Armond Wilson, Ammo, Rodney West (redshirt?)
97 Additions - Woods (5-star), Coleman (top 75), Blom
98 Additions - Rok (top 35), Viduaretta (top 100), Griffin (top 100), Arinze, Pumpfaker, McMillian Blom?
99 Additions - Darius (top 40), Dawson (top 75), Scott (top 100), Hicks (top 100), Murray
00 Additions - JHo
01 Additions - AW, Schoetz
02 Additions - Levy (top 50) Vytas*(top 75), Taron

Every year Odom brought in ranked recruits or in the case of 92, 95, & 00, recruits that significantly exceeded their rankings. (The Awww Shitz class being the exception). Granted the 96 class was extremely weak as String underachieved & no one else overachieved but overall not any glaring gaps in bringing in talent

I think our talent depletion mid Odom was more due to misfortune than poor recruiting.

1. The loss of Steve Rich one semester into his frosh season hurt not because he was a great player but because he had the skill set we lacked, a physical center. Rich would have benefited Duncan for 3 years. He had a solid career @ Miami.

2. Mahktar has already been mentioned except that I will add that part of the punishment for his violation included not recruiting foreign players which likely hurt the 95/96 classes

3. Woods being a headcase also already mentioned but he certainly had the talent to keep our NCAA streak alive

4. Coleman, a solid player for UGA but he again possessed a skill set we lacked on Duncan's last team, a slashing wing. To make matters worse he chose JuCo over Prep so we could not even bring him in for the following class.

5. Blom. If I'm not mistaken we lost him in two classes (I found articles listing him as a newcomer in both 97 & 98). I also recall that when he wasn't admitted, he played pro on a team in Sweden with Trelonnie & Scooter and was team mvp and/or leading scorer. That certainly points to him being ACC caliber & capable of contributing immediately.

6. Probably the biggest misfortune for Odom was having two of his best teams (93 & 96) in the same bracket as two of Pitino's best UK teams, esp 96.

 

[DeacDaddy]

Does that say Peral entered as a sophomore? Is that right?

 

[DeacDaddy]

Odom had some serious Little Man disease though. I saw him lose his temper on campus a few times. Not at games...but in the Pit and on the Mag Quad (I'm sorry {clears throat} "Manchester Plaza").

Does anyone still have the pic/gif of Odom's head on a squirrel's body? That was a classic.

Yes, to be fair, it wasn't like Bz but he was a little goofy and awkward. I recall one incident in the Pit when he was with a recruit or player and was about to drop a strawberry. At the last second he caught it and said really loudly to me, "Didja see that? Didja see?!" I just laughed to myself because it was so random.

 

[DeaconSig]

Does that say Peral entered as a sophomore? Is that right?

No. He came in 1993-94 and lost a year of eligibility due to playing for a semi-pro team in Spain.

BTW thank God we didn't have APR when Coach Odom was at Wake. We would have lost all kinds of scholarships.

 

[VaDeac]

No. He came in 1993-94 and lost a year of eligibility due to playing for a semi-pro team in Spain.

BTW thank God we didn't have APR when Coach Odom was at Wake. We would have lost all kinds of scholarships.

In the end, Bz might eff us over on that front as well. Which would be highly highly ironic.

 

[DeaconVendetta]

It took 23 years, but Cordell Llewellyn has now been mentioned on a Wake Forest message board.

 

[Milhouse]

peral receives a lot of well deserved shit, but without him we never get past texas in 96 (duncan was sick)

 

[1976Deac]

Dave Odom was a hell of an athlete himself, despite not being tall. For some reason I'm recalling that he was a two or three sport player and team captain in college.

Odom was a good recruiter, too. He did an excellent job as an assistant at Wake as well as a head coach.

It didn't help that Kentucky had those great teams, but everyone recognized that Kentucky was that good.

Nobody, but nobody, thought that Butler was better than us, much less 40-7 (or was it 40-9?) better than us at half-time, because Butler wasn't. A half-time score like that in the NCAA tournament was literally inconceivable to all sports fans throughout the country. That kind of fiasco on national television was just something that couldn't be disregarded.

For some reason I'm recalling that Coach didn't handle that the best after the game either, which didn't help things. It would be interesting if someone can find on-line Odom's post-game comments then.

David Odom's been good to Wake Forest.

 

[LilburnDeac]

96 Additions - Stringfellow (top 100), Armond Wilson, Ammo, Rodney West (redshirt?)

Top 100 what? Players? In the state of Alabama maybe, but surely not in the United States.

 

[inspectah]

Dave Odom was a hell of an athlete himself, despite not being tall. For some reason I'm recalling that he was a two or three sport player and team captain in college.

Odom was a good recruiter, too. He did an excellent job as an assistant at Wake as well as a head coach.

It didn't help that Kentucky had those great teams, but everyone recognized that Kentucky was that good.

Nobody, but nobody, thought that Butler was better than us, much less 40-7 (or was it 40-9?) better than us at half-time, because Butler wasn't. A half-time score like that in the NCAA tournament was literally inconceivable to all sports fans throughout the country. That kind of fiasco on national television was just something that couldn't be disregarded.

For some reason I'm recalling that Coach didn't handle that the best after the game either, which didn't help things. It would be interesting if someone can find on-line Odom's post-game comments then.

David Odom's been good to Wake Forest.

Very good post and I agree.

I also recall Odom making some odd comments after the Butler debacle, and generally seeming a tad indifferent to the scale of the loss. I think his thoughts might already have been moving toward his own future.

Still like Odom a lot and miss him as coach, though I admit at the time I thought parting ways was the right thing.

 

[PhDeac]

Odom made comments about being happy with how hard the players played in the second half.

 

[jhmd2000]

No. He came in 1993-94 and lost a year of eligibility due to playing for a semi-pro team in Spain.

BTW thank God we didn't have APR when Coach Odom was at Wake. We would have lost all kinds of scholarships.

Odom made a pretty good living overseas. Tim. Darius. Ricky. I remember a lot of talk about how that was the best way to succeed when you didn't have a State's name on your jersey.

Skip didn't take a back seat on the recruiting trail. His philosophy was "The team with the most NBA players will win the most games."

Not sure what the thinking of the current day is at Wake Forest. It is hard to characterize succinctly.

 

[TheReff]

Odom made a pretty good living overseas. Tim. Darius. Ricky. I remember a lot of talk about how that was the best way to succeed when you didn't have a State's name on your jersey.

Skip didn't take a back seat on the recruiting trail. His philosophy was "The team with the most NBA players will win the most games."

Not sure what the thinking of the current day is at Wake Forest. It is hard to characterize succinctly.

Dave Odom won 2 ACC titles and had what was most like our best class of all time in Rodney Rogers, Trelonnie Owens, Marc Blucas & Randolph Childress along with Stan King [who provided good practice against Tim every day in practice]

Skip on the other hand won big early with all Dave odom recruits who knew how to play hard nosed defense and offense--Dawson, Songalia, Scott, Josh Howard plus signees Taron Downey [probably more heart that anybody except Childress], Levy & Danileus. Skip signed great player one his own, CP3 and when he left early, Skip's last 2 teams finish deaqd last-12th & tied for 11th in the ACC. His next class of A T & T ended up not being much so he wasn't going to win. His teams did not play defense and were not suited for post-season success.

Give me Dave Odom, his NCAA tournaments, his hard-nosed style of play and his 2 ACC titles any day compared to what we have had since Ron Wellman ran him off.

 

[SC DEAC]

Ill,never forget the day of the butler game was the day of my bachelor party. Luckily I remember more bout strippers than I do the actual game.

 

[Deac83]

Odom made a pretty good living overseas. Tim. Darius. Ricky. I remember a lot of talk about how that was the best way to succeed when you didn't have a State's name on your jersey.

Skip didn't take a back seat on the recruiting trail. His philosophy was "The team with the most NBA players will win the most games."

Not sure what the thinking of the current day is at Wake Forest. It is hard to characterize succinctly.

Jeez, Tim was and is a US Citizen. The US VI isn't exactly Europe.

 

[Deac83]

I think Odom's recruiting was actually pretty consistent throughout.

Here's a snapshot of the players he brought in (with help from Charlie Board) and my recollections of rankings. Both are open to corrections.
Bold = All ACC, Italics = committed but did not qualify.

91 Additions - Rogers (5-star), Childress (top 60), Trelonnie (top 100), Blucas, Doggett, StanKing
92 Additions - Scooter, Derrick Hicks (JuCo entered as JR), David Rasmussen (JuCo entered as JR), Cordell Llewellyn
93 Additions - Steve Rich (top 40), Charlie Harrison (GTown transfer entered as JR, top 60),Castle, Canty, Fitzgibbons,
94 Additions - Duncan, Schoone (redshirt), Mahktar (top 40)
95 Additions - Rutland, Peral (entered as SO) Braswell, Goolsby, AJ, Allen (JuCo entered as JR, injured in game 4/redshirted)
96 Additions - Stringfellow (top 100), Armond Wilson, Ammo, Rodney West (redshirt?)
97 Additions - Woods (5-star), Coleman (top 75), Blom
98 Additions - Rok (top 35), Viduaretta (top 100), Griffin (top 100), Arinze, Pumpfaker, McMillian Blom?
99 Additions - Darius (top 40), Dawson (top 75), Scott (top 100), Hicks (top 100), Murray
00 Additions - JHo
01 Additions - AW, Schoetz
02 Additions - Levy (top 50) Vytas*(top 75), Taron

Every year Odom brought in ranked recruits or in the case of 92, 95, & 00, recruits that significantly exceeded their rankings. (The Awww Shitz class being the exception). Granted the 96 class was extremely weak as String underachieved & no one else overachieved but overall not any glaring gaps in bringing in talent

I think our talent depletion mid Odom was more due to misfortune than poor recruiting.

1. The loss of Steve Rich one semester into his frosh season hurt not because he was a great player but because he had the skill set we lacked, a physical center. Rich would have benefited Duncan for 3 years. He had a solid career @ Miami.

2. Mahktar has already been mentioned except that I will add that part of the punishment for his violation included not recruiting foreign players which likely hurt the 95/96 classes

3. Woods being a headcase also already mentioned but he certainly had the talent to keep our NCAA streak alive

4. Coleman, a solid player for UGA but he again possessed a skill set we lacked on Duncan's last team, a slashing wing. To make matters worse he chose JuCo over Prep so we could not even bring him in for the following class.

5. Blom. If I'm not mistaken we lost him in two classes (I found articles listing him as a newcomer in both 97 & 98). I also recall that when he wasn't admitted, he played pro on a team in Sweden with Trelonnie & Scooter and was team mvp and/or leading scorer. That certainly points to him being ACC caliber & capable of contributing immediately.

6. Probably the biggest misfortune for Odom was having two of his best teams (93 & 96) in the same bracket as two of Pitino's best UK teams, esp 96.

Tim 4 NBA titles, the SA Spurs, who many here thought Tim should leave because they couldn't bring in players to help Tim win figured it out, Odom missed the boat. Tim's senior year, no ACCT finals, out in the 2nd round of the NCAAT. Tim came back to get to the final 4 and have a chance at a championship. Odom said that was not a good reason for Tim to come back.

"The End is not the Trophy".

Odom thought success would automatically bring in recruits and didn't work as hard once we became a top 10 team, that's his failure and what cost Tim a final 4 appearance.

IIRC Bloom's problem was getting academic credit for his classes translated over to the US/NCAA. We invested two years in that and apparently were somewhat clueless.

 

[devi8]

Tim 4 NBA titles, the SA Spurs, who many here thought Tim should leave because they couldn't bring in players to help Tim win figured it out, Odom missed the boat. Tim's senior year, no ACCT finals, out in the 2nd round of the NCAAT. Tim came back to get to the final 4 and have a chance at a championship. Odom said that was not a good reason for Tim to come back.

"The End is not the Trophy".

Odom thought success would automatically bring in recruits and didn't work as hard once we became a top 10 team, that's his failure and what cost Tim a final 4 appearance.

IIRC Bloom's problem was getting academic credit for his classes translated over to the US/NCAA. We invested two years in that and apparently were somewhat clueless.

WF was not a top 10 team until the end of the '95 season, at which time the newcomers for '96 had been signed for 4-5 months. The first class he recruited after being a top 10 team consisted of a top 10 recruit, a top 75 recruit, & a top euro recruit (to join Tim for his final season). The next two classes had 2 top 40 recruits as well as 5 top 100 recruits. From a rankings standpoint, Odom's best recruiting classes were post top 10.

Odom issue was not a lack of recruiting as much as getting recruits admitted, keeping them enrolled and having them get along with their teammates.