It may be smart to just say no to guys like Odom

Sporting News, The, April 21, 1997 by Mike DeCourcy

At the Final Four, Kentucky coach Rick Pitino insisted to reporters he held no interest in high school prospects who viewed college basketball as a one-year proposition.

It was easy enough to tell us this. We all were out of eligibility.

It was more impressive he would say this to a player, which he apparently did as Kentucky, UNLV, Connecticut and UCLA approached the end of a most curious recruiting battle: the drive to attract the signature of Lamar Odom, who reportedly is not yet qualified to play his freshman season and made clear his intention to stay no longer than one year.

Kentucky was neck-and-neck, as they say in Lexington, with the Rebels in the battle for Odom, who would announce his decision at Magic's Roundball Classic all-star game in suburban Detroit April 6. The Rebels prevailed, largely because of their diligence and partly because Pitino requested a deeper commitment to the college experience than Odom, a 6-9 wing player with devastating talent, was prepared to make.

"Lamar Odom called me and told me he was interested in coming to Kentucky, playing one year and going pro," Pitino says. "I told him that you don't make that decision the pros do. He had his mind in the future, not the present, and I didn't agree with that.

"It's not sour grapes, but I told him we're going in a different direction in our recruiting. I wish him the best at UNLV."

It is not hard to see why Rebels coach Billy Bayno--and the others, for that matter--chose to continue the pursuit There are only two or three players each year this gifted and only a handful of schools get so close to landing one. But it's unlikely Odom, who has attended three schools this season, will prove to have been worth the time, effort and expense.

He says he will not enter June's NBA draft but if he falls short of NCAA academic requirements, that may change. He says, "I think the team can make a run maybe for the national championship," with a core group of himself, small forward Tyrone Nesby, dynamic center Keon Clark and freshman point guard Edwin "Greedy" Daniels, but it's doubtful that will be foremost among Odom's motivations in the coming year.

The problem with the one-year player is he arrives with a singular goal: to do nothing that will foul up his opportunity to escape quickly to the NBA. That means he must get his share of shots and points. That means he can't really concern himself with trivial matters such as teamwork and chemistry.

Was Villanova a better team this season for having entertained the presence of Tim Thomas? The Wildcats had three senior starters and some solid sophomore reserves, and Thomas was supposed to elevate that group to greatness. But there was no Final Four, no Big East Tournament title, no Big East championship, no top 10 finish. Instead, coach Steve Lappas was overly criticized for his inability to produce those kinds of results when, in fact, he was guilty more of believing he could manage this impossible situation.

Thomas played out of position, just like Odom will. Small forward may be where Thomas is headed in the NBA, but name the last 6-10 player who dominated that position in college.

It has likewise been a while since there was a killer 6-9 shooting guard. But that is where Bayno intends to start Odom, in hopes of causing the least disruption of his current team.

Nesby already has expressed some degree of trepidation about Odom's arrival. Perhaps Nesby heard the interview where Odom dismissed nearly all of his future teammates, claiming the Rebels won 21 games and earned an NIT invitation "with two players." At least Nesby, along with Clark, was one of the two.

Or maybe Nesby saw Odom's performance in the McDonald's All-American Game, where he routinely neglected any opportunity to make a solid, routine play in favor of whatever would attract more attention his way. College coaches who've watched him develop contend Odom has done a lot of coasting since he built his reputation as a New York City sophomore.

There is no doubting that Odom, the Parade player of the year, is an awesome talent. He is agile, quick and highly skilled with the ball, the sort of player the NBA will have to take seriously whenever he winds up in the draft. Which may be soon enough.

Mike DeCourcy covers college basketball for the Cincinnati Enquirer. E-mail him at decourcy@sportingnews.com and see his responses at www.sportingnews.com on our AOL site (keyword TSN).