Subscribe Feed (RSS)The USA basketball mini-camp wrapped up Saturday night with a scrimmage in the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Oden’s team got beat by 19 points. This morning’s story in The Oregonian was obviously written prior to that event.
Oden’s statistics for the Saturday night game: 24 minutes, 7 points, 10 rebunds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover, 1 steal, 3-6 from the field and 1-2 from the free-throw line. The minutes were pretty well distributed among all players in what was a 40-minute game.
At some point, probably tomorrow when people are back in their offices, I’ll be able to reach some sources from other teams who were at the game and can tell me their reaction to his play.
UPDATE: Good news. My old pal Steve Carp did a great job in the Las Vegas Review Journal of wrapping up Oden’s three days in Vegas, with quotes from Oden after the game:
”It was all right,” he said. “I played decent. I tried to hold down the paint and concentrate on defense.
“It was good to be out there, getting some up and down and playing against this kind of good competition.”
SECOND UPDATE: Casey Holdahl, who had a banner weekend not only writing about Oden but relaying video of his performance at the camp, files a final summation here. Great work, Casey.
He only had 2 fouls which is a good sign.
Said he had 4 fouls. In 24 minutes. Not good.
My Mistake. At least Casey said it wasn’t dumb / foolish fouls.
All sorts of mismatched stats being reported from this game. A report on ESPN says Oden had 8 boards not 10. So 2 fouls or 4 who knows if there was any official box score kept. It seems not.
What’s not to like about these reports? Only those who are still expecting too much from this “young” man will find fault.
That was a good article by your buddy Steve Carp. It gives some credence to what many of us still believe about Oden. If Colangelo, who has his position w/USA basketball cuz of his ability to evaluate talent, still believes in Oden and thinks it is way to early to. What did he say? “throw the baby out with the bath water” well, whatever. It just means the people who still believe in Oden’s NBA career are not simpleton fools. Coach K wanted Oden there as well. No simpleton, dupe of a fool there either. Anyway good article. Good read. It will be interesting to get some more persective on Oden in the next few days. I second the props to Casey for the FANtastic job he did with his twitter links and info from Vegas!
I actually think the most thing that has improved with Greg is his mindset. I believe now he has the skills and attitude to deal with the pressures of being a former number one pick. He now understands the rigors of the NBA and also has a good understanding of how the games are called.
Yah he still has some physical things to build on, but now he has the right frame of mind to accomplish those things. That is great news for our team and it’s fans