Odum Sophomore Slump?

[Sycamore_DevilDog]

Justin Gant was on the Indiana All-Star team last year. He will be in the running for Freshman Of Year. Teams are playing Odum very physical. I couldn't believe the banging and bumping allowed by the Ball State defenders on Odum.....it was ridiculous. However, that's the way it will be this year, just have to adjust and play through it.

[Chuck]

Kinda looks like to me that some other fans were or are attempting to bait Tree fans into an argument here...I think Odum is going to be just fine, talented as they come for a point guard and as his offensive game continues to expand; what will happen is more and more open looks for other Trees.
My Aces are going to struggle with the Trees this year as will almost every team in conference.

[ShockValue]

Odum will never have great stats. He's a good player although it's certainly possible that his abilities have been a bit overblown here.

[TheTorontoValley]

Odum will never have great stats. He's a good player although it's certainly possible that his abilities have been a bit overblown here.

Odum's biggest issue is that as a PG, he is essentially a non-threat from behind the arc. Now with that being said, his size and athleticism give him a very unique package of skills that allow him to do things not very many other PG's can do. He's still a huge work in progress, albeit a quality player, but we'll see how he pans out. If he can continue to improve his decision making and cut down on his turnovers, he's certainly an exciting player who can dictate the pace of the game on offense and defense.

[Brian]

I'm more worried that his "slump" may have something to do with the back injury that has limited him in practice since day 1. Seems like a lot of his shots are short.

[beatingrillz]

That could be because he is not a good scorer, not to mention everyone has tape on him now. Just stay home on him and you will be fine he isn't an athlete that can beat you by himself.

[Brian]

Well, he did average around double figures last year and was about 14 pts a game after the first 2 this year. He's not needed on this team to be a huge scorer. As far as tape, I don't really understand what your talking about. Teams are being more physical, but he's still getting to the rim and driving the baseline and kicking out to wide open shooters.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Losing some of those three point snipers to graduation allows defenses to focus on Odum a little more. If he is truly a POY candidate as InSU fans indicated last spring and all summer, a little extra defensive attention shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Regardless, Odum's greatest asset is not his scoring, but his floor vision and passing.

[Brian]

Losing some of those three point snipers to graduation allows defenses to focus on Odum a little more. If he is truly a POY candidate as InSU fans indicated last spring and all summer, a little extra defensive attention shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Regardless, Odum's greatest asset is not his scoring, but his floor vision and passing.

I agree. Although, we only lost Aaron Carter as a "three point sniper." One thing that hurts is Jordan Printy and others are in a little shooting slump or his assist numbers could be really high. He's still getting to where he wants to go. Personally, I think he's trying to hard.

[Sycamore_DevilDog]

ISU still has several 3-point shooters;Printy, Eitel, Mahurin and even two of the big guys, Twitchell and Gant, can shoot the 3. Coach Lansing is still experimenting with the depth on this team by playing 10 different guys and Duloungy has yet to see any action due to his 5 game suspension.