Goodbye, Dave Odom
posted by Scott Hood on Friday, January 18, 2008
I think he picked the right time to announce his resignation, effective at the end of the season, of course.
So, if you’re an Odom basher, you’ll have at least seven more opportunities to boo the lame duck USC coach.
But I think you should lay off.
You have your victory.
Gamecock fans expressed their discontent with the current state of the program, both with their vocal cords at the game (the student section behind me chanted “Fire Odom” throughout the last home game against Tennessee) and by their conspicuous absence from the Colonial Center.
When it comes to major college sports, nothing speaks louder than an empty seat.
You case you haven’t heard, Odom, now in his seventh season as USC’s head coach, is expected to announce that he will ‘retire’ as USC head coach at the end of the current basketball season.
Was I surprised by the news? No. When I interviewed Eric Hyman last week, he hinted something was up with Odom, but I didn’t have the time to go into great detail.
You’d have to be in complete denial not to see the handwriting was clearly on the wall when USC lost at home to Baylor and - horrors! – UNC Asheville during a recent five-game homestand.
That latter defeat may have been the one that convinced Hyman to act swiftly or the season could spiral out of control.
USC righted the ship a bit with Wednesday’s 70-66 road win over Arkansas in a game that few predicted they would win. I certainly didn’t think they could travel to Fayetteville and beat the Hogs.
But they did.
Even his harshest critics have to give him credit for devising a game plan that worked against the taller Razorbacks. He went with a smaller lineup that used its quickness, outside shooting skills and the chutzpah of point guard Devan Downey to pick up its first SEC win of the season.
Unfortunately, performances like the one the Gamecocks pieced together Wednesday night were few and far between for Odom and the Gamecocks the last two seasons.
I’ve said countless times before and I’ll say it again: it’s all about winning. Dave Odom was paid a lot of money to win basketball games at USC.
In the end, that was the only thing he was judged on - wins and losses. And he didn’t win enough.
While his overall record at USC is decent (123-94), it’s his poor slate against SEC teams (37-62) that eventually doomed him to the coaching graveyard.
USC has been unable to compete consistently with the top echelon team in the conference the last couple of years. Last Saturday’s blowout loss to Tennessee had, regrettably, become commonplace the last two seasons.
So, by the time mid-March rolls around, he’ll be gone unless USC finds a way to finish at least .500 and earn a NIT bid or, if a true miracle occurs, a NCAA Tournament bid.
As someone who’s played, coached and watched basketball for 35 years, I’ve always had a fair amount of respect for Odom’s acumen with the X’s and O’s.
It’s his recruiting ability I often questioned.
And Division I college athletics, in case you didn’t know, is 80 percent recruiting and 20 percent coaching. I can assure you Billy Donovan of Florida figured that out a long time ago.
Odom was simply unable to attract enough elite athletes to Columbia. To an extent, it’s his own fault because he disdained recruiting Top 100 level players because he felt they would have a difficult time fitting into a team concept.
Eddie Fogler fell into the same trap, which led to his demise as well.
But, his competitors were aggressively recruiting those quality players. The result? A wide disparity in talent between the Gamecocks and other SEC teams.
Granted, Odom’s latest recruiting haul was above average with freshmen like Mike Holmes and Sam Muldrow. He also benefited from the transfers of former Palmetto State phenoms Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick.
But Holmes and Muldrow have yet to make the adjustment to major college basketball. Shots they converted easily in high school were being swatted away by opposing big men, many of whom were just as big and athletic as they were.
As a result, USC has had little inside game to speak of this season. Most of the scoring has come from Downey and Fredrick.
Knowing his time has come, Odom has been gracious in defeat. He could have made life difficult for Eric Hyman and demanded the buyout in full under the terms of his contract, which is $300,000.
But he’s going to accept a much smaller sum. Whether he finagles an athletic department job out of this, we’ll have to wait and see.
As a credentialed member of the media, I’ll miss Odom. He loved to talk and was a quote machine when his engine was humming.
He’d answer just about any question you asked, whether it was about the Gamecocks or college basketball in general. Most of the time he was fairly gracious.
I just won’t miss all those darned L’s.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
Good for Dave Odom.
I think he picked the right time to announce his resignation, effective at the end of the season, of course.
So, if you’re an Odom basher, you’ll have at least seven more opportunities to boo the lame duck USC coach.
But I think you should lay off.
You have your victory.
Gamecock fans expressed their discontent with the current state of the program, both with their vocal cords at the game (the student section behind me chanted “Fire Odom” throughout the last home game against Tennessee) and by their conspicuous absence from the Colonial Center.
When it comes to major college sports, nothing speaks louder than an empty seat.
You case you haven’t heard, Odom, now in his seventh season as USC’s head coach, is expected to announce that he will ‘retire’ as USC head coach at the end of the current basketball season.
Was I surprised by the news? No. When I interviewed Eric Hyman last week, he hinted something was up with Odom, but I didn’t have the time to go into great detail.
You’d have to be in complete denial not to see the handwriting was clearly on the wall when USC lost at home to Baylor and - horrors! – UNC Asheville during a recent five-game homestand.
That latter defeat may have been the one that convinced Hyman to act swiftly or the season could spiral out of control.
USC righted the ship a bit with Wednesday’s 70-66 road win over Arkansas in a game that few predicted they would win. I certainly didn’t think they could travel to Fayetteville and beat the Hogs.
But they did.
Even his harshest critics have to give him credit for devising a game plan that worked against the taller Razorbacks. He went with a smaller lineup that used its quickness, outside shooting skills and the chutzpah of point guard Devan Downey to pick up its first SEC win of the season.
Unfortunately, performances like the one the Gamecocks pieced together Wednesday night were few and far between for Odom and the Gamecocks the last two seasons.
I’ve said countless times before and I’ll say it again: it’s all about winning. Dave Odom was paid a lot of money to win basketball games at USC.
In the end, that was the only thing he was judged on - wins and losses. And he didn’t win enough.
While his overall record at USC is decent (123-94), it’s his poor slate against SEC teams (37-62) that eventually doomed him to the coaching graveyard.
USC has been unable to compete consistently with the top echelon team in the conference the last couple of years. Last Saturday’s blowout loss to Tennessee had, regrettably, become commonplace the last two seasons.
So, by the time mid-March rolls around, he’ll be gone unless USC finds a way to finish at least .500 and earn a NIT bid or, if a true miracle occurs, a NCAA Tournament bid.
As someone who’s played, coached and watched basketball for 35 years, I’ve always had a fair amount of respect for Odom’s acumen with the X’s and O’s.
It’s his recruiting ability I often questioned.
And Division I college athletics, in case you didn’t know, is 80 percent recruiting and 20 percent coaching. I can assure you Billy Donovan of Florida figured that out a long time ago.
Odom was simply unable to attract enough elite athletes to Columbia. To an extent, it’s his own fault because he disdained recruiting Top 100 level players because he felt they would have a difficult time fitting into a team concept.
Eddie Fogler fell into the same trap, which led to his demise as well.
But, his competitors were aggressively recruiting those quality players. The result? A wide disparity in talent between the Gamecocks and other SEC teams.
Granted, Odom’s latest recruiting haul was above average with freshmen like Mike Holmes and Sam Muldrow. He also benefited from the transfers of former Palmetto State phenoms Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick.
But Holmes and Muldrow have yet to make the adjustment to major college basketball. Shots they converted easily in high school were being swatted away by opposing big men, many of whom were just as big and athletic as they were.
As a result, USC has had little inside game to speak of this season. Most of the scoring has come from Downey and Fredrick.
Knowing his time has come, Odom has been gracious in defeat. He could have made life difficult for Eric Hyman and demanded the buyout in full under the terms of his contract, which is $300,000.
But he’s going to accept a much smaller sum. Whether he finagles an athletic department job out of this, we’ll have to wait and see.
As a credentialed member of the media, I’ll miss Odom. He loved to talk and was a quote machine when his engine was humming.
He’d answer just about any question you asked, whether it was about the Gamecocks or college basketball in general. Most of the time he was fairly gracious.
I just won’t miss all those darned L’s.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
Previous Blog Entries
Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.