Jake Odum's worst game?

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bent20

bent20

The Odum Level
Seems like a fair question to ask. He was forcing it all night and looked terrible. I kept thinking of all of those times this season when Sycamore fans roared angrily about how all we needed was for Jake to put the team on his back and carry them to a victory and score 25 points of something. Every time I see it I wonder what people here are thinking. What player you are watching. That's not his game. It's just not. Maybe on occasion, maybe for a half, but he's not a mega scorer. Jake is a tremendous point guard when he doesn't try to force too much. I appreciate that in games like this he is compelled to do more since we don't have a lot of great offensive weapons, but it's a disservice to him to always throw it in on the hometown hero and expect him to lift us. Jake is an above average PG, but he's not an elite scorer who can give us a left when we go 5-10 minutes without FG.

And I should note, it's not that he was trying to score too much, it was the plays where he got in there and had no where to go with it. Just forcing it too much to try and create offense.
 
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I would argue that he didn't try to do too much, he just didn't look like he wanted to be there.
 
meistro said:
I would argue that he didn't try to do too much, he just didn't look like he wanted to be there.
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No, I would disagree. He worked his ass off, especially on defense. He wanted to be there, he wanted to be everything we've expected of him in the worst way. Even Dakich noted as much in the first half. It wasn't that Jake shrinked away. He tried to do too much. Tried to force offensive plays when it wasn't there. There were a couple of occasions when he passed up good shots, but that wasn't the biggest problem.
 
Bent - I'm not sure if you saw any of the MVC tournament games, but he looked about the same to me. He played terribly that entire tournament, and it translated into tonight's performance.

It's not entirely his fault, but he should take the blame as the leader of the team. He tries to distribute and get other guys involved, and eventually it looks like he gets frustrated and then tries to do to much. The other players then seem to defer to him too much and almost act like the basketball is a hot-potato.
 
I agree. He deserves and needs, to be on a team that has scoring options, weapons that he can load up with the ball. He is a coach on the floor and incredible with his knowledge and feel of the game. He cannot, just cannot, be our go-to scorer, or the guy we expect to win games for us at the basket. He dishes, assists, and sets people up for greatness, and we need to figure out how to let him do that.

I hope our non-commander players (everyone except Odum, Brown, and Cummings) take the off season to work on their shots across the floor. The more effective the weapon, the better Odum is. And Odum is pretty damn good to begin with.
 
He had six turnovers tonight. Not sure he hurt us in the other games as much as he did tonight.
 

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bent20 said:
No, I would disagree. He worked his ass off, especially on defense. He wanted to be there, he wanted to be everything we've expected of him in the worst way. Even Dakich noted as much in the first half. It wasn't that Jake shrinked away. He tried to do too much. Tried to force offensive plays when it wasn't there. There were a couple of occasions when he passed up good shots, but that wasn't the biggest problem.
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He did try to get into it defensively in the second half, but he just didn't look at all good on offense. He is obviously a smart kid, but why does he keep leaving his feet to make passes after 3 years. Even Dakich said that. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes.
 
Until JO's jumpshot becomes a legitimate weapon and threat we're going to see more of the same next season. He is unbelievable at getting in the lane and drawing contact and finishing plays, but all it takes is a 2-3 zone and JO's pretty much rendered helpless since he cannot consistently knock down the open three.

I LOVE everything else about his game, but the kid has to become at least a consistent three-point threat.
 
meistro said:
He did try to get into it defensively in the second half, but he just didn't look at all good on offense. He is obviously a smart kid, but why does he keep leaving his feet to make passes after 3 years. Even Dakich said that. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes.
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That's what I'm talking about when I refer to him forcing it. He's trying to make things happen when they're just not there. That is a player who wants badly to lift his team to a victory. He's just doing more harm than good when he tries too hard in a game like this. Some of his passes are the equivalent of a guy taking a three pointer with 20 on the shot clock and two guys in his face.
 

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treeman said:
can we at least spell his name right in the title of the thread please!!!
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My bad. I've been following him for four years, so it's not like I don't know how to spell his name. Just absent minded typing on my part. Probably fitting, given that our team suffered from some of the same mental lapses tonight.

If someone can fix it, please do so. It wasn't intentional.
 
I feel like JO and Grant Gibbs are very similar players.. But Grant Gibbs has 3 guys that no matter what, always knock down shots..
 
Well if you are going to go off of opinion.. Here's the facts.. They're not too far apart.


Player GP MIN PPG RPG APG SPG BPG TPG FG% FT% 3P%
Grant Gibbs 34 30.7 8.6 4.1 5.9 1.0 0.2 2.1 .532 .757 .404
Jake Odum 33 32.4 13.6 4.5 4.6 1.5 0.3 2.7 .476 .771 .373
 

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If it NOT he's worst, it's EASILY in the running. To be fair though; I felt MOST of the team played bad.

Have to agree with the earlier assessment about Odum CONSISTENTLY leaving his feet on 'his favorite play'... drive to the baseline and hurl the ball (often blindly) to HOPEFULLY an open teammate behind the 3-pt line.

I've been able to watch 5 of the last 6 games; for everyone who thinks Jake is the Next Coming of Larry... good grief; I don't know who they're watching.

I don't remember Larry EVER throwing the ball away as OFTEN and as BADLY as Jake has; there are so many stories of Larry's teammates getting hit in the head, face during Larry's Soph year at State. It wasn't happening that often by his SR year.

If some of jake's TOs were bobbled passes that would be one thing, but SO MANY aren't even CATCHABLE. They're either BEHIND the player or so far in front that there's zero opportunity to make the play.

SO, who's fault is it? Well, much like a QB gets all of the bad stats, rap for dropped balls, incompletes, INTs, etc. SO it is for Jake.
 
GuardShock said:
I feel like JO and Grant Gibbs are very similar players.. But Grant Gibbs has 3 guys that no matter what, always knock down shots..
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You're right...this removes a helluva lot of pressure. Last night, Iowa was pressuring the hell out of Odum, recognizing the fact that our "other guards" were useless in perpetuating the ISU offensive flow.

I hope that this kid from Ft. Wayne can come in and TAKE control. Some of you are thinking that because he's a FROSH he won't stand a chance. Well, he's already PHYSICALLY stronger than anyone we have in the backcourt, so we'll just have to see how this develops. Odum needs help...and I'm not confident that Brown, Cummings or Eitel have the tools of need.
 
Sometimes it may be tough to be a PG on a team without consistent shooters...

As for Gibbs, he can dish it to McD, Wragge, Chapman, Manigat, Dingman and they can all consistently drain three's. This also allows the defense to sag off of him which takes pressure off of him offensively.

Could you imagine if Odum could dribble around and dish it to consistent shooters for an entire season? Probably would average 7+ assists. We have one fairly consistent shooter... RJ.
 
You can't just call last nights game his worst ever come on Jake has scored 5 points in each of the last three games. Something is wrong . A 14 point scorer drops 9 points in 3 consecutively games makes me wonder.
 
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