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Show JTm. Thursday, June 28, 2007 DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 10 The Great Debate Who will make the better pro: Oden or Durant? Hurricane Greg is ready to take the NBA by storm "Tust because Greg Oden I looks like Robert ParI ish's grandpa doesn't mean he will play like it. Here's the biggest reason Oden is bound for great things in the NBA—even greater than fellow 2007 franchise draft pick Kevin Durant: He's far from reaching his potential. Just in case you were unaware, that wasn't a bowling glove Oden wore on his hand in the NCAA Tournament. That was a cast. Oden had a serious wrist injury on his dominant hand last season. But did he sit out? No. He played through the injury and resorted to playing with his off hand—even from the free throw line. And he was still one of the best college basketball players in the land last season. While this newfound ambidexterity will likely prove to be only mildly useful in the NBA, it shows what TONY kind of skill PIZZA and hard work this guy brings to the table. G r e g Oden is a guy right on the cusp of harnessing raw talent with tremendous skill. It's like the awesome force of a tropical storm reaching land. Oden is poised to leave a trail of destruction in his wake, and we'll call the disaster Hurricane Greg. The guy is seven feet tall, but his wingspan and his leaping ability allow him to play much taller. He made a habit of blocking guys' shots with his elbow in college—surely that will at least translate into being able to get a hand or a few ringers on his fair share of shots. Oden still has room to fill out the 257 pounds his frame already carries, too. This is good for two reasons. Oden will be athletic and strong enough to be a force at his young age, and he'll continue to be an authority in the paint long after the age of his body catches up with the age of his countenance. As talented as Kevin Durant is, , his body isn't built to take the beating he's going to take at the next level. And he won't be able to rely on the quickness advantage he saw at the collegiate level. Durant may have been the NCAA Player of the Year as a freshman, but he couldn't bench press 185 pounds even once. Yeah, I know he's not training to be a power lifter, and his wingspan makes lifting weight like trying to jack a car up with three-foot toothpicks, but it's only 185 pounds. But to be fair, Durant does have the makings of a bettershooting Scottie Pippen. It's just that Oden is going to be more than that. So what if you could make a Halloween mask out of his rubbery face? The NBA might not be a power-lifting contest, but it's not a beauty pageant, either. Lpizza@ chronicle.utah.edu Kevin Durant College was just the tip of the iceberg for Kevin Durant n the history of college basketball, do you know how many freshmen have been given the NCAA Player of the Year award? The answer is one. No, it's not Michael Jordan, Lew Alcindor or Larry Bird. It's Kevin Durant. Never before has a freshman dominated as much as the first-year man out of Texas. Although he is better known for his offense, at 6-foot-o—with a /-foot-5 wingspan—Durant also creates quite a few problems with his defensive abilities. His lanky arms, closeout speed and nimble athleticism frustrated a great number of Big-12 opponents last year and will surely cause more trouble in the NBA. The biggest knock NBA scouts can come up with is that he's wiry. Well, I that wiry body didn't stop him from being a rebounding force CODY last season, BRUNNER averaging 11.1 rebounds per game to rank fourth in the nation (and 1.4 more per game than Oden did, by the way). Don't get me wrong: I'll be the first to give props to Greg Oden. He's mature beyond his years (no joke), dominates on the boards, swats anything in his area code and will make an instant Impact on any team. But for all of his upsides, I still see a lot of problems with his game. First off, he's an underachiever. r How many games on the line, everybody on both teams knew Durant was going to take the shot—and he rarely missed. « did you see Oden He's the kind of guy that can go off JIM just take over and for 50 points and score each of them win by himself? If with a different shot. He's the most you watched the versatile offensive player in the histosame games I did, ry of college basketball, and he hasn't the answer would even turned 20. be none. Never Realistically, I know the Trailblazonce did he just crs will take Oden with the No. 1 pick, blow me away. Sure, and it wouldn't normally be a bad he consistently pulled down 15 points choice. But when you have a once-inand 10 rebounds, but when his team a-lifetime talent such as Kevin Durant needed him to go off for 30 points, he on the board, you can't pass him up. would disappear. Besides, Oden doesn't have too many And then there's the fact that Oden more years on him (sorry, I couldn't plays with no emotion. How can your help myself). teammates look up to you when you c.brunner@ don't even look like you care? Watchchronicle.utah.edu ing Kevin Durant, it's obvious how much he cares. When the game was .,-., in ^ ASUU Part Time Secretarial Position ^W\-;v\; -•c^-teS- ' : ' " ' .•->-'<; -'^^'^^U^ : ^--^^ v ^^rt : /aiv.?.;«rf -:•. £r-:iV/»^ Meet New People. Work with University Leaders. Get Involved. ~i3w£s|^ ^ Associated of the University of Utah |