Wake Forest Athletics
Live Chat Recap with Dave Odom
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
November 12, 1998
Wake Forest Head Basketball Coach Dave Odom joined FANSonly for a live chat to kick off the 1998 Midnight Madness festivities. If you missed out, the transcript from the chat is below. After reading the transcript, you should also check out the team outlooks, '97-'98 season highlight videos, and other special features that are available.
Q: A lot of Wake fans are excited about your quotes this summer regarding Wake playing a more up-tempo style this season. Can you give us some specific examples of changes you expect to result from this change in philosophy? Also, do you expect to expand the number of players in your rotation due to this change?
Coach Odom: Well there has been a lot of talk about the style of play we might employ and the possible differences between this team and some past teams.
I believe an up tempo offense is really a derivative of the pressure that the team employs on the defensive side of the ball.
I've felt like we've had a good fast break in the past but what's been missing in the past is the number of deflections & steals that we do not get.
Statistics show that we are somewhere near the bottom in turnovers caused, but we have one of the best defenses in the league in terms of field goal percentage allowed
It all starts with the defense, so to correct this problem, we need to be more daring on defense, and that's what our coaches have been addressing in strategy sessions.
At this point, we do anticipate a tempo change on the offense and defensive ends of the court.
Whether that will be reflected in the number of points scored, that's to be determined.
In November, we will be better able to determine what will work in December & January.
We do have more depth than last year, albeit, very young depth and inexperienced depth, but I don't worry very much about youth. I always let them get on the court experience and it really helps.
The young guys will have alot of mentors on this team to lean on, which will be a big plus for us.
Q: How many players do you expect to play this season?
Coach Odom: Typically, most teams start with a fairly large rotation, and by February it's usually down to about 7.
Q: Have you stayed in touch with your star pupil Tim Duncan?
Coach Odom: Tim is no longer here, he went back to Texas over the weekend. He spent about 20 days here in the weight room and on the basketball court with our players. It helped him in his conditioning and it really helped our players to be around him for that time. Rusty has also been here and that's also been a huge help for us.
Q: Coach, how important is team chemistry, and how well do you expect this year's chemistry to be with such a young team?
Coach Odom: That's one of the jobs that we have as a coaching staff and there's only so much that a coach can do. The early returns are that our team gets along really well. There's not much age difference among them which also helps them gel as a group. Chemistry during preseason workouts has been really good.
Q: How tough is it to lose a consistent performer like Tony Rutland?
Coach Odom: Tony was a very good player for us as was Jerry, but colleges are geared to lose players every 4 years. Hopefully, we've prepared ourselves to overcome that with O'Kelley and others. We'll see at this point whether our preparations will work out, we do believe though that we have the right personnel here at Wake Forest.
Q: What do you expect from James Griffin this season?
Coach Odom: James worked extremely hard this summer, I don't think anyone worked harder. He's stronger and his confidence level is higher. Hopefully that effort will translate into a really solid year for him. James' athleticism in the back court will be tremendous for us. We will give him the opportunity to showcase that early. He'll receive a lot of playing time.
Q: Are you expecting to redshirt any of the freshmen, or anyone else at this time?
Coach Odom: I never make decisions on that this early in the season unless there's an injury but there are no injuries at this time. Based on what we know right now, we would not red-shirt anybody.
Q: How much of an impact do you expect your freshman to contribute right away?
Coach Odom: I haven't seen enough of them to really know.
Q: Coach, any feel for who has improved the most over the offseason?
Coach Odom: I think most of our sophomores have all improved a significant amount. O'Kelley looks a lot more comfortable with the ball in his hands. Josh & Raphael also look alot more confident. It would be hard to say who's improved the most, but they've all worked really hard this summer and should be much better players as a result.
Q: Is there a starting five that jumps out at you when you think of this year's team?
Coach Odom: Basketball coaches are all the same in that we want to get our best 5 players together, but I don't have any favorites at this point. I just want to see how things evolve and decide from there. I'd like to have 11 or 12 starters if I could.
Q: How good a player is Robert O'Kelley? Were you surprised he developed so rapidly last year?
Coach Odom: I think Robert is an all-conference type player. He faced some real strong competition last year and we're real prooud that he earned the Rookie of the Year honors. His decisions are much better as a playmaking guard. He's also much better at the defensive end - higher intensity level, defensive intent. I'm surprised he had such a great year last year. I would like to see more balance among his teammates. If his point totals don't go up I don't think it would be an indication that he hasn't improved it would be more that his teammates have improved.
Q: Who is the team's leader (or leaders) in the locker room?
Coach Odom: We haven't seen our team together enough to really know just yet. Robert, Raphael, Nicky, & Josh will form a team of leaders with each leading in his own way. I like that we can count on a nice spread of leadership like that.
