Somewhere, Dave Odom just shed a tear*
- Thread starter Rod Dangerfield
- Start date
Agree in part on missing Odom. I'd take the first 5 years of his USC tenure in a heartbeat right now (100 wins, four 20-win seasons, 2 NIT titles, etc.). Year 6 and beyond was a different story though.
Nice bait post. The sole reason he ever go to 20 wins was by racking up Ws in the NIT. Zero finishes above .500 in the league. Complete flame out.
Well we only have one finish above .500 in SEC play since the 1997 season.
Odom was the second best coach in school history. (Sad but true).
If you aren't going to count post season wins then I guess we finished 15-15 this year right?
uscfan1981 posted on 3/16/2015...
Odom was the second best coach in school history. (Sad but true).
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You just ruined my day and possibly my entire life. He should never have been hired in the first place. WF fans danced in the streets when USC went on the cheap and hired a has been who was really a never was.
Odom was the second best coach in school history. (Sad but true).
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You just ruined my day and possibly my entire life. He should never have been hired in the first place. WF fans danced in the streets when USC went on the cheap and hired a has been who was really a never was.
Odom = Zero Championships (that is right, the consolation tournament does not count)
Eddie = 1 Sec Title
Eddie is easily in second place.
You both are wrong, I have a couple pals that were WF alum... they Hated to see Odom leave WF.. I put him at fourth best USC basketball coach in my lifetime,
1) Mcguire (Not close)
2) Fogler
3) Staley (But could be rising)
4) Odom
Yeah, have to go with Fogler on this one. Dave Odom was an average coach for us.....didn't run our program into the ground and actually left Horn with a good situation. His teams won the NIT in 2005/2006, but had he made the NCAA's those years he would have been held in higher regard (would have been 3 straight years).
I personally believe that in a couple of years we will be viewing Martin in higher esteem than both Fogler and Odom.
Bashing coaches, former and present A.D. s former and present and players former and present is how Rod gets his jollies.
Well he also got us to within a UF player undercutting Balkman at the end of the game away from an SEC Tournament title
Well, if he is not the second best he can only be as low as third best. McGuire is tops, of course, and I'll entertain Eddie for #2. But there is no one you can even remotely prop up for #3 ahead of Odom.
Maybe I am, but as far as I know, Odom left on his own.... WF would have kept him (Or at least let him stay) as long as he wished to stay..
The only possible contender is Eddie Fogler.
Fogler was here 8 years
123-117 overall (51%)
57-71 SEC (44%)
2-6 vs Clemson
1 conference Championship
2 twenty wins seasons
2 NCAA (0-2 record)
2 NITS (2-2 record)
0 NIT Championships
Odom was here 7 years
128-104 (55%)
41-71 SEC (37%)
3-4 vs Clemson
0 conference Championships
4 twenty wins seasons
1 NCAA (0-1 record)
3 NITS (14-2 record)
2 NIT Championships
Side by side I think Odom wins (slightly)
On a side note........see how Fogler had a losing record vs. Clem & so did Odom, anyone know what the all time series is with them?
Wikipedia has us with an 89-76 advantage which sounds about right. We had a large advantage over them prior to Fogler days and I would imagine they have a slight edge over the last 20 years.
I am thinking that the following were/are better than Odom:
McGuire - cleaned up the entire past history
Fogler - remember he had to cleanup Newton's mess
Felton
Foster
Martin - cleaning up Horn's mess - I think he will move up the list.
Odom really had only one good season, that was the 2003/04 team.
Felton was good. He couldn't sober up tho. Had some really good players and had the program going in the right direction until he was fired. He found his niche while on the bench for those spectacular UK teams. But it was too late for a hc job at that point.
1986 - when we finally went after a young coach, we landed George Felton. It's hard to find fault with the hire - Felton was a USC grad and a former player under Frank McGuire. He was one of Bobby Cremins' top, young assistants at Georgia Tech - at a time when the Yellow Jackets were a perennial ACC contender. He put together a stellar assistant staff, including Tubby Smith (who you know of course) and Eddie Payne (who coaches USC-Upstate), and recruited some amazing talent like Brent Price, Jo English, the Dozier brothers, and Jamie Watson. There were other, young, talented coaches who probably could have been lured to South Carolina in ''86 - notably Rick Pitino (then at Providence), Eddie Fogler (one of Dean Smith's assistants at UNC) and Roy Williams (another UNC assistant). But hindsight is 20/20 and we put our eggs in Felton's basket. When Felton was fired in May of 1991, it was like a bolt from the blue to most USC fans - he had gone 20-13 that year and had made the post-season (NIT). Athletic Director King Dixon refused to explain why he had terminated Felton. Rumors soon circulated that Felton's drinking had caused a rift between he and Dixon; Felton's DUI arrest not long after his termination (for which he was exonerated) added to that speculation. Whether the rumors were true or not have never been substantiated, but we all believed them at the time and many are adamant about them to this day. As far as the University was concerned, Felton's contract was up in 1991 and that was that. In the end, does it really matter? Felton went 87-62 during his tenure, making the NCAA's in 1989 and the NIT in 1991. Hardly a return to the glory days. We were now firmly a mediocre program - now 20 years removed from the McGuire heyday.
sbnation- decline of usc basketball
sbnation- decline of usc basketball
George worked hard at recruiting - and knew how to build a staff. I still believe that if we had a different AD at the time - George would have been the coach here for a very long time - I was in school with him and he had the link to the McGuire/Cremins era, could recruit, and I think was a fair coach. I don't know anything about his personal issues other
that what has been said previously - but firing him - set us back - King went ultra cheap with Fig who could recruit - as long
as it wasn't ethical. I remain amazed that George never got another chance as a head coach - believe he has been a college and NBA assistant.
that what has been said previously - but firing him - set us back - King went ultra cheap with Fig who could recruit - as long
as it wasn't ethical. I remain amazed that George never got another chance as a head coach - believe he has been a college and NBA assistant.
King didn't want to be AD but was begged because he had morals and character and because of the perception that, was it Holderman?, left. He proved that he was incapable of managing a university's athletic pgm. He didn't make a single hire that ever succeeded. His firing of Felton before the facts and case were tried proved that he was short on thinking.
When you settle for a Murray St. MBB coach then you are just going on the cheap and not taking into consideration the fans' interests or the university's interests in the long run. It was a circus hire with feelers put out publicly to other MBB coaches who had no real interest in coming to USC.
When you settle for a Murray St. MBB coach then you are just going on the cheap and not taking into consideration the fans' interests or the university's interests in the long run. It was a circus hire with feelers put out publicly to other MBB coaches who had no real interest in coming to USC.
