clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Why don't high-majors want Dwon Odom?

The transfer PG was top 10 in efficiency in the Big East; why doesn't he have power teams ringing his line?

NCAA Basketball: NIT Final-Xavier vs Texas A&M
Name a better triple jumper in D1 ball. You can't.
Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

First, some context:

That's... not a great selection of teams. Iona lost in the first round of the MAAC tournament and the first round of the NIT. Georgia Southern was 253rd in the KenPom and went 5-11 in the Sun Belt. South Carolina played .500 ball in the SEC and didn't get to go to any postseason tournament. Duquesne and Loyola Marymount combined to go 17-42 in unimpressive conferences.

Dwon Odom is a man of obvious physical gifts. After a slow start to the season, he was the 10th-most efficient player in the league in Big East play. Only Jack Nunge posted a higher ORtg in Big East games for X. He is a career 57% two-point shooter in almost 250 attempts. He gets into the lane almost at will and is somewhere between difficult and impossible to stop when he has a head of steam.

On top of all that, he has solid distribution numbers, shoots 80% from the line, and plays ball with a smile on his face. What can't this guy do?

Shoot from outside about fifteen feet. Despite all the destruction Dwon can do to defenses, the range on his jumper is sorely lacking. His man is effectively able to drift in the lane, secure in the knowledge that Dwon isn't going to punish him no matter how much time he has to take a three-point shot.

This leaves Dwon in a weird place, as he is individually able to get buckets from time to time - perhaps most aptly demonstrated in his last game at Xavier, when he was a cool 8-12 from the field - but his presence allows the defense to muck up his team's offense by employing a free roaming help man. It's a weird balance.

It also leaves Dwon in a weird place in the transfer market. He can be an incredibly destructive offensive player when he gets a head of steam going to the paint; he has the "pace" of the modern "pace and space" approach to basketball in surplus. Unfortunately, he needs the "space" provided for him.

What that means for his future will be determined by what it means to each of the 358 head coaches at the D1 level. It's incredible to me that someone with his capabilities on the floor is being almost entirely hamstrung by one flaw. Dwon's efficiency numbers speak for themselves; for almost every high-major coach, at least so far, it seems like his lack of shooting range is talking over them.