In 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-9 — with a 7-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, that wiry body didn’t stop him from being a rebounding force last season, 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. How many games did you see Oden just take over and win by himself? If you watched the same games I did, the answer would be none. Never once did he just blow me away. Sure, he consistently pulled down 15 points and 10 rebounds, but when his team needed him to go off for 30 points, he would disappear.
And then there’s the fact that Oden plays with no emotion. How can your teammates look up to you when you don’t even look like you care? Watching Kevin Durant, it’s obvious how much he cares. When the game was on the line, everybody on both teams knew Durant was going to take the shot — and he rarely missed.
He’s the kind of guy that can go off for 50 points and score each of them with a different shot. He’s the most versatile offensive player in the history of college basketball, and he hasn’t even turned 20.
Realistically, I know the Trailblazers will take Oden with the No. 1 pick, and it wouldn’t normally be a bad choice. But when you have a once-in-a-lifetime talent such as Kevin Durant on the board, you can’t pass him up. Besides, Oden doesn’t have too many more years on him (sorry, I couldn’t help myself).
