Greg Oden's Diary -- Feb. 9, 2006

Greg Oden’s McDonald’s All-American High School All-Star Game Diary

February 9, 2006

You probably hear the name Michael Conley and think of the Olympic gold medallist in the triple jump. The Michael Conley I know is the coach of my AAU basketball team.

He’s also the father of the point guard on my high school and AAU teams, Mike Conley. Mike will be my teammate at Ohio State, too. We’ve been good friends for a long time.

If you do some research on Michael Conley, you’ll learn he was an Olympic gold medallist in 1992 in Barcelona and an Olympic silver medallist in 1984 in Los Angeles. He’s also in the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame and is considered possibly the greatest combination long jumper and triple jumper of all time.

I can’t tell you much else about his track career, but when I was younger I watched him in some celebrity dunk contests. That man can jump, but now he struggles to touch the rim.

He tried to dunk on me when I was in ninth grade, but he couldn’t. Now if he tries to dunk on me, I just let him go.

I’ve seen his Olympic medals, and they’re real nice. It would be a great honor for me to play in the Olympics some day.

But I want to tell you about Michael Conley the basketball coach. He’s not like most AAU coaches. AAU basketball is a different game than high school basketball. You see a lot of one-on-one play. There is more freedom for the players.

But with Coach Conley, we don’t get much freedom. He doesn’t want us to play one-on-one. The most important thing is he wants us to play hard. We only have about four plays and that’s about it. He keeps it simple. He’ll do a lot of things to help us win, but mostly he wants us to play hard.

One thing I like about AAU basketball is there are a lot of good players around, so I’m not just the only one getting swarmed. Coach Conley has been real good at helping me know what to do in situations like that because he was a track star. He helps me off the court and on the court. He’s an excellent basketball coach and real smart.

But don’t’ let him tell you he can dunk on me.

Editor's notes

Lawrence North season update

Games Feb. 5-12

The Wildcats (19-0)ramped up their win streak to 35 games with two wins last week, including a 79-61 victory over FAB 50 ranked, and defending Illinois Class AA champion, Glenbrook North at Northwestern University. Oden scored 33 points and collected 11 rebounds in one of the signature outings of his storied prep career. Conley had 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Earlier in the week, North defeated city rival Ben Davis, 81-71. Oden had 39 points, including eight dunks and 17 rebounds. North plays Bloomington South on Friday (Feb. 17).

Games Jan. 30-Feb. 4

The Wildcats hiked their win streak to 33 games with one win last week. North defeated Carmel, 68-49, as Mike Conley scored 20 points and was charted with six assists. Greg Oden fouled out with 2:39 left after scoring 16 points and collecting 11 rebounds. North faces a major test Saturday in Chicago when it faces FAB 50 No. 11 Glenbrook North, the defending Illinois Class AA champion.