June 4, 2006

Columbia, SC – USC head coach Dave Odom, entering his sixth year at the helm of Gamecock basketball program has had a busy couple of weeks. A week in Kuwait was followed by a few days in Destin, Fla. for Southeastern Conference meetings. He sat down with the media late this week to talk about a number of topics including Renaldo Balkman, Kuwait, next year’s schedule and the talk at SEC meetings.

Q: Renaldo Balkman has been invited to the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando next week. Tarence Kinsey also has been invited. What does this mean for Renaldo?

Odom: It means Renaldo will have a chance to show what he can do in front of all the NBA teams at one time. What will it means after Ray goes is anybody’s guess. I think when a player goes that far down the road it becomes hard to come back. But, with that said it’s not unprecedented if they come back. We will see. I really don’t think about it. They think it will change your team, etc. I have done everything I can do educate Renaldo about the pressures and pitfalls – what can and cannot happen. I can’t be with him 24 hours. My only concern is that unscrupulous people that do not have his best interests not taint him. I want him to go for the right reason and also to come back for the right reason as well. I don’t want him to come back here and have his mind not here.

Q: When was the last time you talked to him?

Odom: The day before I left for Kuwait I had an excellent conversation with him. He was going to workout in Florida. We said we would talk just before he goes to Orlando, if he was invited. It was very cordial. He knows how much I care about him.

Q: Any comments on your schedule next season? Are you ready to release your non-conference schedule?

Odom: I don’t want to piecemeal our schedule, as you know. I don’t want to release this game today, that game tomorrow. None are inked in concrete yet. We do have a west coast trip planned and I do think it will happen. I am working on a trip back to Madison Square Garden and it’s more than 50/50. Our schedule is coming together, but I’ve had a bit of difficulty with spacing. We do have Kansas coming in here (early January). I have agreed in principle on a date and television has to firm it up. We also have Clemson coming to the Colonial Center. To get one game you have to make 15 calls and it’s hard to reach people in the summer.

Q: Will you play the College of Charleston?

A: We try to play as many teams in the state as possible. But, we aren’t ready to release the schedule yet.

Q: Is this the toughest schedule your team will play since you came to USC?

Odom: I’d have to think about it. My staff keeps saying ‘no more, no more’. I think we have always played a pretty good schedule. It’s an unusual year schedule-wise because outside of our SEC schedule we had no road games we had commitments to. So the Gamecocks were attractive to a lot of teams because we could go on the road. I try to get the schedule so that it fits the needs of the team. My goal is that we play a national schedule. With Kansas coming in it’s a great step for the program. If the west coast thing works out it will also be good for our fans to see different teams in the next couple years, with Southern California coming here. We are working hard at it.

Q: Any other personal movement expected this summer?

Odom: Austin Steed going to prep school surprised some people, but that wasn’t a last minute decision. We felt athletically and academically it was the best move for him right now. Beyond that the only roster addition that I know anything about is Renaldo’s situation (note: he can’t comment on transfers until they are accepted into the university and enrolled).

Q: You went to Kuwait for the second year in a row with Operation Hardwood. How was your team? Any talent?

Odom: They were talented. I had the best team. I also had the most experienced team. Early on we beat teams pretty badly. The good news is I had the most experienced team. The bad news is they were older and more experienced and as you got into games later in the week the old men’s legs didn’t hold up. There was a solider on the team, Chuck Charleston (Odom’s nickname for him), about 39 years old. After that fourth game his legs were pretty rubbery. There was another guy I called Dove. He was from Houston, Texas. He was 32 and he got tired pretty bad. We really good for about 5-6 games and then they just wore out. We beat Mark Gottfried’s team (Alabama head coach), but lost to Tubby Smith’s team in the semi-finals. Kelvin Sampson’s team (IU head coach) ended up beating Tubby’s team in the finals.

Q: Why did you go back again this year for Operation Hardwood II?

Odom: A few people asked me why I wanted to go back if it’s to the same place, but it’s an entirely different group of soldiers, Marines, airmen. While the experience isn’t new to we coaches it is new for them. You are really going to be with a different set of people even though you are going to do the same thing. The troops are all different and it was a great experience. It’s amazing – the discipline, the commitment, the desire to do their jobs without reservation with no complaining. Their determination to win the war and get their job done. It’s just a shame that everyone here couldn’t experience what I did. The feeling that we are doing the right thing.

Q: Was there a special moment for you in Kuwait?

Odom: The closing ceremony when the coaches march out in a high school-like gym and it’s jam-packed. Maybe 1500 people. They brought out this young female solider to sing the national anthem. She had a very powerful voice. I could see every eye of the soldiers looking at the flag. You could hear nothing, but her voice. You can’t help but to well up. Afterwards I asked Tubby Smith (UK head coach) what he thought and he said ‘I was crying. I was bawling. I felt like an idiot’. You just feel the pride of as an American.

Q: At the SEC meetings, what were some of the topics you discussed? Maybe the newfound respect nationally for the SEC?

Odom: At the SEC meetings, we had at least an hour-long discussion about seizing the moment. Two in the NCAA Final Four and Florida won the NCAA title. And we won the NIT and it positioned the SEC well. To reclaim some respect. Last summer at this time they were saying SEC basketball is down. A lot of players left early and no one got drafted. They said SEC basketball was down and nothing was further from the truth. I think we are poised to reclaim that. It will help us in terms of media exposure. Television is certainly more interested in televising SEC games. It does help and we should kind of beat the drums in that direction.

The league is very supportive. We are trying to do an intra-conference shoot-out for the 2007-08 year, but I don’t know what league for sure – maybe the Big 12 or the Big East. That would be a positive thing for us.

Q: Anything you felt strongly about at the meetings? Things you brought up at the meetings?

Odom: I felt there were three areas we really need to improve upon:

1. Creating things in the month of December that wake basketball fans up. Show that SEC basketball is alive and well. Hopefully this summer we will do some things that will help.

2. We need to jazz up our non-divisional SEC games. Our game against Ole Miss, you lose something there. Suggestion I made: non-divisional weekends. For example: Georgia and South Carolina go to Alabama and Auburn on Saturday. Then you flip it on Sunday (UGA and USC at home vs. those teams) and do it all the way through the league.

3. The SEC Tournament needs some attention. The tournament is great and I have a different perspective having a four-day run at it with us playing the final last year. We have to get everyone to understand the SEC Tournament is a four-day event. One thing that upsets me when our game is over our stands are empty and in the really good conference tournaments people go four days for all the games. All of our seats are sold and we aren’t losing money, but we lose atmosphere. I hope we can convince our fans to go for all four days.