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Dave Odom Hopes Next Coach Will Build Upon His Efforts Celebrating USC's Basketball Legacy, Not Let Program "Sink Back" Into What It Was Before He Was Hired

On ETV Radio's "The Big Picture on the Radio"

For Immediate Release
February 29, 2008

Columbia, SC... During an interview on Friday with ETV news and public affair's Managing Editor and Host Andrew Gobeil, on "The Big Picture on the Radio" program, outgoing University of South Carolina head basketball coach Dave Odom said that the university needs to do a better job of celebrating its accomplishments.

In response to Gobeil's question of whether it is a legitimate concern that recruiting may be affected by how the university celebrates its past accomplishments, Odom said, "Well, it is. There's no question about it.  Players that are coming into the university are very impressed by those that have played before them, starred before them, gone on and done well after leaving the university.  We need to celebrate all of these accomplishments, and I think what had happened in the past--there had been so many coaching changes, and everything--that one group kind of gets lost in the other when there's a coaching change, and that shouldn't be.  So what we should do, and this is what I hope will happen is, I leave and another coach comes in. Another coach will pick up this program and build upon it, not let it sink back into being what it was when I got here."

When asked about the many different hats that today's head coaches have to wear, Odom said, "That's the biggest change in head coaching at the Division I level, I think, in the last 10 years...The universities now are asking you to do more.  You've got to be more compliant with the rules, which is ethically the right thing to do. You've got to be on top of the academics more and I think that's the biggest problem right now... Some of the kids that are coming into the universities now are not as prepared academically as they need to be, and you've got to spend more time on the academic front, which again is proper, but still it's more demanding. And, of course, the media's much more involved. They get more information out to the fans, which causes, sometimes, some misinformation, and you have to be on top of that as well.  So it's a little bit more complicated, more involved, and you just got to be on your toes a little bit more than you did, say 10-15 years ago.

The Big Picture on the Radio can be heard Fridays at 9 a.m. on ETV Radio's four news formats: 88.1-WRJA Sumter, 89.1-WLJK Aiken, 89.9- WJWJ Beaufort, and 90.1-WHMC Conway.

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.