Fan Report: DeMatha’s Victor Oladipo

  • 01/06/2010 8:44 am in

The following report was written and submitted by ITH reader Jeff Wood, who got a chance to watch Victor Oladipo on Tuesday night. If you attend games of IU signees, commitments or potential recruits, send us a report to [email protected] and it may appear in this very space.

I was fortunate to catch the DeMatha (MD) at Good Counsel (MD) last night and see Victor Oladipo play.  Vic finished with 17 points in a hard-fought three-point win for DeMatha.  I’ve read some of the scouting notes on ITH, and based on last night’s game I can echo some of what I’ve read.  Vic is athletic, can run the court in transition, and plays good D.

In the second half, DeMatha put Vic on the opponent’s smaller, quicker PG that was giving them trouble earlier.  His on the ball defense was good.  Even though the guy got by him a couple times, for the most part he did a good job of limiting the point guard’s effectiveness.  Off the ball, he gets his long arms in passing lanes.  I saw him deflect a few passes.  He did a good job of crashing the boards.  Even though he didn’t control a lot of rebounds, he was active and he’d get a hand on the ball.

Offensively, he’s not a dominant player, but he made an impact on the game with his athletic dunks and by scrapping for put-backs.  I don’t think he has a lot of confidence in his jumper.  He had two 3-point attempts, which were not bad shots, but missed.  A third time he could have gotten a shot off, but he hesitated and didn’t take it.  Hopefully, he can continue to develop his outside shot, but for now he can really finish around the rim.

He had four or five dunks in this game. He was on the receiving end of a nice alley-oop, which was a set in-bounds play drawn up to take advantage of his athleticism.  In the last minute of the game, he helped seal the victory when after an opponent’s made basket. He broke loose from the pressing D, caught a long in-bounds pass, and threw down a nasty 360-dunk.  Overall I was impressed, and I think he can be a good addition to IU’s rotation.

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