Entering this college basketball season, Victor Oladipo was not the Indiana Hoosiers baller that everyone was talking about as a future NBA lottery pick. Instead it was Cody Zeller. The stock of Cody Zeller is still high, but Oladipo draft stock is a must buy. Dipo, as the Indiana faithful refer to him is a tremendous leaper, and lockdown defender. His defense has always been there, but now his scoring is up, and he shoots a high percentage. Oladipo has won national player of the year and defensive player of the years awards.
And insane (or really dumb) people have compared him to Michael Jordan and think he’ll be the #1 pick in the NBA Draft. The Bulls player he resembles more is Luol Deng, but shorter. On April 9th, 2013 Victor Oladipo declared for the NBA Draft.
Oladipo wasn’t doing much today, until this fastbreak 360 slam in the final moments of Indiana’s blowout of Illinois in the Big Ten tourney quarterfinals Friday afternoon. But the Hoosiers junior still finished with a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds),
This is where we currently have Oladipo slotted in our latest NBA mock draft
7. Phoenix- Victor Oladipo, SG, Indiana, 6-5, Jr.
The Suns sorely need and upgrade of talent on the wing and nobody’s stock soared more this season than Victor Oladipo. He is a game changer on both ends of the floor
I asked Illini coach John Groce what he thought of Oladipo
PMB: You played Oladipo twice now and he’s a guy that’s had a breakout year. What do you see in him as potential with his ceiling and where do you think he’s at right now?
JOHN GROCE: Obviously he had 12 and 11, double-double. But I don’t think the stat sheet tells the story with him. It tells only part of it. I think defensively he is terrific. He, as Brandon Paul said, he gets up into you, he takes things away, he reads things well. You can tell he’s really intelligent defensively. He’s as good a defender on the perimeter as we played against all year. Now you add his things he brings to the table from an offensive scoring perspective and his rebounding and that makes him even more potent.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of visitors. He’s an author who also contributes regularly to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker
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