Buckeyes duo shines

COLUMBUS, Ohio – They are a little bit Felix and Oscar, a little bit Mutt and Jeff.

Greg Oden is Ohio State’s 7-foot freshman man-child, a likely No. 1 overall NBA draft pick as soon as he says the word.

Mike Conley Jr. is the Buckeyes’ 6-foot-1 freshman point guard, the son of Olympic triple-jumper Mike Conley, and a far better player than anyone who figured he was just Oden’s sidekick imagined.

Oden and Conley were high school teammates at Indianapolis Lawrence North, where they won three consecutive Indiana state titles and went 103-7 in four seasons.

Now they play for the Buckeyes, ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and No. 1 by ESPN/USA Today as they prepare for a showdown Sunday with Wisconsin, the AP’s lame-duck No. 1 after losing to Michigan State.

Friends since the sixth grade, Oden and Conley share a suite with two other freshmen basketball players, attend many of the same classes – and banter like bickering spouses who have made their differences part of their bond.

“I’m the messy one,” Conley said, ‘fessing up before Oden could say anything.

“It’s just nasty,” Oden said. “He doesn’t clean up the bathroom sometimes. He’s never washed dishes yet.”

Conley flashed a grin.

“That’s because I don’t use the dishes,” he said. “I don’t use the silverware. All the stuff I use is from the cafeteria. Plastic. Then you put it in the trash can. That’s the smart thing to do, so I don’t have to wash dishes.”

“We’re best friends,” Conley said. “I mean, we like a lot of the same things and do a lot of the same things. We’re always together somehow, so you could say that.”

Ohio State coach Thad Matta calls them “different, but the same.”

“Both are relatively quiet, but they read each other so well,” he said. “I can go to Mike and say, ‘Hey what’s going on with Greg?’ and I can go to Greg and say, ‘What’s going on with Mike?’ and they always seem to know.”

All the commotion over Oden’s Patrick Ewing-like potential has at times obscured the ability of Conley, who after all, was a McDonald’s All-American too.

From the time they were in junior high, Oden and Conley played together on a summer-league team, and Conley’s father – who won a state basketball championship as a high school player in Illinois before making his name in track – was the coach.

Conley has had six 10-assist games, and leads the Big Ten in assists at 6.5 a game – good for fifth in the nation. He also leads the league in steals, at 2.4 a game, and in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 3.1.

Oden – whose defense is ahead of his offense much the way Ewing’s game was during his freshman year at Georgetown – leads the Buckeyes with 15.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots a game, and he is first in the Big Ten in rebounds and blocks.

Surprisingly few coaches recruited Oden as hard as might have been expected, with many – North Carolina’s Roy Williams among them – acknowledging they thought Oden would jump straight to the NBA, even though he said he wanted to go to college.

When the NBA instituted its new minimum-age rule, it made a moot point of Oden’s decision, and Matta landed both players, partly because he already had lapped the competition – and he had already won over Conley.

“The first time I saw Michael Conley play, I thought he was the perfect point guard for our system,” Matta said. “And the fortunate thing is there was a 7-footer that was probably going to come with him.”