Greg Oden

Brand-new Trail Blazers center Greg Oden - the 7-foot center out of Ohio State - was introduced yesterday to a few thousand Portland fans at a lunchtime rally, some 16 hours after the team took him with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. "I'm loving it here, and I'm going to have a smile on my face for a long time to come," Oden said. The Blazers also sent forward Zach Randolph, Fred Jones and Dan Dickau to the Knicks for Channing Frye and Steve Francis. The No. 2 pick, Texas forward Kevin Durant, greeted SuperSonics fans at a rally in Seattle, along with Georgetown forward Jeff Green, acquired when the Sonics traded seven-time All-Star Ray Allen to Boston.

PORTLAND - Greg Oden is technically a rookie, so perhaps it is too early to make a definitive judgment as to how his NBA career will turn out. Still, having lost all of last season and large chunks of this one to assorted injuries, Oden has to be aware that his name is being linked to that of another 7-foot center on whom the Portland Trail Blazers once made a sizable, and losing, wager for long-term success. Sam Bowie. Bowie was the University of Kentucky standout now infamously remembered as the player the Blazers took with the second pick in the 1984 draft, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and just ahead of some guy named Michael Jordan.

Greg Oden is ready to move on past school. The 7-foot freshman said yesterday he will leave Ohio State after leading the Buckeyes to the national championship game and enter the NBA draft, where he figures to be one of the top two picks along with Texas freshman forward Kevin Durant. Freshman teammates Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook also said they will make themselves available for the draft. Unlike Oden, they have opted not to hire an agent for now - meaning they will retain the option of returning to school in the fall.

The NBA-leading Miami Heat stretched their winning streak to seven games Tuesday night with a 120-108 pounding of the visiting Sacramento Kings. Dwyane Wade scored 30 points and added 10 assists, Mario Chalmers and Chris Bosh each scored 20 points, and LeBron James added 18 points for the Heat, who have won each of their games during this streak by at least 12 points. Isaiah Thomas scored 20 of his 24 points in the third quarter for Sacramento, which dropped its sixth straight.

Across Ohio, newspapers must be featuring this quote from Memphis forward Joey Dorsey. "It's two great big men going up against each other," the 6-foot-9 Dorsey said yesterday, talking about today's NCAA South Regional final at the Alamodome between Memphis and Ohio State. Benign enough so far . . . "I'm an underrated big man and he's a lot overrated as a big man," Dorsey said. Bingo. He would be Ohio State freshman Greg Oden, the most famous player remaining in this tournament.

Greg Oden grabbed the ball off the backboard, slammed it through the net and screamed. It was the kind of athletic, powerful play that's come to symbolize the Ohio State freshman's considerable talent. Too bad it didn't count. A Central Connecticut State University foul before the shot wiped out the dunk, one of the few times Oden and the top-seeded Buckeyes were stopped during their 78-57 win over the Blue Devils yesterday in the opening round of the South Regional in Lexington, Ky. Oden finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season as the Buckeyes (31-3)

SAN ANTONIO - The Buckeyes were dead. Cooked. Outta here. Gone. As in, it's been swell knowing you. Don't forget to pick up those lovely parting gifts on the way home. So why do they still have at least one more game to play before Greg Oden heads off to save the franchise holding the NBA's winning lotto ticket? You're not supposed to get two mulligans in the NCAA Tournament. Most are lucky to get one. By all rights, the top-ranked team at the end of the regular season should have been eliminated in last Saturday's second round by Xavier.

Mike Conley Jr. scored a career-high 23 points and Greg Oden created havoc at the defensive end to lead No. 3 Ohio State past visiting Michigan, 76-63, last night. Conley was a constant for the Buckeyes (21-3, 9-1 Big Ten) as Oden battled foul trouble and sat out 8 1/2 minutes of the second half. The freshman point guard hit nine of 12 shots from the field, including two three-pointers, and made all three of his foul shots. He also had six assists, one steal and one turnover in 38 minutes.

Is Greg Oden leaving Ohio State for the NBA? Oden's father told a newspaper the 7-footer is turning pro, while the man who hopes to be Oden's agent, Mike Conley Sr., said last night that the decision had not been made. "No. Definitely not. Not to say he's not going to decide that - but, 100 percent, as of this moment, he hasn't decided," Conley, father of Oden's high school and college teammate Mike Conley Jr., told the Associated Press. "I talk to his mother every day, and I talk to [Ohio State coach]

I WOULD LIKE TO apologize to Ohio State seniors Ivan Harris and Ron Lewis for running out on them last Wednesday. It wasn't personal. Speaking for all those others who left the interview room when you accompanied your coach to the podium, it wasn't personal for them, either. You see, we're hired by our individual newspapers and news organizations - not the NCAA, and not Ohio State University. Our organizations paid for the flights to Lexington, Ky., paid for the hotel rooms, paid for the taxis and rental cars and the nice meals at the nice restaurants.

The NBA-leading Miami Heat stretched their winning streak to seven games Tuesday night with a 120-108 pounding of the visiting Sacramento Kings. Dwyane Wade scored 30 points and added 10 assists, Mario Chalmers and Chris Bosh each scored 20 points, and LeBron James added 18 points for the Heat, who have won each of their games during this streak by at least 12 points. Isaiah Thomas scored 20 of his 24 points in the third quarter for Sacramento, which dropped its sixth straight.

PORTLAND - Greg Oden is technically a rookie, so perhaps it is too early to make a definitive judgment as to how his NBA career will turn out. Still, having lost all of last season and large chunks of this one to assorted injuries, Oden has to be aware that his name is being linked to that of another 7-foot center on whom the Portland Trail Blazers once made a sizable, and losing, wager for long-term success. Sam Bowie. Bowie was the University of Kentucky standout now infamously remembered as the player the Blazers took with the second pick in the 1984 draft, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and just ahead of some guy named Michael Jordan.

Paul Pierce scored 26 points and Ray Allen finished with 22 to help the visiting Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks, 110-100, in Madison Square Garden last night. Kevin Garnett also had 15 points and 11 rebounds for Boston, which rebounded from its 110-109 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday. The Celtics have now won nine of the last 10 in their rivalry with the Knicks. Al Harrington scored 27 points and David Lee had 18 points and 18 rebounds for New York.

At the Final Four, it was a draw. Roy Hibbert scored 19 points and pulled in six rebounds, Greg Oden had 13 and nine in a national semifinal where the whistle quickly eliminated the battle of the big men. At the barbershop, Oden wins, hands down. "He's got a full beard and he's, like, 19 years old," Hibbert said. "I'm trying to get the patches to fill in. " Normally, Hibbert follows the NHL approach, letting the 'fro grow wild and the beard go unshaven for luck in the postseason.

Brand-new Trail Blazers center Greg Oden - the 7-foot center out of Ohio State - was introduced yesterday to a few thousand Portland fans at a lunchtime rally, some 16 hours after the team took him with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. "I'm loving it here, and I'm going to have a smile on my face for a long time to come," Oden said. The Blazers also sent forward Zach Randolph, Fred Jones and Dan Dickau to the Knicks for Channing Frye and Steve Francis. The No. 2 pick, Texas forward Kevin Durant, greeted SuperSonics fans at a rally in Seattle, along with Georgetown forward Jeff Green, acquired when the Sonics traded seven-time All-Star Ray Allen to Boston.

The franchise center is harder to find than a legit T206 Honus Wagner card and more valuable to boot. But that never stops teams from trying even in an age in which the pro game is drifting away from the classic low-post big man toward a track team of 6-foot-8 guys. There's not much to choose from among this year's crop of college and international centers. Well, if you're not picking first. But many of these guys will spend a decade filling rosters and causing heads to turn in airports all over the world.

Greg Oden, who'll have much of the world on speed dial after this evening, has one big dream. "Wherever I'm drafted, I want to go to a Boys' Club and be able to go swimming," Oden said yesterday. "I want to go swimming at a Boys' Club. One day in Indianapolis, I went swimming, and a whole bunch of kids came over. It was fun. " Such lightheartedness is what endears people to the 7-foot, 250-pound Oden - who, barring cataclysmic events, will be the first pick in tonight's NBA draft, going to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Greg Oden is ready to move on past school. The 7-foot freshman said yesterday he will leave Ohio State after leading the Buckeyes to the national championship game and enter the NBA draft, where he figures to be one of the top two picks along with Texas freshman forward Kevin Durant. Freshman teammates Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook also said they will make themselves available for the draft. Unlike Oden, they have opted not to hire an agent for now - meaning they will retain the option of returning to school in the fall.

Is Greg Oden leaving Ohio State for the NBA? Oden's father told a newspaper the 7-footer is turning pro, while the man who hopes to be Oden's agent, Mike Conley Sr., said last night that the decision had not been made. "No. Definitely not. Not to say he's not going to decide that - but, 100 percent, as of this moment, he hasn't decided," Conley, father of Oden's high school and college teammate Mike Conley Jr., told the Associated Press. "I talk to his mother every day, and I talk to [Ohio State coach]

ATLANTA - When you do it once, you celebrate. When you do it twice, everybody celebrates. In a sport that has become more transient than at any time in its history, what Florida has done the last two seasons can't really be compared to anything. A repeat has not been accomplished in this era of players that are here today, gone tomorrow. They all came back to see if it was possible. They proved it about as definitively as a team can prove it last night at the Georgia Dome.