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Denton: Rivers on Oladipo & Vaughn

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John Denton Nov. 6, 2013

ORLANDO – Because his oldest son, Jeremiah Rivers, played at Indiana University and his youngest son, Austin Rivers, was one of the nation’s top high school players three years ago, Rivers is quite familiar with Oladipo.

Rivers said he’s watched Oladipo since he was a junior in high school and he’s amazed with how the versatile guard has continued to get better each year.

``I’ve seen (Oladipo) a lot because I watched him at Indiana when my older son (Jeremiah) was there. And (Indiana coach) Tom Creen and I are close,’’ Rivers said. ``I watched him in high school play against Austin in a high school game. He just keeps getting better. I think he was on Team Takeover and he was the third or fourth best player his junior year and his senior year he was the second best player. And by his freshman year of college he was better than all of those guys. He just keeps improving.

``A lot of it with Oladipo is his athleticism, but more of it is his work ethic,’’ Rivers continued. ``The thing that will translate for him is that he is a star who works hard too. That’s a great combination.’’

Rivers also coached Vaughn when the latter was a point guard for the Magic for the 2003-04 season. Rivers has said that he always knew the heady and professional Vaughn would be a good NBA coach. He said he’s been impressed with how Vaughn has gotten so much improvement out of the Magic in a short period of time.

``I said last year I was impressed with Jacque, but their record didn’t show it. But they ran good stuff. You talk to players who have been through (Orlando) and they all say good things,’’ Rivers said. ``I think the proof with Jacque is how quickly his young guys are improving. (Maurice) Harkless and all of those guys are really improving.’’

 

 

 

 

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