I’ve been running around all day. The wife is now sick. The kids are on spring break. Somewhere in there I still have to work and do everything else. Sorry not to be on this sooner. Judging by some of the e-mails, there is a bit of concern over Gibbs’ decision.

I have no problem with it.

“We’re not sure,” Temple Gibbs said today from New Jersey regarding his son’s draft plans. “From what I know, he was thinking about it. But he wouldn’t hire an agent, without a doubt.”

Gibbs, a first-team all-Big East selection who led the Panthers in scoring each of the past two seasons, has until April 24 to officially declare for early entry into the draft.

Provided he doesn’t hire an agent, Gibbs would have until May 8 to withdraw his name without losing NCAA eligibility.

“It would be to see what it was like,” Temple Gibbs said.

I hardly see this as a panic moment. If you are a junior at a high major program, with aspirations of a pro career there should be a no-brainer. Go through the process. Get the feedback. Find out what your chances are at present. Assuming you come back, you have a better understanding of what you need to improve.

(more…)

DeJuan Blair was back in Pittsburgh for a few days while his basketball camp was happening.  Blair lends his name to the camp and makes appearances, but leaves to operations to those that know what they are doing. That said, he was there each day and had fun.

“It was pretty cool,” said Anthony Pettko, 10, of Mt. Lebanon, wearing the No. 45 San Antonio Spurs jersey of his favorite NBA player. “A couple of my friends got to play him one-on-one. He took it easy on them.”

Blair, the former Pitt star who just finished his rookie season with the Spurs, is hosting his own youth basketball camp at Robert Morris University.

The four-day camp, run by Five-Star Basketball, opened Tuesday for boys and girls ages 9 through 18.

“It was amazing,” Blair said. “They couldn’t believe I was playing with them and interacting with them like I was. It was as fun for me as it was for them.”

Then it was time to head back to San Antonio briefly before heading to Vegas for NBA summer league — which starts today.

The only Spur to play in all 82 regular-season games last season, Blair was given a summer assignment by head coach Gregg Popovich: Develop a jumper, and learn how Spurs power forwards defend.

Summer league will seem a lot like summer school.

“Pop told me he wanted me to learn the four, and that’s what I want to do,” Blair said. “It’s all about developing, so the more I can play, the more I can get better.”

Not long after the Spurs were swept from the second round of the playoffs by the Suns, Blair was back in the gym working with Spurs shooting coach Chip Engelland.

“I’ve put a lot of time in, almost every day in the summer,” Blair said. “I’m just trying to get a shot to add on to my game and try to get quicker and try to get my body down.”

Blair had the option of going easier. Staying in San Antonio and just working with the coaches on developing his game. Instead Blair insisted on going to summer league.

Initially, the Spurs were leaning toward keeping Blair home to focus on individual workouts. Blair, an NBA All-Rookie selection last season, had other plans.

“He wanted to play,” said Dell Demps, the Spurs’ director of player personnel and de facto GM of the summer league team. “The one good thing about DeJuan is he wants to get better. For him to want to come play in this, I think it says a lot about his commitment to getting better.”

It’s not just a credit to Blair’s work ethic, but a smart move on his part to make sure he doesn’t find himself crowded out of the Spurs’ frontcourt. Tiago Splitter is finally joining the Spurs. That is addition to Tim Duncan, Antonio McDyess, Matt Bonner and Blair. Minutes could be tougher this year.

As far as predictions go. Not so good.

That was Tweeted a little before 6 pm last night. Coach Dixon was in Cleveland for the King James Classic. Want me to make a reach to spin that positively for Pitt? Okay. Try this.

It is a reflection on Coach Dixon’s sense of loyalty to Pitt, that he would think that LeBron James was going to stay with the Cavs. That LeBron wanted to stay with the team where he started and has not finished reaching the goals.

Or something like that.

Or Coach Dixon, because of his past close ties to former GM Danny Ferry was hoping James would stay in Cleveland.

No liveblog for tonight’s game. I’m on DVR delay with other things that I have to do. I will have a post for an open thread later.

I’m sure everyone saw the Sunday feature on DeJuan Blair. Not a lot to add to it. I didn’t expect him to have any regrets, and he does stand to make even more money with playoff paychecks. Unlike a lot of other rookies on crappy teams.

Slam had a review of some top players from top NE Ohio teams that faced off. This included Pitt commit, Cameron Wright.

Cameron Wright | 6-5 | SG | Cleveland Benedictine | 2010
Killa Cam had a bit of an off night, not really getting too many shots to drop and doing the majority of his damage from the foul line. The athletic wing didn’t get to show off his nasty bounce and wasn’t shooting the ball especially well from the perimeter, but as usual, straight up put the clamps on people defensively. Wright finished with 14 points, in what was a bit of an off night offensively for the Pitt recruit.

He made plays on both ends down the stretch. The defense is what will allow him an opportunity to crack the rotation at Pitt sooner than with just offense.

A mention in Pat Forde’s rundown column at ESPN.com listing teams and people who were not on lists to start the season.

Why we used to care: The Panthers have been models of hard-nosed consistency, winning 25 or more games seven of the past eight seasons.

Why we stopped caring: They lost their leading scorer of the past two seasons (Sam Young). And their leading rebounder of the past two seasons (DeJuan Blair). And their leading assist man of the past two seasons (Levance Fields). Then they lost in December to rebuilding Indiana.

Why we care now: Look who is 5-0 in the Big East, with road victories over Syracuse, Cincinnati and UConn. The Panthers are characteristically among the best in the nation defensively and on the glass, and are sharing the ball beautifully on offense.

While Omar seethes, Gene Collier writes another column on how surprising Pitt is/has been at this point.

For the moment, Pitt seems to revalidate itself every time the lights go on. It has been a short road and somehow an incredible distance from a place where this team was beating Wofford at home by three on Nov. 13. That Pitt has advanced all the way to serious national scrutiny and throbbing local enthusiasm is a wonder, but, further, an unexpected challenge.

“There’s definitely been a lot of support, which is the great thing about Pittsburgh in general and especially from the Oakland Zoo,” Gibbs said. “It’s been great to have that support system. The thing is, you don’t want to get too confident. My parents have always taught me, if you stay humble and work hard, good things will happen. It’s exciting right now; I’m getting a lot more texts, but you can’t lose focus on what we’re trying to do. It’s all about winning games.”

Pitt will lose games (hopefully not tonight), and as I keep repeating, they will stumble. They will even look lost at points. That would happen regardless of whether Pitt was overachieving with a reloaded/rebuilt team or a veteran group. That happens to every team at some point in the season.

SI.com preview of tonght’s game sees the deciding issue being which backcourt plays better.

Jim Calhoun taking a ten day break for medical reasons. No official reason from the school other than to say it is for “temporary medical issues, none of which involve any previous medical conditions.” The unofficial reason is stress related.

Calhoun has previously had bouts with cancer (prostate and skin), heart problems and broken ribs. I realize it is supposed to reassure in recruiting that the more serious issues haven’t re-occurred, but is it that much better to not disclose the reason other than to say, “Hey, he’s got new health issues, but really they are just temporary.”

That said, I hope he gets well and we can get back to hating him.

Not sure how many times already this season that DeJuan Blair has been highlighted by NBA hoop heads. Here’s a YouTube from his 28 point, 21 rebound night against the Thunder. Not a highlight reel, so much as an instructional on his game (Hattip to True Hoop).

While Pitt is still yet to list the basketball schedule, things trickle from others. Kent State is on the schedule. Coming to the Pete on Saturday, December 12.

It took all weekend, but the reports of Sam Young signing with the Grizzlies have finally been confirmed. The reports surfaced as early as late-Thursday night, but took until the end of the weekend for the Grizz to confirm. No terms announced — of course — but it appears to be a $2 million deal guaranteed over three years along with around $600,000 in incentives — the first two years base pay is around $900,000 per. The Griz hold the option for the third year which suggests that if they don’t exercise the option they pay him about $200 K to leave.

The Grizzlies finished the summer league 5-0. As 3 Shades of Blue simply put it:

Sure, it doesn’t mean much (except that it can surely add fissile-quality fuel  to the debate that rages over draft picks and placement).  But darnit, all eleven of us that count ourselves as what could be termed “Grizzlies fans” are jonesin’ for something to view positively, and view summerleague positively we will.

and Sam Young was part of the good.

Sam Young playing like the experienced player that he is, and showing that he has an idea already how he’ll earn his paycheck in the NBA-knowing how to use his size on the perimeter on both ends and having enough of a nose for the ball inside to grab some rebounds.

Thabeet, to the surprise of no one who watched the Big East, was a disappointment in that fans of the pro game realize he is an even bigger project than expected for the NBA.

Gilbert Brown, is hoping to emulate the progression of Sam Young. Tantalizing, promising athletic talent in his first year of playing. A seeming step back in his second but emerging in his junior year as he gets stronger and more committed to the full game (at least that’s how the storyline is shoehorned).

Brown contends he realized he needed to be bigger long ago (“Just watching this league, not even playing in it, you got to know how physical it is,” he said.), but youth and a spot often outside the starting five may have contributed to the late start. Injuries, too, have collared Brown, who suffered through ankle and shoulder problems and missed his true freshman year with a medical redshirt.

“I feel great now. I feel like I’m in great shape,” Brown said. “My shoulder’s fine; it hasn’t hurt for a while. My ankles, well, they’ll always be my ankles.”

In addition to an increased workout regimen, Brown said he’s been focused on his shooting and ballhandling, building upon a strong second half of last year when he was a key to the Panthers’ first Elite Eight appearance of the modern NCAA Tournament era.

With his new and improved body, Brown may appear to be a Young-type player in the Panthers’ strong forward position. But with newcomers Dante Taylor, Talib Zanna and J.J. Richardson entering a frontcourt with Nasir Robinson, Dwight Miller and Gary McGhee, Brown’s better off remaining in the rotation at the swing spot. There, he’ll likely compete with Brad Wannamaker for the starting spot as Jermaine Dixon slides over to the two guard on offense.

That doesn’t mean Brown can’t play the way Young did in his two seasons as Pitt’s top scorer. Young developed a solid outside shot and drove from the perimeter inside, much like the three would do in the Panthers’ offense.

Brown’s game has seemed to follow Young’s pattern. Now, his body does, too.

Even Gilbert Brown seems unsure what to expect from his ankles (other than a sense of betrayal).

Levance Fields is getting ready to head overseas, but still has his eyes on the NBA.

That ability extends beyond the hardwood. The 22-year-old Fields, who grew up in the rough-and-tumble Brownsville Houses, has long had a penchant for turning struggles into successes. He established himself as a big-game floor general at the University of Pittsburgh, the latest in a string of metro-area guards to stand out at the Big East school.

“He’s shouldered a lot in his life,” says Pitt assistant Brandin Knight. “It’s made him mature beyond his years.”

Ask Fields why he wants to play in the NBA, and he gives a quick response: He says he wants to buy his mother Koreen Thomas a house, one far from Brownsville.

“I go home to see her all the time … she still lives there,” he says. “I go home, and I’m just a homebody, hanging out with her. I hardly go outside.”

Fields speaks quietly when he talks of his old haunt, as if reflecting on each word. Last year, the 73rd Precinct, which encompasses Brownsville and Ocean Hill, reported 31 murders, the most in the city according to the NYPD.

There’s also a nice sidebar piece looking at Travon Woodall as the next possible PG at Pitt.

Woodall, who’s 5-11, lacks Fields’ savvy and court vision, but he brings speed and athleticism. “I’m more athletic than him,” Woodall says. “I can jump. I’ve caught some (alley-)oops.”

He also picked up plenty of wisdom from Fields. While sitting on the bench, he watched Fields run the offense; by the end of the season, he was often pointing out Fields’ mistakes during timeouts.

“It was weird,” Woodall says. “I started feeling like his father, criticizing him.”

Of course the competition to start at PG will be with Ashton Gibbs, who isn’t shying from expectations with Pitt.

“I think people are definitely underestimating us,” Gibbs, a rising sophomore point guard, said last week at the Joe Brown Memorial tournament. “We’re bringing a lot back. We lost four starters but we’re bringing a lot back, a lot of reserves back. We’re the same team that went at the starters in practice last year so we know we can play against some of the best players in the country.”

And this more than a little rose-colored glasses look at Pitt players’ summer league performances.

Throughout the summer league all four true freshmen showed their ability at times and the two redshirt freshman showed signs of improvement. Because practice is such a critical factor in how the rotation comes to form, it is too early to name any certainties as starters, but there are two clear facts about this version of the Panthers: this team is extremely deep, and there are a lot of options with the personnel of the roster.

With the summer league over, one thing that is certain is that there will be some serious battles at every single spot on the floor this year. Despite all the uncertainly, Panther fans should be pleasantly optimistic about this young group.

It’s a little on the overly-gushing side, and yes it’s summer league. Still it is an encouraging read.

Levance Fields wasn’t dismal or anything in his time with Orlando’s summer league team. He just didn’t get on the court much to show what he has. At least that’s the spin from Fields’ agent.

…Fields played a total of 25 minutes in two summer league games in Orlando. He averaged 4.5 points on 4-for-11 shooting to go with five assists. Fields did not see action in a game against the Indiana Pacers and former Duquesne guard Aaron Jackson, whom he faced for four seasons in college.

“Believe me, I’m not happy about it,” [agent Keith] Glass said. “When Levance did play, he was tremendous.”

As such, Fields is moving on to play for Sparta St. Petersburg in the Russian Super League. Fields got a 4-year contract with the first two guaranteed — for money better than the NBA minimum. Along with an opt-out to play in the NBA.

DeJuan Blair has been solid and then some in the summer league for San Antonio.

DeJuan Blair recorded his second double-double of the week. Gregg Popovich on what he’s getting in Blair: “A rebounder and someone who has a high effort level all the time on the boards, and running the floor. He enjoys playing, which is probably his main gift.”

Meanwhile the Spur blog, Pounding the Rock has observed that he can be a little lazy at times on defense and has to hold his position on defense against bigger players. Solid analysis and the knickname that seems to be taking with Blair is “Blair Force One.”

Blair has also signed a contract with the Spurs for 4 years and $4 million, with $3 million guaranteed. His agent had promised that he would get Blair a guaranteed contract, despite Blair being a second-rounder. I have to admit to being impressed that he delivered. And did it quickly.

Walters said the day after Blair fell to the Spurs with the 37th pick in the second round that he might pursue a two-year contract because he was confident Blair would out-perform his first contract. But Walters said last night that the Spurs made this contract satisfying enough that they decided to sign a longer-term deal.

“He ended up with a great team and they really wanted to develop him,” Walters said. “They wanted to show a commitment to him. He’s just happy to be playing basketball and now he’s able to take care of his family.”

It’s a fair compromise for both sides. Blair has a team locked into him and he can make a nice chunk of extra money with playoff runs, and they probably get a solid discount long-term.

Sam Young doesn’t have a contract yet from the Griz, but he’s been very good. In the last game, he went for 20 points and 6 boards. He’s been a guy that teams have been realizing they whiffed by passing on him.

Perhaps the player who arguably slid the most on draft night, Sam Young, also turned in some solid minutes. He played great defense, stepped out and hit an NBA three, and finished around the rim with either hand. Of course, we also got to see the most exaggerated ball fake in the business as well. Definitely looked like a mid first round pick, not a guy picked in the mid second round.

The Griz-blog 3 Shades of Blue does note that Young does not have the greatest ball-handling skills.

Sam Young gets a puff piece in the Memphis paper. It focuses on his drive. Pointing to the air mattress in the locker room and already with Memphis he was the last of the rookies to leave the court.

It also seems to take a stab at getting into Young’s psyche a bit.

“I’ve always been the underdog,” he said.

The thread through all this is that he has excelled for those who have taken an interest in him. For example, at Friendly High in Fort Washington, Md., Young was not a blue-chip recruit. He was playing out of position at center and lackluster grades meant he would need to spend an additional year at a prep school to qualify. As a result, most top-tier programs backed off. He was high risk and not necessarily high reward.

So when the Pitt coaching staff began to show up at his games and then stuck around, Young committed on the spot.

“We were there when a whole lot of other people weren’t around,” Lombardi said. “He just wanted someone to give him some love.”

The Grizzlies hope there are parallels, though Young said he was hoping the team would take him at No. 27 — a pick they used instead on DeMarre Carroll. Still, considering all the other teams that passed on him completely, Young appreciates that the Grizzlies appreciated him, drafting him at No. 36. And now, among those close to him, there is the feeling — or even the expectation — that he intends to make the rest of the NBA pay.

Young will now be wearing #4 for the Grizz. Quentin Richardson has the 23 jersey there.

DeJuan Blair gets to keep his #45 and is ready to grab boards.

Now that he’s headed to the NBA, Blair will need to polish the offensive parts of his game. He will have to work to learn the subtleties of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s defense. A 61.4 percent foul shooter in college, Blair will look to improve in that area as well.

In the meantime, Blair figures he can always contribute by doing what he does best.

“I’m not worried about points,” Blair said. “I’m going to rebound. If this team has a rebounder, then there’s your championship. Because they have everything else.”

Aside from health concerns about key players.

I find myself pondering the question that if Sam Young had gone pro after his junior year and been drafted in the same spot he was this year, everyone would have said he made a mistake by going pro early. That he fell for some mocks and pundits that had him listed late in the first round (like he was last year).

There would have been talk about how he needed another year to refine his game further. Show he could consistently hit from the perimeter. That if he came back and led Pitt to a great season, then his stock would have risen.  Of course he did all that, and then got slammed for being a 24-year old senior.

If DeJuan Blair had stayed another year or even all four and was still subsequently drafted in the second. There would be the observation of how he was listed in the teens of the mock drafts this year and should have gone when he was hotter and had less wear on his knees. That surely he would have gone higher because teams and scouts would have had less chance to pick apart his game.

Ultimately, no matter how many whispers there are in the ear. It is still the person’s decision. I hope DeJuan Blair still takes advantage of Pitt’s policies and at some point in the future finishes his education.

Even though Sam Young was taken one spot ahead of DeJuan Blair, there is not a lot of ink about him. Part of that stems from his being a senior so there is no “should he have stayed or gone” debate. Also, his slide out of the first round was really not as precipitous. He was holding steady in the twenties, so a slide to the early second round is not nearly as vast.

Also, since Sam went into a brief seclusion away from family and Pittsburgh, there was no media to really sit with him.

The other reason stems from the team that drafted him. They had the 2nd pick of the draft so that’s where the attention goes. Finally, it is Memphis. A wasteland of a franchise so there just isn’t going to be a lot on a bad team’s second round pick.

(more…)

First this:

Naturally, when Blair started slipping, some Pitt fans ripped his decision to leave school early. Why? Because that’s what fans do. They love you when you play for their favorite team. But if you ever leave early they mock you if the decision doesn’t go as planned.

Happens every year.

It happened this year.

I changed two words in that passage. Instead of “Blair” and “Pitt,” it really reads “Brown” as in Derrick Brown and “Xavier.”

(Derrick Brown was another potential 1st round guy who slipped to #40. His old teammate Stanley Burrell was backing him on Twitter and getting pissed at the negativity. He also got off a mad rant on Sean Miller. Well worth reading the whole post from Gary Parrish.)

Back to DeJuan Blair. It isn’t just some Pitt fans talking about how Blair made a big mistake going pro and as the Liveblog last night brought up the specter of Chris Taft.

In the history of mock draft mockery, Pittsburgh C DeJuan Blair will join former Panther Chris Taft and former N.C. State F Josh Powell on an ignominious list. All three were convinced by Internet speculation that they would be NBA lottery picks. Taft dropped deep into the second round in 2005. Powell wasn’t even picked in 2003. As of Thursday afternoon, NBADraft.net had Blair going No. 13 overall to the Pacers. He went in the second round, at No. 37 to San Antonio. Remember this declaration from Blair at the press conference when he announced for the draft? “I’m an Internet freak and I go on all the draft boards, and nobody’s got me going second round. That’s almost guaranteed to me.” Whom does Blair see to get his money back?

That seems to be the source of a lot of the second-guessing of Blair. His declaration of relying on the mocks. No question, that haunts him in terms of a quote being thrown back in his face.

When you view the mocks in terms of buzz and a player’s status — which is really the way to treat them it is different. Most other mocks have had him slipping and moving for the last couple weeks. While none had him falling out of the 1st round, he was definitely not a lock in the teens.

All because of his knees.

The burly Pitt star was viewed as a lottery pick until teams got wind of his medical exam. Blair underwent ACL surgery on both knees in high school, and many teams said his long-term prognosis was not good.

Though he went undrafted in the first round, his landing site could not have worked out better for Blair. He’ll join the Spurs and help them as a rookie while playing limited minutes, which should set him up for a contract in three years.

Many executives in the league didn’t like seeing Blair fall this far, but there was little they could do to stop it. Most team doctors red-flagged him, which prevented the GMs from taking Blair in the first round.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen as far as doctors unwilling to put their butts on the line,” said a senior executive of an Eastern conference team. “If there’s any kind of gray area, they’re going to flunk the player.”

Because of the sophisticated testing of MRIs and other high-tech devices, team doctors “know things they never used to know,” the executive went on. “They never used to flunk players, and now they flunk them all the time. And a lot of the time it’s to cover their [butts].”

Unlike Chris Taft, which because he was a Pitt guy and has admitted that he watched the mocks today Blair is being compared, Blair did not start falling in the mocks immediately after leaving Pitt.

No revisionism. Taft started sliding when he showed up to workouts and bombed. When his conditioning stunk. When he was acting like he was already getting paid. By draft night he had already fallen from any top-10. For Pitt fans and some scouts, he started sliding before the season ended and he was clearly not giving a full effort. He was still expected to be in the first round, and his deep slide was surprising, but his stock had been falling because of his performance in workouts and attitude — not medical reasons.

Blair killed in the workouts. He aced interviews. He was rising on the draftboards. Teams picking in the 8-12 range were bringing him in for one-on-one interviews. Then came the medical reports on his knees.

Damage control was run, but if team doctors ultimately wouldn’t sign off on the pick, then no team was going to risk a guaranteed contract. It also means that his coming back to Pitt for another year would have made no difference. The knee issues would still be waiting next year or even if he stayed all four years.

(more…)

I’m guessing there are going to be a ton of these tonight. Of course, this will be the only one with Pitt bias at the forefront.

YouTube clips of DeJuan Blair abusing Hasheem Thabeet will be re-posted around the same time Thabeet goes in the top-5.

Video links of Jonny Flynn being worn down by Pitt’s defense will be appreciated as well.

And of course, Sam Young highlights.

The fun starts around 7pm. Join in, here.

Barring anything really breaking that significantly effects the fate of DeJuan Blair or Sam Young, this should be the final post regarding the NBA Draft before tonight’s liveblog.

DeJuan Blair will be at a hotel in Pittsburgh with friends and family for the draft. No doubt with a camera that feeds to ESPN so they can show the reaction when drafted.

Sam Young, on the other hand will be in a cave away from the world. Or something close to that. Hiding in Atlanta.

The reclusive Young flew south on Wednesday from Washington, D.C., where he had been staying with family since leaving Pitt as the No. 4 all-time leading scorer in Panthers history.

The 24-year-old Young wanted to distance himself from the hectic pre-draft process – the workouts, agents, PR reps, handlers and media – and focus on his future in basketball.

“I just want to get away and be by myself,” Young said. “My family wanted to be around me and be in my corner. But I kind of wanted to be alone and reflect on basketball and how it works. It was my decision.”

Young seems placcid and is just patiently awaiting this. DeJuan Blair on the other hand…

“I’m starting to get nervous,” said Blair, a first-team All-American as a sophomore last season. “I’m getting anxious waiting. I just want to know what NBA team I’ll be with.”

It has been an eventful two months for Blair, the Schenley High School graduate who left Pitt in April with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He has demonstrated a commitment to becoming a professional, changing his physique from lumpy to lean.

Blair, who stands 6 feet 6, lost 30 pounds in the past two months and has been impressive in workouts for NBA teams. Scouts and general managers love his competitiveness, his ability to rebound and his leadership qualities.

The main concerns are his two surgically repaired knees. Blair tore anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees while at Schenley, and even though he only missed one game in his two-year collegiate career, there seems to be some question about the long-term durability of those knees. There have been some reports that there might not be any ligaments remaining in the knees.

“I don’t have any ligaments, so what can I tear?” Blair joked. “What I’m saying to the teams is my knees are fine. I feel great. I’ve been playing on them for the last three or four years at Pitt and Schenley.”

Because there are some issues with his knees, Blair can potentially be drafted anywhere from the middle to later in the first round.

It also doesn’t help his nerves to see in the last minute mocks, he keeps slipping into the low 20s — including yet another ESPN mock.

The potential slide is purely about his knees. He’s answered most other questions. There’s really nothing he can do about this. He’s shown medical evidence of no deterioration.

Teams appear legitimately nervous, though, that they are going to blow a pick in the teens on a player that could blow out either knee. Yes, it can happen to any player at any time. Still, it seems more likely to happen to a player with a prior history.

As Luke Winn notes, Blair’s rebounding prowess alone should make him worth the risk.

Blair is as good a defensive rebounder as Love and Beasley, both top-five picks from last year’s loaded draft. Only Millsap, who turned out to be a huge second-round score for the Jazz, came close to Blair’s numbers on the offensive glass — and Millsap was playing in the WAC, not the Big East. Blair may be a bit one-dimensional, as his offensive game away from the basket is extremely limited, but he’s a lock to be a high-volume rebounder as a pro. In this year’s talent pool, that’s more than worth a pick in the 10-15 range.

For Pitt fans, the only reason to keep watching into the second round, is Tyrell Biggs’ longshot.

Tyrell Biggs returned home to Nanuet late Tuesday night, jet-lagged and groggy from yet another day this month spent trekking through an airport.

“I was coming from Portland,” Biggs said before catching himself. “No wait, I was actually in Memphis.”

Forgive Biggs for not remembering for a moment. June has just been that kind of month.

Since graduating from Pitt this spring, the power forward has worked out for six NBA teams, most recently with the Grizzlies on Tuesday, in an attempt to draw last-minute interest before tonight’s NBA draft. And yesterday, Biggs finally found time to relax.

“It’s been tiring and there’s been a lot of training,” said Biggs, who spent time at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., preparing for the workouts. “Overall, it’s been strenuous, but I’m hoping it will all be worth it.”

But Biggs is realistic and perfectly willing to go overseas to play.

For the Pitt program and Coach Jamie Dixon the good thing about this is putting Pit players in the NBA and getting their names called on draft night.

“It’s all positive,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon was saying this week over the telephone from Colorado Springs, Colo., where he’s coaching USA Basketball’s under-19 team and preparing for the world championship tournament July 2-12 in Auckland, New Zealand.

“There are no negatives when your players are going to the NBA. It doesn’t matter if they go as seniors or juniors or sophomores.”

Should be a good night for Pitt.

First things, first. DeJuan Blair is Tweeting. Something to fill the void until his website is fully operational.

I honestly have no idea where Blair will go in the draft. I’m not sure the draftniks do either at this point. He could go to Indiana at #13 as it seemed last week or the Bulls at #16.

Other things suggest he could slide into the 20s, as the latest  SI.com and Draft Express mock drafts have him doing. Which suggests that rumors, reports, potential misinformation and off-the-record things are implying a possible slide as teams just can’t pull the trigger with his knees.

But the rumors and reports keep things jumping (10:35 pm update).

-Sacramento has reportedly offered Detroit the #23 and #31 picks in exchange for the #15. The Kings may target DeJuan Blair at 15 if he’s available, while the Pistons like Toney Douglas and possibly DaJuan Summers.

-Does Atlanta unloading Acie Law for Jamal Crawford change their priorities in this draft? GM Rick Sund has supposedly told people that he will surely target a point guard, possibly Eric Maynor or Jeff Teague (assuming Lawson is gone at 13 or 17), but this might change things for him. Tyler Hansbrough and DeJuan Blair appear to be firmly in the mix here as well.

At least it won’t be a Chris Taft-esque shocking slide.

On the bright side, this sort of thing sets up the team that picks Sam Young with getting designated as grabbing a draft “steal” or “sleeper.”

[Dan] Dakich said his NBA sources have Pittsburgh 6-6 forward Sam Young as the player scouts love but are reticent to take with a top-20 pick.

Two little tidbits from different places that just points out part of why the NBA wanted to eliminate high school kids from the draft. Not simply to improve the product, but to help protect the NBA teams from their own herd mentality of stupidty. The belief that it is better to fail drafting on potential and upside than to grab a guy that can help right away.

Sam Young may be about to pay for being experienced. The Pittsburgh small forward is athletic and aggressive and made noticeable improvements in college, but he’s also 24. As much as teams might appreciate the maturity level, they also want someone with more years to develop and stick, especially if they spend a first-round pick to get him.

And the absurdity of that is that few players last that long, and even when they do they usually end up on some other team that reaps the reward when they finally develop enough to contribute.

Just ask the Lakers about Trevor Ariza — drafted by the Knicks in 2004, then with the Magic who give up on him and send him for practically nothing to the Lakers. Ariza turns 24 at the end of June.

Then teams and the fans complain about the draft busts, because the players aren’t ready in the first year or two. Of course the players that are ready to contribute quickly are downgraded in the draft because they don’t have as much upside and room to grow — because they are already better than the projects.

Just a couple days away from the NBA Draft. I will be doing a liveblog of the NBA Draft. I just haven’t decided which telecast to use. I’m leaning towards going with NBA TV. A little obscure, but on the plus side certain personalities will be out. No Stuart Scott, no Dick Vitale, no Steven A. Smith and while Jay Bilas is a good college basketball analyst I can’t stand him getting preachy about the college experience and his weak-ass defense of the one-and-done rule. It’s sad to think that my choice will come down to who is not on the air.

I still miss the NBA Draft on TNT. There was just more fun to it. Less taking itself way too seriously.

Onto the drafting stuff. Nice piece the other day on Biggs and Fields. Both are going to be undrafted. Both will be in the NBA Summer League. There seems to be some belief that Biggs might end up on a NBA roster in time. Both, though, are going to be earning their living playing basketball in Europe.

DeJuan Blair has become a mystery man in the draft. Not in the way of people trying to know him or get him for workouts. Not at all. He’s been back on request to plenty of teams for more. He is likely headed back to Chicago for a call back.

No one seems to know what team will grab him.

Blair’s final workout was with Utah, and it seems that the Jazz, choosing No. 20, are as low as Blair could go. Walters said Blair is unlikely to go to New York and be in the green room, even though he could land in the lottery. There was talk that Milwaukee, at No. 10, was interested in Blair, but the Bucks seem to have decided to go for a point guard. The first logical landing spot for Blair, then, is Charlotte at No. 12, though the Bobcats are rumored to be looking for a good perimeter defender.

There has been some sentiment in Indiana that Blair should be their guy, especially with the team short on toughness. But the Pacers might go with a guard. Phoenix and Detroit will likely pass on Blair, but the Bulls — still not sold on Tyrus Thomas — are certainly considering him at No. 16.

The knees seem to be the biggest issue. Not the height. Not the weight. The knees.

There is legitimate concern among NBA personnel about the long-term health of DeJuan Blair’s knees. He had ACL surgery in both knees in high school. To what extent he needs any kind of future work on his knees is up for debate. The one thing that is certain, according to the Pitt coaching staff, is that Blair never missed a practice or a game in his two seasons with the Panthers.

No one ever fact checks. Blair missed the Belmont game as a precaution. The knee swelled but there was no pain or damage.

But then Chad Ford writes this in a 3am update from yesterday.

By the way, Blair seems to be back in favor with more GMs. Over the weekend his agent, Happy Walters, had a couple of teams talk to Blair’s physician, James Bradley, who did Blair’s ACL surgeries in high school.

I’m not privy to the conversations, but I do think this latest development has put him back in the mix with the Pacers at No. 13 and the Bulls at 16.

He also floats the rumor that Portland may look to move up to grab him if he slips past Indiana.

Sam Young on the other hand has been steady on draft boards in the low-20s.

Pittsburgh’s Young has been holding steady throughout the workout season after a strong season for the Panthers en route to the Elite Eight. A little older than most college players coming out (24), Young’s hops and strength make him a first-round lock. A no-nonsense player like Young would be right up Jerry Sloan’s alley at 20 when the Jazz pick, and if he somehow slipped a little, the Thunder could be scoping him at 25, where Young would back up Kevin Durant and bring his scoring and athletic ability off the bench.

“He had some huge games for Pitt this year,” says an admiring Northwest Division personnel man. “And he went up after the workout in Toronto and got hurt (Young cut his elbow while he was performing a vertical leap test for the Raptors), and he showed up at the [Chicago] combine and worked out hard. He went up in a lot of people’s eyes.”

An Atlantic Division executive concurs: “He’s a tough sonofagun.”

The Cavs keep popping up as a team that might try to get Sam Young, even if they are scheduled to pick last in the round.

Which brings us to Sam Young, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound small forward from Pittsburgh. Some scouts have compared him to Twinsburg’s James Posey, but his outside shooting (37 percent on 3s) will have to improve for that to happen. But virtually every scout agrees that Young can defend. As the Orlando series showed, the Cavs really need an athlete in the 6-6 range who can guard someone. Some stats have Young shooting 44 percent on “catch-and-shoot” situations, according to draftexpress.com, a fun Web site. That means Young makes medium-range jumpers reasonably well when catching a pass and shooting it quickly. The Cavs do like him.

Apparently Young, while in Sac-town with other players for a workout was most noticeable for snickering at media for the way they hung outside the Kings practice facility  for every little Ricky Rubio tidbit. Not that the media was feeling defensive.

Now the on-floor action wasn’t the only relevant part, as Rubio spent more than two hours inside the facility after the workout was over. We were told he was having lunch at one point (not sure who was at the table), and then informed that he was taking a shower. At one point, some of the prospects from the morning’s workout with Pitt’s Sam Young left the building to head for the airport and couldn’t help but chuckle at the media absurdity on display (again, the shame thing). Yet with all due respect to Sam – who has a great name and could be a great pick at No. 23 – he’s just not the guy fans are curious about right now.

And the media will do what it takes to shout random questions at the 18-year old as he ignores them walking past.