FanHouse DejuanBlair

DeJuan Blair was one of the toughest players in the NCAA this year. He broke all sort of unofficial rebounding marks, manhandled No. 2 pick Hasheem Thabeet in front of the entire NBA, and gave some of the best interviews you've ever seen. His wingspan measured well in Chicago, and he dropped a ton of weight between the end of Pitt's season and the combine. He's an absolute beast.

But a bad MRI has been going around, and Blair -- who was considered a potential lottery pick this morning -- fell all the way out of the first round. And he kept falling. Past Portland for a third time, past Washington, past Memphis, past Detroit ... all the way to the Spurs at No. 37. It's the vogue thing to say Blair will now proceed to destroy the NBA. But it's also the accurate thing to say. Blair will now proceed to destroy the NBA.

Let me never doubt Kevin Pritchard's slapping skills, but Portland really tossed a curve into their leapfrog gambit by selecting fairly underhyped Spanish forward Victor Claver with the No. 22 pick. Claver has made it clear he won't be in the NBA for at least one more year, perhaps two. And there had been talk his agent had been pushing to be made a second-round pick, where the rookie salary scale doesn't apply.

But the Blazers seem to know Western Europe pretty well, so I'll trust their judgment. Pitt stud DeJuan Blair and Israeli dynamo Omri Casspi were both there for the taking at with Portland's pick; Casspi went one pick later to Sacramento, who Portland leapfrogged a day earlier. Portland had given Dallas two second round picks to exchange the Blazers' No. 24 pick for the Mavericks' No. 22. Dallas ended up taking B.J. Mullens (another lottery projected player) with No. 24.

Mock drafts are fun, but if you want the real inside scoop on who's expected to be a high draft pick, you need to see the list of the players the NBA has invited to the draft. Generally speaking, it's limited to players the league has been assured will go in the top half of the first round.

There are always exceptions, but ever since Rashard Lewis awkwardly hung around until the second round, the league has done a respectable job making sure no one gets too embarrassed. The league hasn't yet released an official list, but thanks to some sleuthing by DraftExpress, we know at least 16 players have been extended invitations, although only 13 have confirmed their attendance. Keep reading for the full list:

As with Ricky Rubio, FanHouse's Matt Moore and Tom Ziller debate the merits of spending a preciously high draft pick on Tanzanian center Hasheem Thabeet. The 7'3 tower has been rumored anywhere from No. 2 (Memphis) to No. 6 (Minnesota) in next week's 2009 NBA Draft. Enjoy.

Moore: It wasn't necessarily that I didn't like the offensive moves that Thabeet displayed this season. It's that he didn't display any. Hasheem Thabeet has a great Twitter account, terrific length, and an offensive ceiling that makes Anderson Varejao look dynamic.

In a lot of ways I should be banging the gong for Thabeet. All potential, no refinement. All athleticism, no fundamentals. That's usually my bag, baby. But the kid's not a super freak in terms of bulk, he's just long. He's the spacebar on the keyboard, only not as necessary. Longer than everything else, but in the end, it's just a space.

DraftExpress has added the official athletic measurements from the 2009 NBA Draft Combine to its comprehensive (and addictive) database. In addition to the size measurements that came out last week -- height with and without shoes, wingspan, standing reach -- the results include 3/4-court sprint times, body fat percentages, bench press, agility numbers and everyone's favorite, the vertical.

Despite claiming to have lost 40 pounds since the end of the college season, DeJuan Blair still has the second-highest body fat count (12%) among those measured. Florida State's Toney Douglas, Patrick Mills of St. Mary's and UCLA's Darren Collison rate as the fastest first-round prospects. (Austin Daye would be the slowest. Yes, even B.J. Mullens and Blair beat him.) Jonny Flynn is the only cat to break the 40-inch mark on the max vertical. DeMar DeRozan is almost five inches behind Vince Carter. The real shocker might be the incredible similarity in numbers between top pick Blake Griffin and ... Tyler Hansbrough. Guh.

* At the Chicago combine, players submit to interviews by team personnel. Lots of interviews. On Thursday, Chase Budinger was asked if he has any "friends with benefits" and Ty Lawson learned about an uncle he didn't know he had. The Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick has those stories and more.

* Amick also passes along the new sentiment that Oklahoma City wants USC prospect DeMar DeRozan at No. 3, leaving Ricky Rubio to the Kings at No. 4.

* According to DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony, James Harden canceled interviews with teams outside the top five picks. He will reportedly not work out for the Wolves, who pick No. 6, because Harden's crew believes he will land in OKC at No. 3 or Washington at No. 5. In other news, someone in Harden's crew is a lunatic in thinking it's impossible for the kid to fall to Minnesota or further.

Now that the 2009 NBA Draft order is set, it's time for the second FanHouse Mock Draft of the season.

The Clippers have won the first pick, with Memphis and Oklahoma City rounding out the top three spots. Several teams, including Minnesota, Sacramento and Chicago, have multiple picks in the first round.

After the jump, find the full first round mocked out. Then, feel free to mock it. That's how this works.

---

---

During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.

Hasheem Thabeet -- Few elite prospects have been dealt specific indictments such as Thabeet's offense saw Saturday in UConn's win over Missouri. Despite his tremendous size advantage, Thabeet only managed to get off four shots against the Tiger defense, scoring five points. He further registered no blocked shots (and that's his top offering to the pros!) and earned 13 good rebounds, seven on the defensive glass. I'm not sure at this point that it's like Thabeet is more talented in NBA terms than Samuel Dalembert. (That's not a compliment.)

BOSTON -- If you felt a shiver or tingle Saturday night, a quaking in your solar plexus, it's because you witnessed an epic basketball game, one of the virtuoso classics of March or any month. I mean, did Bill Raftery need oxygen afterward? This was destined to finish with the boldest, loudest exclamation point possible, given the 15 lead changes, palpable tension and Big East-style physicality in the building.

It was just a matter of who, what and when.

And then, in a magnificent flash, it happened. That the moment would belong to Scottie Reynolds, the embattled Villanova guard, made it grander. In enemy gyms, jerky kids with no lives actually chant, "Scottie doesn't know," which might be intended as a Euro Trip reference but almost certainly is meant as a savage reference to how Reynolds was put up for adoption as a baby by an 18-year-old single mother. He never has met the woman, although, with the urging of his adoptive parents, he has done investigative work and figured out who she is. He's waiting for a good time to call her.

Update: Blair is wearing the bands during the Panthers' Elite Eight game against Villanova. The earlier report from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said the bands would be banned if there wasn't a medical reason for their use. So we can only assume Blair has some ailment solved by the medical treatment of looking like a bad ass.

In the first half of Pitt's win over Xavier, DeJuan Blair had been held to only two points and four rebounds in the first half. When Pitt came out for the second half against Xavier, Blair was lacking the bands that he has had around each bicep all year long. Blair subsequently had a big second half, grabbing 13 more rebounds and adding eight more points, meaning yet another double-double.

He did not shed the arm bands to change his luck, though. The NCAA made him shed them.