Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
DeMar DeRozan is a bright, young rookie selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors, and even though he can shoot, pass and defend with the best of them, he is missing something: a cool nickname. In this FanHouse exclusive, DeMar tells us how you can help him out.
Will the last person please turn out the lights at the Galen Center.
USC headed into April as a likely preseason Top 25 team with a strong core coming back and a talented recruiting class coming in. The Trojans enter June with most of the core gone and that recruiting class dwindling. Oh, and a coach that appears to be hanging by a thread while the NCAA circles closer and closer.
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 Hardencanceled 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.
The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.
The NBA draft's early entries have one month to return to school (June 15), but it doesn't appear any of the Pac-10 entries are coming back. Six underclassmen -- USC's DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson, UCLA's Jrue Holiday, the Arizona duo of Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger and Arizona State's James Harden -- will participate in the draft combine beginning May 28 in Chicago, and none are likely to return to their schools. Even Holiday, a projected late first-rounder, is reportedly close to hiring an agent and remaining in the draft.
All mock drafts are not created equal. And why would you want them to be? That'd be awful boring, just reading lists of names over and over. At FanHouse, we emphasize the commentary -- so in our mocks we'll (try to) explain why we think certain players fit in their theoretical slots. We will also project our own biases (positive and negative), of course.
At this early stage -- and let's be honest, at every stage -- this is 5% homework, 5% supreme divination, 90% guesswork. (A great endorsement, no?) After the jump, a full first-round mock draft for your amusement bemusement.
The proverbial bubble has been burst for someone (Maryland, perhaps?) by Tim Floyd's squad. Just three days ago, USC had no chance to get an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. That doesn't matter anymore. In dramatic come-from-behind fashion, the Trojans have won the Pac-10 Tournament, and will receive the automatic bid for the conference.
Arizona State will be headed to the NCAA tourney, regardless, so the game meant a lot more to the Trojans, and it showed down the stretch. Outplayed for most of the game, USC just would not be denied.
To say that the University of Southern California's basketball season was a disappointment is akin to say that you might see a few Masters commercials during March Madness. Which is to say one of your all-time understatements.
The Trojans started the season with lofty expectations, with thoughts of possibly challenging UCLA for conference supremacy. Instead, there were shots to the groin, talk of potential program killing violations and a coach that often behaved like Billy Mays in a wind tunnel. Only Tim Floyd wasn't quite as composed.
But the Ides of March has a way of cleansing sins and bad losses. And the Trojans are back in the NCAA hunt. Something that should concern the bubble teams.
On a night when the University of Arizona honored famed coach Lute Olson during halftime, something became very clear as the ceremonial speeches ended and the basketball began. If the Wildcats want to continue their NCAA streak of 25 consecutive tournament appearances, they would need more than an uplifting video (it got dusty in my apartment) and the memory of a coach that has been through a lot the last two years. The Wildcats need a W.
It wasn't happening, as Jerome Randle absolutely murdered the 'Cats in the second half, helping California (22-8, 11-6) improve to third in the Pac-10 with the 83-77 win and put the Wildcats in another uncomfortable position similar to last season -- leaving their March Madness dreams up to chance.
Here's Demar DeRozan, a senior at Compton High School, winning the McDonald's All-American high school dunk contest:
DeRozan, who has committed to play at USC next season, was praised by none other than Julius Erving, one of the dunk contest's judges. On his last two dunks he got perfect scores, and as for his last one, where he bounced the ball off the ground and backboard and slapped the board with one hand as he dunked with the other, he said this:
"I call that 'tap the baby,' DeRozan said, perhaps in honor of Erving's famed "rock the baby" dunk of years gone by. "You tap the backboard soft, like you're tapping a baby."
DeRozan beat Scotty Hopson of Hopkinsville, Ky., and Elliot Williams of Memphis, Tenn. Two girls had originally been slated to compete against the boys in the dunk contest, but both pulled out for unspecified reasons.
DeMar DeRozan is a bright, young rookie selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors, and even though he can shoot, pass and defend with the best of them, he is missing something: a cool nickname. In this FanHouse exclusive, DeMar tells us how you can help him out. 
Will the last person please turn out the lights at the Galen Center.
DraftExpress has added the 
* 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 
The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.
FanHouse covers the 
The proverbial bubble has been burst for someone (Maryland, perhaps?) by 
To say that the University of Southern California's basketball season was a disappointment is akin to say that you might see a few Masters commercials during March Madness. Which is to say one of your all-time understatements. 
On a night when the University of Arizona honored famed coach 
