FanHouse Sam Young

LAS VEGAS -- Before his first NBA game, Memphis center Hasheem Thabeet wanted a modest haircut before hitting the floor at Cox Pavilion. The result was a rather disturbing looking Fro-Hawk and Thabeet was relegated to playing with the landing-strip hairstyle during the Grizzlies' 86-57 win over Oklahoma City.

Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 center, finished with nine points and two rebounds in 20 minutes. He made three of four shots and picked up a blocked shot and steal.

"Today, after I got my ankle taped, the barber was there and I was like 'Can I get a cut too?' and I just wanted a little trim and I got up, went to look at myself in the mirror and I had this," he said. "I didn't have time to go get it fixed. So I had to come [play], so I guess it's a rookie thing. I am OK. I will go get it fixed."

In our first true shock of the draft, Indiana picked UNC senior forward Tyler Hansbrough, the most hard-working athlete in the history of hard-working athlete.

Yes, Indiana, home of Troy Murphy, Jeff Foster, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and one of the more questionably race-tinged marketing campaigns in memory.

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski had reported minutes before Indiana's pick was announced that the team would be grabbing a different senior, Sam Young of Pitt. Instead, Young might drop to the 20s. Where everyone expected Hansbrough to land.

The day of reckoning has arrived for some 90 or so prospects hoping to be an NBA Draft pick. The day of reckoning has also arrived for some 9,000 mock drafters, who desperately try to get it right even though no one ever could on a consistent basis.

And, if I may, a word about the recent backlash against mock drafts from the key mock draft writers. The major draft experts from ESPN and DraftExpress told the New York Times last week that they hate mock drafts. But the mock draft is like their version of a test. It's too arbitrary, too black and white. It creates an impossible task. But thems the breaks when you're in a field in which performance matters. If Chad Ford didn't have to put out a mock, he could forever avoid criticism, basically. It's his job to analyze and predict the draft. How could we judge his efficacy without looking at his mock the morning after? It's like Amar'e Stoudemire telling everyone he hates to rebound. (Oh wait ...)

I love mock drafts! You'll find my final version after the jump.

The Minnesota Timberwolves might not have had the best regular season in 2008-09, but they're sure going to be a factor come the NBA Draft on Thursday.

New president of basketball operations David Kahn has five picks to use, including three in the first round. Minnesota has the Nos. 6, 18, and 28 picks in Round 1, and two more in the second round.

Will Kahn use all of those picks to drastically remake the T-Wolves' roster, or might he package a couple of picks or three in order to land a veteran difference-maker? More on the Northwest Division after the jump.

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We have less than 10 days to go before the 2009 NBA Draft. That means now is the time for all teams and agents to blow as much smoke as possible. Got an iffy first-round prospect on your client list? Pull out of a workout, starting rumors of a promise! Worried about falling to a team with a bad situation? Ankle tweak! Concerned one of the worst general managers of our time is attempting to fleece you? "My, that Swedish power forward is looking pretty good ... maybe we'll just take him."

Of course, the greatest thing about the NBA draft is that there actually is a Swedish power forward this year, lost JoBro Jonas Jerebko. Searching for YouTube videos and scouting reports on improbably bred players you have never heard of is a time-honored tradition. (Miss you, Petteri Koponen!) We know the names who will fill the top end, but do we know where they'll end up? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

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OAKLAND -- A two-day, multi-team draft workout at the Golden State Warriors' practice facility in downtown Oakland got underway on Monday afternoon, with 21 NBA teams represented and 24 potential pro prospects in attendance.

The media wasn't allowed into the gym to see the workouts, and the NBA executives weren't made available for comment. But that didn't mean there wasn't a little buzz created.

* 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.

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.

Pitt forward Sam Young, he of the pump-fake that would make defensive coaching stalwart Henry Iba bite from his grave, added a little bit of flourish to the Panthers' historic win Thursday night.

He flipped. Backwards.

The Panther senior had promised to do a backflip if he could lead Pitt into the Sweet 16, but after his 32-point hero turn against Oklahoma State, Young was ushered to interviewers who were interested in things other than gymnastics.

So after the Panthers dropped Xavier Thursday night, Young made good on his promise.

Photographic evidence after the jump.