FanHouse SamYoung

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.

* 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.

DAYTON, Ohio -- DeJuan Blair's arms are so humongous, he wears bicep bands, tiny strips of cloth stretched to the brink of snapping. At 6-foot-7 and 265 pounds, he could play tight end in the NFL or enter the Octagon, proving it Sunday when he shook off a furious collision that left Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton literally crying in pain on the bench. Levance Fields, too, could put on the big pads as a safety, absorbing a blindside pop in the chops and bouncing right back up. Sam Young? A 6-6, 220-pound wideout, no doubt, when he isn't listening to Go-Go music.

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DAYTON, Ohio -- DeJuan Blair's arms are so humongous, he wears bicep bands, tiny strips of cloth stretched to the brink of snapping. At 6-foot-7 and 265 pounds, he could play tight end in the NFL or enter the Octagon, proving it Sunday when he shook off a furious collision that left Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton literally crying in pain on the bench. Levance Fields, too, could put on the big pads as a safety, absorbing a blindside pop in the chops and bouncing right back up. Sam Young? A 6-6, 220-pound wideout, no doubt, when he isn't listening to Go-Go music.

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Jamie Dixon has done a good job with his Pittsburgh team this year. They lost starting guard Mike Cook for the season with a knee injury to sour a win over Duke and then, the next time out, Levance Fields broke his foot in a blowout loss to Dayton. Losing your starting backcourt would kill a lot of teams but Dixon reshaped his team to its new reality. He relied on Sam Young for scoring and DeJuan Blair for interior toughness and got surprisingly strong play from senior guard Ronald Ramon at the point.

It's worked pretty well. The Panthers have gone 8-4 since losing Fields, including a lights-out performance against Providence on Tuesday night. Now, in advance of a crucial stretch run, Dixon gets his point guard back to lead them. Fields is expected to play against Marquette on Friday and, logically, at Notre Dame next week in two games that will have a lot of say in who gets a bye in the first round of the Big East tournament.

Frankly, I like Pitt's chances. With Fields healthy, Ramon and his 42% three-point touch will move to shooting guard. That gives Pitt more flexibility and balance on offense to go with their always strong defense. That's the team that handed Duke their only loss of the season and a team that should close the season with a flourish.