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.
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.
FanHouse was fortunate enough (thanks to the kind folks at EA Sports) to talk with likely No. 1 overall 2009 NBA Draft pick -- and current cover superstar for EA's NCAA Basketball 10 -- Blake Griffin. That's right, as of Tuesday, it was announced that Griffin would grace the cover of everyone's favorite college basketball game.
We talked to Blake about the upcoming draft, what it's like to be on the cover, the fear of being thrown into a losing culture like that of the Clippers, what kind of suit he'll be wearing on draft night, and, of course, his favorite video game of all time. The full interview is after the jump.
Tyler Hansbrough is the quintessential college basketball player. He was completely dominant at Carolina -- despite what often appeared to be a heightened sense of clumsiness and boarish (typo intended for effect!) behavior -- en route to becoming one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.
Now he's headed into the NBA draft, having seen his stock drop relatively far from two years ago, and most people will tell you that Hansbrough will not perform at a level in the NBA that even remotely rivals that of his performance as a Tar Heel. Of course, Tyler won't tell you that. And, obviously, it's the bloggers' fault that he's not being given enough credit before the draft. Doy.
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.
* More from The Baseline, this time reported by the incomparable Chris Littmann: one team exec who interviewed Stephen Curry at the Chicago combine asked the guard who his father was.
The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.
In Episode 24, Will and Ryan welcome FanHouse's Tom Ziller to talk NBA. The draft lottery offers a temporary respite from the playoffs, and Tom discusses the potential implications for his hometown Sacramento Kings.
The conversation also touches on David Stern, draft lottery conspirator, before continuing with the Malcolm Gladwell HausCast theme. On Monday, we talked to MDS about Gladwell's suggestion that the nothing-to-lose Detroit Lions should have run the no-huddle offense with more frequency since, you know, they had nothing to lose.
Today, Tom responds to some of the proposals born out of the 9,000-word Bill Simmons-Gladwell e-mail exchange, specifically: the merits of the full-on, full-court press, and if the reverse draft order idea makes sense.
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.
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.
So Blake Griffin is ready to make the jump now. The whole thing is nicely wrapped up with a bow for David Stern and Myles Brand, who should be high-fiving, lighting up victory cigars.
The Naismith Award winner, the nation's best college basketball player, is more mature for having stayed at Oklahoma for his sophomore year. He probably worked some education in somewhere, too. So yes, this worked out perfectly for him to jump to the NBA now.
So Blake Griffin is ready to make the jump now. The whole thing is nicely wrapped up with a bow for David Stern and Myles Brand, who should be high-fiving, lighting up victory cigars.
The Naismith Award winner, the nation's best college basketball player, is more mature for having stayed at Oklahoma for his sophomore year. He probably worked some education in somewhere, too. So yes, this worked out perfectly for him to jump to the NBA now.
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.
FanHouse was fortunate enough (thanks to the kind folks at EA Sports) to talk with likely No. 1 overall 2009 
Tyler Hansbrough
DraftExpress has added the 
* DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony reports Dallas loves Jordan Hill and 
The 
Now that the 
FanHouse covers the 
