Something I've Never Seen Before

Heckuva game between Texas and Oklahoma tonight. Blake Griffin being knocked out of the game early with an apparent concussion was undoubtedly the key to the Longhorns' win, but it was fun to watch freshman Willie Warren step up in his place and go toe-to-toe down the stretch with Texas' A.J. Abrams. (Though as individual performances from Saturday go, both Warren and Abrams were outdone by Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, who put up 35/11/10 in Maryland's stunning overtime win over North Carolina.)

So, anyway, the thing I've never seen before. Warren is having a fantastic season; along with Memphis' Tyreke Evans, he's one of the favorites for national freshman of the year honors. But he's received some deserved criticism from those who think he, to put it politely, is a bit impetuous with his shot selection. To put it impolitely, he's a chucker.

With his Sooners up two and about five-and-a-half minutes remaining, Warren committed a turnover and appeared to injure his ankle (it turned out to be a leg cramp). Texas rushed upcourt and missed a layup while Warren hobbled around, never crossing midcourt. Oklahoma now having numbers, the Sooners embarked on a break of their own, and Warren, still around the three-point line, called for the ball, caught it and went up for a deep three, almost in the same motion. This was pure heat check, and as the ball dropped through the net for his sixth three-pointer and 25th, 26th, and 27th points of the night, Warren landed on his non-injured leg while signaling for a timeout so he could get treatment.

You gotta love his confidence and his fight, but there's gotta be a better shot available than a deep three from a guy with a bum wheel.

Pittsburgh 76, Connecticut 68

A whole month without posts in the middle of the season? Inexcusable, though I'll try: law school and my NBA blog are taking up most of my time. I'll try to do better down the stretch. And what better way to get back into it than a matchup of top-five teams battling for Big East supremacy?

The big story from this one lay in the stat lines from Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair and Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet: 22 points and 23 rebounds for the former; five points and four rebounds for the latter. Complete domination of the matchup from start to finish, starting with Blair flipping Thabeet onto his back, professional wrestling style, early in the game (highlights here).

I'm not willing to go as far as to say that that play set the tone for the evening, but it certainly summed up the matchup between this two well-regarded big men. Blair was tougher and stronger (and better) than Thabeet all night, capping the evening with a game-sealing block of Thabeet - a "stuff," really, with Blair essentially ripping the ball out of Thabeet's hands.

The ESPN highlight reel linked above focuses almost exclusively on the Blair-Thabeet matchup, and if you watch it, you'll see a diverse offensive arsenal from Blair that I frankly didn't know he had. Jump hook, turnaround jumper, lefty layin after a drop step. Even the one time Thabeet got the best of him, blocking an ill-advised fadeaway, Blair retrieved the ball and went right at Thabeet, driving into the land before stepping through for lefty layup. And the foul.

Another thing I hadn't seen before from Blair was his outlet passing. He threw at least three terrific outlet passes last night, including the one at the end of the highlight that followed his block of Thabeet.

Finally, I was very impressed by his conditioning. He's 6'7", 265, which is a lot of DeJuan Blair to be carrying up and down the court for 38 minutes. But that's how many minutes he did play, a game high, and he wasn't exactly just going through the motions out there. These were 38 minutes of rebounding and jumping and battling for position; 38 minutes of work. Blair is short for his position, which means he has to rely more on strength than a taller man would. Blair exerted himself for nearly the whole game, and was still fresh enough to register that block on Thabeet in the closing minute.

As for Thabeet, he seems like a consensus lottery pick, and while it's hard to quibble with his height and weakside shot-blocking ability, particularly in what should be a relatively shallow draft, I'm just not sure. I've now twice watched him be completely neutralized and outplayed by an opposing big man (December vs. Greg Monroe and Georgetown is the other), and while he had a respectable nine points and 11 rebounds against Notre Dame, it's worth noting that Luke Harangody had 24 and 15 for the Irish.

It just seems like every time Thabeet goes up against somebody halfway decent, he gets shown up. Sure, he can put up 25 and 20 with nine blocks against Seton Hall like he did the other day, but so what? The competiton in the pros is going to be tougher than it is now.

As far as Connecticut goes generally, losing Jerome Dyson for the year with a knee injury obviously hurts their depth, but anything that gives freshman Kemba Walker more court time can't be all bad. I really like this kid. Lightning-quick, good passer, plays within himself. With Walker, A.J. Price, and Craig Austrie, the Huskies should get plenty of production from their backcourt.

As for Pittsburgh: I'm impressed. Sam Young's a lot better than I thought he was, and I've grudgingly come to accept that if Levance Fields is not an elite point guard, he is the kind of point guard you can win a championship with. Takes care of the ball and steps up when it matters (witness the two threes he hit down the stretch last night -- his first two made field goals of the game.) I also think that the Panthers are better defensively than they have been in recent years. Pitt, of course, had a strong defensive reputation under Ben Howland, and when Howland left for UCLA and his assistant Jamie Dixon took over, that reputation carried over. But it seemed like Pitt's defense had actually gotten worse each of the past several years, as though the emphasis on defense decreased the more time elapsed between Howland and the program. They seem better on that end this year. Maybe that will translate to some March success.