FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Pitt's Sam Young can produce points in a variety of ways.
AP

NEWARK, N.J. -- Three things we learned from No. 4 Pitt's 57-43 win over Washington State in Saturday's Legends Classic final ...

1. There's a new signature move in college hoops. Joining the Hansbrough Shot-put, the 'Gody Jab, the Steph Curry Rainbow, and the Blake Griffin Spin ... is the Sam Young Pump-fake. As Pitt's best all-around player, and the guy who's been carrying the Panthers while the chunky duo of Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair get into shape, Young has been killing opposing defenders with his pump-fake on the perimeter, then taking long strides to the rim for dunks and trips to the foul line. "We told our guys, 'Stay down. Stay down!' He's got a world-class ball-fake," Washington State coach Tony Bennett said of Young, who went for 12 first-half points (finishing with 15) on Saturday to lead Pitt in scoring. Bennett's warnings didn't actually work, as Cougars were running by Young for much of the evening.

Young loves how much players bite on the fake -- "I tell guys, I've got the best pump fake in the business," he said -- but it isn't a move he's used his whole life. He pump-faked sparingly in high school, he said, and then "did it a couple of times by accident when I was freshman [at Pitt]. I was about to really shoot it, and I didn't, and guys just flew out of the picture, and I had a clean lane to the basket. So I started doing it on purpose."

The move wouldn't work if Young weren't a legitimate three-point threat. Pitt's biggest weakness is its perimeter shooting, and Young is one of its few players who must be guarded out there: He was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc on Saturday, while the rest of the Panthers were 1-of-9. "I shoot it sometimes," he admits, "just so I can set up [the fake]."

2. Pitt can't afford to let post-trapping teams take DeJuan Blair out of games. The double-teams in Wazzu's Pack-Line Defense are well-known for frustrating big men -- see what happened to Notre Dame's Luke Harangody in the second round of the last NCAA tournament
-- but how can't you get Blair, who came into the game averaging 17.0 points, more than one shot attempt in the first half? With about 6:40 left in the first half, a Pitt fan stood up and yelled at Fields, "Hey Fields! Put the ball in the paint! Give it to the big man!"

It didn't get much better in the second half: Blair had just one field-goal attempt then, too, as the Cougars continued to collapse on him in the blocks. He found other ways to contribute, grabbing seven-half rebounds (to finish with 10), blocking three shots, and setting high ball-screens to let Fields get in the lane, but still, Pitt needs more than seven points out of Blair to compete with elite teams. The Panthers survived, on Saturday, by getting decent nights out of Young and Fields, and holding the Cougars to just 24.1 percent shooting in the second half. Against a better opponent -- particularly one that could create more of its own offense off of penetration, and had a decent perimeter defender to counter Young -- the result might not have been the same.

3. The next Stephen Curry-esque story might be at Washington State. Sweet-shooting 6-foot-6 guard Klay Thompson, the son of 1978 No. 1 NBA draft pick Mychal Thompson, starred at Santa Margarita High School outside of Los Angeles and desperately wanted to play in the Pac-10. Mychal told Scout.com last April that "USC was [Klay's] top choice. I practically begged coach [Tim] Floyd to recruit him. He wouldn't." That's when, Mychal said, "Tony jumped into the void."

Tony is Tony Bennett, who turned out to be the only Pac-10 coach to offer Klay a scholarship. Thompson wasn't regarded as a major prospect until his senior year, when he went from being unranked in Rivals.com's 150 to No. 52; by then Bennett had already won a battle with Notre Dame, Michigan and Nevada for Thompson's services. It makes sense that Mike Brey and John Beilein, two coaches whose offenses rely heavily on the three, were chasing Thompson: He has both extensive range and the ability to shoot over most guards.

Thompson, the Cougs' only underclassman starter, was averaging 13.6 points and 5.8 rebounds coming into Saturday's game, including a 19-point and 10-rebound effort againt Mississippi State in the Legends Classic semifinal. He started strong against Pitt, connecting on three of Wazzu's first four baskets, but Panther guard Jermaine Dixon, an underrated on-ball defender, dogged Thompson for the rest of the contest and held him to just seven total points. "They got real physical and tagged [Thompson]," Bennett said. "He didn't get many clean looks [after the hot start], and that's all part of learning."

One suspects Thompson has some major scoring nights ahead of him. USC might want to stay on notice. There's a chance the kid is ticked that his scholarship went to Lil Romeo.