NEW YORK -- When DeJuan Blair daydreams about hitting a last-second shot to win a national title for Pittsburgh, he envisions it happening in a way that only he could. "I can see it on SportsCenter," Blair says. "Levance" -- Fields, the point guard who's hit so many clutch shots in Panthers lore -- "finally misses one, and I'm right there, under the hoop, getting the offensive board and putting it back up. That would be off the hook."
As strange as it might seem for a player to dream about such a non-glamorous task as offensive rebounding, this scenario could very well play out in Detroit. Pitt, which opens play in the Big East tournament on Thursday, should be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in large part because the 6-foot-7, 265-pound Blair has been the most dominant major-conference offensive rebounder of not just this season, but the past eight seasons. And we only say eight because that's how far back DraftExpress' pace-adjusted, per-40-minutes offensive rebounding stats go. The chart below -- listing the top 10 offensive rebounders since 2001-02 (with a minimum of 20 minutes played/game) -- shows just how much separation there is between Blair and the rest of the college hoops universe:
Rk. Player Team Yr. OR/40 (Pace Adj.) 1. DeJuan Blair Pitt 08-09 8.4 2. K. Gransberry USF 06-07 6.6 3. Chris Massie Memphis 01-02 6.6 4. Joey Dorsey Memphis 06-07 6.5 5. Ivan Kartelo Purdue 03-04 6.3 6. DeJuan Blair Pitt 07-08 6.1 6. James Thomas Texas 02-03 6.1 8. Justin Davis Stanford 02-03 5.8 9. Justin Davis Stanford 03-04 5.8 10. Kevin Young Missouri 05-06 5.7 10. P.J. Tucker Texas 03-04 5.7
No player in '08-09 is even in the vicinity of Blair in rebounds/40 minutes (once again, adjusted for pace):
Rk. Player Team OR/40 (Pace Adj.) 1. DeJuan Blair Pitt 8.4 2. Murphy Holloway Ole Miss 5.4 3. Jon Brockman Wash. 5.3 4. JaMychal Green Alabama 5.3 5. Chinemelu Elonu Texas A&M 5.1
If we switch over to the Basketball Prospectus and kenpom.com-favored stat of Offensive Rebounding percentage, we see that Blair is grabbing a superhuman 24.2 percent of Pitt misses, also tops in the nation. (BP recently made the mind-boggling observation that Blair is also outrebounding seven D-I teams on the offensive glass.)
Rk. Player Team OR% 1. DeJuan Blair Pitt 24.2 2. Tracy Smith NC State 17.0 3. Jon Brockman Wash. 16.6 4. JaMychal Green Alabama 15.8 5. Murphy Holloway Ole Miss 15.3
No more numbers are necessary to make the point: Blair kills on the offensive glass, so much so that he's the most important offensive player in the country this year, and one of the biggest statistical outliers of the decade. What the numbers cannot reveal, though, is how exactly Blair does what he does. What are the secrets of Pitt's perpetually grinning, bicep-band-wearing warrior? I talked to a few trusted sources -- inside and outside the Pitt program -- to get the answers.
1. It's the "Suction Cups"
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The advantages Blair gains with his wingspan (which is 7-2) and his posterior (which is quite large) have been well-chronicled, but his hands may be what truly set him apart. Think about it: How many times, if ever, have you seen a board in Blair's orbit bounce off of his hands rather than be reeled in?
UConn assistant George Blaney's scouting report on Blair said that "he has the best pair of hands I've seen in 40 years of coaching." Fellow Huskies assistant Patrick Sellers, who has mentored Blair's rival, Hasheem Thabeet, said that Blair reminds him of Zach Randolph, of whom Knicks announcer Mike Breen used to say, "he has magnet hands." Blair, Sellers said, "has suction-cup hands."
The strength of Blair's suction cups isn't just something to be seen. It can also be heard. Fields told me that "the noise of DeJuan grabbing a rebound is crazy." Blair has even wowed himself with this, saying, "When I pull it in sometimes, it sounds like the ball pops."
2. Anticipating Position
Ever notice how Blair always seems to be in perfect weakside position to pull down Pitt misses? This is no fluke. Panthers assistant coach Tom Herrion said that a vastly underrated reason for Blair's success is the quality of Pitt's first-shot offense. "Because we execute so well," Herrion said, "DeJuan has an understanding of where shots are going to show, especially when he's not taking them, and that lets him get in good position and work the right angles." So, for example, when a play is being run for Sam Young to get a wide-open three from the right corner, Blair has usually moved to the left block before the defense even knows what's happening.
3. Staying Home
Blair, perhaps more than any other marquee big man, stays in and around the lane. Whereas UConn's Hasheem Thabeet and North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough can frequently be found setting bruising screens on the perimeter and slipping free to the basket, Blair's job mostly calls for him to set an early ball screen (for Fields) while he's running down the floor, and then camp out in the paint after that. Pitt then attempts to free Blair up for post touches by setting across-the-lane screens, off of which he can receive the ball at close range to the basket, lower his shoulder, and drop it in for two points. Rarely does he roam outside the lane to receive passes, and this keeps him in prime position to clean up others' misses.
4. Acting "like the basketball is money"
A great offensive rebounder must want the ball more than anyone else on the floor, and as Notre Dame assistant Sean Kearney says of Blair, "When he sees a shot go off the rim, it's almost like a shark smelling blood in the water."
It's a desire that must be unending as well. Sellers put it this way: "Just to get the six or seven [offensive rebounds] Blair gets to lead the country, he has to go to the glass 40 or 50 times a game. So it's not just the hands or the body, it's the heart; he has that will to say, 'I'm going to keep going and going.'"
Take Pitt's first win over UConn, on Feb. 16 in Hartford, as an example: Pitt took 65 field-goal attempts. Ten were makes by Blair. He likely chased after 50 misses. Plenty of them bounced so far out of his reach that they were impossible to corral. Ten fell into the hands of his teammates. Six were reeled in by Blair. Six is a huge number of offensive boards per game, enough to lead the country. And in order to get those he only succeeded at a 12 percent rate on that night.
I asked Blair how he manages to be so relentless, when the task at hand can often seem so futile. And this is what he said: "I love money, so I act like the basketball is money when I'm rebounding. I pretend that every rebound is a million dollars. And I'm going to go out and get my millions."
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Comments (31) Add A Comment
Blair is an absolute beast and the reason Pitt will prevail in the NCAA tourney
WFAN660fan
Long Beach , NY
Total Comments (2)
Blair is a dirty player. Time and time again you can see him try to hurt the other players. Pulling them to the ground, trying to trip them, riping at their arms, using his size to push around the other players. I know basketball is a physical game, especially in the Big East, but he is doing more than just playing the game, he is playing a dirty game.
salinacj
Mansfield Center , CT
Total Comments (3)
Hahaha salinacj, that is hysterical. You don't much about basketball to see how he's just that much tougher than the other big guys...if he was dirty, he would foul out every game and people would notice it. Did you even WATCH the UCONN game at Pittsburgh? Thabeet got humiliated during the game at UCONN, so he was the one after Blair. Blair has no reason to be dirty because he's consistently that good.
LadyPanther
Total Comments (3)
I agree Blair is a very dirty player and should be called for more offensive fouls. I am not trying to take away how good he is though (in college hoops). I doubt he will be a good player in the NBA, but I could also see him as a Ben Wallace type of player. People from Pittsburgh are dirty and their players are even worse. The Steelers are a perfect exsample of how dirty Pittsburgh is. Great you won a championship........but you live in Pittsburgh :0
mick23
Medina , OH
Total Comments (1)
Mick,
Please elaborate on how dirty Pittsburgh is. I'd love to hear this!!! Cause i'm sure MEDINA, OH is the hollywood of the east, right?
mwm11
Total Comments (2)
Wow, salinacj. Which hand did you use to type with and which hand did you use to wipe away your tears?
Jimmy Freshwater
Total Comments (7)
salinacj, mick23: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
cry me a river, you ****. mick, being from cleveland, you're automatically a joke and therefore anything you say is invalidated. wake us up when you've won anything. and salina, don't get butthurt because of how bad blair owned your black sean bradley. maybe if calhoun cried as bad as you, you would have got the foul.
wooooooooooooooo
NB
New York, NY
Total Comments (18)
Blair is dirty? Do you know how rough it is for centers? If you know anything about basketball, then you know the centers are the least dirty.
mick23 & salinacj - don't hate.
upittsteelers
Arlington , VA
Total Comments (1)
Well, I don't know that people from pittsburgh are dirty but Blair reminds me of Robert Traylor, same kind of player, I could even say they look alike. Blair's game is predicated on him being bigger than everybody else not more skilled, which doesn't translate to a pro game but I might be wrong.
LesLions
Fern Park, FL
Total Comments (7)
salinacj you are just upset that blair and pitt bent calhoun and thabeet over and repeatedly pounded them, TWICE and it will happen again tomorrow night!
barnsey53
Total Comments (2)
Salinacj, "riping at their arms"? How exactly, does one ripe at another's arms? I'm truly curious. And Mick 23 trying to hate on Pittsburgh when (s)he hails from Medina, OH? Must be a cosmopolitan metropolis and bastion of higher learning. Or maybe just a run-down former mill town in the rust belt living in the shadow of third-tier cities like Cleveland.
WFAN660fan
Long Beach , NY
Total Comments (2)
Number one, let's stay on track with BASKETBALL and not dirtiness of cities? Especially since Medina, OH isn't even in or that close to a major city for that matter...regardless, people saying Pittsburgh is dirty is craziness. Come spend some time with me in 'city of bridges' and then we'll talk. And then talking about the Steelers being dirty?? Ultra-physical, maybe, but not dirty...same as Big East play. C'mon, you guys really have nothing better to come up with? Let's stick on topic and talk about Blair. He is a hometown hero and a great representative of what it means to be a student athlete and want to represent his hometown by attending Pitt. Just listen to him talk...he actually has a great personality and speaking skills unlike many student-athletes in the nation.
LadyPanther
Total Comments (3)
The fact that anyone is talking about Blair's potential in the NBA in March of his sophomore year is stupid. This isn't about the NBA now (even if he leaves the NCAA after this year). This is about college hoops; March Madness, if you will. At the moment, Blair is the baddest dude on the court night in and night out. He's not dirty. He simply outworks everyone. Watch him rotate on offense when the ball begins to move around the key. Watch how he works constantly to position himself where he needs to be (to defend or rebound). He doesn't take cheap shots at players, he doesn't demand the ball, he doesn't act like a baby if he doesn't get "his touches". He simply goes out and works his **** off.
The UConn whiners need to shut up. We've been watching your coach cry and whine for years. No one at Pitt cries foul when they get beat. They get pissed, as all teams do, but you don't hear them blaming others. Face it UConn fans, without Dyson, you're simply not as good as Pitt...and the 0-2 record shows it (of course, that could be 1-2 or 0-3 come Friday night).
baddogs
Ouray , CO
Total Comments (3)
Baddogs...thank you for your intelligent answer. You definitely have it right. Hard-work, on and off the court, is what makes Blair a great player and a great individual. We will see how he does in the tournament to determine his NBA status...obviously I'd love to see him stay one more year at Pitt, but it's been quite a ride in Panther Land.
LadyPanther
Total Comments (3)
Basketball is more physical than any other sport considering they wear no equipment. There have been and always will be bruising post players. Back in the late 70's Pitt had Sam Clancy and Duke had Eugene Banks. Same mold as Dejuan Blair. They faced each other and it was a battle. Just because of their size, referees can not penalize them with tic tac fouls i.e. Shaq. Mick23/Salinacj you need to go back to watching westerns. And don't ever insult my home town of Pittsburgh, a true city of Champions.
Theburghfan1
La Vergne , TN
Total Comments (2)
lol.. ur just saying that b/c ur a UCONN fan and they beat yall twice this year.. Tell Thabeet to get his weight up so he wont get tossed around by Blair..lol
GMoney757
Newport News , VA
Total Comments (27)
two things.
First, the guy from CT calls Blair dirty, Are you kidding me? You're just pms'ing over the fact that you guys can't beat us. You're also pissy that Thabeet got tossed around and was dominated by Blair. Clearly, Jerome Dyson was your team because without him you just had Thabeet, who has size, Price, who steals PCs, and Adrien, who complains constantly. WAAAAAHH! Maybe we can make it 3 straight tomorrow, cause I'm looking forward for the possible match-up
Second, Medina, Ohio....'nuff said
Well I could just leave it at that, but let me add some more insult to, well insult. Pittsburgh is only a dirty city in your eyes because both Cleveland and Cincinnati (so it doesn't matter who you like, they both are awful) can't beat the Steelers and instead of giving us credit you come up with some bu**sh** excuse as to why we're are so much better. Just ask the Brown's fan James Harrison welcomed to the ThunderDome a few years back.
PITTSBURGH BABY...BOO-YA-KA-SHAW
als152
Pittsburgh , PA
Total Comments (5)
@LadyPanther: It sure has been a great ride (I'm a Pitt Alum)! I'd love another year out of Blair (or two, but that's getting greedy :) but figure he'll jump since he's had such a phenomenal year. Here's to a good March for BOTH our Pitt hoops teams!
baddogs
Ouray , CO
Total Comments (3)
let's see how blair performs in the big dance...against the weak big east those rebounds are easy to come by, the ACC should shut him down...
g-vegas
Total Comments (8)
I'm a huge Uconn fan, and I think Blair is a fantastic player. I think Pitt, in general, plays the most physical basketball in the NCAA, and we sometimes confuse this with being "dirty". It's not dirty, just tough, and I look forward to watching UCONN Vs PITT part III...hopefully!! It'll be a great game to watch! As far as Calhoun complaining about calls from game 1?....If you go back and watch the tape, he has a point. In any other game, many things would have been called for fouls. Lets not put down a hall of fame coach. Dixon would be lucky to have the career Calhoun has had. As for Game 2, Pitt beat Uconn outright.
FrankyUconn
Wethersfield , CT
Total Comments (3)
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