Sam Young Named All-Big East; DeJuan Blair All-Rookie
March 10th, 2008 | by The Prowler |Congratulations to Sam Young for being named first team All-Big East. Sam Young has averaged 18 points and 6.4 rebounds for Pitt and has been the one player who has consistently produced offense all season. There has been some criticism of his defensive efforts, but he is Pitt’s best player this season and that label carries higher expectations than the rest of the players will have on them. Young was a big question mark coming into this season. There was no doubt we would need him, and no doubt (in my mind) that he was very athletic. What was a question was whether he would be consistent. Thankfully he worked exceptionally hard in the off-season and improved virtually every aspect of his game. He has been consistent and fun to watch, to say the least.
Congratulations also to DeJuan Blair for being named to the All-Rookie team this year. Blair averaged 12.3 points and 9.5 rebounds this season as a freshman and was Pitt’s pivotal inside presence. His best games came against his biggest competition (Duke and Georgetown).
With the return of both Young and Blair next season, and with a healthy Levance Fields at point guard, this team should be in position to make some noise in the Big East.
3 Responses to “Sam Young Named All-Big East; DeJuan Blair All-Rookie”
By Reed on Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
You think Young is coming back to play for PITT next season? There’s an awful lot of money being dangled in front of him, and I’d say its 50/50 that he takes it.
By colt_convert on Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
While I think Young is good, I still think he could use a little more “polish” from completing a Senior season with Pitt. That polish could translate into even more big bucks. Still, I agree with Reed’s assessment: it’s probably a 50/50 shot of having him come back.
By The Prowler on Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
More than anything I am trying to be positive. I honestly don’t know what the chances are that he goes or stays, but I figured a little positive thinking doesn’t hurt. =-)
I think it would be a huge mistake for him to enter the draft, but it was an ever bigger mistake for Chris Taft to and he still did. The difference is that Taft was told he needed one more year to be draft ready so he came back for his sophomore year. What he failed to hear when being told he needed one more year was that he needed one more year “of work on his game.” So he half-assed his way through the season, letting everyone down and not caring because he was going to get drafted. Had he actually believed that his game could improve and then worked on improving it, he would probably be playing in the NBA right now.
Young, on the other hand, wasn’t a major stud coming into college and it took until his junior year to break out. The hope is that he sees the improvements he made from last year to this and wants to continue it on through his senior year. I would love to see some Pitt players tearing up the NBA, so I don’t begrudge anyone leaving early. I could see Blair going after his junior year and if he was ready I would support it. I just don’t think Young has an NBA-star type game at this point. He may get to be a perpetual bench player, but that isn’t a better situation than what he has now.