Don’t Worry DeJuan Blair, Hasheem Thabeet Didn’t Intend to Use His Arms Anyway

If you’re DeJuan Blair going up against No. 1 UConn and Hasheem Thabeet you want to set the tone early that this is gonna be a physical contest -- one that you intend to win. You can do this by outfighting Thabeet for a tough rebound, or maybe taking it up strong for an early bucket. Or you can just try to rip his arm from his body:↵

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It certainly didn’t seem intentional, but it was some apt foreshadowing of what was to come. Blair was an absolute monster all game, utterly dominating in the paint. The numbers -- 22 and 23 for Blair; 5 and 4 for Thabeet -- reflect this, but don’t tell the whole story. As physical as Blair was, Thabeet looked equally soft; his lankiness no match for Blair’s 78-inch biceps. ↵↵Although some of Blair’s scoring methods weren’t exactly what you’d call “legal.” Several times, he lowered his shoulder to back down Thabeet. During and after the game, Jay Bilas referred to this ad nauseam as “going through, not over Thabeet.” That, of course, is against the rules. Jim Calhoun agreed, mentioning in his post game press conference that Blair will make a fine pro because those kinds of plays are legal in the NBA. ↵

↵↵But it was clear that the refs were going to let a lot of this physicality go from the beginning, in which case Thabeet could’ve similarly used his body to get to the hoop. The problem is that he couldn’t. Not against Blair, at least. His foul trouble didn’t help matters, but anytime he was on the court, he was completely overmatched. For now, UConn, and Thabeet, look like second best in the Big East. They have the chance to redeem themselves at Pittsburgh on March 7th, another nationally televised game. ↵

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