Leaving school early appears to have been a bad decision for DeJuan Blair, the former Pitt star who slipped to the second round.

AP photo / Bill Kostroun

•The NBA Draft has come and gone, and what do we know now that we didn’t know before?

We know that the NBA didn’t like Pitt’s players as well as the college world did, with both Sam Young and DeJuan Blair going in the second round and Levance Fields not getting drafted.

We know how hard it is to get drafted, as neither Weyinmi Efejuku, Jimmy Baron or Boston College’s Tyrese Rice — all of whom had excellent senior years — got picked.

We know that only two players in the Atlantic 10 got drafted, both in the second round.

We saw several high-profile Big East players — Jeff Adrien, Jerel McNeal, Wesley Mathews, Eric Devendorf, Paul Harris, Jay McAlarney — not get drafted.

In short, we saw one more example of how hard it is go in the NBA Draft.

•Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Manny will get a standing ovation when he comes back to Dodger Stadium?

•The Red Sox’ pitching depth make them the team to beat.

•In the freak show that’s become so much of celebrity culture, Michael Jackson became the ultimate tragic figure, his talent ultimately trumped by his demons. All played out in a frenzied tabloid culture that eventually takes its pound of flesh.

•You don’t need an economist to tell us the economy’s in trouble around here, Bunky, when even a glorified casino can’t make it.

•Quiz of the Week: I went to high school in New England and as of Friday morning I was leading the American League in home runs. Who am I? (answer near the bottom of the column)

•Line of the Week comes from writer Stanley Crouch in the New York Daily News: “The culture’s got the blues.”

•Few things say the early 1970s to me more than hearing Janis Joplin sing “Me and Bobby McGee.”

•Shaq, even on fumes, makes the Cavaliers better.

•Are we really sure that Ricky Rubio isn’t the reincarnation of Pete Maravich?

•There’s no truth to the rumor that if you like movies, the worst three words you can hear are “big summer flick.”

•Or that Rhode Island is thinking of making Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, a native son.

•Vince Carter makes the Magic better.

•The Nationals should have to go back to the minor leagues and work their way back up.

•There are people in sports these days who have more job security than Joe Girardi.

•R.I.P. Farrah Fawcett, who defined a certain era in ways few Hollywood female stars ever did.

•Fred Lynn might have been the most graceful baseball player I ever saw.

•College basketball players who leave school early — like Pitt’s DeJuan Blair and Georgetown’s DaJuan Summers — and don’t go in the first round of the NBA Draft have gotten very bad advice.

•The old definition of “nitwit” used to be a kid with a baseball cap on backwards driving too fast in an SUV. The new definition? The same kid, but this time he’s talking on a cell phone, too.

•Whatever happened to the “gyro ball?”

•You know the foreclosure mess is a problem with the news that Evander Holyfield is having trouble making the payments on his 109-room abode, the one with the 17 bathrooms and three kitchens.

•One question to Evander: Can you say “downsize?”

•Go away Jon and Kate: it’s over.

•This from the New York Daily News: in Donald Fehr’s tenure as head of the baseball players union, the average salary went from $329,000 in 1984 to $3.3 million; and the minimum went from $40,000 to $400,000.

•Zen Question of the Week, Rhode Island style: If you call something a casino, but it really isn’t a casino, is it still a casino?

•You know that New York super schoolboy basketball player Lance Stephenson — nicknamed “Born Ready” — has significant issues when even Memphis has backed off recruiting him.

•A gem of a baseball book is Heart of the Game by S.L. Price.

•If we’ve been playing soccer here seriously now for more than 30 years, with a zillion youth leagues, why is it such a big deal when we upset Spain? Shouldn’t we be better than that by now? Like what happened?

•And what happened to Dice-K, for that matter?

•All recruiters and politicians share one trait: they can make a dead rat alive again.

•Tiger in defeat is more compelling than most guys winning.

•Look up “overachiever” in the dictionary and both Pedroia’s and Youkilis’ pictures are there.

•Is there still a Republican Party in this state, or did it simply check out and nobody told us?

•Quiz Answer: Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena, who grew up in Haverhill, Mass.

•The Proposal is cutesy enough, but you’ve see it a hundred times.

•Kind of like the General Assembly dealing with the budget, but without the “cutesy” part.

•Mark Teixeira has found his home run stroke in New York.

•And A-Rod has found Kate Hudson.

•There’s no truth to the rumor that the governor of South Carolina has hired Bruce Sundlun as an adviser.

breynold@projo.com