You don’t know Sam Young. You may think you do, but you don’t.

You know Tyler Hansbrough. North Carolina’s Psycho T. And you know Stephen Curry. Davidson’s sharpshooter who gunned down mighty Georgetown last March. You should also know Blake Griffin by now. Oklahoma’s do-it-all big man could be the first player taken in the 2009 NBA draft. And if you didn’t see Jodie Meeks score those 54 points against Tennessee, you’ve at least heard about it.

But do you know Sam Young?

Sam Young, Pittsburgh’s 6-foot-6 senior forward, could be the best player in the Big East; which is the best conference in the country. Which means that Young should be garnering some mentions for national Player of the Year awards, but he’ll receive nary a sniff.

Young’s skill-set fits in perfectly with Pitt coach Jamie Dixon’s system, which itself blends with the Steel City’s hard-hat and lunch-pail image. He’s incredibly athletic, but not flashy. He’s a terrific scorer, but an even better defender. His jump shot admittedly comes and goes, but he possesses the deadliest pump-fake in college basketball.

Last season, Young averaged 18.3 points per game against Big East competition, finishing second in the league behind Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody. But here’s the rub: Notre Dame led the Big East in scoring at 80.4 points per game. Pitt, meanwhile, won games with a stingy defense and a methodical offense that scored just 70.6 points per game in league play.

Said one assistant coach from a Big East rival, “Anyone who knows the game knows that Sam Young can score. If he played for Notre Dame or North Carolina, he’d averaged 25 a game.”

This year, Young is averaging 18.4 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds. He broke out of a recent slump on Monday with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting in Pitt’s impressive 78-60 victory over No. 8 Syracuse at the Petersen Events Center.

It was a nice bounce-back game for Young, who had just 14 points on 6-for-20 shooting in Pitt’s 69-63 loss to Louisville on Saturday. It was Pitt’s first loss of the season and it cost the Panthers their spot at the top of the rankings.

“We knew a game like this would happen for him,” Pitt guard Levance Fields said of Young. “He’s a natural scorer and it’s very hard to keep guys like that down for too long.”

But you still don’t know Sam Young.

Young struggled to meet the NCAA’s minimum academic requirements coming out of Friendly High School in Clinton, Md. He spent a year at Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy.

Last spring, Young thought about leaving school a year early to enter the NBA draft. A sure-fire first-round draft pick, Young decided to return to Pitt for his senior year.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called Young’s decision a sign of his work-ethic and desire to get better. Maybe. But there’s so much more to Young than basketball.

His brother, Michael Spriggs, is blind, but he still competed in wrestling and judo in high school. He is Young’s inspiration.

Then, too, Young is an accomplished piano player. On road trips, he is known to sit down at a piano in a hotel lobby and start playing. He writes poetry and recites his poems at open-mike nights at a coffee-house near the Pitt campus. He’s been approached by a book publisher.

If you get a chance to see Young play for Pitt this season, do it. He’s worth getting to know.

Rising Team: Louisville

The Cardinals struggled early and suffered non-conference setbacks to Western Kentucky, Minnesota and UNLV, but Rick Pitino’s troop is on the march now. Louisville is an impressive 4-0 in the Big East, including wins over Villanova, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. The Cardinals knocked off No. 1 Pitt, 69-63, with a stifling pressure defense that forced 20 turnovers and held the Panthers 16 points under their scoring average.

Falling Team: Seton Hall

The Pirates’ 8-1 start to the season is a distant memory. Seton Hall has slumped to 9-7, including non-conference losses to IUPUI and James Madison. The Pirates fell to 0-5 in the Big East with Sunday’s loss to Connecticut. Upcoming home games against Providence, Rutgers and St. John’s offer the Pirates a chance to right their sinking ship.

Player of the Week: Louisville’s Terrence Williams

Williams did it all last week for the Cardinals. He averaged 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in Louisville’s wins over Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. In the Cards’ 87-73 overtime win over Notre Dame, Williams nearly hit a triple-double with 24 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and eight assists.

Freshman of the Week: Louisville’s Samardo Samuels

Samuels makes it a clean sweep for Louisville this week. The freshman center had 18 points and six rebounds in the win over Notre Dame. He put up 10 points and seven boards in the hard-fought 69-63 win over Pitt.

Stats of the Week

Syracuse’s Arinze Onuaku is 6-for-32 from the free throw line in the Orange’s seven Big East games this season. Onuaku went 0-5 at the line in SU’s loss to Pitt on Monday night.

Rutgers went on a 19-0 run against Cincinnati on Saturday, but still lost 71-59.

Connecticut has beaten Seton Hall in 22 of the teams’ last 24 meetings.

Marquette is the only Big East team with three players among the league’s top 12 scorers – Wes Matthews (19.1/3rd), Jerel McNeal (18.8/4th) and Lazar Hayward (16.5/12th).

South Florida lost to both Pitt and West Virginia last week, but Bulls sophomore Dominique Jones averaged 28.5 points in those games.

They Said It

“I know him. I wasn't scared. He thought that his brother got fouled, I guess. He wanted to get an explanation.'” — Providence’s Marshon Brooks after the brother of Friars guard Jeff Xavier came onto the court after Xavier was cut above the eye and no foul was called in a game against Marquette on Saturday. Jonathan Xavier, 24, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Key upcoming games

Wednesday, January 21
Villanova at Connecticut
Villanova (14-3 overall, 2-2 Big East) could use a marquee win. Connecticut’s only loss of the season came against Georgetown, but the Huskies are 5-0 since the loss to the Hoyas.

DePaul at South Florida
Hey, just wanted to see if you were paying attention. DePaul is 0-5 in the conference, while USF’s only league win came at DePaul.

Thursday, January 22
West Virginia at Georgetown
West Virginia’s 2-2 in the Big East, but has yet to beat an upper-echelon club. Georgetown rarely loses at the Verizon Center.

Saturday, January 24
Connecticut at Notre Dame
Notre Dame puts its 45-game homecourt winning streak on the line against the red-hot Huskies. The matchup of UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet and Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody is the worth the price of admission alone.

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