ATLANTA -- You wanna make sense of Jeffrey Newton? Good luck.

The Hoosiers junior forward is an uncommonly skilled basketball player, with that lithe, Kevin Garnett-style, and new-school BBall body (6-foot-9, 210 pounds). And he's got an uncommon flair for crowd-popping theatrics: the drool-inducing tomahawk jams, the rude oh-no-you-didn't rejections, the sweet 15-foot Js -- the whole SportsCenter package.

	Jeff Newton has the opportunity to be the "man" for Indiana this season.

But Newton also averages a very common 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a night, numbers way unbecoming of a player his caliber. Ask his mates to describe Newton, they offer this one universality: Dude's laid-back. Ask Newton to describe his personal philosophy, and he says it's all about being cool.

Laid-back? Cool? Good qualities to have if say, you shoot pool. Not good, we're fairly sure, if you shoot hoops. So just imagine the pickle Indiana assistant coach John Treloar found himself in early in the semifinal game Saturday against Oklahoma when charged with the duty of removing Newton's noggin from his posterior. Newton, playing in his home town, entered the game five minutes in just a little too jacked-up for his own good. In three minutes of action, he traveled at the top of the key with no Sooner within five feet of him, then fumbled an entry pass away.

When Davis yanked him, one Hoosier admits resigning himself to the notion Newton was having "one of those games."

Which is to say: Silent as a pin drop.

Treloar will be the first to tell you he's no master motivator, no great manipulator of men's minds (strange, considering his Bobby Knight heritage). His message to Newton was simple. So simple that Treloar, in fact, couldn't recall the exact words. But it went something like: Let me know when you're ready to play, Jeff, and we'll put you back in.

"Jeff is a laid-back guy, sometimes he doesn't come out as aggressive as he needs to coming off the bench," said Treloar. "It's not an easy job to go out there and play against guys who've already been playing six or seven minutes. And with Jeff, it takes a little while." In this case, it took a few minutes on the bench.

Then, Newton gave Treloar the heads-up, and he entered the game a changed -- and, yes, decidedly cooler -- man.

Newton found his shot-blocking rhythm, rejecting one Hollis Price shot so viciously the Sooners should be able to sue for emotional damage. (He would finish the game with four blocks, all of them quite cruel.) He also displayed all the right offensive moves that make NBA scouts gurgle.

He consistently beat his man down the floor on the fastbreak for easy transition layups. He faced-up the Sooners on the perimeter, and in the second half popped that one ridiculous 18-footer with one tick on the shot clock to put the Hoosiers up two. And he attacked the low blocks with precision and aggression, choosing smart angles to the basket, using the ball fake to draw the over-eager Sooners off the floor, and showcasing a deft touch shooting over both shoulders.

He'd finish with 19 points in just 23 minutes. But that's both a team and career high, making Jared Jeffries' 11 minutes on the bench in the first half with two fouls much easier for the Hoosiers to handle.

"When he turns it on," said senior forward Jarrad Odle, "there's little he can't do." Added sophomore guard A.J.. Moye: "I don't know what got in him, but it was fun to watch. He always starts off slow, but he's like an escalator: Always going up."

There was one play, in particular, that showcased what kind of special player Newton can one day be (he's not delusional or anything, so he'll assuredly be back for his senior year). With five minutes left in the second half, Oklahoma re-inserted its low-block bully Aaron McGhee, who was playing with four fouls. McGhee had made the Hoosiers' life miserable all game with his variety of crippling low-block assaults (he'd finish with 23, and draw seven Hoosier fouls).

But at just 6-8, he was having a hard time matching up defensively against IU's taller frontcourt guys, and had been leaving the floor at the first sign of ball, the only way he'd have any hope of contesting shots. Newton knew exactly what to do, then, when he got the ball at the mid-blocks.

With his teammates egging him on to attack the basket, he took two hard dribbles toward the lane, then showed McGhee ball. McGhee jumped and clipped Newton's wrists as Newton lofted what was essentially an unmakeable turnaround J. Whistle. The refs called the foul. McGhee hit the sidelines permanently with five. Oklahoma lost its key offensive weapon -- and its ability to mount a comeback. "That was a silly foul on McGhee's part," Odle said. "That was a tough shot for Newton to hit. You've got to give Newton a lot of credit to go after McGhee on that play. Once we took him out, we were able to shut down the rest of their guys."

After Newton's star turn Saturday, Mike Davis was faced with the obvious question of what kind of play he'd get out of Newton for the championship game Monday night with Maryland. He smiled for a second, then admitted: "I wish I could put his play in a bottle and save it for Monday night, because he was GOOD."

Makes perfect sense to us.

Scott Burton is a writer for ESPN The Magazine.