2011 NBA Draft Combine News, Notes And Participants - Day 1

Day 2 stuff here. Measurements here.

The 2011 NBA Draft Combine begins this morning at the famed Tim Grover-run Attack Athletics gym in Chicago. Yes, that wonderful annual event that allows players to to find out their true wingspan, body fat percentage, height (with and without shoes!) and run around some cones before a few executives from every NBA team -- and the media -- over-analyze the results.

Still, it's a worthwhile event in that the teams will be able to interview the players afterward and cavort around afterward while enjoying the Chicago nightlife before heading to lovely Minneapolis for its workout next weekend (spoiler alert: I think I'll be in the area so let me know if you're around).

The biggest news people are going to want hear, aside from the fact that it will be shown live at 9 a.m. CT on ESPNU, is which players will be in attendance. I've put those participants after the jump, but the biggest news is that Michael Dunigan, LaceDarius Dunn and Jon Diebler have replaced Ben Hansbrough (ankle injury), Reggie Jackson and Lucas Noguiera.

The best random notes from around the interwebs are rounded up after the jump.

ESPN's Chad Ford is reporting that Kyrie Irving, Derrick Williams, Brandon Knight, Kemba Walker, Tristan Thompson, Alec Burks and possibly Enes Kanter and Kawhi Leonard will skip the athletic portions of the Combine. Not exactly mind-blowing considering that's become the norm at these things, but it's unclear what exactly they'd be risking by going through simple drills they've been doing their entire basketball playing careers.

The Detroit Pistons do have people already in Chicago, but head coach John Kuester isn't one of them according to Detroit Free Press. Not sure how far to read into that, but it is interesting that some NBA coaches won't be in attendance considering there will be a couple of full D-League coaching staffs in the crowd.

If watching on ESPNU, Ryen Rusillo will be the host while Ford, Len Elmore, Fran Fraschilla, Tom Penn and Andy Katz do the analysis according to Ford's Twitter account.

Full list of participants:

Keith Benson, Oakland
Marshon Brooks, Providence
Alec Burks, Colorado
Jimmy Butler, Marquette
Norris Cole, Cleveland State
Jon Diebler, Ohio State
Michael Dunigan, Oregon/Kalev-Cramo (Estonia)
LaceDarius Dunn, Baylor
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State
Jimmer Fredette, Brigham Young
Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston
Jordan Hamilton, Texas
Justin Harper, Richmond
Tobias Harris, Tennessee
Tyler Honeycutt, UCLA
Scotty Hopson, Tennessee
Kyrie Irving, Duke
Rick Jackson, Syracuse
Charles Jenkins, Hofstra
JaJuan Johnson, Purdue
Cory Joseph, Texas
Enes Kanter, Kentucky
Brandon Knight, Kentucky
Malcolm Lee, UCLA
Kawhi Leonard, San Diego State
Travis Leslie, Georgia
Jon Leuer, Wisconsin
DeAndre Liggins, Kentucky
David Lighty, Ohio State
Shelvin Mack, Butler
Demetri McCamey, Illinois
E`Twaun Moore, Purdue
Darius Morris, Michigan
Marcus Morris, Kansas
Markieff Morris, Kansas
Chandler Parsons, Florida
Jereme Richmond, Illinois
Josh Selby, Kansas
Iman Shumpert, Georgia Tech
Kyle Singler, Duke
Chris Singleton, Florida State
Jamie Skeen, Virginia Commonwealth
Greg Smith, Fresno State
Nolan Smith, Duke
Isaiah Thomas, Washington
Malcolm Thomas, San Diego State
Trey Thompkins, Georgia
Klay Thompson, Washington State
Tristan Thompson, Texas
Jeremy Tyler, San Diego HS / Maccabi Haifa (Israel) / Tokyo Apache (Japan)
Nikola Vucevic, Southern California
Kemba Walker, Connecticut
Derrick Williams, Arizona
Jordan Williams, Maryland