Prince George’s County has been producing basketball players the way Kenya does long distance runners for a while now. That reputation only grew over the weekend.

Oklahoma native Blake Griffin will end P.G.’s streak of exporting the best player in college ball at two seasons—-Kevin Durant ruled through 2006-2007, and Michael Beasley, Durant’s former teammate on the P.G. Jaguars 15-year-old AAU squad, owned last season.

But sons of the county came up large during the NCAA tournament’s opening weekend.

Folks are saying North Carolina wouldn’t have gotten by underdog LSU had the big toe of the Tar Heels’ Ty Lawson not healed enough to let him show that he’s “the best college point guard in the country.” Lawson hails from Clinton, Md.  So does Pitt’s Sam Young, a senior forward who had 32 points in his team’s 84-76 second-round win over Oklahoma State.

Alas, merely having P.G. blue-chippers on the roster won’t guarantee NCAA tourney success. Mitchellville’s Austin Freeman and Bowie’s Chris Wright, supertalented stars for the P.G.-dependent and disappointing Georgetown Hoyas, had to cheer on their countymates while watching TV after getting booted out of the NIT in the first round.

How does P.G. do it?