In Year 3, Hibbert looks ready to play the part of big man

Roy Hibbert seemed almost eager Wednesday night to let the world know how thoroughly unacceptable the Indiana Pacers' performance at Philadelphia had been in their 101-75 beatdown by the 76ers. He was waiting for Mike Wells, beat writer for the Indianapolis Star, when the locker-room door swung open to media at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The team in that locker room had some 'splainin' to do, losing in such an embarrassing fashion four days after handling Philadelphia by 13 points at Conseco Fieldhouse, and Hibbert was determined to be the man to do it.

"It was really pathetic," the Pacers center said. "People have to be held accountable. We have to run the system. When we run it, we're good. When we don't, we lose like this ... We were horrible. We weren't running our sets. We weren't getting out and running. We were't cutting and moving. This wasn't Pacers basketball. I thought we just took three steps back, in my opinion."

Hibbert's we-a culpa didn't stop there. Soon enough, "Hoya2aPacer" was apologizing to his greater Twitter community: "I am sorry Indiana. That was not Pacer basketball. What u saw is not acceptable and we r not gonna let this be the norm. We can do better!"

Hibbert already is.

For the past few months, the focus has been on Hibbert's physical and basketball development, areas in which he has made impressive strides. His body fat is down, his strength is up and while he still looks a few sandwiches light through the hips and thighs to consistently hold his position in the low post, he was making good on all the happy projections.