It was supposed to be a short spot for local television, a minor detour before the Penn State men's basketball team watched film of Seton Hall -- but the man in the middle found a way to get in-between all of that.

Standing in the center of the back row, towering over his teammates, Brandon Hassell repeated in chorus with his teammates a "Happy Holidays" message. The camera went off and Hassell turned to his left to whisper into teammate Andrew Jones' ear.

Suddenly, both were laughing hysterically. Hassell motioned for a do-over, imitating the smile he gave at the end of the clip. Players and coaches watched as Hassell put on an overly wide grin and an almost cross-eyed stare.

"I was like...," Hassell paused, smiling to expose every one of his teeth.

Now everyone was laughing. Geary Claxton went up to Hassell and asked more about the foolish facial expression. The whole team laughed down the hall toward the film room. Claxton expects nothing less from Hassell.

"I can't ever be serious around him, or like, be mad," Claxton said. "I try to. I try to ignore him, but, like, he comes back. It's crazy."

Hassell is a self-proclaimed goof, and nothing changes that. The previous night against Hartford, Hassell was suffering from a bulging disk in his back, yet he was still making guard Clay Scovill crack smiles during lay-up drills, sometimes patting him on the chest.

"The way I think things, I know there are times to be serious, but I like having fun," Hassell said. "Laughing about stuff. That's a good way to handle things."

The difference in Hassell this year is that everyone was surprised when the 6-foot-11 junior only put up two points against Hartford. Last year that wouldn't have been disappointing -- it would have been expected.

In his first two seasons as a Nittany Lion, Hassell averaged 1.7 points per game. Now he is the starting center, someone who is supposed to be a dominant force in the middle.

A vast array of post-moves that he learned at Pete Newell's "Big Man Camp," which has taught the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and Scottie Pippen, have brought Hassell's scoring up to 6.4 points per game, adding an average of about six boards.

Now, he is more than just a mouth on the bench. He is more than a role player having an above-average season. He's starting to stick out, standing tall amongst the crowd.

It's something he has been gradually doing his whole life.

"We haven't even started to scratch the surface of the potential of Brandon Hassell," his father, O.J. Hassell, said. "I'm not just saying that because I'm his father. I can see it in him. I mean, you can't teach 6-11."

***

About five years ago, before the summer months, Brandon Hassell was just a 6-foot-1 guard at Valley View High School.

Standing on a hill in Springboro, Ohio, before the start of Brandon's junior year, O.J. still saw his son's head in a familiar place -- below him. As the family continued on its walk, his mother, Bonnie, noticed it was only the slope putting her husband's head above her son's.

O.J. was a decent sized man, a 6-foot-3 slasher when he played basketball. Brandon's "springs" can be attributed to his father.

"Oh no, the slope on that hill goes down, he's taller than you," Bonnie Hassell said.

In utter denial on that hill, O.J. thought Brandon was on higher ground. Brandon was about 6-foot-5. Valley View high school, a perennial power in football, wanted Brandon as an easy red zone target when he reached 6-foot-9 as a senior.

The bulging disk in his back, an injury that could affect Hassell for the rest of his career, is possibly connected to his rapid growth. O.J. Hassell said that he isn't sure. In fact, his son might not be finished growing, he said.

Height like Brandon's isn't prevalent in the Hassell family, and a 6-foot-8 Uncle Jeffery on his mother's side is the tallest possible link on a crowded family tree.

Claxton's father, Geary Sr., constantly jokes with O.J. that wherever they travel, they find a Hassell. For example, Brandon didn't even know Penn State defensive end Josh Gaines was a cousin until he they both got to University Park.

Pro guard Trenton Hassell, of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, is thought to be related, somehow, but that is not a definite.

"We have a large family, so we don't really know," O.J. Hassell said. "I would like to think he was related. One of us might have a relative there. There are all kinds of folks that Brandon has never met."

Both his mother and father have three children from previous marriages, and Brandon is the only mutual child. To get an easy laugh out of a Hassell, just relate it to the "Brady Bunch." Brandon doesn't mind. He's the youngest of seven children.

Those brothers and sisters have catered to Brandon. Spencer, 36, O.J.'s eldest, is a valuable mentor. His sister Sharrell was almost like another mother. J.R., his closest brother in age, is a close friend.

"Our house was big enough for us to fit in the there," Brandon Hassell said. "We got along pretty well. We had occasional fights, but they weren't very often."

The only time Brandon remembers getting into trouble with J.R. was during a game of tennis baseball at their father's military base near Cincinnati, when J.R. rifled a ball straight into his eye and made him burst into tears.

"[J.R.]'s probably the reason I am the way I am," Brandon Hassell said "He's just goofy. I think that is where I get my humor from. Anything he laughed at, I laughed at. He's goofy. He's a goofy guy. He kind of resembles me, or I resemble him."

Goofy, but maybe too nice. On the court, O.J. notices that his son clowns with collegiate opponents that he has met through the AAU circuits. He has no enemies, and maybe sometimes he needs one when he plays.

"I always tell him, 'That's not your friend out there,' " O.J. said. "When you get out there you can't be friends."

O.J, a millwright, someone who has worked in the assembly lines of factories ranging from General Motors to Miller Brewing Company, thinks he has spent about all of his vacation time during the last six years watching his youngest play basketball.

Both parents often make seven-hour trips to Penn State home games. Last Saturday, the Hassells trekked with the Claxtons all the way to East Rutherford, N.J., to see Brandon play against Seton Hall.

It's part of staying visible. They understand the kind of comfort Brandon feels by seeing them in the stands.

"It makes me play that much harder," Brandon said. "Having the support, it really helps."

Buckets of Popeyes chicken are brought along for Brandon's friends and members of his recruiting class, like Claxton, Mike Walker and Danny Morrissey. They are all welcome extensions to the already-large family.

More are always welcome under the Hassell wing. During the offseason, when incoming freshmen Andrew Jones and David "D.J." Jackson were being pushed to put on weight, it was less-than-bulky Brandon and his classmate Walker who O.J. remembers saying "everything on that plate needs to be eaten."

The pair would constantly push their teammates to eat more protein, something that Hassell himself had to do over the summer, pushing his benchpress up to about 300 pounds.

Physically, Hassell has matured from a skinny freshman who got beat around by former Penn State post-players like Aaron Johnson in practice. Now he is able to throw down forceful dunks.

Those dunks give Hassell another level of confidence.

"It's something else. It's just like Ah!" Hassell yelled, as if he had just conquered the world.

***

Hassell has always had a certain fascination with flying. As a youngster, he collected Superman comic books while fitting in viewing time for dunk-specialists J.R. Rider, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan. His No. 23 was a must for any playing jersey.

The best dunk Hassell remembers throwing down was during a scrimmage in his junior year. It was a bad alley-oop from his point guard, which according to Hassell, he didn't even really see. He heard the ball bounce off of the backboard, grabbed it and dunked over two 6-foot-9 twins standing in the lane.

"I remember coming back on the other end of the floor and one of the big men that I had dunked on said, 'That was luck,' " Hassell said, of course, laughing.

He considers himself quite the dunking connoisseur, so confident in fact, he feels he could take down Claxton in a dunk-off.

"I got him. I got him in that," Hassell said in the midst of laughter, later adding that he would jump-start the competition with a windmill.

The only dunk Hassell would rule out is the "720." The "360" has been put on the shelf, as of late, in favor of attempts to put his elbow in the rim a la Vince Carter.

It actually wasn't until this summer that Hassell worked up the courage to attempt a dunk while transferring the ball through his legs in midair.

"I never tried it. I was too scared to," Hassell said. "After a pickup game, I just, I don't know, someone told me to try it to see if I could do it. It took me a couple times, but I can actually do it."

Dunking is a welcome sight to any of Hassell's coaches. Valley View head coach Brian Gunter remembers having to tell Hassell to never hesitate and "not to be afraid to throw it down on anybody."

"You don't get a kid of that caliber at this level very often," Gunter said. "He was a typical high school young man. He had a very large group of friends, like a magnet. Everybody was just attracted to him. He's fun. Like any kid. Everybody is always asking how he is doing."

But the personality that makes Hassell such a beloved figure, may have something to do with the indecision that, at times, plagues his game. It undoubtedly has a lot to do with the fact that he is one of the few 6'11" players who has to be urged to use his gifts to dominate.

He has the tendency to fumble wide-open dunk opportunities because he is rushing. It's a need to please that sometimes sends him spiraling out of focus. When he could shoot, he's always thinking pass. When he could simply dunk over a smaller player, sometimes his brain gets in the way. It's a brain that wants to pass, wants to do the right thing -- wants everyone to like him.

O.J. says he barely every attempts the midrange jumper that he likes so much, even if he's wide open, because DeChellis would prefer he spend his time in the paint.

"Sometimes, he's so eager, he wants to do exactly what the coach says," O.J. Hassell said.

But when there's no coach around, Hassell is never shy about displaying his skills. Every summer, he returns to his hometown of Farmersville, Ohio, and puts on a bit of a dunking display for the kids in the park. But still, in the park he's dunking to be fun and to entertain. Now DeChellis, his teammates, O.J. -- all of them are looking for him to dunk when it matters most.

Now it's time for Hassell to make those plays at Penn State, but no one has given up yet. Maybe now those skills are beginning to take shape.

"Nobody has been able to tap all of that potential he has," O.J. Hassell said. "They haven't been able to make him understand."

Maybe, it's that Brandon Hassell is just starting to believe. And it's just not a joke to go along with his body's growth toward the stratosphere. He might be serious.

"By the time I leave here, I think the sky's the limit," Hassell said.