An NBA Phenomenon: Picking Apart Andrew Tyler Hansbrough 
By David Droschak (Posted June 24, 2009)

No basketball player has been more decorated in his college career than Tyler Hansbrough. He’s the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named a four-time, first-team All-American, he’s the league’s career scoring leader, the NCAA leader in career free throws, 4-0 against Duke at Cameron and the all-world leader in unorthodox inside shots to have fallen through the hoop, helping produce an NCAA championship for the Tar Heels this past spring.

Cattle aside, he’s also one of the most prodded and picked apart pieces of meat in this year’s NBA Draft. If you’ve seen recent interviews of Hansbrough, it’s quite evident the big guy is tired of the relentless scrutiny of his game, of his athletic ability and his projected value at the next level.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams relayed a funny story to me this week which emanated from a recent phone conversation with his former star pupil. Hansbrough told Williams he felt one NBA team wasn’t all that interested in him during his workout, so Hansbrough made “a joke” of the proceedings.

“He said, ‘Coach, I didn’t really think they were going to consider me, and I was mad and wondering why I was there so I decided I was going to act like everybody else in those workouts and I was going to shoot it every time I touched it,”’ Williams said. “He said, ‘I made every shot I took and now all the sudden they like me, they may draft me.’"

“He is what he is. There are no games with this guy. He has a wonderful sense of humor.”

Hansbrough has had to be wonderfully light-hearted over the last month as he’s watched mock draft after mock draft spring up as players with not nearly his credentials slotted in the NBA lottery while his stock has wavered as much as the 2009 financial markets.

We’ll know about an hour into Thursday night’s “real” draft how high Hansbrough was picked, but it will take a few years to project his true NBA value. Will Hansbrough pan out more along the lines of a George Lynch, Elton Brand and Carlos Boozer – top-notch inside players on the pro level who made their teams better – or a Chris Wilcox or Sean May – so far NBA underachievers?

Hansbrough averaged 20.2 points in 142 career games for one of the nation’s best programs in one of the country’s best college leagues. His team went 124-22 in his career, including 25-7 in ACC road games. He was the model of consistency. Still, there are many who are vocal about Hansbrough’s shortcomings, his risk to NBA teams.

Are there legit reasons to raise such questions? Sure, considering college scoring and major success doesn’t necessarily translate to the NBA game.

For example, Rodney Monroe, Bryant Stith and Jeff Lamp are on a list of the ACC’s top 10 career scorers. Few will argue that any of these three had great NBA careers. And while it’s still early, J.J. Redick isn’t exactly firing 3-pointers through the hoop in Orlando with the same propensity he did in Cameron Indoor Stadium. And remember North Carolina’s stellar draft class of 2005? None of those players – May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants or Marvin Williams – have risen to NBA all-star status early in their pro careers like a Chris Paul.

Roy Williams has talked to NBA officials this offseason until he was Carolina blue in the face. He was told that Hansbrough tested well. In fact, it was reported back to the UNC coach that Hansbrough had a better vertical jump than Duke leaper Gerald Henderson. Personally, I’m not one to believe what most NBA scouts have to say in a league with its own agenda when it comes to using and sometimes abusing the interest of college basketball athletes and programs.

No matter who you believe, I tend to believe my eyes, and for the past four years I’ve marveled at the way the 6-foot-8 Hansbrough (and yes, he is 6-8) attacked the game of basketball with sheer passion, determination and talent. However, he may be biting his lip yet again in 24 hours as he sits in New York and watches more NBA speculation.

“It’s funny, it’s demeaning, it’s ridiculous – it’s all those emotions,” Williams said when asked about the criticism of Psycho T’s game. “I tell everybody all the time he’s a better athlete than you give him credit for. And what’s the big news out of the pre-draft camp? He’s a better athlete than they thought. For us he went inside and did all the dirty work, he looked like a bull in a China shop, he looked uncoordinated, he looked spastic, however you want to color it, but it’s hard to look like a great athlete with two guys hanging on you and a referee pinching you on the arm.

“People say he can’t do this or he can’t do that,” added Williams. “All I know is his team won a heck of a lot of games, he won every award you can win, and he’s the leading scorer and rebounder in North Carolina history and we’re pretty daggone good. He’s only going to play in the NBA 10-12 years and make $30-$50 million – sort of like media people make. Everybody has picked holes at him.”

It’s hard to trace exactly where all this caustic criticism of Hansbrough began. For one, I hope the guy gets his due Thursday night and it all ends with one NBA team stepping forward to pick a pillar of strength.

My take…
Good pick: No. 14 Phoenix Suns – Yes, the Suns love to run, but so did the Tar Heels and Hansbrough didn’t seem to have many problems keeping up with Lawson and Co. Seemingly a perfect scenario to be able to back up an aging Grant Hill at the small forward spot and also log time as a No. 4 sub for Amare Stoudemire.

Disaster pick: No. 12 Charlotte Bobcats – Sure, coach Larry Brown is a Tar Heel guy, but this franchise has already tried to go “the ACC route” and it has backfired with Sean May, Raymond Felton and Jared Dudley. Adding Hansbrough as yet another “local” savior would be unfair to Psycho T and add too much pressure for a player who likely will need to ease his way into the NBA game.