Tyler Hansbrough: On the Sure Path to NBA Mediocrity

(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Tyler Hansbrough is a great kid. He’s got great heart and hustle. He epitomizes the idea of a true student-athlete.

You may have heard NCAA coaches, players, fans, sportswriters, commentators, and even professional basketball scouts voice some version of the above comments when asked about Hansbrough.

Unfortunately, being a “great kid” doesn’t mean you will be a great NBA basketball player—or even an above-average contributor.

There is no doubt Hansbrough has enjoyed a phenomenal run in collegiate basketball.

He is the leading scorer and rebounder in the history of the University of North Carolina’s storied program, he is the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named a unanimous first-team All-ACC pick four times, and he has made more free throws than any single player in NCAA history.

In addition to racking up a walk-in closet full of collegiate athletic awards, Hansbrough also stayed the course through college.

He remained at UNC for the full four years and will graduate with a degree in Communications.

Summed up, Hansbrough has the dubious résumé of someone destined to become extremely pedestrian at the next level.

He has built his reputation as a UNC Tar Heel and all-around staple of collegiate basketball. Unfortunately for him, he will always be remembered as only that—a great college basketball player.

To borrow an adjective from Red (Morgan Freeman’s character) in “The Shawshank Redemption,” Hansbrough is "institutionalized." He only knows college basketball, and I believe that is all he wants to know.

At UNC, Hansbrough is certainly the big man on campus. And I’m sure he revels in all the perks that status awards him.

In fact, college life suits Hansbrough so well, he has enjoyed it (as previously stated) for four years.

Now, it is possible Hansbrough simply celebrates academia and decided to finish the pursuit of his degree because he has an insatiable lust to someday tackle the great, unsolved puzzles that await him in the Communications field.

(By the way, while reading the short biographies given on players when they are at the free-throw line, have you noticed that approximately three-quarters of NCAA basketball players major in Communications? This unverified statistic is just a side note and doesn’t rule out the possibility that Hansbrough’s want of a degree played a factor in his decision to stay at UNC for four years.)

However, I think the more likely scenario is that Hansbrough is reluctant to leave his collegiate comfort zone.

On the hardwood floors of the NCAA, Hansbrough can put up impressive numbers and hear the deafening UNC cheers reserved just for him. He is in his element.

He is Psycho T!

However, Psycho T will cease to exist when the Cinderella world of college basketball strikes midnight and NBA physicality becomes Hansbrough’s reality.

The physical parity between Hansbrough and players who have true NBA physique and grit has become obvious during the course of this year’s NCAA tournament.

I would like to submit as evidence the specimens presented in Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair and Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin. These guys are college Sophomores who simply have no more business playing at the collegiate level.

The sheer monstrosity of their frames and thunder of their killer instincts make Hansbrough look juvenile.

In the NBA, Hansbrough will get confused and abused as his collegiate passion fades to professional frustration.

One NBA scout in attendance for the Elite Eight had this to say about Hansbrough and Griffin when talking to ESPN’s Steven A. Smith earlier in the week:

"Tyler Hansbrough is a very good player with a place for him on the next level. He's simply too good a kid, too productive, and too hard a worker not to be picked somewhere in the top 15.

But Blake Griffin is just special. They shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence."

Amen.

There are college athletes with the potential to rise, shine, and dominate at the professional level, and then there are the Tyler Hansbroughs of the game—players who will soon find that their best days were left on campus.

So, enjoy another game or two as Psycho T, Tyler—because your next moniker will be journeyman or role player.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?