Why UNC's Tyler Hansbrough Is Overrated

After following the college game this past month, I’d like to make a public service announcement:

Tyler Hansbrough is overrated. That’s right. I said it, and I’ll say it again, nice and clear:

Tyler Hansbrough is OVERRATED.

I’m just fed up with the hype about this guy.

Let me be nice about him for a minute. I respect the numbers that he puts up each night, and I respect the effort that he brings night-in and night-out...

 

Whew! That was hard.

 

Now let me be real: he has no game. None. Zip. Zilch. No game whatsoever. For a big man, he has no footwork in the paint. He has no post moves and he hasn’t developed a signature move that will bail him out of tough situations.

 

He plays as if he’s clumsy. His game is gar-bage, not garbage, GAR-BAGE. The numbers that he puts up are clearly off of effort, which will not translate well in the NBA. I know there will be some UNC fans who will disagree, but seriously, let’s take the emotion out of it and look at it from a basketball perspective and not as a fan.

 

Tyler Hansbrough is not as good as analysts, the media, and UNC fans have made him out to be. I have two reasons to validate my argument.

 

1)  He’s getting hype because of the team he plays for.

 

The media always falls in love with the historic, storied programs around the country, like UNC, UCLA, Duke, Kansas, and so forth. They’re so in love with these glamorous schools that they forget about the great players and the great stories that are going on around us.

 

They talk about Stephen Curry now, who’s doing his thing at Davidson.  Before Davidson's NCAA tournament run last year, I didn’t see Davidson playing on prime time TV, with Dick Vitale screaming or ESPN college analyst Jay Bilas raving about Stephen Curry and Davidson.

 

Last year, Michael Beasley, a former one-and-done star player for Kansas State (I repeat, Kansas State) had one of the greatest freshman years in the history of college basketball, a year after another former one-and-done star player, Kevin Durant had one of the greatest freshman years in college basketball history.

 

As I recall, Kevin Durant won the Player of the Year award after his historic freshman year at the University of Texas. A year later, Beasley puts up better numbers than Durant’s previous year number and even better numbers than Tyler Hansborough. However, Hansborough won the Player of the Year award. How? 

 

Another example of the “Tyler Hansbrough effect” is Derrick Rose last year. No one would acknowledge that he was the best point guard in the country last year. Maybe it was because he didn’t have Duke or UNC or UCLA on the front of his jersey. People gave that title to Darren Collison or even Ty Lawson.

 

But Rose makes Collison look stupid in their Final Four matchup, leads Memphis to the championship game, goes on to be the top pick in the draft, and look at the rookie year he is having.

 

 

2)  Tyler Hansbrough is not even the most important player on his own team.

 

His point guard, Ty Lawson, is the catalyst that makes this team go. Last year, Ty Lawson went through a period of time during the season where he struggled with injuries. During that time, the team struggled. They won games, but it was a struggle.

 

Tyler Hansbrough is struggling with injuries now, and his team isn’t missing a beat. They’re playing as if he isn’t even there. They’re blowing teams away by an unheard of 20-point margin per game.

 

Hmmm...that doesn’t make sense. If Hansbrough was who we thought he was, it would be the other way around. I don’t know. Maybe people will realize it when he gets to the NBA, and sits on the bench like a Mark Madsen, or a Brian Scalabrine.

 

We’ll see...