University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Angry All The Time
January 24, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2007
By Adam Lucas
WINSTON-SALEM--Here was the mission: watch Tyler Hansbrough.
That was the goal Wednesday night. You always walk away from a Carolina game with the nagging feeling that the Tar Heel sophomore is taking a beating. So for one night, while Carolina stretched out to an eventual 88-60 victory over Wake Forest, it was all Tyler, all the time.
After watching him for 27 minutes, I walked into the locker room convinced he would be bloodied and angry. Maybe a black eye or two. Scratches on his biceps.
And here sat Hansbrough, wearing a pink button-up shirt. Pink? Yes. With a Carolina blue tie and gray pants.
It looked sharp. As if you would tell him anything else.
So, Tyler, that was pretty rough, right? Very physical down there in the paint, huh?
"Eh, not that bad," he said.
Really?
"Nah," he said. "Towards the end some things happened. But I'm fine with them happening. It was the flow of the game at the time. Whatever happens, happens."
Here is the thing about Hansbrough: he infuriates people. He infuriates opposing players and coaches. He infuriates opposing fans. Your buddy who likes Duke or State? Ask him, he'll tell you that Hansbrough infuriates him, too. Just reading that quote probably caused the teeth of at least a couple non-Tar Heels to grind.
I have tried to look at this through non-Carolina lenses. I see a player who hustles constantly, who treats the basketball like treasure, and who has a knack for scoring even with three opponents draped on him.
That does not infuriate me. What am I missing?
It probably has something to do with, as Bruce Pearl said earlier this year, the way Hansbrough "takes it to the contact." Two months later, it's still not exactly clear what that means. But know this: when he has the ball, there's usually contact.
It's become clear that the book on the Tar Heels is to be as physical as possible with Hansbrough and try to tip him over mentally. The fact that this has worked perhaps once in his entire college basketball career doesn't seem to bother anyone.
Don't believe it? Here, try this:
Tyler, have you noticed how mad you seem to make people? Have you heard the fans cheering when you take a hard foul under the basket and seen the signs and watched the coaches pirouetting on the sideline after you ram through another hoop?
"Apparently not."
Not at all?
"No, not really."
The fact that he's completely oblivious to the anger just makes it worse. It's a red-faced, eyes-bulging, spit-flying kind of anger. Just mention his name and watch the blood pressure rise across the ACC.
To appreciate what goes on, you can't just watch him when he has the ball. You have to watch him set screens and be screened. You have to watch him post up and box out. This was an actual sequence--which should have been accompanied by Batman-style cartoon graphics and sound effects (Pow! Bam! Smack!)--late in the second half as Carolina's lead got out of hand:
Hansbrough and Visser were entwined as a Wake Forest jumper approached the rim. Visser wrapped an arm around him, Hansbrough banged back. On the next Carolina possession, as a shot went up, Hansbrough was standing alone under the basket prepared for an offensive rebound...until Visser spotted him and backed over him like a dump truck. Both players ended up in a heap on the floor. Twenty seconds later, Visser missed a shot over Hansbrough and fell to the floor, swatting the hardwood. He labored up the court, never crossing the center stripe while pleading his case to the officials.
Meanwhile Danny Green was busy with a fast break opportunity.
None of this is to imply that Visser is dirty. He isn't. He's a good player who has made himself a quality contributor, and like everyone else in the league, he's physical. So is Hansbrough. And when they crash together, the reverberations can be felt throughout the lower level.
To non-Tar Heels, those shockwaves can be infuriating. Hansbrough leaves a trail of anger in his wake like a vapor trail behind a 737.
"I guess I could make them a lot madder," Hansbrough said with a raised eyebrow.
Really? How is that even possible?
"I could lose my head. But I'm not going to do that. The only way I would lose my head would be for someone to hit me in the face. I would not like that."
Just then, Wes Miller happened by. He caught the tail end of the conversation.
"I made him lose his head the other day," Miller said. "I called him soft in practice. I took a charge from him and jumped up and called him soft."
There they stood, the senior and sophomore, facing each other, Miller about a head shorter. It seemed an unlikely practice showdown, even in the ultra-competitive Carolina environment.
Wes, you really called him soft?
Miller stared straight ahead, no smile on his face. He was completely serious.
"This guy?" Miller said. "No way."
And he laughed. The mere idea was humorous.
Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
