University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Highlight Worthy
November 18, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2007
By Adam Lucas
Put this on Tyler Hansbrough's personal highlight reel.
No, not that one. Not the one-hand dunk that was accurately described on air by Woody Durham as a "thunder jam." Not the one that shook the Smith Center basket support. Not the one that left the unfortunate De'Shaune Griffin, a sophomore from Fayetteville who is listed at 6-foot-0, 160 pounds, on the receiving end of the leading contender for year's best dunk.
That's the play that will be on all the highlight shows in the days and weeks to come. But it's not what makes the big kid from Poplar Bluff one of the best players to wear the Carolina jersey.
What makes him Hansbrough--a name we'll use for years as a baseline for future players in Chapel Hill, as in, "He plays almost as hard as Hansbrough"--happened after the dunk.
Griffin had committed a foul on the play, which is kind of like saying the Titanic fouled the iceberg. So Hansbrough went to the line. That was his second home on Sunday night; he shot a dozen free throws.
This happened to be one of the four charity tosses that he missed. Oh well, you still had a highlight-reel play. Just get back on defense, right?
Not Hansbrough. He saw the ball bounce high off the rim and followed his base instinct--go get the ball. Never mind that plays exactly like this--chasing a missed free throw in a game that's "over"--is how someone's nose could get broken. There were only 16 minutes left in the half, so maybe Roy Williams should have already pulled his starters.
Hansbrough chased down the rebound, drove the ball to the rim and missed a follow shot. That was not enough. He secured his own miss and tipped it back in.
On the Carolina bench, Williams walked up the sideline towards midcourt. He suppressed a slight grin and shook his head from side to side twice. As a coach, what do you say about a play like that? Your All-America makes the play of the night...and then follows it up with a play that warms a coach's heart even more.
At this level, everyone can dunk. But not everyone has the desire to chase down offensive rebounds in the second half of a 30-point game.
The Gaels committed 33 fouls, and seemingly 30 of them were on Hansbrough. But he never showed any outward frustration. Not until he threw down the dunk, when he gritted his teeth and flexed a little and released some frustration.
"When he's making that face, he's saying a lot of stuff he has to hold back," Marcus Ginyard said. "Someone will bump him during the game and they say something to him, but he doesn't say anything back. Or maybe he thought the referees made a bad call and he's holding that in. When he gets a play like that, it all comes out."
Hansbrough's image is that of a physical post presence. He's never going to be known as a finesse player, but the Tar Heels occasionally sent him to the high post against Iona's zone and the result was some very productive zone offense. The Gaels followed the preseason book on defending Carolina--sit back in a 2-3 and wait for them to beat you. Iona sat back...and Carolina beat them.
It was a clinic on zone offense. The ball went inside, came back outside, and perimeter jumpers were drilled. Then Quentin Thomas found Danny Green on a lob. Then Ty Lawson broke down the zone with dribble penetration. Then the Tar Heels sent either Deon Thompson or Hansbrough to the high post at the free throw line, where the chosen big man could see over the top of the smaller Gaels and look for the high-low.
"When I go up there, it draws a defender out but it also opens the high-low," Hansbrough said. "We've been working on that in practice and I'm getting more comfortable with throwing that pass. And if they don't come out to guard me, it opens up the shot for me."
"That opens up a lot for our offense," Wayne Ellington said. "He gets so much attention, and they will collapse on him wherever he is. If he catches the ball at the free throw line and guys go to him, our other post guys have a one-on-one chance."
There will be nights the outside shots don't fall at the essentially game-clinching 6-for-12 pace the Tar Heels hit in the first half. When that happens, offensive maestro Ty Lawson already knows exactly what he'll do. The defense will be sitting back, the shots won't be falling, and Lawson already has a plan:
"I'll get it to Tyler," he said with a grin that suggested he might as well be saying he likes to breathe oxygen. "If the other team is in a zone and we miss three or four in a row, I'm getting the ball to Tyler."
Highlights will ensue. Even if they're subtle.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses 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.
