Rob Bradley
North Carolina center Tyler Hansbrough set an ACC freshman record Wednesday night, scoring 40 points and leading the Tar Heels past Georgia Tech 82-75 at the Dean Smith Center.
Hansbrough earned the next day off from practice, but the freshman center decided to work on his free throws the next evening, instead of taking a day to relax.
The work ethic Hansbrough has brought to Chapel Hill, along with his dominating inside play, have been crucial to UNC’s 17-6 season — a season which was supposed to be a rebuilding one.
“We’ve needed the qualities that Tyler has more so than any other [freshman] on any other team I’ve been around,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “I’ve told everybody that I thought, for us, he was the best prospect in the country, because he can supply us with what we did not have and that was the inside scoring. He’s just so mentally tough and physically tough, that I really felt like he would be successful right from the get-go.”
Hansbrough has already won eight ACC Rookie of the Week awards, he leads all freshmen in scoring (18.9 points per game) and rebounds (7.7 per game), and he is second in the league in field-goal percentage and leads the league in offensive rebounding.
Williams said his former Kansas center Nick Collision is the most fundamentally sound player he’s ever coached, but Hansbrough is right there.
“What Tyler does is he does a great job of feeling that pivot foot, keeping it down while there’s some banging and shoving, and he’s able to handle that contact without giving up his position, and I think that’s the most impressive thing,” Williams said. “He really does have good footwork, but Nick Collison made the mold on that one, because I’ve never seen anybody as fundamentally sound as him.”
Even though N.C. State coach Herb Sendek does not know Hansbrough personally, he has impressed Sendek with his performance and attitude on the court.
“It seems to me that he has a tremendous mindset and mental approach to the game,” Sendek said. “I’ve really been impressed with the way he presents himself and competes consistently.”
Hansbrough arrived in Chapel Hill the same date as the rest of Carolina’s talented freshmen class, including starters Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard.
But what stood out to Williams when Hansbrough got to campus was how he immediately took to the gym and weight room to prepare himself for the season.
“He immediately got in the weight room with the rest of the freshmen and just worked exceptionally hard in there,” Williams said. “There’s no question that when he works on his basketball, that he’s working on his body and he attacks everything he does and I personally feel he’s going to continue to get better just because of that work ethic.”
But upperclassmen David Noel and Reyshawn Terry, who have seen firsthand what it takes to win, have nurtured Hansbrough.
Terry carried his team at Wake Forest, in his native Winston Salem, when it was behind at the half. He finished with 24 points and led what has become a characteristic second-half surge for the Heels, as was the case against Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.
“In both games, our intensity level was better in the second half,” Williams said. “Our attention to detail, taking care of the basketball, all of those things were much better in the second half.”
Tonight, Hansbrough will be put to the test against State’s Cedric Simmons, as the Heels will look to rise to the occasion as they did in January, scoring 13 straight points to end the game.
“That game was a long time ago for both teams,” Sendek said. “We’ve both moved forward in a lot of ways.”