America's love affair with Tyler Hansbrough

I don't know what it is about Tyler Hansbrough that makes me so mad. Maybe it's the white guilt, or maybe it's just his lack of basketball skills. All I can say is that every time that I watch him play I can't help but think to myself "How in the world did Tyler Hansbrough win NCAA Player of the Year?"

Granted, last year the UNC Tarheels were by far the second best team in the regular season, and yes, they did make the Final Four. But when you stop and think about things, there should be more criteria involved. For example. Derrick Rose was by far the best player in college basketball last year. I could go into detail about how good Michael Beasley was for a sub par Kansas State team. Without Stephan Curry, Davidson would not have even made the NCAA Tournament, let alone the Elite Eight. But the love affair continued last year.

I will give Psycho-T some credit. He plays hard. He gets fouled alot. The problem that I see is that 90% of the time, he is the one that initiates the contact. But God forbid that he ever foul out of a basketball game. I have never seen someone who plows into people as much as him not foul out of a game. Last year Ty played in 39 games and only got called for 93 fouls. That is an amazing stat for someone who plays as physical a game as T-Fizzle does.

The final straw for me though was how much his decision to return to college was celebrated. News Flash--He would not have been a lottery pick if he went pro. I would have to imagine that most if not all NBA executives would agree that his game is not that polished and he would foul out in 5 minutes in an NBA game. So, before every pundit thinks he is the most unselfish, thoughtful kid in America for returning to college (yes that's you Billy Packer, who is going to be the subject of a future post), put it in perspective. Danny Ferry was player of the year in 1989. Calbert Cheaney was player of the year in 1993. Enough said