Can We Hold This Team to a Tyler Hansbrough Standard?
by T.H. on Jan 7, 2010 8:37 PM EST
in Basketball
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PrintAs UNC fans, we've been spoiled for the latter half of the past decade. First came a national championship, and then when a mass exodus looked to leave UNC struggling for a year or two, Tyler Hansbrough and the rest of his class came in and kept the achievement level high. Better still, Hansbrough stayed for four years, encouraged many of his teammates to do likewise, and it culminated in a second national championship four years later. Now UNC is faced with a second rebuilding year, and despite what would appear to be a reasonable 11-4 record going into conference play, I at least am getting a little frustrated.
Hansbrough, of course, came to Chapel Hill, started competing immediately, and steadily improved over his four years, putting together a pretty impressive set of numbers:
Obviously, you can't expect anyone to come in and put up those kind of numbers, especially considering Hansbrough started out in the deep end, playing on a very shallow frontcourt with only Reyshawn Terry and Byron Sanders joining him his freshman year. But here's a question: should we expect someone in the paint to put up the same numbers in an individual game? Let's round off the numbers of Hansbrough's sophomore year, when he was playing along side Brandan Wright, and thus not the sole threat. How many times this season has a Tar Heel player put up 18 points and 8 rebounds?
Ed Davis has done so four times, all recently; he went 20/10 against Presbyterian, 21/9 at Texas, 19/10 against Marshall and 19/16 versus Charleston. Deon Thompson has done the same, but much earlier in the season. (20/10 vs. Florida International, 20/8 vs. Valparaiso, 22/10 vs. Gardner Webb, 23/8 vs. Nevada) Is it just me, or has Thompson faded by the time every ACC conference season runs around?
Tyler Zeller hasn't had eight rebounds in a game, but he also hasn't played more than 20 minutes. None of the freshmen have come close. So does the large number of big men UNC is rotating through explain the lack of a take-charge player? (Although keep in mind, Henson and at least one of the Wear brothers are almost always on the wing, which could be to their detriment.) Or does Carolina have some trouble in the paint? Is this really an unreasonable standard?
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One of the reasons I've been upset by the team this year
besides just the generally poor level of play in a lot of these games, is that I expected Ed Davis to have a 20/10 year. I was so excited about watching him play this year after what he was able to do last year coupled with his physical skills. When I heard that Singler was the preseason ACC POY I chuckled at the idea of how much sweeter it was going to be when Ed actually won it. I thought he’d be All-American and a Naismith finalist. He still may be, I do think he has the ability, he just needs to show the desire. I worry that he got too used to “letting the game come to him” when he played with last years team. This team needs Ed to step up into that Hansbrough role. There’s a reason commentators said he would get drafted ahead of Hansbrough last year if he came out for the NBA draft.
So I don’t think we’ve been spoiled. One of the great things about being a Carolina fan the last 20 years has been watching guys step up every year and lead this team. Sometimes it surprises like Forte or Hansbrough his Freshman year, but most of the time you see the guys building to that point. We need those guys to step up this year.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use in being a damn fool about it." ---W.C. Fields
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