LAWRENCE, Kan. — Darrell Arthur has played against Tyler Hansbrough — well, once.
In the summer of 2003, Kansas’ sophomore forward shared the floor with Hansbrough — then a high school junior — at the Nike Hoop Jamboree. Arthur might have trouble recognizing that Hansbrough today. That Hanbrough was a little lighter, a little shorter and his skills a little less polished. But the faint memory Arthur has of Hansbrough includes the one skill that made Hansbrough the face of college basketball.
“He had the same motor,” Arthur said.
Nearly five years later, Arthur will step back on to the floor with Hansbrough, and the player they call Psycho-T needs no introduction. No longer the baby-faced kid at Nike camp, Hansbrough has morphed into a rebound grabbing, body banging, basketball Tazmanian-devil.
A first-team All-American and likely National Player of the Year, Hansbrough could give Kansas its toughest defensive test of the season. Hansbrough’s raw strength and athleticism combined with an unflappable will make Hansbrough an opposing coach’s nightmare.
“What don’t you know about Hansbrough?,” Kansas senior forward Darnell Jackson said. “He’s a great player.”
Jackson, along with Arthur, senior Sasha Kaun, and as Self noted, freshman Cole Aldrich, will all be counted on to defend Hansbrough, who comes into Saturday’s National semi-final averaging 22.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
There might not be a definitive way to defend Hansbrough. Don’t believe it? Ask the coaches in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Although they might not want to talk about it.
Not after the way Hansbrough gashed Miami for 35 points in on Jan. 23.
“He just completely dominated,” Miami coach Frank Haith told reporters after the game.
He ran up 39 points on Clemson in an overtime victory on Feb. 10, and toyed with N.C. State to the tune of 32 points on Feb. 20.
Still, his best performance of the season might have came against Louisville last weekend, as Hansbrough drove the Tar Heels to the Final Four with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
“He’s plays harder than probably anybody in the country,” Arthur said.
The legend of Psycho-T is still growing in Chapel Hill, N.C., and leading the Tar Heels back to the Final Four for the 17th time in school history hasn’t hurt. Some Hansbrough legends have even made their way back to Lawrence.
“I hear stories about how when they’re on off days,” Jackson said “and he’s in the gym, five hours, working on his own.”
MISSOURI BORN
They’ve been saying it since he was in high school. He’s all grit and intensity and heart. He just outworks people. The insinuation? Hansbrough isn’t particularly skilled. It’s a stereotype Hansbrough scoffs out.
“I think some of my other skills are overlooked,” Hansbrough said.
Of course, he was dominant in high school. Hansbrough, with the help of his little brother Ben, who now plays at Mississippi State, won two Missouri 5A state championships at Poplar Bluff High School.
Poplar Bluff, a town of about 16,000, sits in the Ozark foothills about 30 miles from the Arkansas border.
“Who would have ever thought, starting out in Poplar Bluff,” Hansbrough said, “I would end up playing at North Carolina, and then go play at a Final Four.”
By the time Hansbrough was a senior in high school, Kansas coach Bill Self already knew all about the Missouri high school star. As Hansbrough’s profile was rising, Poplar Bluff played a nationally televised game against Greg Oden’s high school team. Poplar Bluff lost, but the nation saw Hansbrough — and so did Arthur, who recalled the Hansbrough versus Oden matchup before practice on Tuesday.
It’s no secret, Kansas wanted Hansbrough – bad.
“We recruited Tyler very hard,” Self said. “He visited here. Back then you knew that he would be something special.”
North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky were all hot in pursuit.
Williams and North Carolina won out.
Hansbrough won National Freshman of the year in 2006, but a young North Carolina team fell to upstart George Mason in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Last season Hansbrough was named an AP first team All-American, but again the Tar Heels fell short of the Final Four by giving up a late lead to Georgetown in the Elite Eight.
This season Hansbrough lifted North Carolina over the Final Four hump.
“We just want to keep on moving,” Hansbrough said.
GUARDING HIM
If Kansas has any advantage in finding a way to stop Hansbrough, it can thank ESPN.
Bill Self said Kansas’ players were able to watch North Carolina play at least 10 times this year, because North Carolina seems to play every game on national television.
The theory goes like this: The more times you see a team play, the most familiar you are with its tendencies and style of play.
Self said Kansas saw Davidson play maybe once before it played the Wildcats in the Elite Eight. That alone put Kansas at a natural disadvantage, Self said.
Unlike Davidson, North Carolina is a media darling. The Tar Heels play on ESPN regularly, and Hansbrough seems to spend more time on television than Anderson Cooper.
“Their whole team has been the talk of the town, the talk of the national news,” Arthur said. “We’re just going to have to come bring our ‘A’ game and play.”
Arthur said Kansas will throw everybody they have at Hansbrough.
As for specific match-ups, Self said Kaun would be the Jayhawks’ best option to contain Hansbrough.
“If you just look at it on paper, Sasha’s standing height and size would be as good a match-up as we would have with him,” Self said.
But Kaun won’t play the entire game, which will leave Jackson and Arthur to guard Hansbrough at times.
Nearly five years ago, Arthur was a high school sophomore, guarding Hansbrough at the Nike Hoop Jamboree. Now the stage is a little bit bigger.
But for Arthur, the key to Hansbrough has stayed the same. It’s all about the motor.
“The whole team,” Arthur said, “is going to have to match his intensity.”