Odd that so much success can mean so little.
After one of the more accomplished, if incredibly over-hyped, careers in college basketball history, Tyler Hansbrough is now being cast in the role of a great college player who will never cut it in the pros.
The thinking goes that though his hustle may put him on a roster, Hansbrough's thrashing post game, which helped him average 20 points per game in college, will be stifled, and with that, so will his effectiveness. Furthermore, his lack of lateral quickness and leaping ability will make him such a defensive problem that a starting job is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Basically, the draft prognosticators are likening him to the slews of ‘just a step too slow,' physical big men who just never make it in the big league.
The odd part is that when one looks at his skill set, it is quite reminiscent of one Hall of Fame player.
That would be Celtics great Dave Cowens.
For those who don't know, Cowens was the 6'9"" (same height as Hansbrough) center for Boston in the mid-'70s. He averaged 17.6 points and 13.6 rebounds and anchored championship teams in 1974 and 1976.
Like Hansbrough, Cowens was a bit short and had an offensive game that relied on physical inside play and featured a jump shot accurate to about 15 feet. Both players are also noted for their all-out hustle diving for loose balls and attacking opposing defenses.
So it seems that writing off a player with Hansbrough's skills is unwise, but there are a few shifts that must come in his game to succeed in the next level. Cowens was a good defender because he played a real physical style, often battering opponents with shoves and elbows.
Strength, then, seems to be the issue, and that can be improved. Given the work ethic and energy that Hansbrough usually displayed, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect him to work hard at the gym building up his abilities.
Hell, Hansbrough only has to play power forward, and if we believe that he really is 6'9"", that height is fine for someone at the four position.
Beyond that, Hansbrough may have to take a page from the book of another big man who was generally considered far too slow, former Detroit Piston Bill Laimbeer.
Laimbeer had more range on his jump shot than Hansbrough does, but he stayed in the league because he was mean and essentially dispensed with scruples when playing defense. Laimbeer didn't seem to really care about hurting opponents, and though that's not particularly admirable, it helped keep him in the NBA for 14 seasons.
Now the question becomes: can Hansbrough transform into that battering, elbow-throwing big guy? Well, he was nicknamed ""Psycho-T,"" so the intensity should be there. The key is that he's shown the drive to keep working and get better, something most NBA players don't do.
Now this does not mean Hansbrough will be a surefire star at the top professional level, because at its base, the NBA draft is a crapshoot. A player who hit 32 percent of his 3-pointers in college can turn into one of the NBA's premiere shooters (that would be Michael Redd, if you were wondering).
What is clear is that Hansbrough's potential as a good to very good NBA player is being sorely undersold and that his hustle and intensity are key ingredients in pushing him to that level.
If you think Ben should stop comparing Tyler Hansbrough to big men from the '70s and '80s, bother him at breiner@wisc.edu.
