Tonight, UNC Tar Heel Tyler Hansbrough will play is last game in the Dean Dome. Psycho T has made one helluva mark in Chapel Hill, putting up numbers that top the other greats who have come through. I’ll be sad to see him go.
But with the help of the Fayetteville Observer, we can relive a little of the glory. Here’s a snippet or two from the newspaper’s collection of Tyler’s top 10 shots:
Jan. 9, 2008 No. 1 UNC 93, UNC-ASHEVILLE 81
As the tall tale of Tyler Hansbrough grows, the 2008 UNC-Asheville game will forever be remembered as the night Hansbrough jumped over a giant.
The roster listed Bulldogs center Kenny George at 7-foot-7 and 370 pounds but you’d have sworn he was closer to 8-feet-tall and 400 pounds.
And what did Hansbrough do to him? He scaled him, like Jack climbed the beanstalk, and dunked right on his head. It brought butts out of chairs and eyes out of sockets.
March 4, 2006 No. 13 UNC 83, No. 1 Duke 76
On Senior Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke was preparing to send All-Americans J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams off on a gallant ride into the sunset. And things looked pretty good for the Blue Devils when Redick shot them out to an early 13-2 lead. But Hansbrough and the young Tar Heels continued to open eyes with their youthful exuberance and obvious fearlessness.
As it turns out, the unofficial passing of the ACC’s superstar torch came with 3:16 to play when Hansbrough hit the defining shot of his freshman season. With the shot clock winding down, he took a pass from Bobby Frasor and launched a Redick-esque 24-foot 3-pointer over Williams that gave UNC a commanding 11-point lead, sent Dick Vitale into an “Are you serious?” seizure and popped the energy bubble inside Cameron.
3 Comments
Jamunca – no doubt it was a ref-assisted jam, but as a fan, i still enjoyed it; and i did feel bad for Kenny.
Hey, congrats to the UNC Mens Basketball team for a great season and especially to Tyler who may have racked up the greatest set of stats in COLLEGE basketball…..EVER!
Meh. It looked nice and all, but he took about 12 steps to get past George and dunk from the side of the rim (vs. the "drunking over him" mythos that has taken hold in Chapel Hill). I was covering that game and sitting by that particular basket when it happened. It was a nice play, but a travel by any other name is still a travel.
To Tyler’s credit, it’s something he told his teammates he wanted to do. Hell, they all wanted to try doing it. And it’s something that Kenny never lived down. He was pretty upset by it. But he always prefaced his comments on that play by pointing out the obvious – it was a referee-assisted dunk. 😉
That said, Tyler’s a phenomenal athlete and deserving of a pro career.