Adam Lucas: Seeing Red

[It was determined this morning that Hansbrough's nose is broken and he may play the ACC tournament while wearing a mask. The injury is described as a small "nondisplaced fracture" and he has been fitted for a custom-made mask that should allow him to play in next week's tournament. - jtf]



March 4, 2007

http://tarheelblue.cstv.com

This will be comforting.

With the Smith Center's foundation shaking and referees huddling and the blood vessels on your temple popping and Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski meeting at midcourt and what had been a bit of a ho-hum finish exploding, Tyler Hansbrough said exactly what you thought he would say.

He was standing in the Smith Center training room with his father, trainer Marc Davis, a dentist, and sports information honcho Matt Bowers. The first move was to have him cough into a trash can, which send blood streaming. Finally, the blood stopped streaming from his nose. The front of his jersey, from the neck to the waist, was covered in bright red blood. Hansbrough's blood. And this is what he said:

"I want to go back out there. Like this."

Imagine if that had happened. Imagine if Hansbrough had walked back onto the Smith Center court with his jersey covered in blood, a plug in each nostril, and a menacing glare.

They could have retired his jersey--not the one he wore Sunday afternoon, because that one has already been washed--right on the spot. A man gets 26 points and 17 rebounds against Duke, that's banner-worthy. A man gets 26 points, 17 rebounds, and supplants Eric Montross as the all-time image of a bloody Tar Heel against the Blue Devils, that's something that needs a statue. He'd already had a memorable game. But as soon as he stood up after the foul, it became legendary.

Montross can tell you this is true: for the rest of his life, strangers will approach Hansbrough and say the following words:

"Do you remember that time you were all bloody against Duke?"

Montross is asked about his bloody incident twice as often as his 1993 national championship or his decade in the NBA. Carolina fans remember images. And the image of a scarlet liquid covering the familiar argyle is indelible. You know it's true, because right now you're picturing the big seven-footer shooting free throws against Duke with blood trickling down his cheek.



Duke's Gerald Henderson (15) comes down with his forearm across Tyler Hansbrough's face in the closing seconds of a victory Sunday that gave North Carolina a share of the ACC regular-season title. Henderson was ejected for what the referees said was a "flagrant foul for combative and confrontational action."

Fifteen years from now, we'll have the exact same image of Hansbrough--blood covering his face, muscles clenched, eyes popping, mouth guard about to fall out of his mouth, and Dewey Burke holding him back.

Oh yes, senior Dewey Burke. Listed at 6-foot-0, 185 pounds. Often called one of the hardest workers on the team, and now we have verifiable proof that it's true, because without years in the weight room there's no way he restrains Hansbrough.

"I was trying," Burke said with a smile. "I was in his ear telling him to breathe and relax a little bit. He was pretty fired up."

You think?

"He saw the blood and that's what freaked him out," Burke continued. "He jumped up and I just wanted to bear hug him and tell him to try to breathe until we got him off the court. I was just looking out for my guy."

There's a gift more valuable than a basket of Bojangle's biscuits. By looking out for his guy, Burke prevented any further ugliness. Instead of remembering the game as one where Hansbrough--who was unable to speak to the media because talking made his teeth hurt, but initial reports are that his nose is not broken--lost his composure, we're able to remember it for his Sean May-like effort.

Really, the whole thing was Hansbrough's fault in the first place. With your team shooting free throws, 18.7 seconds left, and an 83-72 lead, you're supposed to give up. After all, the game was over.

"The game was over before (the foul)," Duke's Mike Krzyzewski said. "The outcome of the game, let's put it that way. It's unfortunate those people were in the game."

So the Blue Devils had given up. That's why, when Bobby Frasor toed the free throw line with 18.7 seconds remaining, Duke had Gerald Henderson, Josh McRoberts, DeMarcus Nelson, and Jon Scheyer still on the floor. Greg Paulus had just left after fouling out.

Frasor made the first and missed the second, which sent the ball bounding high off the rim.

At that point, Hansbrough's instincts kicked in and he did what he'd been doing all day--outfought McRoberts for the rebound. It's encoded in Hansbrough's DNA: ball in air, launch self towards ball. Who would you rather be--the guy who hits Hansbrough in the face or the guy who tells him to stop giving maximum effort on the court?

It will be a minor footnote in history that it was Hansbrough's offensive rebound that led to the foul that put him on the free throw line with 17.5 seconds left. But it tells you everything about his game. He might not have more physical gifts than everyone else on the court. But he has more intensity.

That's why Roy Williams was certain of his stardom before the Poplar Bluff product ever wore a Carolina jersey. At the annual gathering of the Tar Heel coaching tree in the early fall of 2005, Williams described his strategy for the upcoming season. Much of it revolved around Hansbrough. Jeff Lebo, now the head coach at Auburn, remembers being a little skeptical of all the plans for a raw freshman. A few months later, he left Williams a voice mail:

"Coach, you were right. Hansbrough is everything you said he was."

Which is to say that he's obsessed with playing hard. After missing his first free throw and then missing the second with 17.5 seconds remaining, he could've just hung around the free throw line with his hands on his hips, or perhaps rolled his eyes at his charity stripe misfortune. He had played 30 minutes and--as would later be noted--the game was in hand. But he wanted to keep playing, keep trying, keep competing.

So he simply got the offensive rebound and went--where else?--back toward the basket. Mayhem ensued (Hansbrough had actually predicted the carnage two months earlier when he said the only on-court contact that could make him lose his cool was a hit in the face).

"I thought it was something out of a movie," Bobby Frasor said. "It was something I'd never seen before. Blood was all over his jersey, his shoes, the floor. Just that passion and that ferocity."

When Hansbrough eventually returned--just in time to enjoy the senior speeches by Burke, Wes Miller, and Reyshawn Terry--it was Frasor whom he asked, "Does my nose look normal?"

Hansbrough asked this while dried blood remained on his face and two plugs were sticking out of his nostrils like a walrus's tusks. Even the deadpan Frasor couldn't resist a small smile.

"Yeah, Tyler," he said. "You look really normal."

Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.