TYLER HANSBROUGH
STREETER LECKA/GETTY IMAGES SPORT
ASSOCIATED PRESS/GERRY BROOME
‘Let me put it
to you this way:
When I coach
that youngster
the last game,
it’s going to be
one of the
saddest days
of my life.’
Coach Roy
Williams ’ 72
in his focus on trying to do the things that
can help him be the best basketball player
that he can be, and he is extremely usual in
everything outside that. He has a girlfriend,
won’t talk about her too much. He gets
kidded by the guys and the coaches all the
time, doesn’t say boo. He does a great job in
the classroom. He enjoys being a kid. He
enjoys fun. But that one aspect of his life —
doing everything he can do to be the best
player he can be — is extremely unusual.
But everything other than that, what he is is
just a typical kid who is a very caring, a
very appreciative youngster.
“Let me put it to you this way: When I
coach that youngster the last game, it’s going
to be one of the saddest days of my life.”
Hansbrough’s face in the photo also
glistens with a survivor’s pride. During a
playoff game in ninth grade, his tibia had
painfully torn loose from its mooring,
requiring immediate surgery and recovery
that put him on crutches for months. “That
was a major setback, and I was worried the
fear of injury would haunt him for the rest
of his life,” Gene Hansbrough said. “Once
he got better, he was as aggressive as ever.”
The photographic celebration of the
damage inflicted at the Smith Center was
satisfying proof of that resiliency and
toughness. Tyler Hansbrough had again
endured the worst the game could dish
out, and he was ready for more.
“His mental attitude is such that, unless
you shoot me, I’m going to keep coming
at you,” his father said.
But an angry Hansbrough had not retali-
At left, Hansbrough
celebrates after hitting the game-win-ning shot against
Virginia Tech in the
semifinals of the
2008 ACC tournament.
Above left, the Tar
Heels huddle before
the loss to Kansas in
the NCAA semifinal
last April.
Above, Hansbrough
waits his turn
against N.C. State a
year ago.
