Tyler Hansbrough.
His numbers - which were awesome - don't begin to tell the story. The guy is skilled, tough, determined, skilled, gutty, tough, the player of the year, etc. etc. I certainly can't come close to describing his play, his willingness to take and make big shots and carry his team and the entire Tar Heel nation, his determination. I've blogged this before, but sport is about stepping up. I think 28 and 13, with two steals, counts as stepping up.
That comes close to describing it, but again, this guy's play is as indescribable as it is effective.
In one way Carolina HAS described it; Hansbrough is one of only six Heels to have his number retired. The company he is in - Lennie Rosenbluth, Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Antawn Jamison - goes a long way in describing Psycho T.
But you can make the case - as my brother just did on the phone - that Hansbrough is the greatest Heel of all time. When you combine his numbers and his will, he makes a compelling case.
Having Tyler Hansbrough on your team will erase a lot of sins. Carolina played some fantastic basketball down the stretch in the first half. But in the second half Louisville was much more efficient on offense running their high post plays with Padgett, and Carolina was taken out of it's offense by Louisville's aggressive zone defense. Whatever it was, Green and Ellington, who dominated the first 20, practically disappeared during the final 20.
I let Ariadne and Evan stay up until 10:30, so they went to bed with Louisville surging and the Heels driving into the teeth of the Cardinals defense for turnovers or blocked shots. The lead was still four when the kids asked as they walked upstairs if I thought the Heels would weather this storm. I said yes and mentioned toughness and Duke. I opined that this team was too tough to lose this game. And that tonight's elite 8 tilt reminded me of the Duke game at Cameron, when the Heels took the nice lead into half time only to see Duke come back to take the lead late. Of course, the Heels calmly made plays down the stretch to win that game by 10.
The same happened tonight, right down to the 10 point margin of victory. When Louisville tied the game you never saw any panic from the Heels. And Roy didn't start calling timeouts or jumping up and down. Instead, you saw the Heels make plays on both ends of the floor.
In order, Deon Thompson hit a huge shot over Padgett to put the back up six with six minutes left. With the game on the line he calmly took it right at Padgett. An awesome shot.
Then with five minutes left Lawson, who didn't shoot that much at all tonight but was fantastic breaking Louisville's press, hit a massive three to make it 71-64 Heels. Lawson, scored 9 of his 11 points in the second half, was the only guy other than Hansbrough to shine offensively for the Heels, so it was no surprise that he hit that shot coming off a Hansbrough screen. No news here, but as much as I love Danny Green those two Tys are the two most important and indispensable Heels on this squad.
But in case you missed it, that wasn't the only thing Hansbrough did down the stretch. With 2 and half minutes left he drilled a 17-footer to keep the lead at seven. I blogged this once before, but if you need one guy to make one play to win one game, this is the guy you want. Only difference is tonight he made about four or five plays - shots, screens and a big rebound late - in the last four minutes that gained his team the victory and an NCAA-record seventeenth Final Four.
Those plays by Thompson, Lawson and Hansbrough are more evidence that this Tar Heel team is tough, one that can't be beat. Every experience that they went through this year: road wins in Las Vegas, Kentucky, Ohio State, Clemson and Cameron; Lawson's injury; Quentin excelling at point; Ginyard becoming the defensive stopper as well as an excellent leader; Ellington, Lawson and Hansbrough diversifying their offensive arsenals; Green developing into the nation's sixth man; Thompson and Stephenson becoming monsters at the four, added up to great win by a great team lead by a player with unmatched skill and will, a player determined to get his team to the Final Four.
What a night, what a game, what a season, and what a player. On to San Antonio.
Go HEELS!
1 comment:
No fast break points in the second half--that made all the difference. Pitino's a good coach and did a great job making sure we couldn't run, but I also think we got conservative with the lead and became reluctant to run. We do that a lot.
I also thought of the Duke game in the second half to reassure myself, but I couldn't help thinking about the Georgetown game in the tourney last year when we went 1/23 to close out the game.
Finally, what about those 15-foot plus jumpers from Hansbrough? On the first two, I yelled, "Nooo!" But by the time he took that 20-footer with 1 minute to go, I just stood up and held my hand aloft in victory as soon as it left his hand. Everybody looked at me like as if I was a big dork, and I couldn't have cared less.
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